Sample Story from Wisdom from Reb Zalman: Kisses by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

DAVENOLOGY
Example story from
Rabbi Rami Shapiro

We parked a few blocks from the Chabad shul in Boulder, Colorado, and walked the rest of the way. It was chilly and Reb Zalman wore a jacket over his black caftan. As we entered the shul, Reb Zalman pulled off his coat and said, “Who wants to learn?” This must have been expected as the men and women, already assembled in their respective sides of the shul, swiftly crossed the gender barrier so central to Orthodoxy and came to sit together at a long table to learn the week’s parsha. One young man stood by the window facing the street to act as lookout for the shul’s regular rabbi.

Half an hour later the lookout shouted, “The rabbi is coming.” People scrambled to their lawful places. The rabbi entered with his two sons. After a few moments of preparation, the davenen began.

The Chabad kids were running all over the shul, and after a few minutes I detected a pattern. The kids would run to Reb Zalman and beg him for candy. He would point to some text in the siddur and send them off to read it. They would run away, read, and run back again where Reb Zalman rewarded them with Hershey’s Kisses he carried in the pockets of his caftan. The longer the service ran, the more they ran to Reb Zalman. The more they ran, the more they read. The more they read, the more Kisses they consumed. The more Kisses they consumed, the more they ran.

Reb Zalman noticed I had substituted watching the kids for praying. He pulled a Hassidic text off a shelf behind him, and handed it to me. “Read this,” he said, pointing to some passage.

“Kisses?” I thought. I read. No Kisses. I walked up beside him and made some comment about the text to show that I had read and understood it. No Kisses. He pointed to another passage. I read it. No Kisses.

Even after being called up to the Torah and reciting the blessings, still no Kisses, just decades of wisdom, support, and guidance. But Hershey’s Kisses? Not even one.

—Rami Shapiro [6.19].  WISDOM FROM REB ZALMAN BUY NOW [This book is a Candidate for the National Jewish Book Award]