{"id":48540,"date":"2019-05-03T16:01:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T22:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=48540"},"modified":"2019-05-03T16:01:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T22:01:19","slug":"off-the-pulpit-the-right-to-be-enchanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-the-right-to-be-enchanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: The right to be enchanted"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

A sharp statement that I believe was made by the children\u2019s writer Joan Aiken: \u201cAnyone who does not read to their children doesn\u2019t deserve to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bedtime stories, like bedtime prayers, spur the soul. They enrich the child\u2019s imagination and remind them not only of the lives others have lived, but of newly imagined possibilities for their own lives. Lodged deep inside of us, throughout the years the stories we heard return as encouragement and renewal.<\/p>\n

Author Philip Pullman said, \u201cThou shalt not\u2019 might reach the head but it takes ‘Once upon a time’ to reach the heart.\u201d Each child should hear those magic words and to be carried off into the realm of stories. Fairy tales and fantasies, heroism and daring \u2013 these are the very stuff of enchantment. And every child has a right to be enchanted.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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