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230 | A New Light
Hashem is all-powerful and at this very moment He can give you
everything you need in order not to sin, and that He wants to save
you. Therefore, at this very moment Hashem can and wants to
give you faith, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, strong will, all
abilities, all of the means, and all of the most perfect vessels so that
you will not sin and so that you will attain every spiritual level.
Shorten the Waiting Period
I have not asserted that after one prayer session you will change
entirely, and that there is no need for any waiting whatsoever. I
have only said that the reality of having to wait must not discourage
you from crying out repeatedly. Believe with simple faith that in
Hashem’s realm, there is no waiting, and everything can be brought
about in a single moment. Then your prayers will be strengthened—
they will be prayers of flaming fire, words hot as burning coals.
Certainly such prayers are true. They bring about results, they are
accepted, and they rip apart the heavenly decree of judgment. It is
quite possible that such prayers will build all of your vessels so that
today you will attain all of the intent, knowledge and faith that you
lack. But even if you do not attain your complete salvation today,
with such prayers it will take a week or two, a month or two, until
you bring about complete salvation. When your prayers are strong
and uncompromising, you can attain in a month or two that which
people who do not believe that Hashem can save them today will
attain only in a year or in a decade. Who says that in order to
be a decent Jew a person must wait 50 years? Why must every
millimeter of progress take months? If you have complete faith, in
an hour or two you can build vessels and go forward from day to
day.
Do not be upset if you have not been answered immediately.
The greatest wisdom is the following. At the time of prayer, you
must yearn, want, cry out, and expect to receive immediately, with
absolute faith and absolute prayer, without resigning yourself to
waiting. But after you pray, you must accept the need to wait with
love for Hashem, and you must return to an attitude of happiness.
After you have engaged in your hour of prayer and crying out
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your prayer is accepted and answered. But know that you cannot
tell Hashem, “Rescue me and save me immediately, right now,”
as long as you are not yet experiencing the deadly danger vividly
and deeply. Therefore, the first thing is to yearn, want and strive
to be 100 per cent aware of the danger. Then you can think about
the possibility of immediate changes.
To Emerge from the Grave
In accordance with this principle, I understood something
extraordinary:
As is well-known, after the sin of the spies in the wilderness, a
heavenly decree was passed that our forefathers would not enter
the land of Israel. Thus, over the course of less than 40 years,
600,000 Jews would die in the wilderness—more than 15,000
men every year. Our sages relate that every year on the night of
the ninth of Av, the men would dig graves and lie down to sleep in
them. Overnight, more than 15,000 men died, and the remainder
emerged to live until the coming year, when the process would be
repeated. Presumably, every individual prayed to Hashem from the
depths of his heart to gain another year of life, and he did teshuvah
with all his might. Yet nevertheless, 15,000 died.
The midrash tells that in the last year the final 15,000 entered
their graves, but they all remained alive. They thought that perhaps
they had miscalculated the date, and so they lay in their graves a
few more nights until the fifteenth of Av arrived, when the moon is
full and so the ninth of Av has certainly passed, and so they knew
that the decree had been nullified (Midrash Eichah Rabbati).
This raises the question of why the final 15,000 succeeded in
nullifying the decree, whereas all of the previous tens of thousands
every year did not. This is basically the question of the Gemara in
Rosh Hashanah: “Why were these answered and those were not?”
I attempted to recreate how those who entered the graves
prayed. In the first year, they knew that only 2½ percent would
die. Thus, it may be understood that despite all of the danger, their