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because every salvation that we need is referred to in one place or others, and jealousy, hatred and competition cease, as well as all
another in the siddur at least once. When you take note of these arguments, disputes and wars. But if there is no knowledge, then
places and invest a little extra time in them, you will engage in great there is no peace. Thus, when Hashem blesses us with peace, He
amounts of prayer, and you will bring about salvations. is blessing us in a roundabout fashion: He blesses us with complete
knowledge, which will bring us peace.
Rabbi Nachman once made a wonderful statement. Hearing a
person who was reciting the evening prayer quickly say the words, Peace increases knowledge. As Rabbi Nachman teaches, “As a
“Rectify us with good counsel before You” (as, sadly, most people result of the peace that exists between people, when they explore
recite the entire prayer), Rabbi Nachman told a student standing [spiritual matters] and explain the truth to each other, each person
next to him: “Do you see how he quickly says the words, ‘Rectify will cast away the falsehood of his silver gods, and draw close to
us quickly with good counsel …’? We need to say these words the truth.”
with great inspiration and very deep feeling from the depth
of the heart. It is a very precious prayer, because we deeply In summation, every prayer, whether it expresses a request or
need to beseech Hashem, may He be blessed, for His thanks, revolves around knowledge and faith, because knowledge
compassion so that Hashem, may He be blessed, will give and faith are the purpose of our lives. Therefore, whatever a
us good counsel and we will know how to act…” (Sichot Haran person’s intent, whatever he is going through, he can insert it into
238). the blessing, “You Who graciously give knowledge,” and ask for
everything he needs. This may be derived from Rabbi Nachman’s
One of my students told me that he was deeply inspired by statement that every expression of prayer is an entire world. And
this advice. Now, every time he is uncertain and seeks counsel, when is a person’s speech complete? When he looks at the purpose
he goes to a place where there are many congregations one after of existence (Likutei Moharan 65). Rabbi Nachman explains that such
the other (such as shtieblech or the Kotel). He begins ma’ariv a person does not leave behind any word in his prayer. As a result,
with one of the congregations, and at the words, “Rectify us with he makes his prayer a unity:
good counsel before You,” he goes off to the side and recites it at
length—from a few minutes to an hour or more, in accordance with A person must make the entire prayer a unity. Each
the amount of time he has and the urgency of the topic. When this word that he says will be found to contain all of the
time comes to an end, he easily finds another congregation with words of prayer. From beginning to end, his prayer will
which to recite the Shemoneh Esrei. This is a wonderful idea that be entirely one. Even when he stands at the last word of
can help everyone earn hours of intentions and prayers. Instead of the prayer, he will still be standing at the first word of
squandering and losing precious words and precious requests in the the prayer. In this way, he can recite the entire prayer
flow of prayer, everyone can spend an extra few minutes and build
himself a savings account of tens of thousands of prayers. entirely, yet nevertheless not be separated even from the
first letter of the prayer.

You have seen above how the entire world may be included in
a single expression of prayer. And we may say that the meaning
of making the entirety of prayer into a unity is that the entire
prayer refers only to the revelation of knowledge, for “on that day
Hashem will be one and His name one” (as was explained earlier).
At that time, people will know Hashem completely. They will live