Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “Who Causes the Prayer”: In that state of reflection, when he feels how remote he is from any reverence for the work of the Creator, he begins to awaken and think, “Something must be done. I cannot stay in that state of lowliness for the rest of my life.”

Certainly, this is the time when a person begins to pray to the Creator to bring him closer to Him and to help him from Above, as our sages said, “He who comes to be purified is aided.”

A person knows that he has to come to feel that the Creator is “good and does good” and to cleave to Him. This means that our goal is to reveal the Creator. Otherwise, we won’t achieve what we were destined for.

This task can be accomplished only if there is equivalence of form. Hence, a person suffers since he hasn’t yet come to faith, the property of bestowal, where he could find the Creator and thank Him. That is, he doesn’t seek this revelation selfishly, but only so that he truly may attain the greatness of the Creator.

Then, he sees the “nations of the world” within him argue with his “Israel” part which aspires toward the Creator. So far, one cannot win over the other; the will to bestow cannot defeat the will to receive.

However, man has no power over his thoughts and feelings whatsoever. He doesn’t choose what the mind and heart experience. Every state is formed from Above, meaning not by a person himself, but by the upper force that places him in a specific predicament and expects a certain action, some sort of response to what it has done. This is called: “I am the first.”
[43846]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

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