“There was once a rabbi who, overcome with a sense of humility before God’s magnificent creation, threw himself before the altar of the temple and cried, “I am nobody! I am nobody!” The cantor, observing the rabbi from the rear of the synagogue, was moved by the rabbi’s humility and devotion. He, too, joined the rabbi at the altar, crying, “I am nobody! I am nobody!” Then the janitor, sweeping the floors in the hall, heard the cries of the two religious men and, similarly moved by their devotion, also joined them at the altar crying out, “I am nobody! I am nobody!” At which point the cantor turned to the rabbi and, indicating the janitor, remarked, “Look who thinks he’s nobody.””
-Wayne Muller, as told in Sabbath
