Editors Arthur Green and Barry W. Holtz share with us a rich deposit of devotional practices from the early Hasidic masters. Here is a wise and salutary suggestion to enrich your spiritual practice of devotion.
"Take special care to guard your tongue
before the morning prayer.
Even greeting your fellow, we are told,
can be harmful at that hour.
A person who wakes up in the morning is
like a new creation.
Begin your day with unkind words,
or even trivial matters —
even though you may later turn to prayer,
you have not been true to your Creation.
All of your words each day
are related to one another.
All of them are rooted
in the first words that you speak."