1. RABASH, Letter 24
You must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night.
We say to the Creator, “Yours is the day, and Yours is also the night.” Thus, the night, too, the darkness of night, comes from the Creator to man’s favor, too, as it is written, “Day to day utters speech, and night to night expresses knowledge” [...].
It follows that you must awaken the heart of the friends until the flame rises by itself, [...] By that, you will be rewarded with awakening the love of the Creator upon us.
2. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 38
The most important is the labor, meaning to crave to labor in His work, for the ordinary work does not count at all, only the bits that are more than usual, which is called “labor.” It is like a person who must eat a pound of bread to be full. All his eating does not merit the title, “a satisfying meal,” but only the last bit from the pound. That bit, for all its smallness, is what defines the meal as satisfying.
Similarly, out of every service, the Creator draws out only the bits beyond the ordinary, and they will be the letters and the Kelim [vessels] in which to receive the light of His face.
3. RABASH, Article 18 (1986), “Who Causes the Prayer”
One must not say, “I’m waiting for the Creator to give me an awakening from above, and then I will be able to work in the work of holiness.” Baal HaSulam said that in regard to the future, a person must believe in reward and punishment, meaning he must say (Avot, Chapter 1), “If I am not for me who is for me, and when I am for me, what am I, and if not now, then when?”
Thus, one mustn’t wait another moment. Instead, he should say, “If not now, then when?” And he must not wait for a better time, so “Then I will get up and do the work of holiness.” Rather, it is as our sages said (Avot, Chapter 2), “Do not say, ‘I will study when I have time,’ lest you will not have time.”
4. Meshivat Nefesh, Item 40
Man must only commit to strengthening himself each time anew, and not retreat from this war or cause oneself despair under any circumstances.
Certainly, in this war, it is impossible to evidently see who is the winner, since the war is still long, the exile is intensifying, and each one experiences what he experiences. Yet, as long as we are holding our weapons in our hands—and our main weapon is the prayer—and as long as we do not cause ourselves despair from this war and keep gripping to our weapons, we are winning for sure, since as long as one strengthens oneself in prayer and outcry to the Creator, he is winning the war, as this is essentially the victory.
5. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 34
So we rush our pleas above, knock by knock, tirelessly, endlessly, and do not weaken at all when He does not answer us. We believe He hears our prayer but waits for a time when we have the Kelim [vessels] to receive the faithful bounty, and then we will receive a reply to each and every prayer at once, since “the hand of the Lord will not be short,” God forbid.
6. RABASH, Letter No. 8
At the end of the day, this is a group of people who have gathered in a certain place, under a certain leader, to be together. With superhuman courage they face up to all those who rise against them. Indeed, they are brave men with a strong spirit, and they are determined not to retreat one inch. They are first-class fighters, fighting the war against the inclination to their last drop of blood, and their only wish is to win the battle for the glory of His name.
7. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Moharan, Last Edition, Mark 48
One must be very persistent in the work of the Creator, whatever happens to him. Remember this well for you will need it very much as you begin the work of the Creator. It requires great tenacity, and to be strong and brave, to brace oneself and stand still, even if you are dropped down every time. You must not allow yourself to fall off altogether, for it is necessary to experience all those falls, descents, and confusions prior to entering the gates of Kedusha [holiness], and the true righteous, too, have gone through all of it. Know, that man must cross a very, very narrow bridge, and the rule and the most important thing is not to be afraid at all.
8. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 70, "With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out"
We should know that of those who want to come into the work of the Creator in order to truly adhere to Him and enter the King’s palace, not everyone is admitted. Rather, he is tested: If he has no other desires but only a desire for Dvekut [adhesion], he is admitted.
And how is one tested if he has only one desire? He is given disturbances. This means that he is sent foreign thoughts and foreign messengers to obstruct him so he would leave this path and follow the path of all the people.
If one overcomes all the difficulties and breaks all the bars that block him, and little things cannot push him away, the Creator sends him great Klipot [shells/peels] and chariots to deflect one from entering into Dvekut with the Creator alone, and with nothing else. This is considered that the Creator is rejecting him with a mighty hand.
If the Creator does not show a mighty hand, it will be hard to push him away since he has a strong desire to adhere only to the Creator and to nothing else.
9. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”
One must especially try to have a strong desire to obtain the desire to bestow and overcome the will to receive. A strong desire means that a strong desire is measured by the increment of the in-between rests and the arrests, meaning the time gaps between each overcoming.
Sometimes one receives a cessation in the middle, meaning a descent. This descent can be a cessation of a minute, an hour, a day, or a month. Afterward, he resumes the work of overcoming the will to receive and the attempts to achieve the desire to bestow. A strong desire means that the cessation does not take him a long time and he is immediately reawakened to the work.
10. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 70, "With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out"
When one overcomes all the hardships and the disturbances, one is not easily repelled, but with a mighty hand. And if one overcomes even the mighty hand and does not want to move from the place of Kedusha [holiness] whatsoever, but wants to adhere specifically to Him in truth, and sees that he is repelled, then one says that fury is poured out on him. Otherwise, he would be allowed inside. But because fury is poured out on him by the Creator, he is not admitted into the King’s palace to adhere to Him.
It follows that before one wants to move from one’s place, and breaks in and wants to enter, it cannot be said that he feels that fury is poured out on him. Rather, after all the rejections that he is rejected, and he does not move from his place, meaning when the mighty hand and the fury poured out have already been revealed upon him, then “I will be King over you” comes true. This is so because only through bursting and great efforts does the kingdom of heaven become revealed to him, and he is rewarded with entering the King’s palace.
11. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”
One should believe that the obstructions of the will to receive in the work come to him from above. One is given the force to discover the will to receive from above because there is room for work precisely when the will to receive awakens.
Then one has close contact with the Creator to help him turn the will to receive to work in order to bestow. One must believe that from this extends contentment to the Creator, from his praying to Him to draw him near in the manner of Dvekut [adhesion], called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive, so it is in order to bestow. The Creator says about this, “My sons defeated Me.” That is, I gave you the will to receive, and you ask Me to give you a desire to bestow instead.
12. RABASH, Article No. 23 (1989), “What Is, ‘If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out,’ in the Work? “
He must overcome and believe above reason, although his reason dictates that since he has prayed many times but still received no answer from above, how can he come and pray once more? This, too, requires overcoming, meaning to exert above reason and pray that the Creator will help him overcome his view and pray.
13. RABASH, Letter No. 14
And one is rewarded with everything only by overcoming, called “strength,” and each and every strength that a person elicits joins into a great amount. That is, even if a person overcomes once and gets an alien thought, and says, “But I already know from experience that soon I will not have this desire for the work, so what will I get now if I overcome it a little?”’ At that time, he must reply that many pennies join into a great amount, meaning to the general account, whether to the root of his soul or to the public.
Perhaps this is the meaning of “The gates of tears were not locked.” Shaarei [gates] comes from the words, Se’arot [“hair,” or “storms”], which is overcoming. “Tears” comes from the word “tearing,” meaning that there is a mixture with other desires, and only in the middle of the desires there is a brief moment of a desire to overcome toward love and fear of heaven. “…not locked,” but rather that moment joins into a great amount. When the amount is full, the person begins to feel the spiritual clothing.
14. RABASH, Article No. 34 (1991), "What Is Eating Their Fruits in This World and Keeping the Principal for the Next World, in the Work?"
Only those who say that they want to escape from the work but have nowhere else to go, since nothing satisfies them, those people do not walk out from the work. Although they have ups and downs, they do not give up. This is as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried, and their cry went up to God from the work.” In other words, they cried out from the work because they were not advancing in the work of the Creator, so they could work in order to bestow contentment upon the Maker. At that time, they were rewarded with the exodus from Egypt. In the work, this is called “emerging from the control of the will to receive and entry into the work of bestowal.”
15. RABASH, Article No. 23 (1989), "What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?"
Our sages said, “In trickery shall you conduct war,” since the body does not want to relinquish self-benefit. To the extent that he exerts, to that extent he begins to feel that he is incapable of doing anything since in his view, he has done everything he could. After the labor, he comes to know that only the Creator can help, and it is out of his hands. Then comes the third state—a prayer—and then the prayer is from the bottom of the heart, since it is utterly clear to him that no one can help him but the Creator.
16. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57
There is no happier state in man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own strength. That is, he has already labored and done all that he could possibly imagine he could do, but found no remedy. It is then that he is fit for a wholehearted prayer for His help because he knows for certain that his own work will not help him.
As long as he feels some strength of his own, his prayer will not be whole because the evil inclination rushes first and tells him, “First you must do what you can, and then you will be worthy of the Creator.”
It was said about this, “The Lord is high and the low will see.” For once a person has labored in all kinds of work, and has become disillusioned, he comes into real lowliness, knowing that he is the lowest of all the people, as there is nothing good in the structure of his body. At that time, his prayer is complete and he is granted by His generous hand.