The Special Siddur

Once upon a time, not too long ago, there lived a great Rabbi. The Rabbi learned Torah everyday and was a big Talmid Chacom. For the last year, the Rabbi was working on a special Siddur he was writing. Not only was the outside of the Siddur very pretty and decorative, but inside it was just as majestic. He wanted it to be the best Siddur, so carefully and meticulously he wrote each letter. It would take the Rabbi all day just to finish one page, slowly  and deliberately hand writing each part of the Siddur. 

Today, the Rabbi was on the last page. Finally, after a full year of working on it, the Siddur was complete. The Rabbi made a blessing that this Siddur should be used everyday. And with that, a new Siddur was born!

Oh, how happy the Siddur was! It couldn't wait until some Jewish person would pick it up and daven from it. 

Sadly, this wasn't going to happen any time soon.

Shortly after the Rabbi finished writing the special Siddur, he moved away. The Rabbi's son came to the house to clean up. He saw the Siddur on the table and placed it in a cardboard box along with other items. When the son got home, he placed the box in the basement, forgetting that the Siddur was still inside it. 

Year after year, the poor Siddur was stuck in a box downstairs with no one around to daven from him. How sad and lonely the Siddur felt.

One day, the Rabbi's son came downstairs to get something. Thinking it might be in the box, he opened it up. Inside, he saw the Siddur, and realized that he left it there all this time!

"What should I do with this Siddur?" thought the Rabbi's son. "I already have a Siddur, but I don't want to leave this Siddur down here any longer!"

After thinking about it, the Rabbi's son decided that he would donate the Siddur to the local Yeshiva. The principal of the Yeshiva was very happy to accept it. He placed it on the bookshelf among the other Siddurim. How happy the Siddur felt!

The next morning by davening, a young boy took the Siddur off the shelf and davened from it. The Siddur was overcome with joy! To have someone finally use the Siddur to daven to Hashem. The next day, a different boy davened from the Siddur. Each and every day, a different boy would use it and the Siddur couldn't be happier.

After a few months, it started getting warmer and warmer outside. Soon, it was summer vacation and the Yeshiva was closed. The Siddur was sad to see the boys go, but waited patiently on the shelf for school to start again. The Siddur counted down the days until school would be back in session.

After a few weeks, school was to start again tomorrow! The principal sent the janitor to clean up the Siddurim, so that they would be ready to use for davening tomorrow. The janitor was Mr. Schlamazale.

Mr. Schlamazale took his feather duster and went to go clean the Siddurim. He noticed that the special Siddur was sticking out a little bit, so he tried to push it back into place. But it was stuck! So he pushed harder and harder, until......CRACK! The front cover and many of the pages of the Siddur were torn almost in half!

"Uh Oh" thought Mr. Schlamazale, "I better hide this Siddur before the principal finds out!"

So he took the special Siddur and hid it in the junk closet. The junk closet was filled with odds and ends that didn't have a home. Hardly anyone ever came to the junk closet. The poor Siddur was now ripped and torn, and stuck in a closet where no one would daven from it. How sad the Siddur was!

School started again the next day, but none of the boys noticed that the Siddur was missing. Days turned into weeks, and then into months, and the special Siddur still sat stuck in the closet.

Reuven, a boy in first grade was a great student. He was friendly with everyone and loved to learn and daven in Yeshiva. One day, his Rebbe asked him to look in the junk closet for a certain item.


"Sure!" replied Reuven, and off he went to search in the closet.
After moving around a few items, he found the piece his Rebbe asked about. Right before he was about to close the closet door he noticed the special Siddur sitting in the corner. Slowly, he picked it up and blew the dust off it. He brought it back with him to his Rebbe.

"Here is the item you asked for Rebbe" said Reuven. "While I was in the closet, I saw this Siddur..", and he handed it to his Rebbe. 

"Hmm" said his Rebbe, "this Siddur looks in bad shape." "I think we should put it into the Shaimos pile."
 
Shaimos is where all the torn and broken Siddurim and Chumasim get put, never to be used again! The Siddur was heart-broken! It didn't want to be placed in Shaimos, it wanted someone to daven to Hashem from it!

"Well," asked Reuven, if it's OK with Rebbe, could I keep this Siddur?"

"Sure!" answered the Rebbe "No one was using it anyway since it was just sitting in the closet. It's all yours Reuven."

Reuven took the Siddur home that night and carefully taped it back together. The next morning, he took the Siddur to Yeshiva and davened from it. Reuven davened very slowly, saying each word out loud. How happy this made the Siddur!


Every day, Reuven would use the special Siddur to daven from. On Friday afternoons, he would take the Siddur home and use it on Shabbos. When summer came along, Reuven packed up the Siddur and took it with him to camp. He never let the Siddur out of his sight. The Siddur was so happy!


Many years passed, and now Reuven is an old man. Since the time he found the Siddur, he has used it every single day. Today, Reuven gave the special Siddur to his son, and made a Brecha that he too should use the Siddur everyday. 

Well, many more years have passed. Each one passed the special Siddur from son to son, that even until this very day, the special Siddur is still being used somewhere to daven to Hashem.

THE END