“I felt as though I was praying with my feet.”

This was Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s response to marching arm-in-arm with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Today, there are many hundreds of clergy members from across the nation in Minneapolis. One estimate is as high as 1700.

They are praying together, learning together, planning together, and most importantly witnessing together.

Rabbi Heschel and Dr. King would be so proud of them. They are indeed praying with their feet, putting themselves in danger’s way, trying to protect people they don’t know and don’t belong to their congregations, but who matter.

They are heroes.

I pray that their protests and prayers reach through the cold and fear to the One. I pray that they are safe, and the people who they are protecting remain safe. May they return home after their service to this beleaguered community and bring us their truth, their resolve, and their strength.

May they be blessed.