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says is effective even after judgment has been decreed? It is an first of all know that Hashem wants to draw you close to Him and Imagine the worst person in the world: someone who converted
outcry! Rabbi Yechezkel Levinstein teaches, “The quality of prayer save you spiritually, with an absolute and complete will that can to another religion, worshipped idols and persuaded others to do so,
expressed as an outcry is determined by the degree to which a never change! murdered, fathered mamzerim, stole billions of dollars without any
person’s heart is in [his prayer]” (Kuntres Eit La’asot). When a person way of returning what he stole, and who is filled with cravings and
cries out to Hashem with total dedication, he brings about every To sum up the first part of faith: you must believe with hateful traits. He is entirely evil. But Hashem desires teshuvah—the
salvation. As the Gemara states: “A person’s prayer is heard only complete faith that Hashem wants, awaits, yearns and looks teshuvah of every individual, including him. At the moment that he
when he places his life in his hands” (Ta’anit 8a). Such a prayer tears forward to save you spiritually. That is the entirety of His humbles himself before Hashem and desires to do teshuvah, God
up and nullifies every decree of judgment immediately. hope and desire, and the entire purpose of the creation of loves and desires him in turn and considers him to be righteous (as
the world. That is why He created the entire world. That we learned earlier). Hashem wants to give even this person physical
To summarize: a complete prayer that is expressed in an outcry is the strongest intent in all of creation. It is the truth that life and, how much more, spiritual life.
from the depths of the heart comes from a complete desire for transcends all truths and the knowledge that transcends all
life—such as occurs at a time of life-threatening danger—with the knowledge. Jeroboam ben Nebat sinned and caused the nation of Israel to
wholeness of faith that Hashem is all-powerful and that there is no sin more than anyone else in history (cf. Avot). He had been a
other than He—and especially with the faith that Hashem wants to phenomenal Torah sage who abandoned the Torah, threw off the
give everyone life and save everyone. yoke of mitzvot and caused the majority of the children of Israel to
Part Two: Hashem Is All-Powerful and Nothing Is engage in idol worship, which is the most abhorrent sin of all. Yet
The significant factors that harm prayer are the points of truth Beyond Him our holy sages relate that “the Holy One, blessed be He, took hold
and faith regarding thanksgiving discussed above and all sorts of of Jeroboam’s garment and told him, ‘If you do teshuvah, then
other calculations that weaken a person’s outcry. When we cry I, you and the son of Jesse [i.e., David] will stroll together in the
As a result of my engaging in the work of the will on this new
out to Hashem, we must cast all of these calculations aside, and path, I discovered a new depth of faith, which gave my prayers Garden of Eden” (Sanhedrin 102a). This passage applies as well to
with the highest faith hold onto the awareness that Hashem knows every individual who thinks that he is the most deplorable person
all of these reckonings quite well but nevertheless wants to rescue added strength and power, on an entirely different level than I in the world. It tells that Hashem wanted to save even Jeroboam,
had experienced before. I had been involved in the topic of faith
us—which is the absolute truth. Out of that awareness, cry out to who was in truth the most immoral of all men, so that he would
Hashem with all your might until your prayers have their effect. for decades, and I had been writing and teaching about faith. But reach a level even higher than that of King David, who constituted
when I began to serve Hashem in keeping with this new awareness,
I understood that until now I had lacked a certain level of faith in the “fourth leg of the heavenly chariot”!
To Cry Out Properly Hashem. In this new way of serving God, I came to understand a
new and fundamental point. There are many sources for this idea (however, this is not the
I saw how all of this is connected to the work of the will. In place to expand on this). Hashem wants to bring even the most
accordance with that, I understood the manner in which we must Introduction: Hashem Is All-Powerful in the Physical debased people close to him, even unprincipled gentiles and
engage in the work of the will, and the manner in which we must Realm heretics. Certainly, He does not desire their death. The entire
request and entreat Hashem for life—i.e., the manner in which we Torah is filled with this concept. Even the wicked Pharaoh—who
must make all of our spiritual requests of Hashem, requests to tormented the children of Israel, who shed their blood and stiffened
be rescued from sins and cravings, to come close to the Torah, to Simple faith tells us that Hashem is all-powerful. I always knew this his neck until Hashem prevented him from doing teshuvah—even
pray, to serve Hashem, and more. and always believed it. This is a straightforward concept: that all of he, the midrash states, having survived the splitting of the Sea of
nature is in the hands of the Creator, Who created nature and Who Reeds, became ruler of Nineveh and inspired the entire nation to
When Rabbi Nachman of Breslov wanted to teach his students has the power to change it. Hashem demonstrated this message to attain a great level of teshuvah. On Yom Kippur, before Neilah,
how we must pray for spirituality, he told them the following story the entire world, and in particular to the nation of Israel, at the we read about the teshuvah of the wicked Pharaoh. Therefore, you
(Shivchei Haran: Sipur Hanesiyah Le’eretz Yisrael 19). Exodus from Egypt. Hashem demonstrated that He has the power who hope in Hashem, may your heart be strong and firm. As you
to shatter all of the frameworks of nature, as occurred during the stand before Hashem in prayer and desire to do teshuvah, you must

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