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294 | A New Light
lowliness to You, You Who are blessed,” then
immediately “You heed and You save.”
When a person prays for his physical concerns and
bodily needs, there are reckonings in heaven as to
whether to fulfill his request and whether doing so would
be good for him. But when he seeks to elevate himself
to Hashem, may He be blessed, then there is no doubt.
To sum up the topic of the wholeness of the will: when
we want to do the work of the will in a complete and whole
fashion and to attain salvation in various areas, we must
grow settled in our mind and visualize the danger we are
in until we reach a 100 percent sense of that danger. Only
when we are aware of this truth can we truly cry out to
Hashem with all our might. Until we reach that point, all of
our prayers must basically be a request to attain the strong
and forceful will that leads to a true outcry.
The Wholeness of the Work of the Will
Now that I have introduced and discussed the topics of the
wholeness of faith and the wholeness of the will, and I have
categorized everything according to its elements, I will sum up
concisely and bring together everything that has been discussed.
Then the reader can proceed to the practical work, which is
the work of the will in the light of this complete and wonderful
knowledge.
The core idea is as follows: the essence of our work is to attain
wholeness of the will—i.e., true, forceful and strong will, an absolute
will—to attain a feeling of immediate mortal danger and to be able
to cry out from the heart. But it is impossible to attain this without
the firm basis of wholeness of faith (as I have written). You must
believe that Hashem wants and yearns only to give to you and to
save you spiritually, so that at this very moment you will change
entirely for the better. And you must believe that Hashem is all-
powerful and that nothing can stop Him from raising you from the
lowest descent to the highest ascent.
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This is the highest type of learning. Thus, the mishnah states that
“a person who learns in order to do is given the ability to learn,
teach, keep and do” (Avot 4:5). That is the greatest promise made
in regard to learning. A person who learns in this way is assured that
he will attain everything, because he will acquire a strong intent,
which in turn will lead him to learn, teach, keep and do.
This has been the approach of all of the tzaddikim, because they
know the great power of learning, and they thus learn with the
proper intent. Therefore, everything that they learn helps them
experience intent, implement what they have learned and engage
in a very great amount of prayer asking Hashem to help them
continue to learn and implement their learning in a practical way.
As a result of all this, they procure their surpassing achievements.
What evidence indicates that you are learning properly? If your
learning sets your intent aflame and fills you with energy that does
not allow you to rest until you implement your intent, that is proper
learning: learning whose purpose is to do. If, on the other hand,
your learning does not arouse your will sufficiently, that is a sign
that it is woefully inadequate, that you do not see in a coordinated
arrangement the superior qualities, importance and advantages of
attaining your goal—and, conversely, the detriments attendant on
failing to attain it. Therefore, you are not inspired to engage in
spirited work and you remain undistinguished, one foot here and
one foot there, wavering between two paths. With such learning,
you will not attain your goal, because the central element is missing.
“Open My Heart to Your Torah”
When you learn, you must open your heart and learn with
fervor, enthusiasm and yearning. You must focus exclusively on
your learning. After you have come upon especially inspiring
words or a discussion of matters regarding which you need especial
encouragement, when you find yourself stumbling, you must review
such a passage over and over again. Such learning has especial power
to result in change. Such learning is the work of the will itself, and
it also leads to the work of the will. Only learning that leads to the