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does not have a sense of urgency. He deeply wants to be saved, but to Hashem, you must return to being happy. You must wait, and
that desire is not truly burning in him. He is alive and breathing, you must accept that waiting patiently. However, when you are
and so everything is basically all right, and he will pray accordingly. engaged in the work of the will, believe that Hashem can give you
Then Hashem will respond to his prayer accordingly: Since he is what you request without any waiting. After all, you are not asking
not in such a hurry to be saved, Hashem too isn’t in such a hurry. for a new car or a bigger apartment. You are not asking for extras
and luxuries. You are asking for life. When we ask for life, we do
But it is difficult for a person to visualize his danger with 100 not think about anything except for complete salvation, here and
percent intensity. It is very hard to experience a true feeling of now. It is a matter of life and death. Express your intentions to
danger when he is standing on solid earth and he has food and all Hashem with all your might. Cry out and pray from the depth of
good things in the house. And in spiritual matters, a person feels your heart that at this very moment you will receive what you are
that he is as filled with mitzvot as a pomegranate is filled with asking for.
seeds. He learns Torah and prays, and he even spends an hour on
hitbodedut and half an hour on the work of the will. Therefore, he Stop Dreaming
feels that he has “hit the jackpot” and that he is perfectly all right.
He thinks: “It is true that I am still sinning, that I still have cravings Even when we pray with all our might, we must wait, because
and evil traits, that I am addicted to smoking, and that I get angry
now and then. But that’s all right, it isn’t so terrible, and I have a acquiring great things such as nullifying a craving takes a few months.
However, it does not take a few years. Rabbi Nachman too waited,
lot of reasons to be happy….” His work of the will parallels that but because he believed completely that Hashem wanted to save
feeling. His prayer is respectable, but not urgent. It is not fueled by him at that very moment, he waited only a short time and was able
any feeling of deadly danger. It is as though he is praying, “Master to quickly rise from level to level. On the other hand, a person
of the world, help me nullify my craving whenever You get around
to it….” who does not ask Hashem to save him “on the spot” because he
does not completely believe that Hashem wants to save him at this
moment will wait a great deal of time, since his prayer is not whole
The truth is that it is proper to feel like that: to be happy in your
portion and to look at the good in your life throughout the entire and absolute. And that is because he does not sense the danger he
day. It is an excellent thing to rejoice throughout the day. But during is in. He accepts the idea that he will have to wait many years. The
the time of the work of the will, your job is to visualize that your fact that in the meantime he will sin does not upset him, because
every sin, evil trait, destructive craving, and everything else not in he thinks, “What more can I do? I am already doing the best I can
keeping with Hashem’s will is literally, in its simple sense, death. In by devoting half an hour every day.” He would appear to be right.
regard to your eternal purpose, you must feel that you are deadly But it is terrible that, although he is aware that he will transgress
ill, in great danger, crushingly impoverished, about to die of hunger Hashem’s commandments over the course of the coming years, he
and thirst. And all of your visualizations of being swept away and does not cry out with all his might.
all of your visualizations in which you see yourself as destitute and
endangered do not suffice to describe your situation. The main thing is that a person must stop dreaming. He must
awaken and seek immediate change. The main thing is that he must
If you can picture even 20 per cent of your adversity and danger, beseech Hashem to gain a truly strong intent and to begin to bring
that is already a tremendous advance, and your prayers will be more about results quickly. The more a person proceeds on this path, the
forceful. How much more if you are able to picture the danger more he strengthens his faith and his will, and his service progresses
more palpably and with more vivid imagery, because your imagery more swiftly. Therefore, Rabbi Nachman, who went on this path,
generates a matching feeling and outcry, and corresponding to that told the following to his student, Rabbi Shimon (Sichot Haran 174):