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Then recite the words again with longing, and as you say every explained at length in Chapter Six). It is the faith that we do not
word think about one of your children, and have in mind your need to “help” Hashem with any effort but that we are to invest
prayer that Hashem give him or her knowledge and intent so that all of our powers and effort only in prayer. It is the faith that the
he or she will attain faith and know the Torah, and so forth. Creator derives great delight from the fact that we turn to Him and
from His hearing our prayers and from and helping created beings
Review the words again and think about your relatives, your who turn to Him.
friends, and the entire nation of Israel. Pray that they will all attain
all of the above. You may review that intent a number of times and Place the following words before your eyes always, because only
desire it again and again. they are called complete faith in Hashem! A person who believes
in Hashem certainly invests all of his will into his every word of
Whenever your heart is aroused with intent and beseeching, prayer. Thus, the completeness of a person’s faith results in the
you must repeat the words at length with that intent. If you have completeness of his will, whereas a lack of faith weakens his will.
a special need regarding one of the issues mentioned above or The measure of a person’s faith expresses itself in the power of
regarding another issue, repeat your request over and over again. his prayer. A person with faith comes to pray with complete will,
For instance, if you are learning a difficult passage in the Torah without any doubt of any sort. Therefore, Rabbi Nachman says in
and you want knowledge and help from heaven to understand it a number of places that “faith is prayer.” In accordance with this,
and remember it, when you say, “Graciously give us…,” have that I have explained at length that Hashem accepts a person’s prayer
in mind. With the desire that heaven will open the wellsprings of in accordance with his faith, because only when faith exists is it
wisdom and the gates of remembering, repeat the words over and possible to pray in a perfect manner.
over again.
A person who has perfect faith invests all of his will into his prayer,
Draw from the Wellsprings whereas a person whose faith in the power of prayer is flawed or
weak cannot invest all of his will in his prayer. Therefore, in order
One of the most extraordinary Torah leaders of recent generations to begin the work necessary to arouse your will in prayer, you must
was Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, the Chazon Ish, whose learn much about faith. To that end, it is highly worthwhile that
awesome mastery of Torah—by means of which he attained the you read my books, In the Garden of Faith and His Gates with
unceasing and inexhaustible wellsprings of wisdom, understanding, Thanksgiving, which fill a person with much faith. Then you will
and knowledge—could clearly be seen. Divine inspiration spoke achieve the desire to attain faith, and you will be able to insert all
from his throat, and he gave advice and counsel in all areas of of that desire into your prayer. From now on, you must engage in
life for every Jew and regarding the conduct of the totality of the the essential work of prayer, which is the topic of this chapter: to
Jewish people. How did he attain all of this? arouse your intentions at the time that you pray and insert these
intentions into your words, to insert lifeforce into the words so
His brother, the Torah luminary Rabbi Meir Karelitz, testified that you will transform them into vessels in which to receive the
about the source of the qualities in Torah, knowledge, and so forth, Creator’s abundance.
that the Chazon Ish attained. These were quite remarkable, and
everyone saw that in him the mishnah was fulfilled: “Whoever Wholehearted Service
learns Torah for its own sake attains many things, and not only
that, but the entire world is worthy of existence for his sake. He Chapter Six taught that only whole prayer brings about salvations
is called friend, beloved…, and people benefit from his advice, and is answered, and that the wholeness of a person’s prayer depends