“A man should carry two stones in his pocket. On one should be inscribed, ‘I am but dust and ashes.’ On the other, ‘For my sake was the world created.’ And he should use each stone as he needs it.”
—Rabbi Simcha Bunam of Pzhysha (1765-1827)
Chayim had not yet told anyone, but he had come close, so close, to making a change to his daily prayers.
He recited the Amidah each morning, as he had since his almost-forgotten boyhood days. He faced the warped wooden wall of his family’s small house, and through its tiny window, still looked east, past the shtetl’s rusty chicken coops and dusty avenues, in the direction of far-away Jerusalem. With feet together and knees bent, Chayim rocked back and forth, reciting the same Hebrew that had been on the lips of his father and grandfather and all the
