World Kabbalah Convention, October 2025 - ״In One Prayer".

Lesson #2 ״A Prayer before a Prayer״

Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. Noam Elimelech, A Prayer before a Prayer

"May it please You, our Lord, God of our fathers, who hears the outcry of pleas and listens to the voice of the prayers of His people, Israel, with mercy, to prepare our hearts, establish our thoughts, and send our prayers in our mouths. Do lend Your ear to the voice of the prayer of Your servants, who pray to You with an outcry and a broken spirit."

2. Zohar for All, Introduction of The Book of Zohar, "Torah and Prayer".

"Before the prayer, we must look into the deficiencies in the Shechina, to know what needs to be corrected and filled in her.

However, all the generations of the whole of Israel are included in the holy Shechina, and we no longer need to correct all those corrections that she received from the generations before us. Instead, we must complement them, to correct what is still missing in her after their corrections."

3. RABASH, Article No. 27 (1991), "What Is, 'If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,' in the Work?"

"When a person comes to pray to the Creator to help him, he should first prepare and examine himself to see what he has and what he needs, and then he can know what to ask of the Creator to help him. It is written, “From the depths I have called upon You, Lord.” “Depth” means that a person is at the very bottom, as was said, “at the bottom of Sheol,” meaning that his lack is below and he feels that he is the lowliest of all humans.

In other words, he feels so far from Kedusha, more than everyone else, meaning that no one feels the truth, that his body has nothing to do with Kedusha. For this reason, those people, who do not see the truth of how far they are from Kedusha, can be content with their work in holiness, while he suffers from his situation."

4. RABASH, Article No. 17 (1986), "The Agenda of the Assembly-2"

"There is one point we should work on—appreciation of spirituality. This is expressed in paying attention to whom I turn, with whom I speak, whose commandments I am keeping, and whose laws I am learning, meaning in seeking advice concerning how to appreciate the Giver of the Torah.

And before one obtains some illumination from above by himself, he should seek out like-minded people who are also seeking to enhance the importance of any contact with the Creator in whatever way. And when many people support it, everyone can receive assistance from his friend.

We should know that “Two is the least plural.” This means that if two friends sit together and contemplate how to enhance the importance of the Creator, they already have the strength to receive enhancement of the greatness of the Creator in the form of awakening from below. And for this act, the awakening from above follows..."

5. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 122, "Understanding What Is Written in Shulchan Aruch"

"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 the Dvekut with the Life of Lives, which is bestowal."

6. RABASH, Article No. 13 (1988), "What Is 'the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People' in the Work?"

"When a person learns Torah or engages in Mitzvot, or when he prays, he should focus his thoughts on wanting reward for all his good deeds—that the Creator will give him complete faith. This is as it is written in the prayer of Rabbi Elimelech (“A Prayer before a Prayer”): “And do fix Your Faith in our hearts forever and ever, and let Your Faith be tied to our hearts as a stake that will not fall.”"

7. RABASH, Article No. 27 (1991), "What Is, 'If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,' in the Work?"

"When a person comes to pray he should prepare for the prayer. What is this preparation? It is written “Prepare for your God, Israel” (Shabbat 10). He says there that preparation is something each one does according to his understanding. We should interpret that concerning the preparation that each one does, it is in order to know what to ask, since one must know what to ask. That is, a person has to know what he needs.

This means that a person can ask for many needs, but normally, we ask for what we need the most. For example, when a person is in prison, all his concerns are about the Creator freeing him from imprisonment. Although sometimes a person has no income, and so forth, he still does not ask the Creator for income, too, although he needs it, since then he suffers most from being in prison. For this reason, a person asks for the thing he needs the most."

8. RABASH, Article No. 10 (1986), "Concerning Prayer"

"When a person comes to pray and ask the Creator to satisfy his need, his prayer should be clear. That is, he should clearly know what he needs. That is, when he comes to ask from the Creator he should picture himself speaking to the King, and the King can make him the happiest man in the world at once because nothing is missing in the King’s house. Thus, first one must carefully examine before the prayer so he knows what he really needs, that if the King fulfills his lack he will not need anything more and will be the most complete man in the world."

9. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 18

"First thing in the morning, when he rises from his sleep, he should sanctify the first moment with Dvekut with Him, pour out his heart to the Creator to keep him throughout the twenty-four hours of the day so that no idle thought will come into his mind, and he will not consider it impossible or above nature.

Indeed, it is the image of nature that makes an iron partition, and one should cancel nature’s partitions that he feels. Rather, first he must believe that nature’s partitions do not cut off from Him. Afterward, he should pray from the bottom of his heart, even for something that is above his natural desire.

Understand this always, even when forms that are not of Kedusha [holiness] traverse you, and they will instantly stop when you remember. See that you pour out your heart that henceforth the Creator will save you from cessations of Dvekut with Him. Gradually, your heart will grow accustomed to the Creator and will yearn to adhere to Him in truth, and the Lord’s desire will succeed by you."

10. RABASH, Letter No. 13

"We should always try to make the fall due to the obstructers will not take very long, but immediately grow stronger, trust the Creator, and pray from the bottom of the heart. Meaning, when one has fallen into a deep pit, “I call upon you oh Lord.”"