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he does not know what to do, and he barely even help everyone and save everyone spiritually, and He looks forward
has time to cry out. In truth, there is certainly and hopes only for this, when we feel an outcry in our heart that
no counsel and refuge but to lift one’s eyes and indeed we must have this help, and when we understand that prayer
heart to Hashem, may He be blessed. Thus, we is the tool that will bring Hashem to actualize His will, our entire
must always engage in hitbodedut and cry out to prayer will be a prayer on behalf of Hashem.
Hashem, may He be blessed, because a person is in This is true of both hitbodedut and the Shemoneh Esrei. When
great danger in this world, as everyone knows and we stand in prayer before Hashem, we must constantly remind
understands quite well! ourselves: “Hashem, Who graciously gives man knowledge, wants
to give me knowledge. I pray that His will may be revealed and
Essentially, the story of the student who almost drowned until realized as a result of my wanting knowledge, and as a result of
Hashem rescued him parallels these two stories about Rabbi my asking Hashem with a strong and powerful intent to attain true
Nachman’s physical danger. The conclusion that Rabbi Nachman and complete knowledge. Hashem wants teshuvah. He yearns and
derives from these stories is that a person must cry out to Hashem wishes that everyone will do teshuvah. I pray on behalf of Hashem
regarding every spiritual matter, with the feeling that what he is that this intent will be realized and actualized in me, and in all
requesting is a matter of life and death. Moreover, not only is it a people in the world, as a result of our having a pure and absolute
matter of life and death, but he is in immediate danger right here intent that our entire goal will be to return to Hashem in teshuvah.”
and now, and there is no time for him to change—he literally needs And apply the same approach to all blessings and to all parts of
intense emergency treatment. This is a critical situation, and so he prayer.
must cry out: “Master of the world, I am in great peril. I need Your
help right now, this very minute! Look at the danger I am in and Fifth Axiom: Hashem Wants to Spiritually Save Even
rescue me spiritually immediately, right this second, because I need
this and I can’t do without it.” the Most Deplorable Person
This is the principal factor that made it possible for Rabbi Nachman However, even after you have read everything written here, you
to attain what he attained. With it, he accomplished and achieved might still be misled and argue, “I have read and learned here that
in his short lifetime what great tzaddikim took many long years to Hashem has a profound desire to help everyone who calls out to
accomplish, as he himself testifies explicitly. And whoever goes Him in truth and who does all of the work of the will. But that
on his path will certainly succeed in being like him, literally. doesn’t refer to a person as deplorable as I am, a person who is so
Therefore, the first step by means of which the work of the will vile and contemptible, a person who violates the entire Torah.”
is transformed into perfect prayer is for a person to renew in his
heart every day the feeling of immediate danger. In that way, he You must know that this is an utter falsehood. Hashem wants
will attain wholeness of will and be able to cry out from the heart. everyone without exception to be rectified and reach his goal.
A person who succeeds in crying out for his spiritual life exactly as If you have sinned, does Hashem want you to continue sinning,
people cry out for their physical lives will truly change and rise from heaven forbid? Even if your sins rise to the heavens, Hashem wants
day to day until he reaches the highest levels. you to be as righteous as Moses—no less! In this regard, Rabbi
Nachman states that the essence of the perfection of a person’s
faith is expressed in his belief in himself. Believe that Hashem wants
to save you as much as He wants to save anyone else!
