he Ba'al Shem Tov occasionally gave over some sharp rebuke - as in the following story:

In the days of the Ba'al Shem Tov there was a certain man who had read that one who refrains from idle chatter for forty consecutive days will merit ruach hakodesh, divine inspiration. The man resolved to do just that. For forty days he spoke no idle chatter yet there was no perceptible change. He decided to go to the Ba'al Shem Tov to find out why the segula, charm, had not been effective. After the man presented his problem, the Ba'al Shem Tov asked him if he had davenned during the forty days. The man, somewhat offended, answered, "Of course! Three times a day!" The Ba'al Shem Tov then asked him if he had recited Tehillim, to which the man replied, "Obviously!" The Ba'al Shem Tov proclaimed, "Your davenning and Tehillim must have been idle chatter!"

So many of us are like this Jew. We sincerely desire to achieve spiritual growth, yet our davenning is often perfunctory and mechanical. This year's Yarchei Kallah (our sixth annual!) was devoted to helping us in this vital area of our religious development. "The Power of Prayer" involved three full days (July 23-25) packed with lectures, chevruta learning followed by shiurim, and workshops. The program balanced explorations of the conceptual and textual underpinnings of prayer with frank discussions of its experiential and practical sides. Hopefully we are on the way to transforming our prayer from the idle chatter the Ba'al Shem Tov warned against, into the "service of the heart" that our Sages praised.

In the course of the three days a sellout crowd of well over two hundred men and women benefited from the insights of some of the most outstanding rabbinic personalities and teachers of our time. Roshei Yeshiva Yitzchak Hirshfeld and Shaya Karlinsky then led a guest staff for lectures and workshops, which included Rabbis David Aaron, Natan Lopez-Cardozo, Mendel Gluckowsky, Sholom Gold, Avraham Greenbaum, Leib Kelemen, Zev Leff, Hanoch Teller, Berel Wein and Mrs. Menucha Chwat. Text shiurim were given by the educational staff of Shapell's and Midreshet Rachel, to round out this "star-studded cast," which did not disappoint!

It was especially gratifying to see so many of our alumni participating in the Yarchei Kallah. Not only does this reflect the Darche Noam community's on-going commitment to Jewish growth through learning, but it also affirmed one of our primary goals in organizing the annual Yarchei Kallah (which involves a prodigious amount of work); namely, to provide on-going life-long service to our alumni, as well as the community at large. We at Darche Noam Institutions feel that our students are joining an extended family of men and women dedicated to spiritual excellence, and our commitment to them is for the "'long-haul."

At the conclusion of the program (after Rabbi Wein's marvelous talk on Kaddish), we asked the participants to fill out evaluation forms. The most common remark was the request for more frequent events of this sort. All the participants felt enriched and inspired, motivated to renew their efforts at discovering the power of prayer.

Mark your calendar now for next year's Yarchei Kallah, July 14-16, 2002, on the topic "Building a Marriage."