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prevent me from learning—if You will do that, it will be in prayer and pleading before the Holy One, blessed be will. With it, you will draw all salvation onto yourself. Hashem
fine. But if not, I will die of sadness. Immediately, “God He, until heaven and earth and the structures of wants to give. You need only prepare the vessel—which is the will.
fulfilled his request.” Creation trembled, and [the ministering angels] said, And the main component is the inner will, not the outer voice.
“Perhaps the Holy One, blessed be He, is coming to Therefore, Rabbi Nachman says (Sichot Haran 16):
Rashi explains that Jabez asked for very great things—to be great renew His world….” The sound of [Moses’] prayer
in Torah and more. He said to Hashem: “If You give me this, grew so strong that [the angels] wished to move up a Know that a person can cry out with a still, small voice
fine. If not, I will die of great sadness.” He did not want to live firmament because of that sound of the prayer of Moses, that is a very great outcry that no one else can hear at
without this. As a result of his request, the Gemara states that because his prayer was similar to the sword that all, because the person does not express any sound at
“immediately ‘God fulfilled his request.’” That was immediate: all. Instead, he cries out in a still, small voice. This is
the request that he made in a strong and stubborn manner was tears apart and splits apart, and that does not stop. something that everyone can do. That is to say, a person
answered immediately! should imagine himself crying out. The voice of that
This prayer of Moses demonstrates clearly that there is no
From this, Rabbi Tzadok derives a tremendous insight very much contradiction between prayer as pleading for Hashem’s compassion outcry will enter into his thought, and he will imagine the
related to the wonderful theme of this chapter (ibid.): and prayer that is powerful, because Moses prayed with all his might sound of the outcry literally with its intonation, in the
and with immense stubbornness, yet he is said to have “pleaded.” way that people cry out. He should enter into this until
I heard that if every Jew who lacks something requested he cries out literally on the level of a still, small voice,
it [of Hashem] in an extreme fashion he would certainly To Fall before Hashem which no one else can hear at all.
succeed. But afterwards he is satisfied with anything [he
might get]. And in this area a person needs the From here we see that even when we pray by seeking Hashem’s “Whatever Is Used in Fire, You Shall Pass through
awareness not to be appeased but to consider that compassion by pleading and asking for an undeserved gift, Fire”
only when he gains complete salvation will he not our prayer must be so strong that heaven and earth and the
lack anything. structures of Creation tremble. Thus, the midrash describes Moses’ When we attain wholeness of the will, we pray with complete
uncompromising request for an “undeserved gift” as being similar fervor, with complete ardor. Such prayer enkindles the entirety of
That was the advice of Jabez. He said, “If You will to “a sword that tears apart and splits apart, and that does not a person. As the verse states, “My heart is hot within me” (Psalms
bless….” And we learn in Temurah (16a) that he said, stop,” with a loud, thundering sound. Presumably, Moses argued 39:4). When such a person prays, he is not dreaming and asleep.
before Hashem: “I must enter the Holy Land. And You want to
“If…, but if not, I will….” That means that he said that he assist me, because in Your treasury You possess the treasure of an Instead, his prayer is filled with passion, intensity, flame and fire.
would not accept any relief at all as long as Hashem, may undeserved gift. For whom did You create this treasure? Didn’t Only with such prayer do we attain a pure heart. Sins and cravings
He be blessed, did not acquiesce to his every request. If You create it in order to save me? You wish to save me and to operate with absolute ardor, with all of a person’s heart, with zeal
and searing heat. Therefore, when we want to purify our heart
[Hashem did] not, he would go to Sheol, heaven forbid, reveal Your treasure of an undeserved gift.” of every evil intent, we must pray with zeal and searing heat, in
where he would waste away completely. keeping with the principle in the laws of kashering vessels that “just
We see from this midrash that praying with great force does not as a vessel absorbs, so does it expel”: if a vessel absorbed the taste
Hashem, may He be blessed, is prepared to help the in the least contradict pleading for Hashem’s compassion and for of a forbidden food due to a process involving fire, it must be
brokenhearted. Thus, “immediately ‘God fulfilled His undeserved gift. We must uproot the false belief that prayer in kashered in fire. Scalding it in boiling water that is not as hot as
his request.’” From the Gemara’s use of the word the form of pleading contradicts forceful crying out to Hashem. fire does not suffice. So too, if our heart was polluted in the fire
“immediately,” we see that [his prayer] had an Accordingly, the statement in the Shulchan Aruch, “A person of cravings and the evil inclination, in order to purify it with the
should pray in a pleading manner, like a poor person begging at the
immediate effect. work of the will we require fiery prayer. We cannot make do with
door” (Orach Chaim 98), does not mean that a person should pray weak intent. We need mighty intent, like that of a person who is
weakly. It does not mean that he should pray listlessly. A person
We too request, “Compassionate One, You Who fighting for his life. Then the work of the will is performed with