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The work is the will, and free choice is the will. The goal that Better Is My Death than My Life
you desire is only an outcome. It is not proper to ask to reach the
outcome without going on the path. Hashem wants us to go on As I came to the conclusion of my work on this chapter, Hashem
the path and do the essential work, which is the will, because “the brought to my hand a wonderful passage from Rabbi Baruch Shalom
Compassionate One desires the heart.” A person who asks Hashem Ashlag in the name of his father, the author of Hasulam, in which
to help him come straight to his spiritual goals may as well ask he summarizes all of this in his sweet language, as follows (Shamati,
Hashem to free him from doing the work entirely. In other words, section 156):
he says to Hashem: “I want You to do Your part without me doing
my part.” Three conditions must be met when a person prays.
This is very foolish, because when we attain the wholeness of will, a. He must believe that Hashem can save him. Even if he is in
which is our work, heaven will assist us. Theoretically, a person worse circumstances than anyone else of his generation, “Is the
should not even need to pray for this. However, so that he will not hand of Hashem too short to save him?” (cf. Isaiah 59:1). Certainly
receive without engaging in prayer, he need only pray a little, and the Master of the universe can rescue everything of His (and this
then he receives. The main thing is the will. Therefore, a person constitutes the wholeness of faith).
whose prayer focuses solely on attaining the goal is making a great
error, and he shows that he has entirely misunderstood this book. b. He must realize that he has no other resources. What he was
Basically, we must pray to attain the will, to attain the ability to able to do he already did, and it did not cure his problem.
want the spiritual goal that we are praying for or to want to get rid
of a sin or craving. c. He must know that if Hashem does not help him, better is his
death than his life. Prayer is the service of the heart—the Hebrew
The main thing is that Hashem wants us to want. Therefore, the word for “service,” avodah, sounds similar to the Hebrew word
essence of our request of Hashem must be in the spirit of the verse, for “lost,” avudah. Prayer helps a person who feels that without
“Prepare their heart for You” (Chronicles I 29:18). We must ask: something he is lost. There is certainly no comparison between
“Prepare my heart, prepare my will. Give me good intentions. a person who lacks non-essentials and a person who has been
Remove and nullify my evil intentions.” sentenced to death, who is bound in shackles and who awaits
execution, and who can only stand and plead for his life. Certainly
Practical Advice he does not slumber and is not distracted even a moment from
begging for his life (and that constitutes the wholeness of the will).
Therefore, the most practical advice for a person is that he should
ask and beseech Hashem: “Help me attain an intent that is so strong Awake or Asleep?
that I will feel that I cannot live without fulfilling it, that unless I do
I would rather be dead than alive….” A person must ask to receive When a person attains the wonderful feeling that he is in great
this intent now. He must urgently ask to receive this immediately, danger, hanging by his hands from a wall, entirely lost and with no
because without wholeness of intent he will continue to transgress alternative to turning to Hashem with prayer and pleading, that
Hashem’s will, heaven forbid, and he will continue to be dragged is the sweetest moment in his life, because he can then attain the
captive after his cravings, and he will lose his heart. He must not complete and true work of the will that brings about salvations. As
be prepared to compromise. He must cry out and beg with all his Rabbi Ashlag states (Shamati, notes):
might to receive that intent immediately.
