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I am going to be in a summer camp this year and part of my job will be to tell a short inspiring story (preferably about davening) every day before shachris. This adds up to about 60 stories that i need this summer. As you can tell I am desperately in need of some good davening stories. Can you help me out and post 1 or 2 of the most inspiring/interesting davening related stories that you know so that i can have a list of stories to choose from when the time comes for the summer.
Please try not to post a story that someone else posted already, and if i may also request something else (although it may seem a little uptight) please try to limit the posts to only stories and less conversation about them. I know it won’t be gone altogether but try to limit it.
Thanks a ton
Praying With Fire. (book)
Start with your own. Most people have a few. Just make sure that when you tell them your audience doesn’t know it’s about you.
Go to http://tinyurl.com/davenmaseh a collection of short & sweet stories ye gotta find something about Tefila
look at The Maggid stories for children.. or the childrens lets say Amen book.. they will have stories on the power of tefilla..
???? ?? ?????, ????? ????? ????
When Reb Shlomo Zalmen Auerbach ??”? was ill and nearing ?????
Jews worldwide were davening for ???? ???? ?? ????
At that time a friend of mine with the same name ???? ???? ?? ????was ????? comatose after a terrible accident. B”H he emerged from the coma and is B”H fine
There’s the (known?) one of the little boy diagnosed with cancer.. he was so sad that his peyos would go.. and he prayed, “please G-d, i can accept my illness but one thing i can’t accept is that my peyos will fall out”.. and the gruelling treatment was issued and indeed all his hair fell out.. beside for the peyos..
Touched by a Prayer volume 1 and 2 both have a lot of stories.
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he
Was waking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
With each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints
In the sand, one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before
Him, he looked back at the footprints in the
Sand. He noticed that many times along the path
Of his life there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the
most you would leave me.
I love you and I would never leave you. During you
Times of trial and suffering, when you see only one
Author Unknown
There is a very famous story of a young girl standing on a street corner selling apples. Someone comes over and knocks over the entire container and apples begin rolling every which way. The girl stands there not doing anything until someone says to her “if you can’t get everything, at least get what you can.” Sometimes during davening, a persons mind wanders but no one should think the whole davening is over because some of it is lost. Its better to get some apples than no apples.
I am no great tzaddik nor is my story famous, but something happened to me just the other day which made a very deep impression on myself:
I woke up in the morning and it was pouring rain outside. Now, I have this weird thing that if it’s raining when I go to work, it puts me in a bad mood. I don’t care so much if it rains before or after, but I don’t like to walk to and from my car in the rain.
That said, I was not so pleased to see the rain coming down hard. (Don’t worry, I’m WORKING on my appreciation for rain!!)
Anyways, I said in my head, “Hashem, please make it stop raining by the time i want to leave the house! Please, pleaseeeeeee!!!!”
In the meantime, I davened and ate breakfast. Just as I was about to step out of my house, i saw that the SUN WAS OUT! I was stunned! I was not really expecting Hashem to make the rain stop for me. But the truth is, that He really cared. And He really wants me to be happy!
And then I stopped short with a realization: Something so petty, so unimportant, so not crucial. And G-d listened to my prayers.
The next time I spoke to Hashem, I spoke with a lot more faith, a lot more belief, and I made sure to also ask for things that really mattered.
And of course, He listened.
Can I make fun of this?
Of me?
Still looking you really made me smile. Hashem cares about us even in the silliest seemingly unimportant things.
Not really a story but still very nice. Its from Jew in the City.
I Just Called to Say I Love You: Why Orthodox Jews Pray Every Day
One afternoon, about six years ago, when I called my husband at work, his secretary informed me that he hadn’t arrived that day. My heart pounded as my fingers instinctively dialed the numbers to his cell phone. When it went straight to voicemail, I was certain my worst nightmare had come true.
An hour, and many morbid thoughts later, my husband called me like nothing was wrong. Apparently he’d slipped into the office without his secretary seeing him and had been in a meeting all morning.
The worrying I did that day was some of the most justified worrying I have ever done. Much of the rest of it has bordered on insane. (A couple months ago I was convinced that my husband had died three times in a single day – three times before 11:15AM to be exact.)
My mother’s a worrier too. It’s why she calls at least once a day, every day. We don’t always have the most in depth conversation, but she checks in with my two sisters and me each day to find out a) How are you? b) How’s [insert son-in-law’s name]? c) How are the kids? She checks in like this before Shabbos and after Shabbos. Even when she travels abroad, she finds a phone nearly everyday just to get in those three basic questions.
Despite the fact that I’ve been out of her house for over a decade, my mother and I remain very close – almost like I never left, actually – and I believe a large part of this is due to the fact that we’re constantly speaking. Not every conversation is the most meaningful, but our regular talks ensure that we are always up to date with the goings-on in each other’s lives.
So when my 5 year old daughter recently asked why we have to daven (pray) every single day, I knew exactly what to tell her. “Can you imagine going a day without speaking to Mommy?” I asked. “We talk to Hashem all the time so we can be as close as you and I are.”
The most basic goal of Judaism is to establish a connection with the Almighty. One of the ways we achieve this closeness is by regularly “being in touch.” And just like with my mother’s and my conversations, not every single tefilah (prayer) is an earth-shattering experience. Sometimes prayer can even feel a bit humdrum.
But checking in regularly keeps God on our minds, and keeps the lines of communication open. So during those times when we really need help from Above, making the “call” comes easily and effortlessly. (And it never goes to voicemail.)
still looking- the shamayim is open when it’s raining , great time to pray, Hashem heard you right away when it was raining 🙂 (Hashem always does everyday, but especially when it’s raining)
not exactly a story, just something that got the kids inspiired:
i heard about a teacher that came in a told her 3rd grade class that she was going to call obama, she dialed the white house and asked for obama, she got connected to person after person after person ect. and after about 15 min of waiting (tha class could not believe the teacher was wasting so much time!) they finally got connected to Obama’s vie president’s secretary’s assistant (or sm like that-i forgot)who said, “You can leave a message with me, but i can’t guarantee that anyone will hear it or respond back….
anyway the teacher was trying to point out that “right this second we have the opportunity to talk to the KING OF ALL KINGS!! ,look how hard it is to reach a human being- we are so lucky we get to talk to Hashem, the ruler of the world EVERY DAY!!..then they started praying 🙂
Mashal- young boy wants to get a gumball from the machine. puts in quarter and turns but nothing happens. tries again but nothing happens tries one more time, still no gumball comes out. opens the cover to see whats blocking the gumballs and sees that theres something blocking the gumballs- he knocks it out and then he gets three gumballs!
we have to keep davening(trying) but if it seems like Hashem isn’t answering, we must check to see if theres a reason(Ex. not enough kavanah, speak lashon harah so muoth isn;t pure…)After work to remove the block, hopefully Hashem will answer. He only asked for one, but got three balls.(explain that sometimes hashem just says no and no matter how hard we try, Hashem doesn’t want us to have it.)
I used this in my classroom for middle elementary and the children related very well to the anticipation and dissapointment of the little boy and were able to give me the nimshal right away.
Mashal- young boy wants to get a gumball from the machine. puts in quarter and turns but nothing happens. tries again but nothing happens tries one more time, still no gumball comes out. opens the cover to see whats blocking the gumballs and sees that theres something blocking the gumballs- he knocks it out and then he gets three gumballs!
A perfect story about – hishtadlus!
thanks-600kilo
Another story I used was of a little girl who got a siddur as a gift. She was visiting her uncles farm and she saw the barncat run into forest. She chased it and followed it into the forest. Suddenly, it got lost and she couldn’t see it anymore and it started getting dark. She sat down on a rock to cry and felt something bump against her foot. It was her siddur!! She opened it and started saying tehillim. It was really getting dark and suddenly she saw two beady eyes looking at her in the darkness. She was petrified!!! It came closer and closer. Then she realized it was the little cat!! She breathed a sigh of relief and hugged the cat. then, she put it down and followed it again. After a short walk she saw the light of her uncles house!!
#BUMP
I need short tefilla stories…
THanks!
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