READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN FRIDAY

Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer

LESSON MATERIAL

Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer – Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57

Everything, small or great, is obtained only by the power of prayer. All the labor and work to which we are obliged are only to discover our lack of strength and our lowliness—that we are unfit for anything by our own strength—for then we can pour out a wholehearted prayer before Him.

We could argue about this, “So I can decide that I am unfit for anything, and why all the labor and exertion?” However, there is a natural law that there is none so wise as the experienced, and before one tries to actually do all he can do, he is utterly incapable of arriving at true lowliness, to the real extent, as said above.

This is why we must toil in Kedusha [holiness] and purity, as it is written, “Whatever you find that your hand can do by your strength, that do,” and understand this for it is true and deep.

I revealed this truth to you only so you would not weaken or give up on mercy. Although you do not see anything, for even when the measure of labor is complete, it is the time of prayer, but until then, believe in our sages: “I did not labor and found, do not believe.”

When the measure is full, your prayer will be complete and the Creator will grant generously, as our sages instructed us, “I labored and found, believe,” for one is unfit for a prayer prior to this, and the Creator hears a prayer.

2. RABASH, Article No. 5 (1991), “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

We ask the Creator to give us the strength so we can perform all our actions for You, meaning for the sake of the Creator. Otherwise, meaning if You do not help us, all our actions will be only for our own benefit. That is, “If not,” meaning “If You do not help us, all our actions will be only for ourselves, for our own benefit, for we are powerless to overcome our will to receive. Therefore, help us be able to work for You. Hence, You must help us.” This is called “Do for Your sake,” meaning do this, give us the power of the desire to bestow. Otherwise, we are doomed; we will remain in the will to receive for our own sake.

3. RABASH, Article No. 24, “Three Times in the Work”

A prayer is work in the heart. That is, since the root of man’s heart is the will to receive, and he needs the opposite, meaning that it will work only to bestow and not receive, it follows that he has a lot of work in inverting it.

And since this is against nature, he must pray to the Creator to help him come out of his nature and enter what is discerned as above nature.

4. RABASH, Article No. 12 (1991), “These Candles Are Sacred”

The most important is the prayer. That is, one must pray to the Creator to help him go above reason, meaning that the work should be with gladness, as though he has already been rewarded with the reason of Kedusha, and what joy he would feel then. Likewise, he should ask the Creator to give him this power, so he can go above the reason of the body. In other words, although the body does not agree to this work in order to bestow, he asks the Creator to be able to work with gladness, as is suitable for one who serves a great King. He does not ask the Creator to show the greatness of the Creator, and then he will work gladly. Rather, he wants the Creator to give him joy in the work of above reason, that it will be as important to a person as if he already has reason.

5. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”

He must pray to the Creator to help him so he can go in the work with his eyes shut, and will not need anything, and will be able to do everything for the sake of the Creator despite the resistance of the body to this. That is, he does not tell the Creator how He should help him. Rather, he must subjugate himself and annul before the Creator unconditionally. But since he cannot overcome his body, he asks the Creator to help him win the war against the inclination, since he understands his lowliness.

6. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 5, “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?”

Our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2, 21), “It is not for you to complete the work, and you are not free to idle away from it.” This means that one must give the awakening from below, since this is regarded as a prayer.

A prayer is considered a deficiency, and without a deficiency there is no filling. Hence, when one has a need for Lishma, the filling comes from above, and the answer to the prayer comes from above, meaning he receives fulfillment for his lack. It follows, that the need for man’s work in order to receive the Lishma from the Creator is only in the form of a lack and a Kli [vessel]. Yet, one can never obtain the filling by himself; it is rather a gift from the Creator.

7. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 5, “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?”

The prayer must be a complete prayer, from the bottom of the heart. This means that one knows one hundred percent that there is no one in the world who can help him but the Creator Himself.

Yet, how does one know this, that no one will help him but the Creator Himself? One can acquire that awareness precisely if he has exerted all the powers at his disposal and it did not help him. Thus, one must do every possible thing in the world to attain “for the sake of the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of the heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer.

8. RABASH, Article No. 18 (1989), “What Is, ‘There Is No Blessing in That Which Is Counted,’ in the Work?”

It is upon a person to pray each day that the Creator will open his eyes so he will recognize the greatness and importance of the Creator, so he has fuel to labor with the aim to bestow.

There are two discernments to make in this: 1) to have a desire to bestow contentment upon his Maker, that this will be his only aspiration, 2) to do things with the aim that the actions will bring him a desire to do things in order to please the Creator. In other words, he must work and toil extensively to obtain light and Kli [vessel]. Light means that he received from the Creator a desire where he craves all day to bring contentment to the Creator. A Kli is a desire, meaning that he wants to bestow upon the Creator. Those two, he should receive from the Creator, meaning both the light and the Kli.

9. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 34

We should learn this trade before we enter the King’s palace, meaning muster power and might to stand as a pillar of iron until we elicit the desire from the Creator, as it is written, “Take no rest.” Although the Creator seems silent and unresponsive, let it not cross your minds to be silent, too, “Take no rest.” This is not what the Creator intended by His silence, but rather to give you power to stand afterward in the King’s palace when you have no blemish. This is why, “and give Him no rest.”

10. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 34

We rush our pleas above, knock by knock, tirelessly, endlessly, and do not weaken at all when He does not answer us. We believe He hears our prayer but waits for a time when we have the Kelim [vessels] to receive the faithful bounty, and then we will receive a reply to each and every prayer at once, since “the hand of the Lord will not be short,” God forbid.

11. RABASH, Article No. 29, (1987), “What Is ‘According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward?’”

“There is no light without a Kli, no filling without a lack,” first one needs to obtain a deficiency. That is, he must feel that he is deficient of this Kli called “desire to bestow.” And concerning feeling, it is impossible to feel any lack if one does not know what he is losing by not having the Kli, called “desire to bestow.” For this reason, man must introspect on what causes him not to have the desire to bestow.

To the extent of the loss, he feels sorrow and suffering. When he has the real lack, meaning when he can pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart for not having the strength to be able to work for the sake of the Creator, then, when he has the Kli, meaning the real lack, this is the time when his prayer is answered and he receives assistance from above. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”

12. RABASH, Article No. 22 (1986), “If a Woman Inseminates”

The only way to obtain a deficiency, that we are lacking the desire to bestow, is by prayer, which is a “medium” between man and the deficiency. That is, one prays for the Creator to give him something for which he has no deficiency, that he will lack it. It follows that the Kli that is called “deficiency” is a deficiency with respect to the feeling, meaning that he does not feel its lack, and the prayer is that the Creator will give him the light, which is the filling of his lack. It therefore follows that the filling is a lack. Thus, he has no other choice but to pray to the Creator to give him a deficiency, and this is what connects the Kli with the light.

13. RABASH, Article No. 37 (1985), “Who Testifies to a Person?”

He must perform every act of Torah and Mitzvot in order to bring himself into the aim to bestow. Afterwards, when he has a complete understanding of how much he needs to engage in order to bestow, and he feels pain and suffering at not having this force, then it is considered that he already has something for which to pray—for work in the heart—since the heart feels what it needs.

For such a prayer comes the answer to the prayer. This means that he is given this strength from above so he will be able to aim in order to bestow, for then he already has the light and Kli. However, what can one do if, after all the efforts he has made, he still does not feel the lack of not being able to bestow as pain and suffering? The solution is to ask the Creator to give him the Kli called, “A lack from not feeling,” and that he is unconscious, without any pain from being unable to bestow.

14. RABASH, Article No. 25 (1987), “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?”

The primary goal should be to be rewarded with Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. Since the reason objects to this, he must go against reason, and this is very hard work.

Since he is asking the Creator to give him something to which all of his organs object, it follows that each and every prayer he makes to the Creator has its special work. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart,” meaning that he wants to go against the intellect and the mind, which tell him the complete opposite.

This is why it is not called “the work of the brain,” since the work of the brain means that a person exerts to understand something with his mind and reason. But here he does not want to understand with his reason that we should serve the Creator in a state of knowing. Rather, he wants to serve the Creator specifically with faith above reason. This is why a prayer is called “work in the heart.”

15. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”

One should believe that the obstructions of the will to receive in the work come to him from above. One is given the force to discover the will to receive from above because there is room for work precisely when the will to receive awakens.

Then one has close contact with the Creator to help him turn the will to receive to work in order to bestow. One must believe that from this extends contentment to the Creator, from his praying to Him to draw him near in the manner of Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive, so it is in order to bestow. The Creator says about this, “My sons defeated Me.” That is, I gave you the will to receive, and you ask Me to give you a desire to bestow instead.

16. RABASH, Article No. 37 (1991), “What Is the ‘Torah’ and What Is ‘The Statute of the Torah,’ in the Work?”

When he wants to do everything for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake. Here the body resists with all its might, since it argues, “Why do you want to put me and my domain to death? You come to me with having to work only for the sake of the Creator and not for one’s own sake, which is truly annulment of the will to receive from everything. You tell me that our sages said, ‘The Torah exists only in one who puts himself to death over it,’ meaning to put to death all the domain of self-benefit and care only for the benefit of the Creator, and before this, a person cannot be rewarded with the Torah.” Yet, a person sees that it is unrealistic that he will have the strength to go against nature.

At that time, one has no choice but to turn to the Creator and say, “Now I have come to a state where I see that unless You help me, I am lost. I will never have the strength to overcome the will to receive, as this is my nature. Rather, only the Creator can give another nature.”

17. RABASH, Letter No. 65

A person must decide that he wants the Creator to give him a desire to completely annul before Him, meaning not leave any desire under his own authority, but that all the desires in him will be only to give glory to the Creator.

Once he decides on complete annulment, he asks the Creator to help him execute it. This means that although in the mind and the desire he sees that the body disagrees with him annulling all his desires before the Creator instead of for his own sake, he should pray to the Creator to help him want to annul before Him with all the desires, leaving no desire for himself. This is called a “complete prayer,” meaning that he wishes that the Creator will give him a complete desire without any compromises to himself, and he asks of the Creator to help him always be with his righteousness.

18. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 5, “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?”

One must know, when exerting to attain the Lishma, to take upon himself to want to work entirely to bestow, completely, meaning only to bestow and not to receive anything. Only then does one begin to see that the organs do not agree to this view.

From this one can come to clear awareness that he has no other choice but to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him so the body will agree to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally, as he sees that he cannot persuade his body to annul itself completely. It turns out that precisely when one sees that there is no hope that his body will agree to work for the Creator by itself, one’s prayer can be from the bottom of the heart, and then his prayer is accepted.

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

A person wanting to work entirely in the form of bestowal, and that all of one’s thoughts of his own pleasure will be revoked. Then, when he feels what he is saying, his heart can fear that his prayer might be accepted, meaning that he will have no desire whatsoever for himself. And concerning self-pleasure, there appears a state where it seems as though he leaves all the pleasures of this world, together with all the people, friends, his kin, all his possessions, and retires to the desert where there is nothing but wild beasts, without anyone knowing of him or of his existence. It seems to him as though he loses his world at once, and feels that he is losing a world filled with the joy of life, and takes upon himself death from this world. He feels as though he is committing suicide when he experiences this image. Sometimes, the Sitra Achra [other side] helps him picture his state with all the dark colors. Then the body repels this prayer, and in such a state, his prayer cannot be accepted since he himself does not want his prayer to be accepted.

For this reason, there must be preparation for the prayer, to accustom oneself to the prayer, as though his mouth and heart are the same.

20. Meshivat Nefesh, Item 40

Our sages said, “Man’s inclination overcomes him everyday.” Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.” Rather, man must only commit to strengthening himself each time anew, and not retreat from this war or cause oneself despair under any circumstances.

Certainly, in this war, it is impossible to evidently see who is the winner, since the war is still long, the exile is intensifying, and each one experiences what he experiences. Yet, as long as we are holding our weapons in our hands—and our main weapon is the prayer—and as long as we do not cause ourselves despair from this war and keep gripping to our weapons, we are winning for sure, since as long as one strengthens oneself in prayer and outcry to the Creator, he is winning the war, as this is essentially the victory.

21. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1988), “What Is the Prayer for Help and for Forgiveness in the Work?”

Man’s sin is that he did not ask the Creator for help. Had he asked for help, he would certainly get help from the Creator. But if a person says that he asked for help and the Creator did not help him, to this comes the answer that a person should believe that the Creator hears the prayers, as it is written, “For You hear the prayer of every mouth.” If he truly believed, his prayer would be complete, and the Creator hears a complete prayer when a person yearns with all his heart that the Creator will help him.

But if his prayer is not constantly on his lips, it means that he does not have the real faith that the Creator can help him and that the Creator hears everyone who asks Him, and that small and great are equal before Him, meaning that He answers everyone. It follows that the prayer is incomplete.

22. RABASH, Article No. 23 (1989), “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”

Even when he comes to know that the Creator can help him, and he understands that the real advice is only prayer, the body comes and makes him see that “You see how many prayers you have already prayed but you received no answer from above. Therefore, why bother praying that the Creator will help you? You see that you are not getting any help from above.” At that time, he cannot pray. Then we need to overcome once more through faith, and believe that the Creator does hear the prayer of every mouth, and it does not matter if the person is adept and has good qualities, or to the contrary. Rather, he must overcome and believe above reason, although his reason dictates that since he has prayed many times but still received no answer from above, how can he come and pray once more? This, too, requires overcoming, meaning to exert above reason and pray that the Creator will help him overcome his view and pray.

23. RABASH, Article No. 10 (1986), “Concerning Prayer”

Before one knows that he cannot obtain the vessels of bestowal by himself, he does not ask the Creator to give them to him. It follows that he does not have a real desire for the Creator to answer his prayer.

For this reason, one must work to obtain the vessels of bestowal by himself, and after all the work that he has put into it without obtaining it begins the real prayer from the bottom of the heart. At that time he can receive help from above, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”

But since this prayer is against nature, since man was created with a desire to receive, which is self-love, how can he pray to the Creator to give him the force of bestowal while all the organs oppose this desire? This is why this work is called “prayer,” meaning he must make great efforts to be able to pray to the Creator to give him the force of bestowal and annul man’s force of reception.

24. RABASH, Article No. 19 (1985), “Come unto Pharaoh – 1”

We should pay attention to, […] and believe through the worst possible states, and not escape the campaign, but rather always trust that the Creator can help a person and give him, whether one needs a little help or a lot of help.

In truth, one who understands that he needs the Creator to give him a lot of help, because he is worse than the rest of the people, is more suitable for his prayer to be answered, as it is written, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”

25. RABASH, Article No. 34 (1991), “What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World, in the Work?”

Only those who say that they want to escape from the work but have nowhere else to go, since nothing satisfies them, those people do not walk out from the work. Although they have ups and downs, they do not give up. This is as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried, and their cry went up to God from the work.” In other words, they cried out from the work because they were not advancing in the work of the Creator, so they could work in order to bestow contentment upon the Maker. At that time, they were rewarded with the exodus from Egypt. In the work, this is called “emerging from the control of the will to receive and entry into the work of bestowal.”

26. RABASH, Article No. 38 (1990), “What Is, ‘A Cup of Blessing Must Be Full,’ in the Work?”

He must pray to believe that the Creator does hear a prayer, and everything that one feels in these states is to his benefit. But this can be only above reason, meaning although the mind tells him, “After all the calculations, you see that nothing can help you,” he should believe this, too, above reason, that the Creator can deliver him from the will to receive for himself, in return for which he will receive the desire to bestow.

27. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 209, “Three Conditions in Prayer”

There are three conditions in prayer:

1. Believing that He can save him. Although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Will the Lord’s hand be too short to save him?” If it is not so, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels.”

2. He no longer has any choice for he has already done all that he could but saw no cure to his plight.

3. If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive. Prayer means “lost in the heart.” The more one is lost, so is the measure of his prayer. Clearly, one who lacks luxuries is not like one who has been sentenced to death, and only the execution is missing, and he is already tied with iron chains, and he is standing and pleading for his life. He will certainly not rest or sleep or be distracted for even a moment from praying for his life.

28. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 20, “Lishma [for Her sake]”

There cannot be a real prayer if he does not know first that without prayer it cannot be obtained.

Therefore, the acts and remedies he does in order to obtain Lishma create the corrected Kelim [vessels] in him that want to receive the Lishma. Then, after all the actions and the remedies he can pray in earnest since he saw that all his actions did not help him whatsoever. Only then can he make an honest prayer from the bottom of his heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer and gives him the gift of Lishma.

29. RABASH, Article No. 38 (1990), “What Is, ‘A Cup of Blessing Must Be Full,’ in the Work?”

When a person is already standing near the place from which he will receive the help from above, and “near” means that the Kli [vessel], meaning the desire to bestow, is far away from him, then he sees that only the Creator can save him. As Baal HaSulam said, this is the most important point in man’s work, for then he has close contact with the Creator because he sees one hundred percent that nothing can help him but the Creator Himself.

30. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57

There is no happier state in man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own strength. That is, he has already labored and done all that he could possibly imagine he could do, but found no remedy. It is then that he is fit for a wholehearted prayer for His help because he knows for certain that his own work will not help him.

As long as he feels some strength of his own, his prayer will not be whole because the evil inclination rushes first and tells him, “First you must do what you can, and then you will be worthy of the Creator.”

It was said about this, “The Lord is high and the low will see.” For once a person has labored in all kinds of work, and has become disillusioned, he comes into real lowliness, knowing that he is the lowest of all the people, as there is nothing good in the structure of his body. At that time, his prayer is complete and he is granted by His generous hand.

31. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57

The writing says about this, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, etc., and their cry went up.” It is so because at that time they came into a state of despair from the work. It is as one who pumps into a punctured bucket. He pumps all day but does not have a drop of water to quench his thirst.

So were the children of Israel in Egypt: Everything they built was promptly swallowed in its place in the ground, as our sages said.

Similarly, one who has not been rewarded with His love, all that he has done in his work on purifying the soul the day before is as though completely burned the next day. And each day and each moment he must start anew as though he has not done a thing in his entire life.

Then, “The children of Israel sighed from the work,” for they evidently saw that they were unfit to ever produce something by their own work. This is why their sigh and prayer were complete, as it should be, and this is why “Their cry went up,” since the Creator hears the prayer, and He only awaits a wholehearted prayer.

32. RABASH, Article No. 2 (1991), “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

A person prays to the Creator and says, “You must help me because I am worse than everyone, since I feel that the will to receive controls my heart, and this is why nothing of Kedusha can enter my heart. I want no luxuries, only to be able to do something for the sake of the Creator, and I am utterly incapable of this, so only You can save me.”

By this we should interpret what is written (Psalms 34), “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.” That is, those who ask the Creator to help them so their heart will not be broken and will be whole, this can happen only if a person has been rewarded with the desire to bestow. For this reason, he asks the Creator to give him the desire to bestow, since he sees that he lacks nothing in the world but the ability to work for the sake of the Creator. It follows that he is asking only the nearness of the Creator, and there is a rule, “measure for measure.” Hence, the Creator brings him closer. This is the meaning of the words, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.”

33. RABASH, Article No. 6 (1986), “Confidence”

We should say that the Creator always hears and answers according to man’s best interest, and this is what He gives us. Thus, one should believe that the states that a person feels are what the Creator wants us to feel because it is in our favor.

It follows that the confidence that we should have in the Creator is that the Creator certainly hears our prayers and answers them, but not according to our understanding, but according to the Creator’s understanding of what we should be given. It therefore follows that the confidence is primarily about trusting the Creator that He helps everyone, as it is written, “His mercy is over all His works.” However, the confidence should not be that the Creator will help us according to our understanding, but according to the Creator’s understanding.

34. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 52

It is written about this: “Seek the Lord while He is found.” That is, when the Creator presents Himself to you for asking, then you will necessarily seek Him, too, for it is man’s way to move first. In other words, the Creator first gives you the heart to seek Him. When you know this, you will certainly grow stronger, as strong as you can ask, for the King is calling you.

35. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 52

So it says, “Call upon Him when He is near.” That is, when you call on the Creator to bring you closer to Him, know that He is already near you, for otherwise there is no doubt you would not be calling Him. This is also the meaning of the verse, “Before they call, I will answer,” meaning that if you are calling Him, then He has already turned to you to give you the awakening to call upon Him.

36. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 52

The measure of the Creator’s listening depends precisely on the measure of the longing that appears during the saying of the prayer. When one feels excessive longing, he should know at that time that the Creator is listening to him attentively.

Clearly, when he knows this, he pours his heart out even stronger, for there is no greater privilege than the King of the world being attentive to him. This is quite similar to what our sages said, “The Creator longs for the prayer of righteous,” for the Creator’s desire for a person to draw near Him awakens great power and longing in the person to crave for the Creator, for “As in water of the face to the face, so the heart of man to man.”

It follows that the saying of the prayer and the hearing of the prayer go hand in hand until they accumulate to the full measure and he acquires everything.

LESSON

Part 2:

Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer – Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. R. (00:24) We already heard and read in many places that the prayer is most important. Why? This is the raising of MAN, it’s a request, it’s our attitude to the Creator in all of these relations towards the Creator we already understand it, everyone depends on Him, up to really no place left as we say that there is nothing that we can do by ourselves but rather everything depends on how much and how we ask. Therefore the power of the prayer is the primary force. So everything is attained by the power of the prayer. Hopefully we’ll find everything in these verses.

Reading item #1 (01:33) “Everything small or great is obtained only by the power of prayer..” twice

2. R. (05:00) It turns out for us to be the opposite. Usually we cry out about why don’t we have forces and here he says that when we reach the state where we do not have any forces then we’re worthy of the true work which is the prayer. This means that a person at a time that he does not have any power of his own he should be happy that he has reached a state where he can turn to the Creator and cry out, ask, pray.

Continue reading (05:41) “we can argue about this so I’m I can decide that I’m on fit for anything..”

3. R. (05:58) So I can reach a state that I’m like a rag, yes..

Continue reading (06:04) “ however there is a natural law..”

4. R. (07:51) Meaning we must labor in order to find out that we cannot reach anything by ourselves and then we turn to the Creator and we ask for strength and for help to rise, to pray, and then eventually He does this to us and we attain our place adhesion to Him. But all of the exertion against our helplessness, powerlessness, in that we have no hope, seemingly, to save ourselves and succeed with our own strength.

5. S. (09:02) How to overcome specifically in that place of helplessness and weakness because the prayer always looks like, even the prayer looks like a very difficult task, it sounds simple but it’s not really?

R. Friends and prayer there’s nothing else.

S. What does it mean friends and prayer?

R. Friends to connect as much as possible and prayer. Prayer to the Creator and connection with the friends in order to pray to the Creator.

6. S. (09:48) The prayer that needs to be from greatness of the Creator and that a person relates everything to Him and also sees that it is for the better, otherwise he cannot really understand the state correctly. The question is, a person who labors in the connection and receives opposite results, internally and externally very difficult results, how can he attribute, how can you relate to the Creator out of greatness?

R. Because when he does it with the friends it gives him joy and confidence that he is walking on the right path.

S. How to make this transition? Because in these stages a person can lose a lot of time until he even realizes that the Creator did it all and until he turns to Him he can lose a lot of time?

R. No, because he has nothing else to do. We may disperse into many directions that are unnecessary, but all in all connection with the friends and prayer to the Creator, that is what we have, these two steps from here until the end of correction.

S. But the connection with the friends and turning to the Creator that lead him to the difficult states, weakness, and harsh states in externality, how can he make this action that led them to this bad state?

R. I don’t get you.

S. A person labored, connected with the friends, discovered his lowliness, that he has no strength of his own.

R. Okay that is one step.

S. In addition he also encountered difficult states externally.

R. What do you mean externally?

S. Externally means states that are harsh personally, socially, in society, very difficult states and he says it is all none else besides Him and it’s actually the result of my connection?

R. But he did not connect; he actually moved, distanced himself.

S. Exactly, he distanced as a result of what? As a result of previously working on the connection, working on the connection praying to the Creator and then he received a greater distance. Now he’s told connect and pray but that is what he did before and he received the opposite result.

R. Why opposite result? He received a place for prayer.

S. Good, I see this is written in all of our sources but the person doesn’t feel that. The person feels an opposite result in his will to receive and he cannot justify the Creator, and he cannot pray to the Creator in the sense that he sees someone answering him and so forth. How does he begin to sort of this whole system which is just completely opposite to his desire. How does he begin to pray?

R. We have no other work but prayer. If in all of our relationships with the friends I receive an urge to pray, what can be better than that? Except I’m like a baby, a little child who cries and he wants something and they do not give them to him for the time being so, if that is the case then I let go of everything. In truth, other than a prayer there’s nothing.

S. Then what will he receive as a result?

R. From the prayer he receives what he is asking for. The prayer takes a long time until the prayer changes and he sees how to change it, who to turn to, how to turn to Him, and eventually it brings him to connection with the Creator. After that there is nothing. That is the last thing. By that he becomes adhered to the Creator.

7. S. (14:59) From connecting with the friends we get a place to prayer for the friends.

R. Yes.

S. Now, how do I pray for the friends?

R. You ask for the entire group that the Creator will give you the ability to be in mutual bestowal and from that to bestow to Him.

S. So I’m not asking for the deficiency of the friend, I’m asking for the system and it will complete what the friend is missing.

R. Your true deficiency is to bestow to one another, from everyone to the Creator.

8. S. (15:42) In the first sentence, the whole matter of labor and work to which we are obliged is only to discover our lack of strength and our lowliness. Let’s say we are rewarded with working and laboring and as a result we discover the lack of our strength and our lowliness, but we are supposed to achieve equivalence of form with the Creator.

R. I did not understand.

S. The big goal is to be on equivalence of form with the Creator.

R. In bestowal to the Creator.

S. Right, bestowal to the Creator and then we’re in equivalence of form, like He bestows and then so do we. So we labor in our work to get closer to bestowal. The result that we get is discovering the lack of our strength, our lowliness, as if we are going in the opposite direction instead of rising to bestowal.

R. We cannot rise to bestowal. We wish to adhere to the Creator and that will give us the strength to bestow to Him.

S. What does it mean to adhere to the Creator?

R. As much as I’m able to do it like a baby who clings to his mother.

S. Our lowliness and a lack of strength, that is with regards to what, lowly in what?

R. That we have no way to bestow.

S. We can see that but we are moving further away not closer.

R. Why?

S. Because He bestows and I only receive.

R. But if I’m adhered to Him like a baby then I do not distance myself. I do not distance myself. How do we grow up? By coming from the mother’s womb, there we develop as a foreign power but we annul ourselves and that’s why we can grow there and develop and receive all the good that we need. 

9. S. (18:10) If in the ten there’s such a state where someone detaches from spiritually for a certain time can we say that the quota has been filled?

R. No, we do not need to do anything, to invent anything, to continue doing this and he will be back.

S. If this state repeats what was the problem?

R. The problem, in principle, is the group that is not able to hold a friend, to keep him in the group. We have to give everyone something to do, not forcefully, it has to be interesting for him and he will feel dignified to be among the friends.

10. S. (19:16) How was it for you with Rabash, the work in building the prayer, was there some revealed work?

R. I cannot tell you anything because those were completely different relationships and I don’t want to confuse you.

S. In our stage, right now in the present stage, what is the best way to work with the prayer towards the ten, let’s say after the lesson?

R. To read what we are studying and from that understand what you are lacking and to pray for that.

S. To pray. What does it mean that together we pray for it?

R. That we have no strength, no desire, no understanding how to turn to Him, to the Creator, what are you missing, what kind of help exactly should come from Him, so on and so forth. Try to scrutinize all those things and ask, constantly ask.

S. We are doing a prayer after every lesson, we summarize a prayer, everyone says a sentence and then we have a collection of short prayers. There is some sharpness, some general scrutiny is missing, some cry to the Creator. How do we achieve that?

R. You need to scrutinize what you truly want. Be honest with yourselves, what do you want, and ask only for that. Approach it from every direction.

S. Meaning it’s not just a collection of different desires of the friend, we have to come to something mutual, one deficiency. What does it mean to approach it from different directions?

R. Each one has his own desires, own understandings, in this way we need to approach the Creator.

11. S. (22:00) Based on the text it says whatever anything you can do with your strength you should do, so can you define actions that are the correct or incorrect or any action is correct?

R. I couldn’t hear well.

S. He’s asking, it says in the text, whatever you’re able to do you should do. So the friend is asking is every action correct or could there be actions that are incorrect?

R. Of course, there are actions more correct, less correct, you have to scrutinize, sort the actions, the demands, that are the most beneficial, so as we read it should become clear to us what is more beneficial. 

12. S. (23:28) How do we build a common womb between us to the point that I feel the deficiency of the group and then can raise a true prayer?

R. When we incorporate in one another, annul to one another, and in this way we begin to feel that we are like a single desire made up of many desires but a single desire nevertheless that is under the control of the upper one and then we ask the upper one to develop us. 

13. S. (24:36) How to make sure that the prayer does not become a routine?

R. Before the prayer we need, as it is written in the books, that the ancient Kabbalists sat quietly before the prayer for an hour perhaps even more, and thought about what they have to pray for, what they should pray for, what is erupting through the heart, and only then they composed their prayer and prayed. So we need to think more, make a list, what do I truly want, who do I want to be in contact, and so on and so forth.

S. How does it work in the ten?

R. Inside the ten it works where although we are ten people we are studying together, thinking together, so gradually our thoughts, our desires, our hopes, become closer to one another and that is how we connect. There’s no other choice, that is nature. That’s how we do it.

14. S. (26:57) I have a problem understanding that he says that I did not tell you this truth only so you will not be weakened or give up on mercy although you did not see anything for anyone to measure of labor is complete, it is a time of prayer. Where do you see the Creator’s mercy, especially in the recent times, can you see it?

R. I don’t know. I’m not here to criticize the Creator, I come to criticize myself.

S. Where do I see that there’s mercy? He says that there’s a law that does not change. Is there mercy near at all?

R. There is 100% mercy but then I don’t identify it perhaps.

S. That is what I’m asking, where do you see the mercy?

R. It’s called faith in sages.

S. What does that mean?

R. I believe them for the time being before I discover it myself..

S. Is there truly mercy?

R. Yes.

15. S. (28:16) Aren’t we supposed to accompany any action with prayer?

R. When the person has no more desire to turn to the Creator and there’s no way for him to make any action then his prayer is truly complete because he turns to the Creator from his emptiness and that is how he advances, the Creator helps him out.

S. But it doesn’t cancel that we need to try to accompany every action with prayer?

R. Yes, yes. 

16. S. (29:27) The intention, especially the intention in the ten, is this a kind of raising of prayer?

R. Of course, of course.

17. S. (29:48) Can we ask a question about labor and found? There is a quote from Rabbash from one of the articles specifically about men and women. It says there, if there is no labor one cannot be awarded with the Creator’s light, as our sages said, I didn’t labor and did not find do not believe. This quote kind of left me shocked. I did not labor and I didn’t find don’t believe?

R. I don’t know, we’ll get to it and we will learn about it together.

S. It sounds opposite to what we’ve learned?

R. We are not in this right now.

18. S. (32:09) What does it mean do not give up on mercy?

R. You should not be despaired from what you receive from the Creator since it is all mercy and if it does not appear to you as mercy then these are concealed mercies, nevertheless do not despair because each and every moment you are approaching the end of correction. It is all mercies, except that you cannot detect them right now.

19. S. (31:57) The prayer we build after the morning lesson, is this a tool to work with?

R. Yes, of course.

S. What do I do with this tool during the day, what am I to do?

R. What to do? Work with it. You want this prayer to be accepted and you will continue with it.

S. I need to always reiterate this prayer, look at it, see what happened, what did not happen, sort it out?

R. Yes.

20. S. (32:43) What is the difference between the state where a person labors and just despairs or a state where a person doesn’t labor in the right place and that is where the despair comes from?

R. The difference is how it influences the person, not in any other way.

21. S. (33:18) It says, then we are qualified to pour out a complete prayer to the Creator. What is the difference between a complete prayer and incomplete prayer?

R. A complete prayer, I guess, reaches the Honorable Throne and the incomplete one is probably without enough strength.

22. S. (33:57) We got used to how after our efforts we get a result. Is a lack a result also a result towards our ego? Will it agree to make efforts this way to deceive it?

R. We don’t cheat them, we don’t cheat them, we simply work to scrutinize that ego that’s inside of us and how can we work with it. It’s called, as a help against, since without it we are unable to advance.

S. We are talking about a qualitative prayer and it says here that the qualitative prayer is only when there is no result, only then it is considered effort towards what we build. Will the ego agree that it will not care if there is a result or is not? It’s like a wrapper without the candy?

R. I don’t understand your examples. The ego needs nourishment and it all depends on how you feed it.

S. But will it agree to make an effort without a result if we know in advance there is not going to be a result?

R. Gently, you need to agree with Him that He will receive a certain small part of this, but it will be under your control.

23. S. (36:08) What do we need to be able to believe the Sages?

R. We need to believe the Sages whatever they said and follow their path, this is called ‘following with faith in the Sages’.

S. How do I come to that point to be able to believe the Sages, why should I believe them?

R. You accept it because it’s above you, you cannot reach the goal any other way.

S. And how can I come to the powers to be able to accept them?

R. When we take the power to accept faith in the Sages, that comes from the study, from the Creator, from the group, because we do everything of belief in our Sages they said, “walk this way”, and we should heed their advice and that’s what we need to do, so each shall help his friend and that’s how we advance.

S. Do I need prayer to be able to believe the Sages?

R. Also, also, the thing that we need is to reach believing our Sages, ‘faith in the Sages’.

24. S. (38:17) When does the Creator hear “the person’s cry” and how does He help the person?

R. The Creator hears the person’s cry means that He accepts the lack and the deficiency of the person and He makes an action on that lack, an action of bestowal, and the person receives a result from the Creator’s action and that means that the Creator has helped him. 

25. S. (39:30) What glues a person to the Creator exactly, is that the prayer or his connection with the friends?

R. What glues the person to the Creator, the desire to adhere to the Creator just like the Creator already adheres to the person even though the person doesn’t feel that.

S. And practically, his effort to connect with the friends or his effort that is expressed in prayer, is that what brings about this adhesion?

R. I don’t understand?

S. What practically or ultimately, what is the glue, the connection with the friends or the prayer?

R. Connection with the friends, that’s the foundation then prayer to the Creator and then adhesion with the Creator.

S. So there has to be this glue between himself and the friends and then there the adhesion with the Creator will be revealed?

R. That goal cannot be attained without connection with the friends, that’s the first condition that’s why it says, “either connection or death”.

26. S. (41:30) This embryo, by annulling to one another and out of the connection between us, will the Creator seemingly within it and around it, does that mean that we become this embryo?

R. Yes.

S. In the first lesson I heard you said that the saboteur sabotages a lack of connection with the general group so the question is like can the embryo can be the ten or is it only when we become ‘as one man in one heart’ in the world vessel?

R. No, the ten is sufficient.

S. We need to reach a state where we only want to bestow, the embryo is bestow in order to bestow?

R. Yes, that’s not simple, even what I answered her it’s incomplete, what can you do?

27. S. (43:04) Should every prayer come from the bottom of the heart in order for it to work?

R. The depth of the heart, there are many depths to it and each time it’s a depth of the heart that a person can reveal.

S. If we still cannot get to the bottom of the heart it means we haven’t completed the exertion, the labor?

R. Yes, yes.

28. S. (43:31) Isn’t the prayer a point where the person reaches the edge of his forces, the point of no other choice and from here he has to turn to something outside of him, isn’t that a prayer?

R. A prayer is that he grabs hold of the upper one in his hands and legs, he exists in the upper one like an embryo in the womb, he literally drinks and swallows and becomes included and incorporated in Him to the point that he wants to assimilate in Him unboundedly; that is essentially the state that he wants to be in the upper one.

S. How is it that that we meet and talk and each one says his prayer this one line, how do we reach this point of wanting to catch the Creator in any way possible?

R. The fact that I want to hold on to all of the friends and nullify before them and that means that I am included in the upper one.

S. Why should I hold onto the friends?

R. To hold on to them, to grab hold of them.

29. S. (45:52) We have a vicious war in the country between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Yesterday when you talk to the friend you said even physically we still lack mutual guarantee, that only, so that a common escape from trouble. Nevertheless we see that many acts of heroism and determination and the other’ people, for example, stood more than ten hours in line to donate blood: There were religious and secular people, traditionalist, even Arabs. The question is, can we see in this tectonic changes that Israeli society is undergoing preparation for the spiritual degree?

R. Such changes I don’t see, I don’t see that they are happening but like in any time of troubles there is some mutual excitement, some mutual understanding more, yes. But to say that we are close to actual connection, actually getting closer, no, not yet, not yet. And I think that it all depends on Israel, if we are closer to each other, more understanding of each other, more nullifying towards each other and making concessions for each other then we will be able to truly get closer and then we will not have any lack.

30. S. (48:18) The state of prayer that you explained just now, is a state where you’re already in spirituality?

R. No, not yet.

S. It happens when you are in one hundred percent concealment, you go to pray?

R. Yes.

S. Because I heard it, it sounds like you understand and you feel something when you pray, something spiritual?

R. I’d rather not talk about it.

31. S. (49:10) It says, “when the measure is full, your prayer will be complete”, does the fulfillment of this measure depend on one suffering and how to know how full is that measure?

R. That’s the difference between how much you understand what wholeness is, and correspondingly how much you have a lack of wholeness, so if you come to this complete measure then your prayer is accepted.

32. S. (50:14) How can we feel the prayer in the heart of the friends in order to reach one prayer and that it will be at the prayer for all of us together?

R. The heart of the friends, you can feel it in your heart if you ever open it up.

S. How can I approach this, I really want to feel that prayer I want to be in the same prayer as they are?

R. You should want to give them everything that you have in your heart.

S. What do they need from me, I have so many things in my heart?

R. That, you have to learn, what they need from you; they need from you love and Arvut.

S. Should this love be expressed in corporeal actions or something that passes from heart to Heart even without speaking?

R. Corporeal things, too.

33. S. (51:29) The prayer is a request for some answer from above, if He received the answer then you have a question, what’s more important: the fact that this connection from above was lost and you need to understand how to reinforce it now?

R. This you have to understand on your own.

S. Yes but exactly here you have, there’s a doubt, if you received an answer and you feel that this answer and this response is satisfactory you wish to somehow share it with others, to materialize it. And maybe an answer came it also came to the others or should you share it nevertheless?

R. Better to share.

34. S. (52:58) Why a person cannot see that he can bestow contentment to the Creator only through prayer?

R. What else can he do, tell me, he doesn’t have what to do, this is a very deep question, why did the Creator make it so that we can influence Him and speak to Him through the request, through the prayer, why did He make it so, that is a question!

S. Why?

R. Meaning the prayer is actually what pushes us away from the Creator, otherwise we would cling to the Creator like an embryo inside his mother’s womb. And there would be no place and no room to prayer for anything, the Creator would just understand the person just like he understands him now and the person would also understand the Creator, like being in a womb. However the more we have to grow, to that extent we have to be further and further detached from the Creator, distanced from Him more and more. And then in order to remain connected, we have to activate the prayer so we know that we are not connected but we want to bridge that distance between u, and that is the power of prayer, that’s it. Now the Creator, He sees our deficiency as we want to connect to Him like we were before inside of Him, inside the womb, and He tries and tries to lead us to such an internal connection, mutual connection and that’s what we ultimately achieve.

S. How can I ask the Creator each time that my heart is beating?

R. You can ask, whatever you feel the Creator already felt whatever you speak, doesn’t matter the language, the Creator hears.

S. So I can do it all the time?

R. Yes, of course. 

35. S. (56:44) These two depictions, on the one hand to be an embryo in the womb in total annulment to receive everything above reason, that it’s all complete Hassadim, versus this other depiction of prayer and the request that expresses a lack of connection and the desire to connect, how do I arrange myself between these two poles?

R. You have to try to find the formula, I cannot tell you that, it’s an inner emotional matter.

Reading excerpt number 2 (57:57 – 59:22)

36. S. (59:55) If a complete prayer comes out only in the point of despair of our own strength, what does it mean ‘to pray all day long’?

R. That’s how it goes together.

S. So you have to be in the state of despair all day long?

R. Yes, yes.

37. S. (01:00:32) Why do we need so much effort to reach the state where we feel in the Creator’s womb? There isn’t a greater pleasure, is it because we wish to reach the pleasure for our own sake instead of the Creator’s sake or we’re simply asking for the wrong things?

R. We have to ask for pleasure only for the Creator to fulfill everything He wants from us. Then accordingly in the attitude we have towards Him we will feel that He does the same towards us and this is called “complete adhesion”.

38. S. (01:01:48) How do we help a friend that still did not agree to come out of his self-love?

R. We have to try to agree and then everything will fall into place.

39. S. (01:02:16) Is the prayer something like the Masach and the communication across the screen?

R. Yes, the prayer is the connection above everything, above everything.

40. S. (01:02:44) It tells us we have to be in a constant state of prayer to connect with the Creator, to reach a state of mercy, and that’s really our work?

R. Of course.

S. And so this last article that we just read, it seems to be the entire article itself is a plea to the Creator to help us to connect because we cannot do it ourself, that’s what the entire article talks about?

R. Yes.

41. S. (01:03:54) When is the prayer working faster and more efficiently, is it when everyone is crying out to the Creator out of their helplessness, or when everyone is asking for the same thing?

R. When everyone together asks for the same thing.

42. S. (01:04:23) The prayer in thought and the prayer in action, is it MAD and MAN?

R. MAN is the raising of the prayer and MAD is the descent of the prayer.

S. Can we say that when we raise the prayer to a certain thought and when the prayer comes down, it gives us the forces of bestowal and that’s the answer to the prayer, that’s the power?

R. Yes.

43. S. (01:05:05) We’re all together Israel, the people who yearn for the Creator; I have a deficiency for ‘this people’ to be born, what is the correct prayer for ‘Israel to be born into this world’?

R. All people have to get closer to each other and that’s all, we don’t need anything besides that, that’s the only thing that the Creator wants. 

S. I feel very close to all the friends in Israel, I have a great deficiency for us to connect and for this Israel to be born all over the world, all of us together.

R. We feel you that way as well and I’m happy to see you everyday in our connection, thank you, be well and live long!

44. S. (07:22) I have no words, Rav, thank God we have such unity and you teach us every day, thank you and thanks to the Creator and thanks to all the friends. Our friends give their deficiency every day, I’m really happy, I think the Creator is happy as well!

R. Yes, alright very well! I would speak to each and every one of you but we don’t have that time.

45. S. (01:08:26) I also want to thank you for this lesson; how much strength you give us and how much you help us with this prayer. We feel this radiance from you, thank you, I have nothing to ask.

R. Good, thank you for not asking!

46. S. (01:09:23) Thank you for this wonderful lesson, together we will succeed!

47. S. (01:10:00) We had an amazing lesson, more than that, I want to share that together in the lesson we had the Midwest Ten. They asked to join us and give a strength and we felt their power twice a week, they were with us and a few friends stayed, some of them went to other activities. But I wanted to say, we feel these very complex developments as Kabbalists write to us and yes, you explain to us. The more we approach the end of the overcoming of the will to receive, we can feel the difficulty and the heaviness, and all in order to give us the feeling of a deep prayer we have to raise. And that’s truly an amazing state, how it matches what we read about and what we are learning about, and I’m asking the Creator to give us the strength to do this holy work so we can take the people of Israel out to peace, together with the whole world, and “that everyone will know them to the littlest to the greatest”, as it’s written in the sources. And with the help of the Creator we will succeed, I am sure we will succeed, but the difficulties are not simple.

R. With the Creator’s help.