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Chapter Six:   | 253    252 | A New Light                                                                                            Chapter Six:   | 229

 is literally his death. To acquire that perception, he must remind   prayers were relatively weak, because every person thought, “This   to Hashem, Who is all-powerful, to nullify your waiting period or
 himself vividly that as soon as he opens his eyes, “the eye sees and   apparently won’t happen to me.” In the end, people always died.   to shorten it, so that this hour in which you cry out will constitute
 the heart desires,” and in such a circumstance he has no free choice,   Yet that did not arouse even the sick to cry out properly to live.  your waiting period, and you will be saved immediately. Did our
 because the desire of his heart is immediate and instantaneous. That                   sages say that when “a person comes to be purified, he should wait
 means that he has given his entire heart to the Sitra Achra (the   Every year, the chance of dying increased, and the chokehold   and continue sinning”? Did our sages say, “He is told, Wait another
 “Other Side” of evil), and he has destroyed the goodness in his   tightened around the necks of the remaining men in the wilderness.   50 years”?  No. Just  wait an hour, two hours,  three—until you
 life. The goodness in a person’s life is his love and his will. When   Presumably, their feeling of danger increased and their prayers grew   bring about your salvation and you will be completely aligned with
 he sees and desires an immodest sight, he gives all of his love, all   stronger. Yet nevertheless the decree  was  not nullified. Even  in   Hashem’s will regarding the goal for which you are praying.
 of his desire, all of his will, all of his yearnings, and all of his pining   the next-to-last year, when 30,000 men remained, and they knew
 for Hashem to the Sitra Achra. Basically, he gives his entire life to   that one out of every two would die—a ratio of 50 percent—they   Similarly, according to the spiritual principles, we must sense our
 the Sitra Achra. As a result, he loses his faith, his fear of heaven,   certainly prayed with all their might. Yet nevertheless they did not   spiritual danger. Believe that Hashem is all-powerful and can help
 all of his awareness, his work of prayer and hitbodedut, all of his   nullify the decree. Only in the last year, when there was no hope   you sense the spiritual peril at this very moment.
 Torah learning, all of the sweetness of prayer and Torah, all of the   left of surviving, was their prayer effective, so that it nullified the
 sweetness of life, his spouse, his peace at home, his children, his   decree entirely.   However, even if a person is cognizant of that danger, he still has
 income. Basically, he loses all of his goodness and all of his life.                   a problem insofar as that at the moment that he is tested he forgets
 Moreover, his heart is filled with evil intent, with base yearnings,   I  was very  surprised.  Why,  in the  next-to-last  year,  when the   the danger. Thus, he must ask Hashem to help him remember the
 with the  fire  of  lust, with a  destructive  spirit of  foolishness and   percentage of those to die was extremely high, didn’t they cry out   danger throughout the entire day—not only when he is praying for
 madness, and with  deceitful  images.  He  forgets  everything: he   with all their might and nullify the decree? Then too they vividly   that awareness. When a person prays half an hour every day, with
 forgets Hashem, he forgets the Torah, he forgets his family. He   felt the danger. From here, we see that a person’s prayer must be   the passage of time he becomes increasingly aware of that danger,
 forgets it all, and he only wants to silence the fire of lust burning   absolute. If there is even a small point that weakens his prayer, the   and remembers it with ever-greater frequency. You must believe
 within him. That is literally death. He loses his entire life and he is   prayer cannot nullify the decree. As long as there was a chance that   that Hashem, being all-powerful, can help you gain this awareness
 filled with death.  they would remain alive, they did not cry out decisively! They did   immediately. And you must believe that you require this awareness
          not feel the deadly danger with absolute certainty, because they              immediately, because without it you are in urgent and deadly peril.
 Man or woman, anyone who is working on any issue must engage   had a 50 percent chance of surviving.  Therefore, you must cry out to Hashem and seek this awareness at
 in visualization. For instance, if a person is working on eradicating                  this very moment. Your ability to cry out to Hashem depends on
 his trait of anger, he must visualize his anger as literally being death.   This illustrates all of the points that were made before: that even   your faith that He wants to save you and give you this awareness of
 That is because the Zohar states that when a person grows angry   if we pray out of a sense of terrible danger, our prayers are not the   danger from this moment on.
 he rips apart his soul. He destroys his holy soul and receives an   same as the outcries of a person who faces a 100 percent certainty
 evil soul in its place from the Sitra Achra, a soul that is considered   of death. The latter type of prayer is perfect: the prayer of a person   The same idea applies to every principle and rule that weakens
 an idol.  Therefore,  he should visualize that he  is destroying  his   who feels immediate danger and who believes with complete faith   prayer. You must not allow these to affect you. To the contrary,
 soul, and that demons and spirits are entering into him. He should   that Hashem wants to save him—in consequence of which he cries   you must take them into your prayers. Transform them into prayers
 continue visualizing that until he feels that even getting angry once   out and brings about his salvation. Only a person who prays to God   and seek salvation at this very moment, believing that Hashem is
 is literally death, because he is destroying his soul. So too in regard   to nullify his cravings as though he is struggling for his very life can   all-powerful, wants to save you and can do so immediately.
 to evil speech, a person should remind himself that the Gemara   nullify them very quickly!
 states that evil speech kills three people: the speaker, the listener,                   Therefore, perfect faith in the work of the will means that you
 and the subject of the speech. Therefore, he should visualize that   Guarding Life     believe that Hashem wants to save you at this very moment—
 his every word of evil speech is literally his death. In that way, he                  even if that runs counter to all of the spiritual principles.
 can cry out properly.  Consider the following. A person wants to acquire the perception   Perfect faith in the work of the will means that you cry out to
          that every time he opens his eyes and sees an immodest sight, that            Hashem  every  day with  the knowledge  and complete  faith that































































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