However, prayer is no panacea, no substitute for action.

It is, rather, like a beam

 thrown from a flashlight before us into the darkness.

It is in this light that we grope, stumble, and climb,

discover where we stand, what surrounds us,

and the course which we should choose.

Prayer makes visible the right,

and reveals what is hampering and false.

In this radiance we behold the worth of our efforts,

the range of our hopes,

and the meaning of our deeds.

Sometimes prayer is more than a light before us;

it is a light within us.

Those who have once been resplendent with this light

find little meaning in speculations about the efficacy of prayer.

A story is told about a Rabbi

who once entered heaven in a dream.

He was permitted to approach the temple of Paradise

where the great sages of the Talmud, the Tannaim,

were spending their eternal lives.

He saw that they were just sitting around tables

studying the Talmud.

The disappointed Rabbi wondered,

“Is this all there is to Paradise?”

But suddenly he heard a voice:

“You are mistaken! 

The Tannaim are not in Paradise.

Paradise is in the Tannaim !”