Early in the morning, at first light prior to sunrise (when the Light is starting to be revealed) one needs to recite the prayer, “Hear O Israel.” A person stayed in the night, in the darkness, without strength and under the dominion of his egoistic desire. However, he has done the proper preparation and triggered the Zivug Aba ve-Ima at midnight which started correcting his desires.

This is how a person begins to add the property of bestowal or the Light into the darkness – his big, cruel, egoistic desire to receive sensed as night or darkness. The Light comes to him, but he can’t feel it because this is the Surrounding Light that shines during the night, in the darkness, in the exile from the spirituality.

However, this Light corrects a person and, suddenly, he starts feeling that this is not darkness. The darkness comes only from his side, but, in reality, there is Light. If he, on his side, adds the property of bestowal or the Light of Hassadim, then the Light of Hochma is revealed within Hassadim and “darkness starts shining as light.” That is, the day begins.

In other words, the day starts not because some new Light descends from Above, since nothing changes Above. Rather, a person corrects his desires through his efforts and begins revealing the Light of “day.”

This is when, for the first time, he should recite the prayer, “Hear O Israel.” This is how a day in the spiritual world begins. Later on, he says other prayers, that is, he triggers special acts and the uniting (Zivug) of the Light and the desire.

The Kabbalists wrote a prayer book based on this. It helps us understand the actions we’ll have to perform in the spiritual world when we reach it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 04/04/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
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The Book of Zohar: “Raising a Prayer”
Video: “Prayer” (03:35)

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