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The men of Alexander asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben If a person feels that his Garden of Eden is beginning to break But it is very important to emphasize that all of this refers only
Chanania: “What should a person do in order to grow down, he should immediately understand that he lacks knowledge. to the words up to the end of the blessing, but not the end
wise?” As I sing in my classes: “Either faith or Gehennom.” With faith, itself, because it is forbidden to recite the words of the end
a person lives in the Garden of Eden, because he knows that of the blessing more than once.
He told them: “He should engage in much Torah everything that occurs in his life is for his benefit, that there is no evil
learning and reduce his business affairs.” and that everything is for the good, whereas without faith a person For instance, the fifth blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei reads as
lives in Gehennom. If a person’s Garden of Eden is weakened, that follows: “Return us, our Father, to Your Torah, and bring us close,
They said: “Many did so, yet this did not help them. means that his faith is weakened. He must perfect it, and he must our King, to Your service, and return us in complete teshuvah
Instead, he should seek compassion from the One ask Hashem for the knowledge that he lacks. Every day, a person before You. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who desires teshuvah.”
Note carefully that it is permitted to repeat the words from “Return
Who possesses compassion. As the verse states: undergoes constrictions and needs—these inspire him to draw down us, our Father,” to “in complete teshuvah before You” as many
the knowledge that he needs for that day. And the rectification and
‘Hashem will give wisdom from His mouth, knowledge healing for all of his constrictions and needs consists of engaging at times as you want. You may repeat them all as a unit, or you may
and understanding’ (Proverbs 2:6).”… length in the blessing of “He Who graciously grants knowledge.” repeat each section separately. Every person should do as he feels.
It makes no difference. But as for the conclusion of the blessing,
What does this teach us? That one without the other Thus, a person can solve all of the problems in his life “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who desires teshuvah,” you may say
will not be enough. with the help of the blessing, “He Who graciously grants it only once at the conclusion of the blessing. That is to say, after
knowledge”! you have repeated the first part of the blessing for as long and for
In other words, the Gemara states unequivocally that if a person as many times as you want, recite the conclusion beginning with the
does not ask Hashem for His compassion, then reducing his “May It Be Willingly Accepted” word “Blessed” only once, and then continue to the next blessing.
involvement in business and engaging in much Torah learning will
not help him grow wise! And Rashi states: “If a person is forgetting “And Please Make Sweet”
his learning, he should engage at length in ‘He Who graciously In His compassion, the Holy One, blessed be He, hears and
grants knowledge!’” (Avodah Zarah 8a). From this, we see that a answers a person’s prayers according to both his words and his
person cannot rely on reading from the siddur three times a day intentions. Therefore, we conclude the Shemoneh Esrei with the In every blessing that you want to say at length, you may do so
and thinking that in so doing he has fulfilled his obligation of asking verse, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my only until the words, “Blessed are You, Hashem…,” because it is
Hashem for compassion, because the Gemara states that “many did heart be willingly accepted by You, Hashem, my Rock and my forbidden to repeat these words. If the name of Hashem appears in
so, and it did not help them.” The Gemara is talking about people Redeemer” (Psalms 19:15). First, we ask Him to accept the “words the middle of the blessing, it is no problem to repeat it a number
who prayed three times a day, who recited the blessing on the of my mouth”—the words that we have spoken with our mouths. of times (up to the words, “Blessed are You”), because you are
Torah and so forth. As the Gemara says on a number of occasions, And then we ask him to accept “the meditation of my heart before saying Hashem’s name in the course of a supplication. For example,
“Are we dealing with wicked people? No!” Rather, it is discussing You,” the thoughts of the heart that accompany every word. These as you pray and plead, you may repeat a number of times the
good people, people who keep the Torah and the mitzvot. But latter are revealed to Hashem because every deep feeling and sentence, “Heal us, Hashem, and we will be healed, save us and we
even a great amount of learning will not help them, because in every intention is heard in heaven like the actual words of will be saved, because You are our praise.”
order to succeed in Torah a person must invest longer periods of prayer and beseeching, since the feeling and intentions are I witnessed one of the tzaddikim of the generation as he said
time in asking for Hashem’s compassion rather than in focusing on the essence, the inner being and the life of the prayer. the blessing on the Torah, and he repeated the words, “Hashem
any other intentions and requests—as was shown in the enlightening Every time you repeat the words with new, deep feeling, Hashem our God, please make the words of Your Torah sweet in our
example of the Chazon Ish, who reached his attainments in the considers that a different request. Therefore, when you engage in mouths…,” very many times (up to the word “blessed”), because
merit of reciting at length the blessing of “He Who graciously grants the work of the will in the Shemoneh Esrei during the blessing of this is an awesome and wonderful prayer for oneself and for one’s
knowledge.”
“He Who graciously grants knowledge,” you build thousands of offspring (as I wrote in Successful Children). And only after he
repeated this over and over did he recite the conclusion once: