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The work is the will, and free choice is the will. The goal that Better Is My Death than My Life Hashem, “You must give me the will itself,” and not to say, “You
you desire is only an outcome. It is not proper to ask to reach the must give me the particular result,” because (as already explained),
outcome without going on the path. Hashem wants us to go on As I came to the conclusion of my work on this chapter, Hashem that result is not the essence of the work. The work is the will. And
the path and do the essential work, which is the will, because “the brought to my hand a wonderful passage from Rabbi Baruch Shalom regarding that, we must pray: “I have to serve You properly, and
Compassionate One desires the heart.” A person who asks Hashem Ashlag in the name of his father, the author of Hasulam, in which You want me to serve You properly. You want this even more than
to help him come straight to his spiritual goals may as well ask he summarizes all of this in his sweet language, as follows (Shamati, You ‘have to.’ Therefore, You must help me serve You in the way
Hashem to free him from doing the work entirely. In other words, section 156): that You want me to.”
he says to Hashem: “I want You to do Your part without me doing
my part.” Three conditions must be met when a person prays. When a person devotes time to the work of the will every day
with great regularity, he can argue before Hashem, “Master of the
This is very foolish, because when we attain the wholeness of will, a. He must believe that Hashem can save him. Even if he is in world, I obligate myself to stand and want every day—which is
which is our work, heaven will assist us. Theoretically, a person worse circumstances than anyone else of his generation, “Is the what You want of me. Therefore, You must save me and give me
should not even need to pray for this. However, so that he will not hand of Hashem too short to save him?” (cf. Isaiah 59:1). Certainly a strong will, because Your good will is to save all those who call to
receive without engaging in prayer, he need only pray a little, and the Master of the universe can rescue everything of His (and this You in truth.”
then he receives. The main thing is the will. Therefore, a person constitutes the wholeness of faith).
whose prayer focuses solely on attaining the goal is making a great You must know clearly that everything stated in this entire book—
error, and he shows that he has entirely misunderstood this book. b. He must realize that he has no other resources. What he was and, in particular, in this chapter—is meant to inspire you to take
Basically, we must pray to attain the will, to attain the ability to able to do he already did, and it did not cure his problem. full responsibility for your life, and invest time in the work of the
want the spiritual goal that we are praying for or to want to get rid will. Know that this work is not hard, and the results are infinite.
of a sin or craving. c. He must know that if Hashem does not help him, better is his By the same token, one may not skip the work. All of us want to
death than his life. Prayer is the service of the heart—the Hebrew know what this work is and to do it with all our might and with all
The main thing is that Hashem wants us to want. Therefore, the word for “service,” avodah, sounds similar to the Hebrew word our heart.
essence of our request of Hashem must be in the spirit of the verse, for “lost,” avudah. Prayer helps a person who feels that without
“Prepare their heart for You” (Chronicles I 29:18). We must ask: something he is lost. There is certainly no comparison between “And I Pleaded with Hashem”
“Prepare my heart, prepare my will. Give me good intentions. a person who lacks non-essentials and a person who has been
Remove and nullify my evil intentions.” sentenced to death, who is bound in shackles and who awaits People have asked me: You say that we must make a strong
execution, and who can only stand and plead for his life. Certainly request of Hashem and ask for salvation here and now, and even
Practical Advice he does not slumber and is not distracted even a moment from say to Hashem, “You must save me!” But explicit quotes from our
begging for his life (and that constitutes the wholeness of the will). sages indicate that we are not allowed to make forceful demands.
Therefore, the most practical advice for a person is that he should Rather, we must plead and pray for Hashem’s compassion. For
ask and beseech Hashem: “Help me attain an intent that is so strong Awake or Asleep? instance, “Do not make your prayer a routine duty but [an appeal
that I will feel that I cannot live without fulfilling it, that unless I do for Hashem’s] compassion and pleading” (Avot 2:13). Even Moses,
I would rather be dead than alive….” A person must ask to receive When a person attains the wonderful feeling that he is in great who attained so much and who did so much for others, only
this intent now. He must urgently ask to receive this immediately, danger, hanging by his hands from a wall, entirely lost and with no requested an undeserved gift of Hashem. That being the case, who
because without wholeness of intent he will continue to transgress alternative to turning to Hashem with prayer and pleading, that are we to demand that Hashem give us what we want at this very
Hashem’s will, heaven forbid, and he will continue to be dragged is the sweetest moment in his life, because he can then attain the moment?
captive after his cravings, and he will lose his heart. He must not complete and true work of the will that brings about salvations. As
be prepared to compromise. He must cry out and beg with all his Rabbi Ashlag states (Shamati, notes): However, according to what I wrote above, it is understood
might to receive that intent immediately. that there is no contradiction between our obligation to pray for