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

Lesson 5 "A Prayer in the Ten"

Selected Excerpts from the Sources

1. RABASH, Article No. 15 (1986), "A Prayer of Many"

"We can understand the importance of a prayer of many, as it is written, “I dwell among my own people.” The Zohar says, “One should never retire from the people because the mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together.” This means that if one asks the Creator to give him vessels of bestowal, as our sages said, “As He is merciful, you be merciful, too,” one should pray for the whole collective. This is because then it is apparent that his aim is for the Creator to give him vessels of pure bestowal, as it was written, “The mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together.” It is known that there is no giving of half a thing from above. This means that when abundance is given from above to below, it is for the whole collective."

2. Zohar for All, VaYechi [Jacob Lived], "Be Gathered, that I May Tell You", Items 514-516

"All the prayers in the world, prayers of many, are prayers. But a solitary prayer does not enter before the Holy King, unless with great force. This is so because before the prayer enters to be crowned in its place, the Creator watches it, observes it, and observes the sins and merits of that person, which He does not do with a prayer of many, where several of the prayers are not from righteous, and they all enter before the Creator and He does not notice their iniquities." 

3. RABASH, Article No. 15 (1986), “A Prayer of Many”

"“I dwell among my own people,” meaning I am asking for the entire collective because I wish to come to a state where I will have no care for myself whatsoever, but only for the Creator to have contentment. Therefore, it makes no difference to me if the Creator takes pleasure in me or can receive the same pleasure from others.

In other words, he asks the Creator to give us such an understanding, which is called, “entirely for the Creator.” It means that he will be certain that he is not deceiving himself that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, that perhaps he is really thinking only of his own self-love, meaning that he will feel the delight and pleasure.

Therefore, he prays for the collective."

4. RABASH, Article No. 15 (1986), "A Prayer of Many"

"If there are a few people in the collective who can reach the goal of Dvekut with the Creator, and this will bring the Creator more contentment than if he himself were rewarded with nearing the Creator, he excludes himself. Instead, he wishes for the Creator to help them because this will bring more contentment above than from his own work."

5. RABASH, Article 17 (1984), Part 2, “The Agenda of the Assembly"

"At the very beginning of the assembly, when gathering, we should praise the friends, the importance of each of the friends. To the extent that one assumes the greatness of the society, one can appreciate the society.

“And then pray” means that everyone should examine himself and see how much effort he is giving to the society. Then, when he sees that he is powerless to do anything for society, there is room for prayer to the Creator to help him and give him strength and desire to engage in love of others."

6. Rabbi Nachman of Breslev, Likutei Halachot

"The house of prayer is called “the house of assembly,” for all the souls gather there through the prayer that they pray there, since the prayer is regarded as the soul. Hence, the prayer is mainly in the house of assembly and in public, since the ascent of the soul and its wholeness are mainly when all the souls are mingled and become one, for then they rise to the holiness, for holiness is one. For this reason, the prayer, which is regarded as the soul, depends mainly on the unity of the souls. Therefore, prior to the prayer, one must assume the commandment to-do of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” for it is impossible to say the words of the prayer unless through peace, when one unites with all the souls of Israel. Hence, the prayer is mainly in public and not alone, so that one will not be isolated, by himself, as this is the opposite of holiness. Rather, we must only unite together the holy congregation and become one. This prayer is in public and specifically in the house of assembly, for there, the souls gather and unite. This is the completeness of the prayer."

7. RABASH, Article No. 7 (1986), "The Importance of a Prayer of Many"

"When a person comes to purify, when he wishes for the Creator to bring him closer and give him the vessel of bestowal by which to be rewarded with Dvekut, all the upper bounty that will be revealed will be in order to bestow. In other words, he wishes to be given strength from above to have the ability to always be in Kedusha, which is Dvekut.

Then a crown is made of his prayer, the King’s crown, since then the importance of the King is recognized. And this is the meaning of what The Zohar says, that the prayer “Becomes a crown and is placed on the head of the Righteous One who lives forever, meaning Yesod, who imparts all the salvations to the Nukva, and from her to the entire public.” This is so because through the prayer, the upper abundance is given to the lower ones, at which time the delight and pleasure are revealed. This is called “a crown,” the King’s crown, the importance of the King."

8. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 25

"The Zohar also spoke about it, saying that one who is rewarded with repentance, the Shechina [Divinity] appears to him like a soft-hearted mother who has not seen her son for many days, and they made great efforts and experienced ordeals in order to see each other, because of which they both were in great dangers. But in the end, they came to that longed-for freedom and were rewarded with seeing one another. Then the mother fell on him, kissed him, comforted him, and spoke softly to him all day and all night. She told him of the longing and the dangers on the roads she has experienced until today, how she had always been with him, and that the Shechina never moved, but suffered with him in all the places, but he could not see it.

These are the words of The Zohar: “She says to him, ‘Here we slept; here we were attacked by robbers and were saved from them; here we hid in a deep pit,’ and so forth. What fool would not understand the great love and pleasantness and delight that burst from these comforting stories?”"

9. Baal HaSulam, A Sage's Fruit, "Granting the Prayer"

"In fact, the Creator hears the prayer of every mouth, except for he who asks for something abominable or harmful, for because of his folly, he does not tell between good and bad, and the Creator, like a merciful father, does not heed him and does not listen to him. Rather, bit-by-bit, He teaches him wisdom and ethics until he can tell between good and bad, and then he will know how to ask his Creator for good and fine things, and then his every wish is indeed answered, without exception, according to the will of the good to do good."

10. RABASH, Article No. 40 (1989), "What Is, 'Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,' in the Work?"

"There is not a single prayer since the world was created until the end of the world that is like another, and there is not a person who is like another, and one corrects what the other does not correct […] Each day, each and every prayer sorts out new sparks.”"