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This means that the Chazon Ish’s principal focus was not An Aid for Understanding
comprehension and knowledge but the perfection of awareness:
he asked Hashem to help him know at every minute of his life that It is told that once the Maggid of Koznitz asked one of his Hasidim
he is receiving all of his knowledge directly from the Creator and whether after prayers he studied passages of the Torah that he had
only from Him. And that is a very wonderful intention to have! earlier had trouble understanding. The student was surprised at the
question and did not understand it. He thought that perhaps there
Return to the Garden of Eden was some special meaning to learning difficult Torah passages after
praying. The maggid understood his surprised look and said: “This is
Until this point, I have provided extensive examples of intentions merely a matter of simple faith. In your prayer, you asked Hashem
that a person can have when reciting the blessing, “He Who for knowledge. Why don’t you go immediately after praying to see
graciously grants knowledge.” Now you can and must add to your if you understand now what you didn’t understand before?”
service of Hashem these or similar matters that involve knowledge
and awareness. Hashem wants to give everyone an abundance In truth, why don’t we do that? Now it can be understood:
of knowledge, and so He is called “He Who graciously grants because in general a person does not beseech Hashem for
knowledge.” But your receiving it depends on you: on your prayer, knowledge. Throughout his entire life, he only reads the blessing,
on the vessels that you build in order to receive what Hashem “He Who graciously grants knowledge,” but he does not feel his
wants to give you. Rabbi Natan says that a person’s every lack deep need for knowledge at every step in his life. He does not
reveals a lack of prayer. When you recite the blessing of “He Who possess the will to receive knowledge, and so he does not ask
graciously grants knowledge,” that is the time to complete your Hashem for knowledge at all. Similarly, his Torah learning is entirely
lack of knowledge, which includes every lack, to yearn and pine, to disconnected from Hashem. He only thinks, “I understood” or
build good and complete vessels, and to fill these vessels with true “I didn’t understand.” But overall he does not see Hashem in his
knowledge. learning. A person has to know and remember: “If I understood, it
is because Hashem helped me understand. If I didn’t understand, it
Therefore, you must repeat the words with strong intentions over is because Hashem didn’t allow me to understand, because He wants
and over again, because they are the vessels in which to receive me to pray.” That is what is called learning Torah and knowing
awareness. The verbalization is the body, and the intent and strong Hashem, learning Torah and beseeching the One Who possesses
feeling are the soul. Together, they constitute the perfection of wisdom for His compassion. In addition, we must thank the One
prayer. Such prayer has life. It rises and is effective, because it is Who possesses wisdom for everything that we have understood. We
truly the service of the heart and not the service of the mouth. must experience the awareness that there is no other than He and
When a person wants to receive knowledge, he can stand and pray that only He “graciously grants knowledge” and teaches Torah to
“He Who graciously grants knowledge,” at length without end, as His people of Israel.
long as he arouses the will in his heart and he repeats these words
over and over for many minutes. “From His Mouth Are Knowledge and Understanding”

Therefore, I repeat: I recommend that everyone reading Since I began the discussion on the blessing of “He Who
these lines day devote half an hour a day solely to this graciously grants knowledge” with the example of the Chazon Ish, I
blessing, which contains everything. It is clear and self- will conclude with the famous and thrilling description of how in his
evident that when a person does this he will begin to live an youth the Chazon Ish’s entire learning was bound in prayer to the
incomparably beautiful and sweet life. One Who gives the Torah (from Pe’er Hador, chapter 4):