Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

When one goes to pray to the Creator to help him, he must first prepare and examine himself, to see what he has and what he is missing, and then he can know for what to ask the Creator’s help. This is the meaning of the words, “Out of the depths I have called upon You, O Lord.” “Depth” means that a person is in the lowest possible state, as it is written, “Depths of the nether-world,” meaning his deficiency is below and he feels that he is beneath all other people.

In other words, he feels so remote from Kedusha (holiness), more than all other people, meaning that no one feels the truth, that his body has no connection to Kedusha. Hence, those people who do not see the truth—that they are remote from Kedusha—can be satisfied with their work in the holy work. But he is suffering from the state he is in.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What is, ‘A Woman Who Inseminates First, Gives Birth to a Male,’ in the Work”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

There are three conditions in prayer:

1. Believing that He can save him, although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Is the Lord’s hand waxed short” from saving him? If not, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels.”
2. He no longer has any counsel, that he has already done all that he could, but saw no cure to his plight.
3. If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive. Prayer is the lost in the heart. The more he is lost, so is the measure of his prayer. Clearly, one who lacks luxuries is not like one who has been sentenced to death, and only the execution is missing, and he is already tied with iron chains, and he stands and begs for his life. He will certainly not rest or sleep or be distracted for even a moment from praying for his life.
   – Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 209, “Three Conditions in Prayer”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

By not being able to exit the will to receive for oneself and feeling needy of the Creator’s help, a need is born within for the Creator’s assistance. And His help is through the Torah since the Light in it reforms him, meaning he receives vessels of bestowal.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Is the Basis upon which Holiness Is Built”

From one’s praying to Him, to draw him near by Dvekut (Adhesion), called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive to be in order to bestow. The Creator says about that, “My sons defeated Me.” That is, I gave you the will to receive, and you ask of Me to give you a will to bestow instead.
– Baal HaSukam, Shamati, Article #19, “What Is the Creator Hates the Bodies, in the Work”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

There is no happier state in a man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own powers, meaning that he has already toiled and did everything he could possibly do, but there is no cure. This is so because at that time, he is worthy of a whole prayer for His help, for he knows for certain that his own work will not yield him the benefit. As long as he feels that he has some power of his own for the work, his prayer is not whole since the evil inclination rushes in and tells him that first, he must do all that he can, and then he will be desirable to the Creator.

It is said about that, “The Lord is high and the low will see.” After one has exerted in all sorts of labors and has become disillusioned, he arrives at a point of true lowliness. He knows that he is the lowest of all people because there is nothing in his entire body that is good. At that time, his prayer is whole and he is answered by His generous hand. The writi

ng says about that, “And the people of Israel sighed because of the labor…and their cry rose.
– Baal HaSulam, Letter no. 57
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

What does it mean that ‘The Lord heals the brokenhearted’? It is known that man’s essence is his heart. The heart is the Kli (vessel) that receives the Kedusha (holiness) from Above, as we learn concerning the breaking of the vessels—if the Kli is broken, anything that is placed in it will leak out.

Similarly, if the heart is broken and the will to receive governs the heart, the abundance cannot enter it because everything that the will to receive receives goes out to the Klipot (shells). This is called “the breaking of the heart.” Hence, when one prays to the Creator and says, “You must help me because I am worse than everyone else since I feel that the will to receive is governing my heart, hence nothing of Kedusha can enter my heart. I want no luxuries, but simply to be able to do something in order to bestow, and I simply cannot. Therefore, only You can save me.”

By that, we can interpret what is written (Psalm, 34), “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,” to those people who ask of the Creator to help them make their hearts unbroken, but rather whole.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “Return O Israel unto the Lord Your God”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

Since half a thing is not given from Above, one must pray to the Creator to give him complete help. This means that during one’s prayer—when he arranges what is in his heart since a prayer is work in the heart—one must decide for himself that he wishes for the Creator to give him a desire to annul before Him altogether, leaving no desire under his own authority, but that all the desires will be only to glorify the Creator. And when he decides on complete annulment, he asks of the Creator to help him carry it out…. This is called “a complete prayer” since his desire is for the Creator to give him a complete desire, without any compromises for himself, and he asks of the Creator to help him always be with His righteousness.
– Rabash, Letter no. 65

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.
– Psalms, 34
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

However, the prayer must be a whole prayer, that is, from the bottom of the heart. It means that one knows one hundred percent that there is no one in the world who can help him but the Creator Himself.

Yet, how does one know that, that there is no one to help him but the Creator Himself? One can acquire that awareness precisely if he has exerted all the powers at his disposal and it did not help him. Thus, one must do every possible thing in the world to attain “for the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of one’s heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article #5 “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

A request is something that a person feels that he is lacking. It is in the heart. It makes no difference what he says since “a request” means that one asks for what he lacks, and all of one’s wants are not in the mouth, but in the heart. Therefore, it makes no difference what a person says, but the Creator knows the thoughts. Hence, Above, only what the heart demands is heard, not what the mouth demands, for the above reason that the mouth is not deficient and needs to be satisfied.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What is, ‘A Woman Who Inseminates First, Gives Birth to a Male,’ in the Work”

The Creator hears a prayer, and only awaits a whole prayer.
– Baal HaSulam, Letter no. 57
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Torah Develops the Recognition of Evil in a Person

If one engages in Torah and Mitzvot [by studying Kabbalah in order to reveal the Creator, which is the only reason the Torah was given], even for one’s own pleasure [selfishly, for self-gratification, and not in order to reach love of others], still, through the light in it, he will feel the terrible inferiority and depravity in the nature of reception for oneself. At that time, he will devote his heart to retiring from this nature of reception and will completely dedicate himself to working only to bestow contentment upon his Maker. Then the Creator will open his eyes and will show him a world that is utterly perfect.
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “There Is an Appointee Above Who Strikes Him and Tells Him, ‘Grow,’ in the Work.”
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Torah Develops the Recognition of Evil in a Person

According to the above, we can see that since he had learned a lot of Torah [in order to draw the reforming Light], through it he was granted seeing the truth about the distance between himself and the Creator, meaning the measure of his remoteness and nearness. This is the meaning of his mind being crude, meaning that he saw the complete form of one who is proud, which is his will to receive, and then he could see the truth that it was he who was most ugly. How did he see the truth? By learning much Torah.

Thus, how will he be able to cleave to Him, since he is such an ugly [egoistic] person? This is the reason why he asked if all the people were as ugly [horrible egoists] as him, or that he was the only ugly one but the rest of the people in the world were not ugly.

What was the answer [that he felt]? “I don’t know.” It means that that they do not feel, hence they do not know. And why do they not feel? It is for the simple reason that they were not rewarded with seeing the truth since they lack Torah [did not attract enough Light that Reforms upon themselves], so the Torah will show them the truth.

To that Elijah replied to him [he heard Elijah’s answer]: “Go to the craftsman who made me” because he saw that he had come into a state from which he could not ascend. For this reason Elijah appeared and told him, “go to the craftsman who made me.” In other words, since the Creator created you so ugly, He must have known that it is with these Kelim (vessels) that the goal can be achieved. So do not worry, go forward and succeed.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article #56 “Torah is Called Indication”

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