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206 | A New Light
most wicked person in the world must believe that Hashem wants
to have compassion on him, to help him to do complete teshuvah,
and to be on the level of Moses.
Therefore, let us review:
We have learned that a person’s prayer is accepted in
accordance with his faith, and that the essence of weakness
in a person’s prayer is due to a weakness in his faith, his
lack of certainty that Hashem wants to save him. Therefore,
even if such a person serves Hashem fervently and vigorously, all
of his work of the will is still not “perfect prayer.” It is still a weak
prayer compared to what it should be. That is because, when a
person’s faith that Hashem wants to save him is not absolute, his
prayer is not absolute. As a result, he cannot cry out to Hashem
with all his might, “Bring me close to serve You.”
Our prayer as we cry out to Hashem is strong and unequivocal only
when we know that Hashem waits and yearns to give us everything
in the spiritual dimension. More than you want to receive spiritual
salvation, Hashem wants to give it to you. It is only that you are
lacking the vessel, and Hashem is waiting for you to prepare the
complete and full vessel (as we will learn here). The first vessel is
that you believe with absolute and complete faith that the Creator
wants to give you everything.
When we come to ask Hashem to save us spiritually, we must
believe with perfect faith in the absolute will of the Creator to
save everyone spiritually. If you do not believe completely that
Hashem profoundly wants to help you, if you think that Hashem
does not want to help and rescue you, that constitutes a flaw in
your faith. Every day in the Shemoneh Esrei, we recite the words,
“King, Helper, Savior and Shield.” Hashem is not a vengeful king,
nor a cruel king. He is not waiting to ambush you. He does not
benefit from seeing you suffer, and He does not attempt to cause
you to despair, heaven forbid. And so in the Shemoneh Esrei we
recite the words, “Who wants teshuvah.” Hashem wants everyone
to do complete teshuvah. When a person makes an opening even as
small as the eye of a needle for Hashem, Hashem makes an opening
for him as wide as the portal of a banquet hall. Once we know this,
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Know that until you meet your marriage partner Hashem wants
you to guard yourself with the fear of heaven and keep yourself
from sinning, particularly in your present situation, when you are
single. And that is something that you can ask heaven to give you
immediately: you can demand that heaven provide you with the
strength to overcome your evil inclination, because Hashem at this
very moment wants to give you the fear of heaven and the power
to overcome your evil inclination that is burning within you. If you
stand up and ask to receive this immediately (as we are learning in
this chapter), you will receive immediately. But regarding meeting
your marriage partner, ask for that only as an unearned gift that
Hashem will give you when He wishes to, because only heaven
knows the exact time when you must meet your spouse.
A person’s prayer for physical matters must indeed be accepted
by heaven—but it does not have to be accepted immediately. Why
must prayer for physical matters be accepted? That is because this
is a law of nature (as was discussed in Chapter Four: The Laws
of Life). After Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, she said, “I have
stubbornly pleaded to God to be equal to my sister, and I prevailed”
(Genesis 30:8, as translated by Rashi). And Rashi explains the phrase, “I
prevailed,” as “He yielded to my importunities.” The mashgiach,
Rabbi Yerucham Leibovitz, states: “This is something awesome to
contemplate! When we are this stubborn and plead this much, we
are assured that we will attain what we desire. Hashem must, as it
were, give it to us. That is because Hashem wanted and created
a world in which this will be the way of nature in the realm of
spirituality…. A person should consider everything that has been
said regarding the necessity to pray, and how wonderful prayer
is, because a person who engages in prayer is assured that he will
certainly receive its positive results” (Divrei Torah: Bereishit).
But we want to have an effect in spiritual matters and to
encourage ourselves to pray to achieve spiritual change. Therefore,
we must consider this logically. If a person’s perfect prayer to be
rescued physically at a time that his life is endangered is certainly
immediately effectively, how much more does perfect prayer
requesting spiritual assistance certainly have an immediate effect,
because Hashem’s entire will is that a person receive all spiritual