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no sufferings without sin” (Shabbat 55a). And, as I wrote earlier, Do you want something? Then pray. The prophets and all of the Those Who Are Dismissive of Prayer
repentance is entirely knowledge. Therefore, the verse quoted holy texts from the earliest days addressed this point at length. In
above states: “When his heart will understand, he will repent and this book, I am only giving advice and practical tools to help every Whoever has learned the practical guidance to prayer presented
be healed.” person begin to transform his prayer into true prayer, so that he here understands that when he has intent in his prayer, it will turn
can participate in the effort of thousands of years by the entire into a Garden of Eden of aspiration, longing and intentions. He will
Rabbi Nachman also teaches that “when a person’s faith falls, nation of Israel and add his own prayers to build the prayers of the not want to stop praying. He will find that his prayer is a golden
nothing helps him—neither healing nor prayer nor the merit of nation of Israel. As Rabbi Nachman teaches (Likutei Moharan I 2): opportunity to pour forth his heart and detail all of his many needs.
the fathers” (ibid. II 5). Faith is the essence of knowledge. Rabbi And he will pluck wonderful fruits that will illuminate his entire day
Nachman states that terrible illness comes as a result of damage to a In truth, the tzaddikim in every generation raise and and his entire life.
person’s faith, which is a blemish in knowledge: “There are people establish all prayers. The verse states that “Moses set up
who suffer illnesses, who have terrible injuries. They suffer illnesses the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:18). The tzaddikim raise every Now we can appreciate the depth of the Gemara’s statement
only because their faith has fallen” (ibid.). component to its place, and they build the structure of (Berachot 6b and Rashi there) that people are dismissive of prayer.
the Shechinah little by little, until its structure will be On the surface, it would appear that people value and appreciate
The ninth blessing, “He Who blesses the years,” is the blessing prayer. They devote a significant amount of time to pray every
for income. As I explained above, effortless income comes as a completed. And then the messiah—who is Moses—will day, and it is important to them to educate their children to pray.
result of knowledge (ibid. 21:56). The sages state, “If there is no come, complete it, and set it up completely. So why does the Gemara say that people are dismissive of prayer?
Torah, there is no flour” (Avot 3). This means that income depends
on Torah, which is knowledge. And we must also have in mind And this is the work of every individual (Kitzur Likutei Moharan But now you may now understand the Gemara’s words. Prayer
in this blessing our wish that the abundance that we receive from ibid.): presents an opportunity. Yet people come to the synagogue, read
the Creator will not distance us from knowledge, and that we will from the siddur and immediately run out, without having gained
always know that the Creator is the source of abundance, and that Hashem, may He be blessed, hears, listens and takes anything. A person should go swiftly to pray with yearning and
we will always thank the Creator and not attribute any success to heed of every word of every prayer, pleading and word longing, then pray at length without wanting to stop, and afterwards
ourselves. [of prayer], and no word is lost, heaven forbid. Little leave shining with great supernal happiness, floating in the air. Yet
by little, every word makes an impression in heaven what actually happens? We enter depressed and leave depressed.
The tenth blessing, “He Who gathers the scattered of Israel,” and on each occasion arouses His compassion, may He We enter hungry and leave hungry. We enter poor and leave poor.
is also a blessing regarding knowledge. The blessing begins, “Blow be blessed. Still, the building of holiness into which a That is called being dismissive of prayer. And it is a desecration of
on a great shofar for our freedom.” Rabbi Nachman states that person needs to enter is not completed. But with the Hashem’s name.
blowing the shofar causes knowledge in the mind to enter the heart passage of many days and years, if a person will not be
and straighten it out. The essence of knowledge is its entry into the foolish and will not grow discouraged in any way but will If we would all truly pray three times a day with intention
heart. As the verse states, “You shall know today and you shall and longing, especially as we said the words, “May our eyes see
place upon your heart” (Deuteronomy 4:39). Knowledge that is only increasingly strengthen himself, encourage himself and Your return to Zion with compassion,” is there any doubt that
in the mind and not in the heart is not called knowledge. And so bolster himself with prayer, then as a result of his many the messiah would already have come hundreds of years ago? But
the knowledge of righteous people is called the voice of the shofar. prayers, the compassion of Hashem, may He be blessed, unfortunately, the messiah sits and waits, changing his bandages
As the verse states, “Raise your voice like a shofar” (Isaiah 58:1). will be aroused, until Hashem, may He be blessed, will (cf. Sanhedrin 98a), and the redemption has not yet come. What
The shofar arouses us from sleep (as explained in Rambam et al.), turn to him and cause His countenance to shine upon is Hashem waiting for? He is waiting for us to begin to want to
which constitutes the absence of knowledge. Thus, the arousal from this person and fulfill his aspirations and intent in the beseech, to “beseech Hashem [our] God and David [our] king”
sleep means receiving knowledge. And when all Jews will have true merit of the true tzaddikim. And Hashem will bring this (Hosea 3:5). It is true that we all want and look forward to the days
knowledge, they will immediately make aliyah to the Holy Land. person close to Him in compassion and in great mercy. of the messiah. But what have we really learned? We need to want
this at the time that we are praying. Then we will build vessels.
In the eleventh blessing, “He Who is the King of justice,” we 12