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About this quote

What does it mean?
Prayer changes the person praying by fostering humility and reliance on God.
In plain terms
Prayer is to change you, not to change God.
What can you take from it?
Let prayer make you more humble and reliant.

Where it applies

  • religious practice
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • spiritual discipline

Questions to consider

  • How does prayer change you?
  • Is prayer for self or God?

Another view

Some believe prayer also influences external events.

More from Immanuel Jakobovits

  1. Even if one is familiar with the precise meaning of everything one recites, the act of worship can hardly have any significance at all unless it registers the …

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  2. In all 'benedictions', be they expressing plea or thanksgiving, we affirm that God is the 'source' of every bounty we enjoy and of every favour we seek.

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  3. Our Sages refer to Prayer as 'Service of the Heart'. But the heart cannot work properly unless the brain functions to stimulate and control its operation. In t…

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