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Prayers from the Heart - Rav Nathan of Breslev

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Prayers from the Heart - Rav Nathan of Breslev Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman Prayers from the heart - Rav Nathan of Breslev - Vol.1 In memory of the chassidic Rabbi Rabbi Israel Dov Odeser ztk'l Student of Rabbi Israel Kardoner ztk'l Student of Rabbi Moshe Breslover ztk'l Student of Rabbi Natan of Breslov ztk'l Student of the holy master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov Na Nach Nachma Nachman Me'Uman And In memory of the chassidic Amram Yosef b'r Moshe Nahum Halevi Horvitz zt'l Meir Akavya ben Ya'akov Yemini zt'l Aharon Ben Ya'akov Patz zt'l ת. נ. צ. ב. ה Introduction Rav Natan’s Introduction Rav Nachman cautioned us many times, in various ways, to make prayers out of the Torah discourses. He said that, from this act, great delight is created in Heaven and he said that no such delight has ever come before the Creator as the delight caused by these prayers made from Torah discourses. He spoke of this time and again with several different people. However, he did not clarify fully what his holy intention was in this matter but we understood from his words that his main intention was simply that we try to delve into his holy, awesome Torah discourses which he revealed to us, to understand what he intended practically from each discourse . We should consider our ways (and perceive) how far away we are from the things mentioned in each discourse, then pray and plead to God, with many entreaties, requests and supplications, that He have mercy upon us and in His bountiful mercy, bring us closer to Him and that we merit to fulfill everything stated in that Torah discourse. Then we should pour out our hearts before the Holy One about all the things mentioned there, asking that we merit to fulfill them and ascertain them perfectly. A person who merits to engage himself in making prayers from Torah discourses, as mentioned above, 3 Introduction will always easily be able express himself before God and talk out everything that is in his heart by using each Torah discourse. Even though at first it may appear to him that this Torah does not speak about his own needs and about his own weaknesses and flaws, when he starts to talk using that discourse, God will certainly help him and he can put all he wants to say into it; everything that is on his heart, he can express by using each Torah; for the words of our Rebbe, may his memory be blessed, are very, very all-embracing. Each Torah discourse comprises the entire Torah and the generality of Israel and the generality of all things in the world. Each person, whoever he is, whether on the very highest spiritual level or whether on the lowest spiritual level, no matter what, from the top of all levels to the bottom of all levels, each one can find himself in all his aspects within each Torah discourse of our holy, awesome Rebbe, may his memory be blessed. Therefore, by each Torah discourse, every person in the world, at all times, can somehow express himself. …Therefore, he who wants to have mercy on his soul and to really and truly consider his eternal purpose in life and who wants sincerely to come closer to the Holy One (should know) that it is well known and very clear that it is impossible to come closer to God, that is to say to break and nullify all the bad qualities and merit to all the good attributes and to progress in the pathway of God, other than by prayers, supplications, cries for help, imploring 4 Introduction and shouting to God, for many days and years. All the tzaddikim and really kosher people merited to their spiritual levels only by this, by prayers and supplications as we have explained several times. However, to say many prayers and supplications is also very hard for a person because usually, one does not have the words to speak out and express oneself. By this method, mentioned above, of making prayers from Torah discourses, a person can easily express himself about everything that is in his heart, as explained previously. However, there are also many weighty obstacles against this also, for not every person is so familiar with the Rebbe’s words such that he can make prayers from the Torah discourses, and so it is with other numerous obstacles. Therefore I made a point of copying from the prayers that I wrote for myself, as the Rebbe told me. He said that it is good to record for oneself the prayers when one merits to (compose) a well arranged prayer so that one can say it on another occasion. That is what I did. Afterwards I saw that it is good to copy them in a general language so that they will be equally valuable (useful) to each person and then to give them to our followers so as not to ”withhold good from its owners,” I saw that the (the prayers) are of great generality and that they (speak of) matters which each person needs, every single person according to his spiritual level. Everyone needs them, from the greatest to the smallest. There is nothing that a person lacks in the matter of serving God that will not be found in these prayers. When I copied some of them and gave them to a 5 Introduction few people they liked them very, very much and pleaded with me to copy all of the prayers for them. Although I was uncertain in my heart about this, nevertheless I gave myself into the hands of the Holy One alone; I relied on Him alone. According to His good desire and the desire of our Rebbe, so will I do. Any wise person, who really and purely wants to, will understand the virtue of these prayers. Prayers such as these have never existed in the world. They are full of good for the House of Israel – prayers, supplications, requests, entreaties, words of pardon and appeasement, confessions, claims, pretexts; great shouts, cries for help and imploring to God, to arouse His bountiful mercy upon us and asking that He bring us close to His service very quickly indeed. These prayers also contain great spiritual arousal that a person should use to speak to his soul, in order to awaken himself so that his life should not go by in a state of sleep, Heaven forbid. The power of speech has great power to arouse a person, therefore, when a person speaks out things, even though he knows them full well in his heart, he will arouse himself. By this he will strengthen himself, become full of determination and yearn even more to come closer to the Holy One, may His name be blessed, until he merits to really perfect repentance. A person who says these prayers regularly with truth and simplicity will certainly merit to the Eternal Life. 6 Introduction It is good to do both things, 1) to engage oneself in meditation every day and speak to God about everything that is in one’s heart, using one’s mother tongue and 2) to make prayers out of Torah discourses, as mentioned previously. It is impossible to clarify in writing all the details about what a person needs, especially since all sorts of changes occur to a person all the time. The Rebbe, may his memory be blessed, warned us several times to say many supplications and requests every day, all sorts of supplications such as these which can be found in the big prayer-books, or the prayer-books Sha’arei Zion, or in other places. Even more so one should use the Book of Psalms. And he who wants to fulfill the Rebbe’s holy words, to engage himself in saying prayers, to merit to the Eternal Life, his soul will certainly find these prayers very, very sweet (pleasurable) for there are no prayers in all the world in which a person can find himself such as these which talk of all sorts of virtue and all the things in the world, as a person can see for himself. Happy is the person who uses them. May God hear our cries for help and hearken to our voices and to our prayers. May we merit constantly to engage ourselves in prayers and supplications, whether those written and arranged which are in our possession or whether those that a person has to speak out by himself from his heart in his own language every day, as our Rebbe warned us many times; for this is the main thing, as is clarified in his holy books many times. 7 Introduction Through this, let us merit to really return to Him in complete repentance, as is His good desire, until we merit to rise up and be included in Him, in the light of the Ein Sof and “to behold the beauty of the Lord and visit His Temple” . In the merit of our prayers, bring us our righteous Meshiach very speedily, in our days; for the principal weapon of the Meshiach is prayer, as is explained in the Torah discourse ‘Emor’ – “Say to the Priests” – . One needs to strengthen oneself very much in the matter of prayers and supplications, no matter what happens, until God looks down and sees from Heaven. “After two days He will revive us: on the third day He will raise up and we shall live in His sight” that we “may walk before God in the light of the living” .
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