The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.

His father MoAbraham Joshua Heschel Mordechai Heschel died of influenza in 1916. He discusses ways that people can seek God's presence and the radical amazement that we receive in return. "
"When I marched in Selma my legs were praying.

Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11 1907 – December 23 1972) was a Polish-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.