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pride. True success occurs only when we do the work of our true
mission, which is related to us, which is in our realm. That is the
work of the will.
The Symbol of Prayer
Like Moses who passed away at the time of the will of wills, so too
King David and the righteous Joseph passed away at the time of the
will of wills, because they too attained a perfect will by means of
the power of prayer. Regarding King David, one does not need to
enumerate at length the proofs that he was entirely prayer. He says
of himself, “I am prayer,” his book of Psalms testifies that he is the
archetype of prayer, and he spent entire nights in songs and praise:
“To You I call out all the day” (Psalms 86:3). The great innovation
that we learn from King David is that all repentance depends on
prayer. There is no way to repent without praying. As the Gemara
teaches, King David taught all generations a path of repentance for
the individual—and that path of repentance is the book of Psalms
(as stated in Likutei Moharan II 73).
King David testifies that all of his ability to choose freely was
made possible only by the help and power of Hashem: “You guide
my destiny” (Psalms 16:5)—meaning, “You placed my hand upon
the good portion, saying: Choose this.” Why did Hashem help
him choose? That is because he was entirely a being of prayer. He
engaged perfectly in his free choice with prayer, which was in his
hands. He was entirely a being of prayer. And so he was led in the
way that he wanted to go.
To Purify the Entire World
So too the righteous Joseph was entirely a being of prayer. When
he was imprisoned for 12 years, what did he do? He did not have
books, and he could not learn in such a filthy place. But the speech
of prayer accompanies a person everywhere. As Rabbi Nachman
states, “Just as a mother always accompanies her children and does
not forget them, so too speech, which is the level of the Shechinah,
always accompanies a person.” Therefore, Rabbi Nachman says
Chapter Five: | 155
changes nature. You will not need persuasion and explanations,
because you will have already seen the dramatic power of prayer in
your own life. “From my flesh I see God” (Job 19:26).
If you wish, I can turn you into tzaddikim like myself.
Sichot Haran 163
Do Not Let Go of One or the Other
It is important to emphasize the following. Clearly, an hour of
hitbodedut every day, in whatever fashion a person does it, is
something very good and a formidable achievement. A person who
does hitbodedut will attain all of the tremendous gifts promised him
and bring about extraordinary and awesome rectifications. Even
in this world, he will see a marked improvement in all areas of his
service of Hashem.
But only when a person does the work of the will can he attain a
fundamental transformation, a literal change of his nature: success
in nullifying his evil inclination, his evil traits and his cravings. As
Rabbi Nachman teaches, “A person should engage a great deal
in prayer and talking [to God] until he succeeds in nullifying [a
problem]” (ibid.).
If a person were strict about praying every day without exception
for everything he needs, he would certainly see a marked change.
But since everyone goes through various phases every day, typically
a person prays every day for different things in keeping with those
phases, and so he does not engage in consecutive and ongoing work
on one topic. And as mentioned above, even when he focuses on
one topic, after a period of time he grows distracted and goes on
to something else, and so he does not acquire anything.