Praying With Your Feet

By Lev Novak

On Martin Luther King day, I’d thought I’d share a little thought.

Growing up Jewish, I never really connected to the notion of prayer. I didn’t have the focus or the belief to really keep it as part of my daily life, and in Modern Judaism, that’s often treated as a sort of assumption. Still, I remember being taught on Martin Luther King Jr. Day about a rabbi named Abraham Heschel, a rabbi who marched with Dr.King.

This isn’t to pivot the attention away from Dr.King, but, as the story goes, Heschel would march even on Jewish holidays where he’d otherwise be forbidden to do so, claiming that “praying with your feet” was more important than the static recitation of other prayers.

“Praying with your feet” is the idea that being a good person- in the static, for example- isn’t the same as doing good. People like to think of themselves as good, which is why actually doing good seems like a whole different issue for so many of us. Of course we’re good people, but working at a soup kitchen would be hard, and we prefer our good deeds easy, like tweets.

So instead of praying with our feet, we stay content to sit. So what does it mean to pray with your feet? It means to do something, and, in the memory of Dr.King, understand that simply thinking of good isn’t the same as doing it. Dr.King wasn’t a metaphorical figure: he was a man, with the same weaknesses and temptations as all of us, who sought to overcome his humanity in the pursuit, the active, often sweaty and difficult pursuit, of something greater.

So, in the irony of having the day off, may I suggest something radical. Don’t remember Dr.King in the passive sense; remember him in the active, and take some action yourself. It doesn’t have to be today, or tomorrow, but it should be sometime. Give of yourself: your time, your money, and even your attention to an issue you otherwise wouldn’t. Put yourself on the line more, as he would’ve done. Because even for me, writing a blog post is easier than volunteering.

Praying with your feet is often more difficult than doing nothing, but it’s the only way to get things done. Because even if Dr.King was remembered for non-violence, it’s important to remember that he did. He marched and worked and died for a belief. The least we could do is leave our chairs in the pursuit of what we recognize as good, ourselves.

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