The Night Time Prayer

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I'm in a bit of a dilemma.

Every night before the children go to bed, we recite the Jewish night time prayer. Its sounds like a haiku in Hebrew. In English it goes something like this:

Hear O Israel, The Lord is your God, The Lord is ONE!

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your resources. Let these matter which I command you today.... be upon your heart. Teach them diligently to your children. Speak of them when you sit in the home, when you walk on the way, when your laying down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign upon arms and as tefillin between your eyes. Write them on the doorpost of your home and upon your gates.

Every night, every religious Jewish home recites this prayer. But now that my girls are five and they are in their own room. When I remind them to say their night time prayer before going to bed, it reminds them of when we used to all cuddle up together in the same room and shout out this prayers as we're laying together, "Shema Israel!!!..." Then they get nostalgic and want to sleep on my bed!

This reminds me of a holocaust story:

A certain priest decided to take a whole bunch of Jewish little boys and put them in a monastary and raise them Christians. They were very young when he took them. The priest dressed them up in these non-Jewish garments and began his deprogramming.

A certain man decided to seek out and retrieve these children. He searched and searched until, thank God, he found the monastery there were in. "Give us back our children!" He said. "There are no Jewish children here!" Retorted the priest.

Now, what could he do? These were little children and could not prove anything. So he stood a distance and shouted with all his might, "Hear O Israel, The Lord is your God, the Lord is ONE!!!!"

All the boys began crying "Momma!" "Momma!!" Their little, young hearts yearned for their mommas, their Shechina representatives in this world.

One by one, the man could claim them as Jewish and bring them back to their camp.

Its beautiful when the girls get nostalgic for their momma when I tell them to say their prayers. Its deep inside them. But I still want my bed! LOL!

Well, I guess I'll have to do this prayer with the kids a little bit before bed time...