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“Blessed are You, Hashem, Who teaches Torah to His nation of This means that the Chazon Ish’s principal focus was not An Aid for Understanding
Israel.” Fortunate is he and fortunate is his portion. 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
If you do the same, you can spend six hours a year on this he is receiving all of his knowledge directly from the Creator and whether after prayers he studied passages of the Torah that he had
wonderful blessing, because when you say it with strong intentions only from Him. And that is a very wonderful intention to have! earlier had trouble understanding. The student was surprised at the
for a minute every day, the minutes will add up to six hours of the question and did not understand it. He thought that perhaps there
work of the will a year. Then you will have done the work of the Return to the Garden of Eden was some special meaning to learning difficult Torah passages after
will for six hours on the sweetness of Torah, on learning Torah for praying. The maggid understood his surprised look and said: “This is
its own sake, and on the success of your children in Torah. Truly Until this point, I have provided extensive examples of intentions merely a matter of simple faith. In your prayer, you asked Hashem
wonderful!
that a person can have when reciting the blessing, “He Who for knowledge. Why don’t you go immediately after praying to see
It is also possible to do the work of the will in every other part graciously grants knowledge.” Now you can and must add to your if you understand now what you didn’t understand before?”
of prayer that is not the conclusion of a blessing—for instance, service of Hashem these or similar matters that involve knowledge In truth, why don’t we do that? Now it can be understood:
“Our Father, Father of compassion…, place understanding in our and awareness. Hashem wants to give everyone an abundance because in general a person does not beseech Hashem for
hearts….” By spending a minute or more on the work of the will of knowledge, and so He is called “He Who graciously grants knowledge. Throughout his entire life, he only reads the blessing,
regarding Torah learning, you will easily attain six hours a year. knowledge.” But your receiving it depends on you: on your prayer, “He Who graciously grants knowledge,” but he does not feel his
And the same applies to the words, “May we not toil in vain.” on the vessels that you build in order to receive what Hashem
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
The same applies to every other section in prayer on a topic 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
Hashem for knowledge at all. Similarly, his Torah learning is entirely
regarding which you want to see actual results and you feel a graciously grants knowledge,” that is the time to complete your disconnected from Hashem. He only thinks, “I understood” or
particular urgent need to ask Hashem for help. If you recite it every lack of knowledge, which includes every lack, to yearn and pine, to “I didn’t understand.” But overall he does not see Hashem in his
day as everyone recites it, that will certainly not go to waste, but build good and complete vessels, and to fill these vessels with true learning. A person has to know and remember: “If I understood, it
neither will it have the power to change you. However, if you invest knowledge. is because Hashem helped me understand. If I didn’t understand, it
even a minute a day of focusing your intentions on this prayer, you is because Hashem didn’t allow me to understand, because He wants
will build vessels and you will see great changes—and certainly if Therefore, you must repeat the words with strong intentions over me to pray.” That is what is called learning Torah and knowing
you invest more than a minute. Therefore, when you want to do and over again, because they are the vessels in which to receive Hashem, learning Torah and beseeching the One Who possesses
the work of the will on particular sections of prayer—not necessarily awareness. The verbalization is the body, and the intent and strong wisdom for His compassion. In addition, we must thank the One
the Shemoneh Esrei—it is very worthwhile to mark those places (as feeling are the soul. Together, they constitute the perfection of Who possesses wisdom for everything that we have understood. We
I wrote in Successful Children regarding the prayer for children). prayer. Such prayer has life. It rises and is effective, because it is must experience the awareness that there is no other than He and
And, as has been extensively testified to by people about their own truly the service of the heart and not the service of the mouth. that only He “graciously grants knowledge” and teaches Torah to
experiences, you will see that your deep feeling will be aroused and When a person wants to receive knowledge, he can stand and pray His people of Israel.
your intentions will gain in strength. “He Who graciously grants knowledge,” at length without end, as
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”
A Wonderful Gift
Therefore, I repeat: I recommend that everyone reading Since I began the discussion on the blessing of “He Who
This simple advice is a wonderful gift and a sweet way to gain these lines day devote half an hour a day solely to this graciously grants knowledge” with the example of the Chazon Ish, I
“savings” of minutes that will add up to hours of intentions. When blessing, which contains everything. It is clear and self- will conclude with the famous and thrilling description of how in his
your intentions gain strength and increase, they will bear wonderful 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
fruits. And so it is possible to bring about and hasten every salvation, incomparably beautiful and sweet life. One Who gives the Torah (from Pe’er Hador, chapter 4):