“Can prayer have any meaning at all for a modern person?  If it cannot ask God to set aside the laws of nature and perform a miracle, and if it is not aimed at changing the person who prays, then what are we doing when we pray?  Is it a form of mumbo-jumbo in which nobody has any confidence but is done because of habit, custom, and respect for tradition?  Perhaps in a rash of honesty, we ought to just stop it and be done with it.”

April 20, 1969

Of course, Rabbi Olan didn’t mean that.  But his answer to the big question about the purpose of prayer in the modern world is too complex, too esoteric, and too grand to explain in a blog.  Here’s a hint, though.

“Prayer is an attempt on man’s part to cross the bridge to God.  Why?  Because we are co-workers with Him in the growth of the world towards something better.”

*Written by Joshua F. Hirsch*