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own will. And corresponding to the extent of the arousal of us, our Father, Your Torah.” The phrase “bring back” carries the
our own will below, Hashem’s will above is aroused to pour meaning of “repent.” The essence of our Torah learning must be to
forth an abundance of good onto the people of Israel. know Hashem. Therefore, we must repent and return to the Torah,
which is knowledge, and we must pray and have in mind that our
“And the Prayer of the Upright Is His Desire” entire intent in learning the Torah is to know Hashem.

Further on in this blessing, when we recite the words, “Bring us
The prayers in the siddur are filled with wonderful requests
for the revelation of Hashem’s sovereignty, the rectification of close, our King, to serve You,” we must have in mind our desire
to come close to the service of prayer and hitbodedut, which is
the world, the salvation of Israel and the salvation of the entire
universe. But the lifeforce and soul of these prayers depends solely called “the service of the heart.” But principally we must have in
mind our desire to attain the work of the will (as discussed in this
on the intention and longing of the person reciting them. When book), because that is our central work. And this poses the primary
we recite kaddish and say, “May [Hashem’s name] be enlarged
and sanctified,” if we do not think about and desire what we are difficulty. What is the nature of the challenge in doing the work of
the will? First of all, we must pray for half an hour regarding only
asking for, what good do our words accomplish? What will happen
then to the kaddish and all of its fine phrases? Its words recited 12 one topic. Sometimes we even need to repeat the same sentence
over and over again for that entire half hour. And second, we must
without deep feeling—i.e., intent, yearning and longing—will fall to do the work of the will with unmitigated freshness day after day,
the ground. Therefore, you must think in your mind and internalize
into your heart that you truly want the honor of Hashem to be not while half-asleep and only with our lips. This is a struggle that
demands effort. This is truly work! And this work in reality changes
enlarged and sanctified, the sovereignty of Hashem to be revealed,
and everyone in the world to praise and glorify Him. If no one in us.
the congregation is praying with such intention and yearning, if no Unfortunately, the Jewish people are lacking this essential
one answers amen as his heart is completely filled with the true knowledge. However, the more they do the work of the will, the
desire that these words will soon be realized, everything remains more will they be redeemed and hasten the coming of the universal
below. Regarding this, the prophet cried out, “Hashem said: … redemption. Therefore, when we say, “Bring us close, our King, to
This nation has approached with its mouth and with its lips honored serve You,” we must have in mind the wish that Hashem will help
Me, but its heart is far from Me and its fear of Me is a rote human us and the entire Jewish people engage in the service of the will.
commandment” (Isaiah 29:13). We must repeat these words over and over again with that intent.

In particular, when a person who does the work of the will says
It All Depends on Me this phrase, he must have in mind the intent not to grow weak and
never cease engaging in this service. This intent gives him a great
Therefore, you must be alert and focus on your prayer with all deal of help from heaven and strengthens his resolve to do this
your might, because perhaps it will be your intentions and yearnings work, which is the central work of his life.
that will raise the prayers of the entire congregation. Do not say in
your heart, “Am I really capable of raising the prayers of the entire When we then say the words, “Bring us back in complete
congregation? I barely manage to recite a single blessing with deep repentance before You,” we must have in mind our wish to nullify
feeling!” Do not say that! Instead, recite whatever prayer you can our ego and our feeling of “I,” because that which most interferes
with deep feeling. Every person in the congregation is inspired by with a person’s ability to completely repent is his ego, his “I,” his
deep intentions and feeling at another part of the prayer. Every feeling that he is a something. When a person knows that “there is
no other than He,” and that his “I” has no independent existence,