Question: Is a prayer a plea for the Creator’s help during bad times? Can I recite traditional prayers in my own words?

Answer: Prayer is called the work in the heart and not words a person says. I may not know the words of the prayers or the language at all. After all, a child’s cry is also a prayer. He doesn’t know any language, he just screams. Why? He wants something. This is called a prayer.

A prayer is raising MAN, revealing an empty desire. Raising a desire means that I want something higher compared to my present state. If I want this, it is called a prayer.

And if I want something that does not exceed my present level, then this request is not considered a prayer, and it does not rise upward, to the Upper One, who takes care of me. The Upper One is willing to carry out just one action: to help me ascend to Him. It is meant precisely for this, according to the order of the degrees that came down from above downward. Therefore, the prayer should be raising MAN (Mei Nukvin – the waters of Nukva), when Malchut wants to be like Bina.

There is the level of Bina and the level of Malchut. During the second restriction (Tzimtzum Bet) Malchut rises to Bina, and Malchut is already present in Bina. Then, as a result of the breaking, Malchut descends from Bina back into Malchut, but it descends together with the broken Bina. This is, in fact, the spiritual spark (the point in the heart) that is instilled in us.

Now from our common Malchut, our desire to receive pleasure and the spark of Bina that awakes us, we wish to raise this spark back to Bina. My work consists of evaluating the spiritual spark in comparison with Malchut. I compare them to each other. If the spark is higher, this means that I wish to become similar to Bina, to merge with it, since the spark is a part of the Bina in me, a part of the Creator from above.

Then it is as though I raise it back to the level of Bina with my aspiration. This is called “the waters of Nukva,” which I raise upward. It is a part of Bina (water) that is in Malchut (Nukva). This is called a cry, a prayer. And it doesn’t matter what you say out loud during this time.
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From a lesson 10/18/2010, The Book of Zohar

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