READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Friday.

Preparation for the Prayer

Preparation for the Prayer – Selected Excerpts from the sources

1. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 122, “Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch”

There must be preparation for the prayer, to accustom oneself to the prayer, as though his mouth and heart are the same. And the heart can come to agree through accustoming, so it would understand that reception means separation, and that the most important is the Dvekut with the Life of Lives, which is bestowal.

2. RABASH, Article No. 27 (1991), “What Is, ‘If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,’ in the Work?”

When a person comes to pray to the Creator to help him, he should first prepare and examine himself to see what he has and what he needs, and then he can know what to ask of the Creator to help him. It is written, “From the depths I have called upon You, Lord.” “Depth” means that a person is at the very bottom, as was said, “at the bottom of Sheol,” meaning that his lack is below and he feels that he is the lowliest of all humans.

In other words, he feels so far from Kedusha, more than everyone else, meaning that no one feels the truth, that his body has nothing to do with Kedusha. For this reason, those people, who do not see the truth of how far they are from Kedusha, can be content with their work in holiness, while he suffers from his situation.

3. RABASH, Article No. 27 (1991), “What Is, ‘If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,’ in the Work?”

When a person comes to pray he should prepare for the prayer. What is this preparation? It is written “Prepare for your God, Israel” (Shabbat 10). He says there that preparation is something each one does according to his understanding. We should interpret that concerning the preparation that each one does, it is in order to know what to ask, since one must know what to ask. That is, a person has to know what he needs.

This means that a person can ask for many needs, but normally, we ask for what we need the most. For example, when a person is in prison, all his concerns are about the Creator freeing him from imprisonment. Although sometimes a person has no income, and so forth, he still does not ask the Creator for income, too, although he needs it, since then he suffers most from being in prison. For this reason, a person asks for the thing he needs the most, meaning he asks about that which pains him the most.

4. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah

How is there intention? One should clear his heart from all the thoughts and see himself as though he is standing before the Shechina [Divinity]. Therefore, one should settle oneself a little prior to the prayer, to aim his heart, and then pray. The first Hassidim [adherents of the Hassidut movement] would spend one hour prior to the prayer, one hour after the prayer, and extend the prayer by one hour.

5. RABASH, Article No. 13 (1985), “Mighty Rock of My Salvation”

One who believes that the Creator is merciful and gracious, and that He desires to do good to the creations, has room for prayer. This is why we must first establish the praise of the Creator, meaning a person himself should establish praise of the Creator. This does not mean that the Creator should see that the person is praising Him, since the Creator doesn’t need people. Rather, the person himself should see the praise of the Creator, and then he can ask Him to help him, since His conduct is to do good to His creations.

6. Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived] “Dan Shall Judge His People”, Items 713-714

“One should always praise one’s Master and then pray his prayer.” One whose heart is pure and wishes to pray his prayer, or is in trouble and cannot praise his Master, what is he?

Even though he cannot aim the heart and will, why should he diminish his Master’s praise? Rather, he will praise his Master even though he cannot aim, and then he shall pray his prayer.

7. RABASH, Article No. 13 (1988), “What Is ‘the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People’ in the Work?”

When a person learns Torah or engages in Mitzvot, or when he prays, he should focus his thoughts on wanting reward for all his good deeds—that the Creator will give him complete faith. This is as it is written in the prayer of Rabbi Elimelech (“A Prayer before a Prayer”): “And do fix Your Faith in our hearts forever and ever, and let Your Faith be tied to our hearts as a stake that will not fall.”

8. RABASH, Article No. 10 (1991), “What Does ‘The King Stands on His Field When the Crop Is Ripe’ Mean in the Work?”

When one is in a state of descent, meaning that he does not have a single spark of desire to work in order to bestow and not for his own benefit. And then he can pray.

It is as Baal HaSulam said about what our sages said of David, who said, “I awaken the dawn, and the dawn does not awaken me.” That is, King David did not wait for the dawn, which is called “black,” which is darkness, meaning that the darkness awakens him. Instead, he awakens the darkness. He prays to the Creator to illuminate His face for him and thus he gains time from having the preparation for the darkness, and then it is easier to correct it.

9. Rav Chaim Vital, Shaar HaGilgulim, Introduction, 38

My teacher cautioned me and all the friends who were with him in that society to take upon ourselves the commandment to-do of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and to aim to love each one from Israel as his own soul, for by this his prayer would rise comprising all of Israel and will be able to ascend and make a correction above.

10. Zohar for All, VaYakhel [And Moses Assembled], “The Ascent of the Prayer”, Item 150

Happy is a man who knows how to set up his prayer properly. In this prayer, in which the Creator is crowned, he waits until all the prayers of Israel have concluded ascending and are included in the complete prayer, and then all is as perfect as it should be above and below.