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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 entire process of the redemption from Egypt, the splitting of the
has time to cry out. In truth, there is certainly and hopes only for this, when we feel an outcry in our heart that Sea of Reeds, the giving of the Torah, and all 40 years that the
no counsel and refuge but to lift one’s eyes and indeed we must have this help, and when we understand that prayer Jews were in the wilderness.
heart to Hashem, may He be blessed. Thus, we is the tool that will bring Hashem to actualize His will, our entire
Whenever I experienced a problem—whether in incidents of
must always engage in hitbodedut and cry out to prayer will be a prayer on behalf of Hashem. sickness and danger, or in incidents involving legal matters and the
Hashem, may He be blessed, because a person is in This is true of both hitbodedut and the Shemoneh Esrei. When like—I always prayed for a change in nature. I always believed that
great danger in this world, as everyone knows and we stand in prayer before Hashem, we must constantly remind in the blink of an eye Hashem can remove a growth from a person’s
understands quite well! ourselves: “Hashem, Who graciously gives man knowledge, wants body, that He can give children to someone who is infertile, and
to give me knowledge. I pray that His will may be revealed and that He can transform people’s hearts. Thus, even a young person
Essentially, the story of the student who almost drowned until realized as a result of my wanting knowledge, and as a result of who has left the way of Hashem can change in a single moment and
Hashem rescued him parallels these two stories about Rabbi my asking Hashem with a strong and powerful intent to attain true do teshuvah. If a woman wants a divorce so badly that she cannot
Nachman’s physical danger. The conclusion that Rabbi Nachman and complete knowledge. Hashem wants teshuvah. He yearns and be persuaded to work on the relationship, it is possible to pray 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 in so doing transform her heart so that she will want to remain with
regarding every spiritual matter, with the feeling that what he is that this intent will be realized and actualized in me, and in all her husband. I always believed and taught that if a defendant in
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 a court case does teshuvah and prays, it is possible that the judge
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.” will absolve him of even the most serious charges. And I always
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 witnessed instances in which I was saved and I witnessed absolute
intense emergency treatment. This is a critical situation, and so he prayer. changes of nature, because complete faith is the vessel with which
must cry out: “Master of the world, I am in great peril. I need Your to receive all salvation.
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 All of this refers to the physical realm. But now I realized that
this and I can’t do without it.” the Most Deplorable Person in the spiritual realm I had not believed sufficiently that Hashem is
all-powerful. It is true that I believed and knew that my spirituality
This is the principal factor that made it possible for Rabbi Nachman However, even after you have read everything written here, you is in Hashem’s hands, and I prayed for spiritual growth at length
to attain what he attained. With it, he accomplished and achieved might still be misled and argue, “I have read and learned here that for hours upon hours, over the course of days and years. But when
in his short lifetime what great tzaddikim took many long years to Hashem has a profound desire to help everyone who calls out to Hashem showed me this new light, I suddenly understood that I was
accomplish, as he himself testifies explicitly. And whoever goes Him in truth and who does all of the work of the will. But that still lacking greatly in the faith that Hashem is also all-powerful
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 in spiritual matters.
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 This lack is expressed in two principal ways (as I have written):
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. First, a lack of faith that Hashem can transform even the lowest
A person who succeeds in crying out for his spiritual life exactly as If you have sinned, does Hashem want you to continue sinning, person into a Moses, that Hashem can make everyone into a
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 Moses.
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 Second, a lack of faith that Hashem can in a single moment nullify
faith is expressed in his belief in himself. Believe that Hashem wants a person’s every craving and give him every spiritual attainment for
to save you as much as He wants to save anyone else! which he prays—without delay, instantaneously.