READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNIGHT AND DAWN MONDAY

All the prayers of the world – Excerpts from “Zohar for All”

All the prayers of the world – Excerpts from “Zohar for All”

1. Zohar for All, Truma [Donation], “The Watchman Says, “Morning Comes”, Item 86

“If you ask, ask.” If you make your requests before the King in prayer, ask, pray and ask your requests and return to your Master. “Come,” as one who invites, greeting his sons and having mercy on them. So is the Creator. In the morning and also at night, He calls out and says, “Come.” Happy are the holy nation whose Master seeks them and calls for them to bring them near Him.

2. 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.

3. Zohar for All, Toldot [Generations], “And Isaac Entreated”, Item 21

The Creator desires the prayer of the righteous, when they ask before Him for their needs. And what is the reason? It is so that an ointment of holiness would grow and proliferate through the prayer of the righteous for anyone in need, for the righteous open the upper hose with their prayer, and then even those who are unworthy of being granted are granted.

4. Zohar for All, VaYakhel [And Moses Assembled], “The Ascent of the Prayer”, Items 121,123

One should pray before the Creator, which is one great work, more honored than the work of his Master. There is the work of the Creator that is in the work of the body, meaning the Mitzvot that depend on an act, and there is the work of the Creator that is more internal work—which is the most important—meaning Mitzvot that depend on speech and on the will of the heart. […]

A man’s prayer is the work of the Ruach [spirit], work from Behina Bet, which depends on the speech. It is in high secrets and people do not know that a man’s prayer breaches airs and breaches firmaments, opens doors and rises up.

5. Zohar for All, VaYikra [The Lord Called], “I Acknowledged My Sin unto You”, Items. 338-339

Anyone who covers his sins and does not acknowledge them before the holy King to ask for mercy for them, is not permitted to open the door of repentance, since it is covered from him. But if he details them before the Creator, the Creator has mercy on him and the Rachamim prevail over the Din.

It is even more so if he cries, since he opens all the hidden doors and his prayer is accepted. Hence, the confession of his sins is the glory of the King, to make Rachamim prevail over the Din.

6. Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived], “Be Gathered, that I May Tell You”, Item 514

All the prayers in the world, prayers of many, are prayers. But a solitary prayer does not enter before the Holy King, unless with great force. This is so because before the prayer enters to be crowned in its place, the Creator watches it, observes it, and observes the sins and merits of that person, which He does not do with a prayer of many, where several of the prayers are not from righteous, and they all enter before the Creator and He does not notice their iniquities.

7. Zohar for All, VaEtchanan, “Midnight,” Items 8-9

When one rises at midnight to engage in Torah, a herald calls out about him and says, “Here, bless the Lord all the servants of the Lord who stand in the house of the Lord at night.” In the morning, when he stands in prayer before his Master, that herald calls out about him and says, “And I will let you walk among these who are standing here.”

After he concludes his prayer willingly before his Master, he should willingly devote his soul to Malchut. A person has several counsels in everything. When he is in prayer, all those words that one utters from one’s mouth in that prayer rise and break through airs and firmaments until they come to the place where they come, and are crowned on the head of the King, who makes from them a crown.

8. Zohar for All, Balak, “A Prayer of Moses, a Prayer of David, a Prayer of the Poor,” Item 190

All the hosts of heaven ask each other “What does the Creator do?” “In what does He exert?” They are told that He unites passionately with His Kelim [vessels], with the brokenhearted. Everyone does not know what was done with the prayer of the poor and all his grievances since the poor has no passion except when he sheds tears in grievances before the holy King, and the Creator has no passion except when He accepts them and they are poured down before Him. This prayer defers and delays all the prayers in the world.

9. Zohar for All, VaYishlach [And Jacob Sent], Article “The Prayer of the Righteous”, Item 66

The prayer of the righteous is joy for the assembly of Israel, Nukva, to be crowned with the prayer before the Creator. This is why it is more loved by the Creator than the prayer of the poor. And for this reason, the Creator desires the prayer of the righteous, when they should pray, because they know how to appease their Master.

10. Zohar for All, Shemot [Exodus], “Sigh, Cry, and Outcry”, Item 354

A cry means crying and not saying anything, without any words. The cry is greater than all of them, for the cry is in the heart. It is closer to the Creator than a prayer or a sigh, as it is written, “For if they cry unto Me, I will surely hear their cry.”

11. Zohar for All, Shemot [Exodus], “Sigh, Cry, and Outcry”, Items 356-357

One who prays and cries and cries out until he can no longer move his lips, this is a complete prayer that is in the heart. It is never returned empty, but is accepted. Great is the cry for it tears a man’s sentence from all his days.

Great is the cry that governs the quality of Din above. Great is the cry that governs this world and the next world. For a cry, man inherits this world and the next world, as it is written, “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.”

12. Zohar for All, BeShalach [When Pharaoh Sent], “The Story of Haman”, Items 409-410

“Out of the depths I have called You.” Anyone who prays his prayer before the holy King must ask his pleas and pray from the bottom of the heart so that his heart will be wholly with the Creator, and he will aim his heart and will, as it is written, “Out of the depths I have called You.” But it is written, “With all my heart I have sought You.” This verse is sufficient, to pray with all of one’s heart, so why the need for “From the bottom”?

Every person who asks his request of the King must aim his mind and will to the Root of Roots, to extend blessings from the depth of the pit, so that blessings will pour from the fountain of all.

13. Zohar for All, Aharei Mot [After the Death], “From the Depths I Have Called You, O Lord”, Items 244-245

Before the Creator created the world, He created repentance. The Creator said to repentance, Bina: “I wish to create man in the world provided that if they return to you from their iniquities you will be willing to pardon their iniquities and atone them.” Each and every hour, repentance is ready for people. When people repent from their iniquities, this repentance, Bina, returns to the Creator giving Mochin to ZA and atones for everything. Then the Dinim surrender and all are perfumed, and the man is purified from his iniquities.

When is one purified from his iniquity? When he properly enters repentance. When he repents before the upper king and prays a prayer from the bottom of the heart, as it is written, “From the depths I have called You, O Lord.”