ah christians. the seventh day was a saturday, if you ask a jew! technically a friday night to saturday night, since all days (not just holidays) on the jewish calendar begin and end at sundown.

now, i am an atheist, like many here, but i know a really good chassidic story that deals with prayer and i will share it here. hopefully you'll see why, even though of course it has to do with that fictional character, god (and a real character, the founder of chassidism, known affectionately as the ba'el shem tov, or besht).

it was friday afternoon and the sun was going down. the besht had been visiting some people in the town and was on his way home, on foot as usual, but he knew he had very little chance of getting home by sundown, the beginning of the shabbos, and he was rather sad about that. however, along came a farmer with a wagon, and the farmer offered him a lift. now he would make it home in time!

after the besht got into the wagon, the farmer recognized him and began to apologize for not being as diligent a jew as he would like to be. "i work really hard," he said, "and i'm so tired when i get home -- i just don't have the energy to go to the shul and pray, but i do set aside time during the shabbos to study torah."

the besht said, "when you pray, you're talking to god. when you study, god is talking to you. you've made the right choice!"

the idea of bothering god on his day off reminded me of that story and hopefully now you can see why )

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