Part 2:

Everything is Obtained By the Power of Prayer - Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. R. (00:24) We already heard and read in many places that the prayer is most important. Why? This is the raising of MAN, it’s a request, it’s our attitude to the Creator in all of these relations towards the Creator we already understand it, everyone depends on Him, up to really no place left as we say that there is nothing that we can do by ourselves but rather everything depends on how much and how we ask. Therefore the power of the prayer is the primary force. So everything is attained by the power of the prayer. Hopefully we'll find everything in these verses.

Reading item #1 (01:33) “Everything small or great is obtained only by the power of prayer..” twice

2. R. (05:00) It turns out for us to be the opposite. Usually we cry out about why don't we have forces and here he says that when we reach the state where we do not have any forces then we're worthy of the true work which is the prayer. This means that a person at a time that he does not have any power of his own he should be happy that he has reached a state where he can turn to the Creator and cry out, ask, pray.

Continue reading (05:41) “we can argue about this so I'm I can decide that I'm on fit for anything..”

3. R. (05:58) So I can reach a state that I'm like a rag, yes..

Continue reading (06:04) “ however there is a natural law..”

4. R. (07:51) Meaning we must labor in order to find out that we cannot reach anything by ourselves and then we turn to the Creator and we ask for strength and for help to rise, to pray, and then eventually He does this to us and we attain our place adhesion to Him. But all of the exertion against our helplessness, powerlessness, in that we have no hope, seemingly, to save ourselves and succeed with our own strength.

5. S. (09:02) How to overcome specifically in that place of helplessness and weakness because the prayer always looks like, even the prayer looks like a very difficult task, it sounds simple but it's not really?

R. Friends and prayer there's nothing else.

S. What does it mean friends and prayer?

R. Friends to connect as much as possible and prayer. Prayer to the Creator and connection with the friends in order to pray to the Creator.

6. S. (09:48) The prayer that needs to be from greatness of the Creator and that a person relates everything to Him and also sees that it is for the better, otherwise he cannot really understand the state correctly. The question is, a person who labors in the connection and receives opposite results, internally and externally very difficult results, how can he attribute, how can you relate to the Creator out of greatness?

R. Because when he does it with the friends it gives him joy and confidence that he is walking on the right path.

S. How to make this transition? Because in these stages a person can lose a lot of time until he even realizes that the Creator did it all and until he turns to Him he can lose a lot of time?

R. No, because he has nothing else to do. We may disperse into many directions that are unnecessary, but all in all connection with the friends and prayer to the Creator, that is what we have, these two steps from here until the end of correction.

S. But the connection with the friends and turning to the Creator that lead him to the difficult states, weakness, and harsh states in externality, how can he make this action that led them to this bad state?

R. I don't get you.

S. A person labored, connected with the friends, discovered his lowliness, that he has no strength of his own.

R. Okay that is one step.

S. In addition he also encountered difficult states externally.

R. What do you mean externally?

S. Externally means states that are harsh personally, socially, in society, very difficult states and he says it is all none else besides Him and it’s actually the result of my connection?

R. But he did not connect; he actually moved, distanced himself.

S. Exactly, he distanced as a result of what? As a result of previously working on the connection, working on the connection praying to the Creator and then he received a greater distance. Now he’s told connect and pray but that is what he did before and he received the opposite result.

R. Why opposite result? He received a place for prayer.

S. Good, I see this is written in all of our sources but the person doesn’t feel that. The person feels an opposite result in his will to receive and he cannot justify the Creator, and he cannot pray to the Creator in the sense that he sees someone answering him and so forth. How does he begin to sort of this whole system which is just completely opposite to his desire. How does he begin to pray?

R. We have no other work but prayer. If in all of our relationships with the friends I receive an urge to pray, what can be better than that? Except I'm like a baby, a little child who cries and he wants something and they do not give them to him for the time being so, if that is the case then I let go of everything. In truth, other than a prayer there's nothing.

S. Then what will he receive as a result?

R. From the prayer he receives what he is asking for. The prayer takes a long time until the prayer changes and he sees how to change it, who to turn to, how to turn to Him, and eventually it brings him to connection with the Creator. After that there is nothing. That is the last thing. By that he becomes adhered to the Creator.

7. S. (14:59) From connecting with the friends we get a place to prayer for the friends.

R. Yes.

S. Now, how do I pray for the friends?

R. You ask for the entire group that the Creator will give you the ability to be in mutual bestowal and from that to bestow to Him.

S. So I'm not asking for the deficiency of the friend, I'm asking for the system and it will complete what the friend is missing.

R. Your true deficiency is to bestow to one another, from everyone to the Creator.

8. S. (15:42) In the first sentence, the whole matter of labor and work to which we are obliged is only to discover our lack of strength and our lowliness. Let's say we are rewarded with working and laboring and as a result we discover the lack of our strength and our lowliness, but we are supposed to achieve equivalence of form with the Creator.

R. I did not understand.

S. The big goal is to be on equivalence of form with the Creator.

R. In bestowal to the Creator.

S. Right, bestowal to the Creator and then we’re in equivalence of form, like He bestows and then so do we. So we labor in our work to get closer to bestowal. The result that we get is discovering the lack of our strength, our lowliness, as if we are going in the opposite direction instead of rising to bestowal.

R. We cannot rise to bestowal. We wish to adhere to the Creator and that will give us the strength to bestow to Him.

S. What does it mean to adhere to the Creator?

R. As much as I'm able to do it like a baby who clings to his mother.

S. Our lowliness and a lack of strength, that is with regards to what, lowly in what?

R. That we have no way to bestow.

S. We can see that but we are moving further away not closer.

R. Why?

S. Because He bestows and I only receive.

R. But if I’m adhered to Him like a baby then I do not distance myself. I do not distance myself. How do we grow up? By coming from the mother's womb, there we develop as a foreign power but we annul ourselves and that’s why we can grow there and develop and receive all the good that we need. 

9. S. (18:10) If in the ten there's such a state where someone detaches from spiritually for a certain time can we say that the quota has been filled?

R. No, we do not need to do anything, to invent anything, to continue doing this and he will be back.

S. If this state repeats what was the problem?

R. The problem, in principle, is the group that is not able to hold a friend, to keep him in the group. We have to give everyone something to do, not forcefully, it has to be interesting for him and he will feel dignified to be among the friends.

10. S. (19:16) How was it for you with Rabash, the work in building the prayer, was there some revealed work?

R. I cannot tell you anything because those were completely different relationships and I don't want to confuse you.

S. In our stage, right now in the present stage, what is the best way to work with the prayer towards the ten, let's say after the lesson?

R. To read what we are studying and from that understand what you are lacking and to pray for that.

S. To pray. What does it mean that together we pray for it?

R. That we have no strength, no desire, no understanding how to turn to Him, to the Creator, what are you missing, what kind of help exactly should come from Him, so on and so forth. Try to scrutinize all those things and ask, constantly ask.

S. We are doing a prayer after every lesson, we summarize a prayer, everyone says a sentence and then we have a collection of short prayers. There is some sharpness, some general scrutiny is missing, some cry to the Creator. How do we achieve that?

R. You need to scrutinize what you truly want. Be honest with yourselves, what do you want, and ask only for that. Approach it from every direction.

S. Meaning it's not just a collection of different desires of the friend, we have to come to something mutual, one deficiency. What does it mean to approach it from different directions?

R. Each one has his own desires, own understandings, in this way we need to approach the Creator.

11. S. (22:00) Based on the text it says whatever anything you can do with your strength you should do, so can you define actions that are the correct or incorrect or any action is correct?

R. I couldn't hear well.

S. He's asking, it says in the text, whatever you're able to do you should do. So the friend is asking is every action correct or could there be actions that are incorrect?

R. Of course, there are actions more correct, less correct, you have to scrutinize, sort the actions, the demands, that are the most beneficial, so as we read it should become clear to us what is more beneficial. 

12. S. (23:28) How do we build a common womb between us to the point that I feel the deficiency of the group and then can raise a true prayer?

R. When we incorporate in one another, annul to one another, and in this way we begin to feel that we are like a single desire made up of many desires but a single desire nevertheless that is under the control of the upper one and then we ask the upper one to develop us. 

13. S. (24:36) How to make sure that the prayer does not become a routine?

R. Before the prayer we need, as it is written in the books, that the ancient Kabbalists sat quietly before the prayer for an hour perhaps even more, and thought about what they have to pray for, what they should pray for, what is erupting through the heart, and only then they composed their prayer and prayed. So we need to think more, make a list, what do I truly want, who do I want to be in contact, and so on and so forth.

S. How does it work in the ten?

R. Inside the ten it works where although we are ten people we are studying together, thinking together, so gradually our thoughts, our desires, our hopes, become closer to one another and that is how we connect. There's no other choice, that is nature. That’s how we do it.

14. S. (26:57) I have a problem understanding that he says that I did not tell you this truth only so you will not be weakened or give up on mercy although you did not see anything for anyone to measure of labor is complete, it is a time of prayer. Where do you see the Creator’s mercy, especially in the recent times, can you see it?

R. I don't know. I'm not here to criticize the Creator, I come to criticize myself.

S. Where do I see that there's mercy? He says that there's a law that does not change. Is there mercy near at all?

R. There is 100% mercy but then I don't identify it perhaps.

S. That is what I'm asking, where do you see the mercy?

R. It's called faith in sages.

S. What does that mean?

R. I believe them for the time being before I discover it myself..

S. Is there truly mercy?

R. Yes.

15. S. (28:16) Aren't we supposed to accompany any action with prayer?

R. When the person has no more desire to turn to the Creator and there's no way for him to make any action then his prayer is truly complete because he turns to the Creator from his emptiness and that is how he advances, the Creator helps him out.

S. But it doesn't cancel that we need to try to accompany every action with prayer?

R. Yes, yes. 

16. S. (29:27) The intention, especially the intention in the ten, is this a kind of raising of prayer?

R. Of course, of course.

17. S. (29:48) Can we ask a question about labor and found? There is a quote from Rabbash from one of the articles specifically about men and women. It says there, if there is no labor one cannot be awarded with the Creator's light, as our sages said, I didn't labor and did not find do not believe. This quote kind of left me shocked. I did not labor and I didn't find don't believe?

R. I don't know, we'll get to it and we will learn about it together.

S. It sounds opposite to what we've learned?

R. We are not in this right now.

18. S. (32:09) What does it mean do not give up on mercy?

R. You should not be despaired from what you receive from the Creator since it is all mercy and if it does not appear to you as mercy then these are concealed mercies, nevertheless do not despair because each and every moment you are approaching the end of correction. It is all mercies, except that you cannot detect them right now.

19. S. (31:57) The prayer we build after the morning lesson, is this a tool to work with?

R. Yes, of course.

S. What do I do with this tool during the day, what am I to do?

R. What to do? Work with it. You want this prayer to be accepted and you will continue with it.

S. I need to always reiterate this prayer, look at it, see what happened, what did not happen, sort it out?

R. Yes.

20. S. (32:43) What is the difference between the state where a person labors and just despairs or a state where a person doesn't labor in the right place and that is where the despair comes from?

R. The difference is how it influences the person, not in any other way.

21. S. (33:18) It says, then we are qualified to pour out a complete prayer to the Creator. What is the difference between a complete prayer and incomplete prayer?

R. A complete prayer, I guess, reaches the Honorable Throne and the incomplete one is probably without enough strength.

22. S. (33:57) We got used to how after our efforts we get a result. Is a lack a result also a result towards our ego? Will it agree to make efforts this way to deceive it?

R. We don't cheat them, we don’t cheat them, we simply work to scrutinize that ego that's inside of us and how can we work with it. It's called, as a help against, since without it we are unable to advance.

S. We are talking about a qualitative prayer and it says here that the qualitative prayer is only when there is no result, only then it is considered effort towards what we build. Will the ego agree that it will not care if there is a result or is not? It's like a wrapper without the candy?

R. I don't understand your examples. The ego needs nourishment and it all depends on how you feed it.

S. But will it agree to make an effort without a result if we know in advance there is not going to be a result?

R. Gently, you need to agree with Him that He will receive a certain small part of this, but it will be under your control.

23. S. (36:08) What do we need to be able to believe the Sages?

R. We need to believe the Sages whatever they said and follow their path, this is called ‘following with faith in the Sages’.

S. How do I come to that point to be able to believe the Sages, why should I believe them?

R. You accept it because it's above you, you cannot reach the goal any other way.

S. And how can I come to the powers to be able to accept them?

R. When we take the power to accept faith in the Sages, that comes from the study, from the Creator, from the group, because we do everything of belief in our Sages they said, “walk this way”, and we should heed their advice and that's what we need to do, so each shall help his friend and that's how we advance.

S. Do I need prayer to be able to believe the Sages?

R. Also, also, the thing that we need is to reach believing our Sages, ‘faith in the Sages’.

24. S. (38:17) When does the Creator hear “the person's cry” and how does He help the person?

R. The Creator hears the person's cry means that He accepts the lack and the deficiency of the person and He makes an action on that lack, an action of bestowal, and the person receives a result from the Creator's action and that means that the Creator has helped him. 

25. S. (39:30) What glues a person to the Creator exactly, is that the prayer or his connection with the friends?

R. What glues the person to the Creator, the desire to adhere to the Creator just like the Creator already adheres to the person even though the person doesn't feel that.

S. And practically, his effort to connect with the friends or his effort that is expressed in prayer, is that what brings about this adhesion?

R. I don't understand?

S. What practically or ultimately, what is the glue, the connection with the friends or the prayer?

R. Connection with the friends, that's the foundation then prayer to the Creator and then adhesion with the Creator.

S. So there has to be this glue between himself and the friends and then there the adhesion with the Creator will be revealed?

R. That goal cannot be attained without connection with the friends, that's the first condition that's why it says, “either connection or death”.

26. S. (41:30) This embryo, by annulling to one another and out of the connection between us, will the Creator seemingly within it and around it, does that mean that we become this embryo?

R. Yes.

S. In the first lesson I heard you said that the saboteur sabotages a lack of connection with the general group so the question is like can the embryo can be the ten or is it only when we become ‘as one man in one heart’ in the world vessel?

R. No, the ten is sufficient.

S. We need to reach a state where we only want to bestow, the embryo is bestow in order to bestow?

R. Yes, that's not simple, even what I answered her it's incomplete, what can you do?

27. S. (43:04) Should every prayer come from the bottom of the heart in order for it to work?

R. The depth of the heart, there are many depths to it and each time it's a depth of the heart that a person can reveal.

S. If we still cannot get to the bottom of the heart it means we haven't completed the exertion, the labor?

R. Yes, yes.

28. S. (43:31) Isn't the prayer a point where the person reaches the edge of his forces, the point of no other choice and from here he has to turn to something outside of him, isn't that a prayer?

R. A prayer is that he grabs hold of the upper one in his hands and legs, he exists in the upper one like an embryo in the womb, he literally drinks and swallows and becomes included and incorporated in Him to the point that he wants to assimilate in Him unboundedly; that is essentially the state that he wants to be in the upper one.

S. How is it that that we meet and talk and each one says his prayer this one line, how do we reach this point of wanting to catch the Creator in any way possible?

R. The fact that I want to hold on to all of the friends and nullify before them and that means that I am included in the upper one.

S. Why should I hold onto the friends?

R. To hold on to them, to grab hold of them.

29. S. (45:52) We have a vicious war in the country between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Yesterday when you talk to the friend you said even physically we still lack mutual guarantee, that only, so that a common escape from trouble. Nevertheless we see that many acts of heroism and determination and the other’ people, for example, stood more than ten hours in line to donate blood: There were religious and secular people, traditionalist, even Arabs. The question is, can we see in this tectonic changes that Israeli society is undergoing preparation for the spiritual degree?

R. Such changes I don't see, I don't see that they are happening but like in any time of troubles there is some mutual excitement, some mutual understanding more, yes. But to say that we are close to actual connection, actually getting closer, no, not yet, not yet. And I think that it all depends on Israel, if we are closer to each other, more understanding of each other, more nullifying towards each other and making concessions for each other then we will be able to truly get closer and then we will not have any lack.

30. S. (48:18) The state of prayer that you explained just now, is a state where you're already in spirituality?

R. No, not yet.

S. It happens when you are in one hundred percent concealment, you go to pray?

R. Yes.

S. Because I heard it, it sounds like you understand and you feel something when you pray, something spiritual?

R. I'd rather not talk about it.

31. S. (49:10) It says, “when the measure is full, your prayer will be complete”, does the fulfillment of this measure depend on one suffering and how to know how full is that measure?

R. That's the difference between how much you understand what wholeness is, and correspondingly how much you have a lack of wholeness, so if you come to this complete measure then your prayer is accepted.

32. S. (50:14) How can we feel the prayer in the heart of the friends in order to reach one prayer and that it will be at the prayer for all of us together?

R. The heart of the friends, you can feel it in your heart if you ever open it up.

S. How can I approach this, I really want to feel that prayer I want to be in the same prayer as they are?

R. You should want to give them everything that you have in your heart.

S. What do they need from me, I have so many things in my heart?

R. That, you have to learn, what they need from you; they need from you love and Arvut.

S. Should this love be expressed in corporeal actions or something that passes from heart to Heart even without speaking?

R. Corporeal things, too.

33. S. (51:29) The prayer is a request for some answer from above, if He received the answer then you have a question, what's more important: the fact that this connection from above was lost and you need to understand how to reinforce it now?

R. This you have to understand on your own.

S. Yes but exactly here you have, there’s a doubt, if you received an answer and you feel that this answer and this response is satisfactory you wish to somehow share it with others, to materialize it. And maybe an answer came it also came to the others or should you share it nevertheless?

R. Better to share.

34. S. (52:58) Why a person cannot see that he can bestow contentment to the Creator only through prayer?

R. What else can he do, tell me, he doesn't have what to do, this is a very deep question, why did the Creator make it so that we can influence Him and speak to Him through the request, through the prayer, why did He make it so, that is a question!

S. Why?

R. Meaning the prayer is actually what pushes us away from the Creator, otherwise we would cling to the Creator like an embryo inside his mother's womb. And there would be no place and no room to prayer for anything, the Creator would just understand the person just like he understands him now and the person would also understand the Creator, like being in a womb. However the more we have to grow, to that extent we have to be further and further detached from the Creator, distanced from Him more and more. And then in order to remain connected, we have to activate the prayer so we know that we are not connected but we want to bridge that distance between u, and that is the power of prayer, that's it. Now the Creator, He sees our deficiency as we want to connect to Him like we were before inside of Him, inside the womb, and He tries and tries to lead us to such an internal connection, mutual connection and that's what we ultimately achieve.

S. How can I ask the Creator each time that my heart is beating?

R. You can ask, whatever you feel the Creator already felt whatever you speak, doesn't matter the language, the Creator hears.

S. So I can do it all the time?

R. Yes, of course. 

35. S. (56:44) These two depictions, on the one hand to be an embryo in the womb in total annulment to receive everything above reason, that it’s all complete Hassadim, versus this other depiction of prayer and the request that expresses a lack of connection and the desire to connect, how do I arrange myself between these two poles?

R. You have to try to find the formula, I cannot tell you that, it's an inner emotional matter.

Reading excerpt number 2 (57:57 - 59:22)

36. S. (59:55) If a complete prayer comes out only in the point of despair of our own strength, what does it mean ‘to pray all day long’?

R. That's how it goes together.

S. So you have to be in the state of despair all day long?

R. Yes, yes.

37. S. (01:00:32) Why do we need so much effort to reach the state where we feel in the Creator's womb? There isn't a greater pleasure, is it because we wish to reach the pleasure for our own sake instead of the Creator’s sake or we're simply asking for the wrong things?

R. We have to ask for pleasure only for the Creator to fulfill everything He wants from us. Then accordingly in the attitude we have towards Him we will feel that He does the same towards us and this is called “complete adhesion”.

38. S. (01:01:48) How do we help a friend that still did not agree to come out of his self-love?

R. We have to try to agree and then everything will fall into place.

39. S. (01:02:16) Is the prayer something like the Masach and the communication across the screen?

R. Yes, the prayer is the connection above everything, above everything.

40. S. (01:02:44) It tells us we have to be in a constant state of prayer to connect with the Creator, to reach a state of mercy, and that's really our work?

R. Of course.

S. And so this last article that we just read, it seems to be the entire article itself is a plea to the Creator to help us to connect because we cannot do it ourself, that's what the entire article talks about?

R. Yes.

41. S. (01:03:54) When is the prayer working faster and more efficiently, is it when everyone is crying out to the Creator out of their helplessness, or when everyone is asking for the same thing?

R. When everyone together asks for the same thing.

42. S. (01:04:23) The prayer in thought and the prayer in action, is it MAD and MAN?

R. MAN is the raising of the prayer and MAD is the descent of the prayer.

S. Can we say that when we raise the prayer to a certain thought and when the prayer comes down, it gives us the forces of bestowal and that's the answer to the prayer, that's the power?

R. Yes.

43. S. (01:05:05) We're all together Israel, the people who yearn for the Creator; I have a deficiency for ‘this people’ to be born, what is the correct prayer for ‘Israel to be born into this world’?

R. All people have to get closer to each other and that's all, we don't need anything besides that, that's the only thing that the Creator wants. 

S. I feel very close to all the friends in Israel, I have a great deficiency for us to connect and for this Israel to be born all over the world, all of us together.

R. We feel you that way as well and I'm happy to see you everyday in our connection, thank you, be well and live long!

44. S. (07:22) I have no words, Rav, thank God we have such unity and you teach us every day, thank you and thanks to the Creator and thanks to all the friends. Our friends give their deficiency every day, I'm really happy, I think the Creator is happy as well!

R. Yes, alright very well! I would speak to each and every one of you but we don't have that time.

45. S. (01:08:26) I also want to thank you for this lesson; how much strength you give us and how much you help us with this prayer. We feel this radiance from you, thank you, I have nothing to ask.

R. Good, thank you for not asking!

46. S. (01:09:23) Thank you for this wonderful lesson, together we will succeed!

47. S. (01:10:00) We had an amazing lesson, more than that, I want to share that together in the lesson we had the Midwest Ten. They asked to join us and give a strength and we felt their power twice a week, they were with us and a few friends stayed, some of them went to other activities. But I wanted to say, we feel these very complex developments as Kabbalists write to us and yes, you explain to us. The more we approach the end of the overcoming of the will to receive, we can feel the difficulty and the heaviness, and all in order to give us the feeling of a deep prayer we have to raise. And that's truly an amazing state, how it matches what we read about and what we are learning about, and I'm asking the Creator to give us the strength to do this holy work so we can take the people of Israel out to peace, together with the whole world, and “that everyone will know them to the littlest to the greatest”, as it's written in the sources. And with the help of the Creator we will succeed, I am sure we will succeed, but the difficulties are not simple.

R. With the Creator's help.