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his intentions to the words that he speaks; and the quality harm him at all. A person’s true danger in this world is to lose
of his prayer corresponds to the force of his will at the time that knowledge of Hashem. Therefore, we must repeatedly plead
that he says the words! at length with Hashem, “Graciously give knowledge,” so that we
will not lose this wonderful knowledge, which a is our highest
The Character of Prayer protection.
From here we see that the soul of our prayer is our will. Prayer is The Just King
the expression of the will. It is the verbalization of our intentions.
Therefore, the essence of the work of prayer is to want what we Someone told me that recently he had been on trial on a very
are talking about! serious charge. He knew in his mind that there is none other than
He and that the judge is only a puppet of Hashem, and so forth,
All of the regular prayers express the aspirations and good but he nevertheless fell prey to great anxiety. He bolstered himself
intentions of every Jew and of the entire nation of Israel. The Men with faith, but he still felt afraid. Therefore, he understood that
of the Great Assembly gave these intentions a framework and this faith was not yet sufficiently integrated into his heart, and
instituted a schedule for focusing on these intentions. Afterwards, he was afraid that at the time of judgment, when he saw the judge
they wrote down these intentions as the text of the prayer book. and plaintiff before his eyes, he might become flustered and lose
Similarly, the book of Psalms and all other written prayers constitute his faith entirely. Therefore, before the judgment he spent two
written intentions. We must clearly realize that the essence of the hours reciting the blessing, “He Who graciously gives knowledge,”
work of prayer is to want what we say, and that the worth and every time he repeated the words, “Graciously give us from
and value of our prayers correspond directly to the amount of will Yourself…,” he thought and felt in his heart that he wishes to know
that we possess at the time that we pray. Therefore, when Rabbi that there is no other than He, and that only Hashem will determine
Nachman says that the perfection of the will comes about by means what the decree will be, because He is the King of judgment, the
of prayer (Likutei Moharan I 31), as mentioned earlier, he adds that Judge of all the earth, and that the human judge and plaintiff are
“the entire order of the prayers is based on this” (ibid.). That is to all puppets that cannot harm him and do him evil. And he pleaded
say, the entire order of the prayers was instituted in order to give a with Hashem to help him keep from losing this knowledge and to
person the chance to express his intentions with his mouth. help him so that no other thought will enter his heart. Afterwards,
at the time of the judgment, he felt wondrously calm and settled.
Thus, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says: “When the Hebrew He saw that Hashem heard his prayer and was helping him so that he
consonants lack vowel points, they are like a body without a was not perturbed by anything, but he only saw Hashem before his
soul, which has no movement and no action…. These vowel eyes at every moment. It goes without saying that he experienced
points consist of a person’s love and yearning [for Hashem]. great salvations in this trial. The judge himself defended him, and
This corresponds to the phrase, ‘points of silver’ (Song of Songs rebuked and reprimanded the plaintiff, and he was completely
1:11), because the Hebrew for ‘silver,’ kesef, is related to the exonerated.
word kisufin, ‘yearnings,’ as in the verse, ‘My soul yearns, yes,
it pines’ (Psalms 84:3)” (ibid.). This means that our intentions and “Give Joy to the Soul of Your Servant” (Psalms 86:4)
yearnings constitute the vowel points of the words. That is to say,
our intentions constitute the vitality and lifeforce of our words of
prayer. Without that intention, the words will have no movement That which was said about fears applies equally to other
and no effect. psychological problems suffered by people who are called
