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the will as you recite the blessing of “He Who graciously grants vessels of that intention so that you, your offspring and for all of Why should you lose your life? You have an exact address to go to.
knowledge.” Even if you pray for some particular matter for only a the people of Israel will know Hashem and know the Torah. Stand and plead with Hashem every day, and spend half an hour on
minute a day, that too is a wonderful work of the will. Do not grow the blessing of “He Who graciously grants knowledge.”
discouraged if you cannot manage half an hour. At least grab a few Of course, this is only one example. We must go on to have
minutes. But be strong in doing so every day, because although similar thoughts and intentions in every blessing. For example, if Wake up and understand how much a person needs to plead
no word is lost no matter how it is said, a set schedule of even a you or a loved one is sick, the best solution is to spend half an and request proper knowledge regarding every difficulty in his life.
minute a day has a particularly great amount of power. hour on the blessing of “Heal us,” because you have a great deal Do you have a problem? That is a sign that you lack awareness
of feeling and intent regarding this topic. You must draw down and knowledge. Where will you get that awareness and knowledge
Also, when you spend half an hour on the blessing of “He Who salvation from the true Healer, Who is the Creator, and to that from? Stand up and request it from the One Who graciously bestows
graciously grants knowledge” once a day, and you want to but end you must prepare many vessels. Therefore, recite “Heal us” at knowledge, and solve your problem! And even when a person does
cannot spend half an hour on every blessing, if you recite every length for half an hour. In so doing, you will build complete vessels have knowledge, he must plead with Hashem to help him attain
blessing in the Shemoneh Esrei at least once a day for a minute, of prayer with intent and soul. more and more knowledge throughout his entire life, because every
that is also a wonderful work of the will. For example, if you recite person’s goal must be to attain proper awareness—which is faith
the blessing, “Bring us back, our Father, to Your Torah,” even once Then you will experience great salvations, so that instead of and the knowledge of Hashem. We must learn Torah and take
a day for a minute (as I will explain immediately), at the end of a standing hour after hour consulting doctors, getting checkups and every sort of action. But in the end, we must not forget that the
year you will have spent six hours doing the work of the will on obtaining medicine, and instead of going from clinic to clinic or to main thing is to seek knowledge from the One Who graciously
that blessing! hospitals for examination upon examination, and instead of having bestows knowledge.
to depend on physicians who do not always diagnose problems
The greatest thing in the world is teshuvah. Doing teshuvah is the correctly and who need much compassion from heaven not to “I Don’t Have the Time…”
entire goal of every Jew. And with the slight effort of doing the do harm, connect yourself to Hashem for half an hour and draw
work of the will for a minute every day on the blessing, “Bring us down salvation directly from the generous and faithful hand of “the According to all that I have written, every person can easily
back…”—in addition to your hour of hitbodedut and your longer Healer of all flesh.” Every hour that you stand in prayer will save devote half an hour to the blessing, “He Who graciously grants
work of the will—you will do teshuvah for a period of time that, at you many hours of confusion and running around.
the end of a year, will add up to six hours. There is no comparable knowledge.” No one can say that he is so busy that he doesn’t have
time to properly request knowledge once a day. That is because
profit in the world. Even a person’s thought of teshuvah, even Before reciting every blessing, it is good and appropriate to when a person requests knowledge, he receives everything—“If
when he thinks just one time, “I want to live in accordance with consider what you are going to request. Similarly, before every you have acquired knowledge, what do you lack?” (Nedarim 41a).
the will of Hashem and do teshuvah,” turns him into a righteous word or section of the prayers, think about what you are going to Instead of running and investing hours in all kinds of efforts to make
person, even if he had been the worst sinner. Taking that into say. In this way, you can easily fill the words with deep feeling and
account, consider what you will attain by engaging in six such hours intent, which constitutes the life of the words. Moreover, when a living, spend just half an hour to request knowledge, and you will
see what blessings you will receive.
over the course of a year. you repeat the words over and over again, the words themselves
will inspire you and arouse your intent and deep feeling, which will And how much more will you be blessed if your soul yearns for
Warning! grow stronger with every repetition. the Torah, and you are already spending hours every day toiling
in Torah. If you spend half an hour a day requesting knowledge,
How do you do this? Repeat the words of the blessing a number then gates of learning and understanding that you could not have
of times, slowly and with feeling. If you check your watch, you will otherwise attained even with years of steady learning will open up
see that saying the words of the blessing slowly, word by word, Six Hours on Every Blessing for you. But if you do not pray for Torah as required, you have an
thoughtfully and with intent in every word, will take between ten explicit pledge from the Gemara that nothing will help you, and
and fifteen seconds. That means that over the course of a minute Until this point, I have discussed in the most detailed and practical so you will not succeed in learning Torah. As the Gemara states
you can repeat the words four to six times. (Niddah 70b):
way possible how to spend half an hour engaged in the work of