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committing a habitual sin, nullifying an evil desire, renouncing When you cry out to Hashem with all your heart and believe
a bad trait, or giving up an addiction—you must believe with in Him, you do not “persuade” the Holy One, blessed be He, to
complete faith that Hashem can help you succeed completely. Just rescue you, but you only bring forth the true will of the Holy One,
as He helped all of the tzaddikim so that they became entirely and blessed be He, from potential to actual. At the moment that we
completely pure, so too He will help you as well, if you heed the pray and cry out, we do not think about anything else. We do not
tzaddikim and go on their path and do what they did, in accordance think, “I deserve it” or “I don’t deserve it,” “I did teshuvah” or
with your place and level. The tzaddikim taught that the work is “I didn’t do teshuvah.” We only think about one thing: “Hashem
easy, and that the principal factor consists of the will, prayer and 7 wants to save me, and Hashem is only waiting for me to do my
entreaties. We must cry out to Hashem from the depth of the heart work, which is to cry out to Him with all my heart.” Every other
until we nullify our cravings completely. I have already explained thought at the time that we pray, even a truthful thought, weakens
that Hashem answers a person’s prayer in accordance with his faith. our prayer and cools it off.
If, in the core of your being, you do not believe that Hashem
can entirely nullify your cravings and transform your nature, He Only a person’s wholeness of faith that Hashem wants to save
will answer your prayer accordingly, and you will not see great him and rescue him inspires him to cast everything upon Hashem.
changes. If you do not believe that it is possible to nullify a desire Then his request is complete, without any hesitation and dullness. It
entirely, you will only see small changes. But when you believe that is strong and absolute. Therefore, it will be effective, because when
Hashem can transform you entirely in a single moment, you will see we cry out with all our heart out of a wholeness of faith, our prayer
tremendous changes! succeeds. Thus, this wholeness of faith in the fact that Hashem wants
to give us life so that we will live and attain wholeness of faith—
Great Faith Means Easy Work which is the purpose of the entire world, and each individual’s
particular purpose—is the vessel with which to receive all salvation.
With that wholeness of faith, our prayer is complete, and it rips up
You may think that this is true only for the elite of the generations
and not for you. But why did the elite of the generations become every decree of judgment.
the elite of the generations? It is because they believed that Hashem
wants them to be completely holy and pure, and in that spirit they Even the Thanksgiving
engaged in the work of the will. And every Jew must be like them.
Even if a person thinks at the time that he cries out, “Everything
The entire difference between the tzaddikim and any other person is for the good, and my painful reality is the ultimate good for me,”
on any level lies in the extent to which a person clings to the faith and—as it were—he accepts Hashem’s will with love, that weakens
that Hashem can make each person into a complete tzaddik like his prayer. It is true that everything is for the good, but that does not
Moses. As the Gemara states: “‘Who disdained the day of small mean that Hashem wants you to die, heaven forbid. Hashem wants
things?’ (Zechariah 4:10)—who caused the table of the righteous you to live. He does not want you to suffer. He wants to rescue
in the world-to-come to be disdained? The smallness that was in you. Therefore, we must make a clear and sharp differentiation
them—the fact that they did not believe in the Holy One, blessed between these two truths. The evil inclination misleads a person
be He!” (Sotah 48b). Rabbi Nachman derives from this Gemara that immensely and makes use of faith itself to weaken him. It is true
smallness of faith means that they did not believe in themselves that we must thank Hashem deeply with all our heart for every
(Sichot Haran 140). That answers the question: how can it be that a trouble and problem that we experience. But that does not mean
righteous person does not believe in the Holy One, blessed be He? that Hashem does not want to save us. Even though I have written
According to Rabbi Nachman’s explanation, the answer is clear: a book called I Said Thank You and I Was Saved, which teaches