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Meeting Hashem Master of the world, You know how far I am from my
true purpose. Not only have I not been careful with all
This entire chapter is discussing wholeness of faith. Faith means of my actions, not only have I not been careful to avoid
recognizing Hashem. Do not view Hashem as some being who doing anything that does not contribute to the attainment
places overwhelming demands on you, who tests you and seeks of the final purpose, but I have done the exact opposite.
ways to make you fail, heaven forbid. Rather, you must attain the I have engaged in behavior that has distanced me a great
recognition and strong intuition that Hashem is only waiting to deal from that purpose, heaven forbid. I have created
help and save you spiritually. The more we proceed on the path many blemishes and I have been completely distanced
of strong prayer, the more we truly recognize Hashem, because we
recognize His infinite compassion and love—which He, as it were, from the true goal.
requires of Himself in order to help all those who turn to Him for 9
their physical needs and, even more, for their spiritual needs, the And so, my Father in heaven, why do I have
latter being His entire will. Hashem wants us to succeed, because such a life, such a life of suffering, such a painful
our victory is His victory. and embittered life? Is this even called a life? A
thousand deaths are better than such a distressing
Therefore, we may recite such especially strong prayers for life, because with such a life I cannot attain the
spiritual matters, but not for physical matters. There is, however, true goal!
an exception: something that is literally a matter of life and death,
such as a deadly disease. Then clearly all secondary issues are set Master of the world, Master of the entire universe,
aside and we take all steps necessary for healing. The truth is that You Who revive the dead with vast compassion, You
there is nothing more spiritual than life itself. A person comes Who are the Life of lives, give me life. May I live and
to the gate of death because of his sins. If he dies, he will die not die. Give me true life, eternal life, a good life,
without repentance and without having gained rectification. When
he asks for life, he is asking for the chance to repent, to rectify a long life, a life filled with the fear of heaven, a life in
matters and to continue serving Hashem. And that is certainly what which I will constantly come close to the final, true goal
Hashem wants. At any rate, when a person prays regarding every for whose sake You created all of the universes, and for
problem and every illness, he must express a great deal of thanks whose sake we came from the upper world, from the
and proceed in accordance with the principles of faith, thinking, highest of levels, to this low world.
“This is what Hashem wants; everything is for the good,” and then
he must search for the lesson that Hashem wants to teach him with These are not rhetorical flourishes. Rabbi Natan is describing how
this situation. he actually feels. Therefore, when he prays to be rescued from sins
and flaws, he cries out, quoting Proverbs: “Do not refrain from
Encourage Yourself rescuing those taken to death and those on the verge of being
slain” (Proverbs 24:11). He feels that he is about to die, and he
prays, “Hashem, rescue me! Hashem, redeem me! See the danger
In the spiritual realm as well, when a person cries out in a fitting I am in, torn apart in the heart of the seas, ‘deep calling to deep
way to Hashem to save his life, he must certainly begin with a great to the sound of Your water channels, all of Your breakers and
deal of joy and he must thank Hashem for inspiring him to do the waves passing over me’ (Psalms 42:8), as ‘those who are my enemies
work of the will. That is because when a person has a broken heart without any reason hunt me like a bird. They have confined my
he can easily become depressed, which is very harmful to serving