Courses / Fundamentals of Kabbalah 2024/2025 / Lesson 13. “Prayer” according to authentic Kabbalah wisdom
Lesson Lesson 13. “Prayer” according to authentic Kabbalah wisdom

Lesson 13. “Prayer” according to authentic Kabbalah wisdom

A lesson on the work of the heart.

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Prayer in Kabbalah is described as the work of the heart, not merely words read from a book. It is an inner process of clarification in which we examine what we truly desire and whether our lack—known as hisaron in Hebrew - is in equivalence of form with the Creator.

Through this inner clarification we can then build a need for the help of the Creator to grant us the correct lack.

LESSON #13

The Prayer

“...A request - this is when a person feels what he is lacking. This is specifically in the heart, meaning that it does not matter what he says with his mouth, since “a request” means that a person asks for what he needs, and all of man’s needs are not in the mouth, but in the heart. Therefore, it does not matter what a person says with his mouth. Rather, the Creator knows the thoughts. Hence, what is heard above is only what the heart demands and not what the mouth demands, since the mouth has no deficiency that must be satisfied.”

-- Rabash, article # 27, 1991

“For this reason, there must be preparation for the prayer, to accustom oneself to the prayer, as though his mouth and heart are the same. And the heart can come to agree through accustoming, so it would understand that reception means separation, and that the most important is adhesion with the Life of Lives, which is bestowal.”

-- Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article # 122

“Hence, when a person comes to pray he should prepare for the prayer. What is this preparation?”
We should interpret that concerning the preparation that each one does, it is in order to know what to ask for, since one must know what to ask for. That is, a person has to know what he needs.

-- Rabash, article # 27, 1991


“The only advice to obtain a deficiency, that we are lacking the desire to bestow, is by prayer, which is a “medium” between man and the deficiency. That is, one prays for the Creator to give him something for which he has no deficiency, that he will lack it. It follows that the Kli that is called “deficiency” is a deficiency with respect to the feeling, meaning that he does not feel its lack, and the prayer is that the Creator will give him the light, which is the filling of his lack. It therefore follows that the filling is a lack. Thus, he has no other choice but to pray to the Creator to give him a deficiency, and this is what connects the Kli with the light.”

-- Rabash, article 22, 1986

“...Man’s sin is that he did not ask the Creator for help. Had he asked for help, he would certainly get help from the Creator. But if a person says that he asked for help and the Creator did not help him, to this comes the answer that a person should believe that the Creator hears the prayers, as it is written, “For You hear the prayer of every mouth.” If he truly believed, his prayer would be complete, and the Creator hears a complete prayer when a person yearns with all his heart that the Creator will help him.
But if his prayer is not constantly on his lips, it means that he does not have the real faith that the Creator can help him and that the Creator hears everyone who asks Him, and that small and great are equal before Him, meaning that He answers everyone. It follows that the prayer is incomplete.”

-- Rabash, article 4, 1988


“The prayer must be a complete prayer, from the bottom of the heart. This 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 this, that no one will 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 sake of the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of the heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer.”

-- Baal HaSulam, Shamati #5 “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above”


“Do not say that if Lishma [for Her sake] is a gift from above, if so what good is one’s overcoming and efforts, and all the remedies and corrections that he does in order to achieve Lishma, if it depends on the Creator?
Our sages said about it, “You are not free to rid yourself of it.” Rather, one must give the awakening from below, and this is considered “prayer.”
Yet, there cannot be a true prayer if he does not know first that without prayer it cannot be obtained.
Therefore, the acts and remedies he does in order to obtain Lishma create the corrected vessels in him that will want to receive the Lishma…

-- (Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20 “Lishma”)

…Then, after all the actions and the remedies he can pray in earnest since he saw that all his actions did not help him whatsoever. Only then can he make an honest prayer from the bottom of his heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer and gives him the gift of Lishma.”

-- Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20 “Lishma”


“...A person cannot emerge from the control of self-reception by himself, as it is the nature in which the Creator created man, which only the Creator Himself can change. In other words, as He has given the created beings the desire to receive, He can later give them the desire to bestow.
However, according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli, no filling without a lack,” first one needs to obtain a deficiency. That is, he must feel that he is deficient of this Kli called “desire to bestow.” …

-- (Rabash, Article 29. 1987)

…And concerning feeling, it is impossible to feel any lack if one does not know what he is losing by not having the Kli, called “desire to bestow.” For this reason, man must introspect on what causes him not to have the desire to bestow.

To the extent of the loss, he feels sorrow and suffering. When he has the real lack, meaning when he can pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart for not having the strength to be able to work for the sake of the Creator, then, when he has the Kli, meaning the real lack, this is the time when his prayer is answered and he receives assistance from above. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”

-- Rabash, article 29, 1987


 “There are three conditions in prayer:

Believing that He can save him. Although he has the worst conditions of all his contemporaries, still, “Will the Lord’s hand be too short to save him?” If it is not so, then “the Landlord cannot save His vessels.”

He no longer has any choice for he has already done all that he could but saw no cure to his plight…

 (Baal HaSulam, Shamati #209 “Three Conditions in Prayer”)

    ..3. If He does not help him, he will be better off dead than alive. Prayer means “lost in the heart.” The more one 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 is standing and pleading 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 #209 “Three Conditions in Prayer”