Give Him Life

He never deviated from his customary preparations for Shabbos. Exactly at noon, each Friday, he immersed himself in the mikvah, returned to his room, changed his everyday clothing for his Shabbos clothing, stood before the shtender (raised reading desk) and recited Tehillim, Psalms. He began his recitation every week with chapter one, verse one; “Happy is the man who does not follow the advice of evil people.”

Painstakingly, with great intent and concentration, and enunciating every word of the 150 chapters, he concluded with the last words of the last chapter: “With every breath of life in me, I will praise You.”

Shmuel Kaminka had just finished Psalm 147 when he was interrupted by an urgent knock at his door. At first, he tried to disregard the knock, hoping that the intruder would think he was not home, but the knock turned into impatient pounding. Reluctantly, he opened the door. His friend stood in the doorway.

“I have rushed over here from the bais midrash of Rebbe Tzve Hirsh Nadverna,” he blurted out breathlessly. “He wants to see you immediately.”

“Please tell our rebbe,” Shmuel answered impatiently, “that I am almost finished reciting the Psalms. I am already on the 147th chapter. I will come in about ten minutes.”

Shmuel’s friend returned to the bais midrash and delivered his message. Rebbe Tzve Hirsh snapped: “Go back to Shmuel. Tell him I need him immediately, and tell him that if he does not come now, he doesn’t have to come at all.”

When Shmuel heard the words of his rebbe, he closed his book of Psalms and ran to the bais midrash. As he ran, angry thoughts crossed his mind, “Why couldn’t he wait until I finished? I only had three more chapters left. What could possibly have happened that was so urgent that the rebbe demanded to see me this minute? What could be more important than my concluding the recitation of Psalms?”

By the time Shmuel crossed the threshold of the study hall, he was enraged. He honestly believed that he was no longer ready to greet Shabbos.