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fiery flames, and the heart is purified. As Rabbi Nachman teaches Hashem’s compassion, to plead and ask for an unearned gift, and answer the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit,
(Likutei Moharan I 156): our need to pray with all our might and with an unrestrained outcry answer us.” In truth, for this itself a person needs
from the heart. It is permissible to demand immediate salvation. the assistance of heaven: to have a broken heart
Purity of the heart results when a person’s heart is That shows the might of the will. Still, this prayer is a means of and not to be appeased by anything but absolute
fervent and burns for Hashem, may He be blessed. As a asking for Hashem’s compassion and pleading. We ask for Hashem’s salvation.
result of that [fervor], his heart is purified. Since he was compassion, we plead and we request an “unearned gift” because
aflame and burning for a sin or for an evil craving, heaven we do not deserve anything. But since Hashem is compassionate, Regarding this, we request, “Compassionate One…,
forbid, which polluted his heart, he must have his heart wants to save us, wants His children to receive and progress, and You answered so-and-so regarding this matter. Save us
flame and burn for Hashem, may He be blessed. Then He knows that there is no other path and no other address from too, even though we are not [as worthy as] he is. What
what to receive but from which to Hashem alone, He wants us to
his heart is purified. As the verse states, “Whatever is be stubborn in our prayers until we will receive. difference does that make to You?” This is similar to the
used in fire, you shall pass through fire” (Numbers 31:23). idea, “If you are righteous, how does that help Him…?”
And when a person’s heart is purified, he can always Therefore, there is no contradiction. Moreover, it is a great error Regarding the true will of Hashem, may He be blessed,
speak new words, which is the level of Divine inspiration. to think that prayer in the form of pleading is weak, and that we what difference is there between a righteous person and
Thus, the phrase, “Create a pure heart for me, God,” must beg Hashem out of a feeling that “if He gives, fine, and if a wicked person—and how much more in regard to this
is followed by the words, “A proper spirit renew within not, He does not.” That is a tremendous error, because in truth [present topic]? Only from the aspect of [the rules of
me” (Psalms 51:12). He will be able to have new words, we must recite every prayer with utter devotion and burning fervor reality that correspond to the] way of the Torah is it
which are on the level of Divine inspiration. (as expressed in many sources). A person can only pray with utter fitting to answer the righteous or the brokenhearted more
devotion when he feels as though he is hanging by his hands from
a wall and crying out with all his might, asking to be saved at this [than others]. But the request for compassion even
Help Me Receive very moment. [overrides] the Torah’s rule of judgment. And [so
we appeal to God as the] “Compassionate One”: “From
The principal element relevant to the present discussion is that In order to weaken our prayer, the evil inclination exploits the ideas the aspect of the trait of Your compassion, just as we see
in order to receive the spiritual abundance that the Creator wants that “I do not deserve anything,” that we must pray for Hashem’s that You answer that [righteous person], so too answer
to give us—and that He does give us—we need “hands.” These compassion and that we must plead. The evil inclination gives a us as well.”
“hands” are the wholeness of our intent. With it, we receive the person the idea that praying for Hashem’s compassion and pleading
abundance. And from where do get the wholeness of intent and before Him means that a person must ask lethargically and weakly, This passage of Rabbi Tzadok contains a number of very important
“hands” to receive? Hashem is all-powerful, and He Himself can like a pauper. But that is wrong. Moses’ prayer to enter the Holy principles, teaching that when we pray for spirituality we must
give us these “hands” (as taught earlier). That means that we must Land is the paradigm of prayer expressed as pleading—indeed, it make the highest requests without any compromise, and we must
ask Hashem to give us “hands”—i.e., to give us the wholeness of is introduced with the phrase, “and I pleaded” (Deuteronomy 3:23). not be satisfied with less. We must desire complete and absolute
the will. Rabbi Natan prays in Likutei Tefillot (I 19): Nevertheless, Moses prayed with great intensity, as the midrash salvation—no less! That is called “seeking Hashem’s compassion.”
relates (Devarim Rabbah 11:5): And we must ask this itself of Hashem: that He help us attain the
Master of the universe, in Your compassion awareness and true feeling in the heart that without this we do not
You have given us the good gift that was in Your When Moses saw that the decree of judgment have life.
treasury whose name is Sabbath. Therefore, I concerning him had been sealed, he fasted. He made
come to pray, plead and beseech You, Hashem, my a small circle and stood in its middle, and said, “I will This passage teaches that such prayer certainly has an effect—an
God and the God of my forefathers: just as Your not move from here until You nullify that decree.” At immediate effect—as explained in the Gemara. And that in essence
compassion and kindness expanded to give us this that time, what did Moses do? He put on sackcloth and sums up the entirety of the new light in the work of the will.
good, holy gift, so in Your great goodness please wrapped himself in sackcloth, wallowed in ash, and stood