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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 In practical terms, when a person attains true knowledge, he will
of his prayer corresponds to the force of his will at the time that knowledge of Hashem. Therefore, we must repeatedly plead entirely eradicate his every problem. As Rabbi Nachman teaches:
that he says the words! at length with Hashem, “Graciously give knowledge,” so that we “Know that all kinds of trouble and all sufferings are due only to a
will not lose this wonderful knowledge, which a is our highest person’s lack of knowledge, because a person who has knowledge
The Character of Prayer protection. and knows that everything is under the providence of
Hashem, may He be blessed, does not suffer and does not
From here we see that the soul of our prayer is our will. Prayer is The Just King feel any trouble…” (ibid. 2050).
the expression of the will. It is the verbalization of our intentions. Therefore, in any trouble that you may have, anything that upsets
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 and disturbs you—any argument, conflict, falling out, entrapment,
conflict, worry, doubt, unclarity, anything at all!—put it into the
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 blessing, “You Who graciously grant.” Engage in this at length,
intentions of every Jew and of the entire nation of Israel. The Men with faith, but he still felt afraid. Therefore, he understood that over and over and over again, keeping in mind that you wish to
of the Great Assembly gave these intentions a framework and this faith was not yet sufficiently integrated into his heart, and know Hashem. Do not stop reciting the blessing until you feel that
instituted a schedule for focusing on these intentions. Afterwards, he was afraid that at the time of judgment, when he saw the judge you have received the knowledge to know what to do and that you
they wrote down these intentions as the text of the prayer book. and plaintiff before his eyes, he might become flustered and lose understand what Hashem is teaching you in this situation and how
Similarly, the book of Psalms and all other written prayers constitute his faith entirely. Therefore, before the judgment he spent two to find Hashem in what you are going through, and how you will
written intentions. We must clearly realize that the essence of the hours reciting the blessing, “He Who graciously gives knowledge,” emerge from this circumstance stronger, believing in Hashem more
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 knowing Him more.
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 The Sole Salvation
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 complete redemption that will come in the messianic future
“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 will consist of the perfection of knowledge. As Rabbi Nachman
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 teaches, the entirety of the exile corresponds to a lack of knowledge
person the chance to express his intentions with his mouth. help him so that no other thought will enter his heart. Afterwards, (Likutei Moharan I 21). Therefore, in the messianic future, “The earth
at the time of the judgment, he felt wondrously calm and settled. will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem like water covering the
Thus, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says: “When the Hebrew He saw that Hashem heard his prayer and was helping him so that he sea” (Isaiah 11:9), and “No longer will one man teach his neighbor
consonants lack vowel points, they are like a body without a was not perturbed by anything, but he only saw Hashem before his or his brother, saying, ‘Know Hashem,’ because everyone will know
soul, which has no movement and no action…. These vowel eyes at every moment. It goes without saying that he experienced Me, from their smallest to their greatest” (Jeremiah 31:33).
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 As I have explained, all of a person’s needs are encompassed in the
1:11), because the Hebrew for ‘silver,’ kesef, is related to the exonerated. blessing, “He Who graciously gives knowledge.” All of the blessings
word kisufin, ‘yearnings,’ as in the verse, ‘My soul yearns, yes, in the Shemoneh Esrei are subsumed to that blessing, because in
it pines’ (Psalms 84:3)” (ibid.). This means that our intentions and “Give Joy to the Soul of Your Servant” (Psalms 86:4) all of them a person’s central intent is to attain knowledge, as I will
yearnings constitute the vowel points of the words. That is to say, now describe in detail.
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 As an introductory observation, whenever in the Shemoneh
and no effect. psychological problems suffered by people who are called Esrei we make a request such as “Save us,” “Be gracious to us”