24/01/2017

World Kabbalah Convention 2017 “All As One”

Lesson 7: “Prayer of Many”

1. Baal Hasulam, TES, Vol 3, Part 8, Ohr Pnimi, Item 88

All our work in prayers and practical mitzvot is to go back and scrutinize and ascend to all the souls who came from Adam HaRishon and fell to the klipot, until they reach their original root from where they came prior to the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

2) Rabash, Vol 3, Hears Prayer
“Who Hears prayer”, and the world asks, why is “Tefila” (prayer) written in the singular, does not the Creator hear “prayers”? As it is written, “for you hear the prayers of the mouths of all your people Israel with compassion”. And the meaning is that there is only one prayer that we should pray, which is to raise the Shechina from the dust, and by this all the salvations will come.

3) Rabash, Vol 3, Destruction of Divinity
One should not ask the Creator to draw him close, because it is Chutzpah on the part of man, since why is he any different from anyone else? However when one prays for the collective, which is Malchut, called the assembly of Israel, the total of all the souls and the Shechinah in the dust, then one prays that she will rise, namely that the Creator will light up her darkness and raise all Israel to the next degree, including the one who is praying, who is included the collective.

4) The MAR”CHU, The Gate of Incarnations, Introduction, Item 38
My teacher warned me, and all the friends that were with him in the society, that prior to the morning prayer we should accept upon ourselves the positive commandment to "love your friend as yourself" with the intention to love all Israel as our own soul. And thus his prayer will rise together, with the prayer of all Israel, and achieve the correction above.

And concerning the love of friends among us, each and every one of us must include himself and feel as if he is a limb inside of his friend. And my teacher warned me greatly concerning this matter.

5) Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kossov, Love of Peace
“One who prays for his friend is answered first”.
Interpretation: One who prays for his friend becomes a pipeline for bestowal, to bestow to his friend, and through him the abundance flows, and for this reason he is answered first. This is the meaning of the verse, “He who blesses is blessed”, since the “blesser” becomes a pipeline of bestowal, and hence he is blessed… Because Bracha (blessing) is from the word Brecha (pool) namely a pipeline for good bestowals, and this is precisely if the blesser and the blessed love one another, and have true and complete unity. Then they awaken the upper pipeline so that it will bestow through a righteous, who is the passageway, according to “the world is nourished for the sake of Chanina, my son.

6) Rabash, Vol 3, Run Away, My Beloved
And it is a great rule that man is called created being (creature), meaning only him, and outside of him is the holy divinity. It follows that when one prays for his generation it is called that he is praying for the holy divinity who is in exile and needs all the deliverances, and this is the matter of eternity, and precisely in this manner the light of Rachamim can be revealed.
Another reason why one should pray for the collective is because he has to reveal the light of Rachamim, which is behinat light of bestowal. And there is a rule that we cannot receive anything without equivalence and there should always be behinat equivalence, therefore when one awakens mercies upon himself he is engaging in behinat self reception, and the more he adds to prayer, it is not enough that he does not prepare vessels of equivalence, on the contrary sparks of reception are being woven in him.
It follows that he is moving in the opposite direction, meaning that when one should be preparing vessels of bestowal he is preparing vessels of reception. And “to adhere to his attributes” is precisely “be merciful even as he is merciful”. Therefore when one prays for the collective, by this prayer one engages in behinat bestowal and as much as he prays, to this degree one weaves vessels of bestowal where the light of bestowal can be revealed.

7) Baal Hasulam, Not the Time for the Livestock to Be Gathered

This is the secret of public prayer, that one must not exclude oneself from the public and ask for oneself, not even to bring contentment to one’s maker, but only for the entire public. One who departs from the public to ask specifically for one’s own soul does not build. On the contrary, he inflicts ruin upon his soul, as it is written “All who are proud” for there cannot be one who retires from the public unless with an attire of pride. Woe unto him, for he inflicts ruin on his soul. Even during work, when one prays alone, against his will he departs from the public and ruins his soul, and there was no awakening for any individual in the assembly of Israel to ask for anything individually, for no one needed anything because they did not feel as separate selves, and this was their power to come out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Thus, every one must gather with all of one’s strength into the whole of Israel with every plea to the Creator in the prayer and in the work and include himself in the root of all of Israel.

8) Likutei Halachot (collection of laws), Laws of the Synagogue, #1
The main thing for advancement of the soul is that all souls be united as one, for this is the way to ascend to Holiness (Sanctity), since Holiness is One. For that reason prayer, which is the state of the soul, depends mostly on the unity between the souls. Therefore one must attain the commandment, “Love your friend as yourself” first, because it is impossible for him to utter any words of prayer prior to reaching the state of Peace, namely, the connection between all the souls of Israel. For this reason most prayers are said in public and not alone, in order that no one be separated to himself, which is opposite of Holiness (Sanctity). We must be united into a Holy Assembly and become One. This is the essence of public prayer, and particularly when it is done in the synagogue, where the souls are united together, and this is a whole prayer.

9) Zohar, Nasso, Why Have I Come and There is No Man, Item 105-106
It is written, why have I come and there is no man? How loved are Israel before the Creator, wherever they are, the Creator is with them because He has not removed His love from them, as it is written, “And let them make Me a Temple, that I may dwell among them”, since the Shechinah comes to the synagogue early.

Happy is the man who is among the first ten at the synagogue because by them is the congregation completed, which is not less than ten. They are the ones who are sanctified by the Shechinah first. But there must be ten in the synagogue at the same time, and not come bit by bit, so that the completion of the organs is not detained, for all ten are as organs of a single body in which Divinity dwells.


10) Baal Hasulam, The Arvut, Item 23
It is written, “and there Israel camped before the mountain,” which our sages interpret as “one man in one heart.”

This is because each and every person from the nation completely detached himself from self-love, and wanted only to benefit his friend, as we have shown above (Item 16) regarding the meaning of the Mitzva, “Love thy friend and thyself.” It turns out that all the individuals in the nation have come together and become one heart and one man, for only then were they qualified to receive the Torah.