Aproximación al elemento de “no facilitar los medios necesarios”

1) The days of the month of Nissan are days of repentance like those of Tishrei (49). 2) Nissan embodies the concept of tikkun habrit, guarding the Holy Covenant. When you are joyous you can draw the spirit of Nissan, its joy and holiness, into the whole year. Thus you can make amends for abuse of the Covenant, and you will avoid impure experiences by night (Likutey Moharan II, 5:10).

3) The Haggadah which we recite on Pesach is a tikkun for the Covenant. The reason why it is recited aloud is because the voice arouses Da'at, the knowledge of God. So by reciting the Haggadah aloud we can experience a revelation of true Da'at. Da'at is itself the essence of redemption, because the exile in Egypt came about through the abuse of the Holy Covenant, which brought about the distortion of Da'at. The wine of the four cups which we drink on the first nights of Pesach is also a tikkun for Da'at and for the Holy Covenant (Likutey Moharan I, 20:10).

4) When you pray on Pesach you should cry out loud

PRAYER:

1) The main reason why prayers are not accepted is that the words lack grace and beauty. It is through studying Torah that the words of the prayers are invested with grace. One should always try to pray with words that have grace and beauty, and then one's prayers will be accepted (1:1).

2) Prayer is the Jew's main weapon. Whatever battles a person has to fight, whether against his evil inclination, or against those who put barriers and obstacles in his path, they should all be fought with prayer. Prayer is the source of our very life. If you want to attain the true holiness of Israel you must pray profusely. Speak to God and beg Him to help you in every way. Prayer is the weapon with which to win the battle (2:1). 3) A person may have prayed profusely and secluded himself with God day after day for years and years and still feel that he is very far from God. He may even start to think that God is hiding His countenance from hm. But it is a mistake if he thinks that God does not hear his prayers. He must believe with perfect faith that God pays

attention to each and every word of every single prayer, petition and conversation. Not a single word is lost, God forbid. Each one leaves its mark in the worlds above,

however faintly. Little by little they awaken God's love. If there seems to be no response, the reason is that as yet the holy edifice he is destined to enter is not yet complete. The main thin g is not to give up and fall into despair. This would be foolish. Be firm and continue with your prayers with new determination. In the end God's love will be aroused and He will turn to you and shine His radiance upon you

and fulfill your wishes and desires through the strength of the true Tzaddikim. He will draw you towards Himself in love and a bundant mercy (Ibid. 6).

4) It is impossible to achieve perfect prayer except through observing the Covenant with perfect purity. Therefore each Jew must bind his prayers to the Tzaddikim of the age, because they know how to raise every single prayer to its proper place, and out of all the prayers they build the structure of the Shechinah, which brings the coming of Mashi ach closer (Ibid. 2:6).

5) You must give charity before you pray. Charity is a protection against the distracting thoughts which come while praying (Ibid. 4).

6) Never feel that you are entitled to a reward for anything. All the good deeds we do are sent to us by God. At times God may help a person in a certain way, or he may achieve a certain spiritual success. But he should not think that this is a reward for his Torah study, prayers, or good deeds, or anything else. Everything is sent by God, and if it were not for His great mercy, he would have been sunk in failure long ago, God forbid (Ibid.).

7) Torah study and prayer reinforce one another and throw light on each other. Both of them are necessary (Ibid 6).

8) The greatest of the Tzaddikim draw down sparks of the light of the Infinite over all who are close to them and joined to their name. At times it happens that a person is in the middle of his prayers when suddenly he takes fire and says a number of words with tremendous passion. The reason is that God in His mercy unveils the light of the Infini te and shines it down upon him. Consciously, perhaps, he does not see these sparks, but his guardian angel sees it (cf. Megillah 3a) and his soul is immediately kindled with a fiery passion to be bound with the light of the Infinite. As long as the revelation lasts he says all the words which shine their light to him with tremendous intensity and absolute self-surrender. It is only with the help of the great Tzaddikim that it is possible to have experiences like this, because they alone have some apprehension of the light of the Infinite and only they have the power to radiate the sweet pleasantness of this illumination to each person in accordance with the capacity of his heart (4:9).

9) Each person should say to himself: `The whole world was created only for my sake,' One should therefore constantly be looking for ways of improving the world in order to make up for any deficiencies, and one should constantly pray for the world (5:1).

10) You must pray with all your strength. The sound of your voice will then penetrate your mind and you will be able to concentrate on your prayers. Your heart will hear the words your lips are saying, and you will be able to straighten the crookedness of the heart and attain true joy. Your joy will be so great that you will be able to carry out a ll the mitzvoth with a great joy derived from the mitzvah itself and you will be able to clothe your prayers even in story form. You will have the power to annul all harsh decrees even after the decree has already been made (Ibid. 3).

11) It is absolutely vital to empty your mind of all foreign ideologies and extraneous ideas. You must never allow your Divinelygiven intellect to be infected in the least by the chametz yeast of these fallacious beliefs or by physical appetites and desires. They distort and sully the mind, making it impossible to concentrate while praying or to experience real joy. You should never be afraid of anything except God. All other fears are simply an obstacle to concentration on prayer and joy. The main thing is to guard the mind against `yeast' by avoiding all bad thoughts and physical appetites. This `yeast' is rooted in the domain of death. You must do battle against these

loathsome though ts and expel them completely from your mind. Don't let them enter your mind at all. As regards fear of Heaven, you should aim to combine it with love. Then you will be able to purify your mind and pray with all your might and with intense concentration to the point where your prayer will be like `thunder.' Then you will attain true joy (Ibid. 4).

12) Prayer is `faith.' It has the power to improve the memory and banish forgetfulness, which is caused by an absence of faith (7).

13) The fountain of the wisdom of the Torah flows from prayer. To reach a clear decision in matters of Torah law therefore depends on prayer. A legal decision in Torah is tantamount to renewing the world. Torah law concerns the distinction between what is permitted and what is forbidden, what is pure and what is impure. Therefore the clarification of the law is a vital part of the process of sifting the good from the bad in the four elements of the universe. Through this the opponents of truth are cast down to the earth and humiliated (8:6-7).

14) Our very life-force comes from prayer. You must pray with all your strength and put your strength into the very letters of the words or the prayers in order to renew it there. Through this you will attain true faith (9:1).

15) The quality of a person's prayer has an influence on his marital union and his livelihood (Ibid. 2).

16) Perfect prayer brings a flow of life into the three divisions of the universe: the terrestrial world, the world of the stars and the world of the angels (Ibid.).

17) As soon as a person stands up to pray, he is immediately surrounded by extraneous thoughts and kelipot, `husks,' which leave him in darkness and make it impossible for him to pray. The best remedy for this is to make sure that the words emerge from your lips in truth. Every word which comes from your mouth in truth and sincerity will provide you with an exit from the darkness which is trapping you, and then you will be able to pray properly. This is a fundamental principle whenever you are praying or meditating. You may feel unable t o say a single word because of the intense darkness and confusion which hedge you in on every side. But see that whatever you do say, you say truthfully as far as you possibly can. For example you could at least say the words `God, send help' truthfully. You may not be able to put much enthusiasm into the words, but you can still make yourself say them sincerely and mean what you say quite literally. The very truth of your words will send you light and you will be able to pray with the help of God. When you do this it sustains and perfects all the worlds (Ibid. 3).

18) You will also be able to break open the way for others and free them from the traps they are caught in and help them return to God (Ibid.).

19) It requires great merit to be able to offer up a person's prayers so that they ascend to the gate of his tribe. Each person must therefore bind his prayers to the Tzaddik of the generation, because the Tzaddik understands how to reach the different gates and cause each prayer to ascend to the proper gate (Ibid.).

20) You must pray so intensely that you pour your heart out like water before God. This will help to bring the Mashiach (Ibid. 9).

21) The secret of true prayer is known only to the Tzaddikim of the generation. Anyone who has a problem in his household should go to the Sage to appeal for mercy. God yearns for the prayers of the Tzaddikim. Those self-important people who refuse to go to ask the Tzaddik to pray for them and who try to stop others from going as well are preventi ng God from satisfying His yearning (10:4).

22) One should have no wish to occupy oneself with worldy pursuits at all. His whole concern should be with his soul. When he prays, his only thought should be for his spiritual welfare. Even when it comes to the prayers which seem to deal explicitly with material matters, such as the prayer for healing (`Heal us!') and prosperity (`Bless this yea r!') one should have in mind not the needs of the body but of the soul. The thought should be that the soul should be blessed and healed, etc. As a person perfects himself spiritually all his material problems are straightened out too. But his only thought should be for his spiritual welfare (14:9).

23) One should get into the habit of always praying for whatever one needs, be it livelihood, children or healing for someone who is sick at home, etc. The main recourse should always be to prayer, in the faith that God is good to all. One should always put one's main effort into searching for God and not go running after all kinds of other soluti ons. Most of them are no help at all, and the few that could be he probably isn't aware of and won't find in any case. But God is always to be found. If we call on Him it will help for everything (Ibid. 11).

24) When you pray, it should be with a sense of complete selfsacrifice. You must nullify your body and your whole sense of self and let no motive of personal gain enter your thoughts at all. Indeed you should not think of yourself at all. You should nullify yourself as if you simply did not exist. The way to achieve this is through `judgement' - - secluded meditation in which you speak to God and examine and judge yourself with regard to all your actions. Through this the faculty of fear is elevated to its root which is Da'at, the knowledge of God. This is the gateway to the revealed aspect of Torah, through which one can come to pray with true devotion and surrender. When your prayer is on such a level you will be worthy of uncovering the secrets of Torah, the `light stored up for the Tzaddikim.' Happy is the man who is worthy of this (15:2-4).

25) There is a serpent which induces people to pray for their own benefit: `Give us life! Give us food!' and so on. You must be firm and try to pray without any intention of gaining something for yourself. Simply pray as if you did not exist in this world at all. Then you will be worthy of the light stored up for the Tzaddikim (Ibid. 5).

26) The Holy One, blessed-be-He, yearns for the prayers of Israel. When we pray we are satisfying His desire, and He has great joy from us (Ibid.).

27) It is a great kindness of God to permit us to address Him in human terms in our prayers and blessings and to answer our appeals and requests when we do so. If it were not for His kindness, it would be completely inappropriate to call upon God with names and praises made up of mere words and letters. This thought alone should move you to pray w ith fire and passion: when you consider the true greatness of the Creator -- to the extent that you can form any conception of it at all -- and how He is exalted beyond all our human praises and titles, it is a wonderful sign of His love and tender mercy that He has given us permission to address Him in human terms and to pray to Him in order that we should be able to bind ourselves to Him. Therefore we should at least be sincere when we address Him in this way, since it is only through His love and mercy that we are able to do so at all (Ibid.).

28) When a Sage is about to give an exposition on Torah he must first pour out his prayers before God in order to arouse the Supreme Heart to send him words hot as

coals of fire. Only then should he begin his discourse. For then illumination will flow down in abundance from the Supreme Heart (20:2).

29) When he prays before his discourse, he should plead with God and beg Him for a gift -- a free present which he knows he has not earned. He should not rely on his own merits. He should stand before God like a poor beggar and beg for His help.

Whenever a person prays, he should never try to force matters and insist that God should to exactly wha t he wants Him to do. He should make his request and entreat God's love. If God grants it, well and good. And if not, then not (Ibid. 5).

30) When the Torah teacher prays before his discourse he should bind his soul with the souls of all his listeners. This will make his prayer into a `communal prayer' which `God never spurns,' and it will surely be accepted. The bond between all these souls will cause a great concentration of holiness in the worlds above (Ibid. 4).

31) No matter what level a person is standing on, it always has two aspects: the revealed and the concealed. These correspond to Torah and Prayer respectively. Each individual must constantly climb from level to level and thereby transform what was previously concealed from him into something revealed. The way to achieve this is through devotion t o Torah and praying intently. A person must study intensively and pray to God again and again until He reveals what was hidden from him until now. Then it will be revealed, leaving a new level of concealment even more exalted than before. He must now pray again until this in turn is revealed. In the same way he must climb from level to level, cons tantly pleading with God to grant an even higher perception. He must go on until he is merged with the first point of the world of Emanation -- the highest of the four worlds -- and thereafter he will be merged with the Infinite. Then he will be worthy of the `Torah of God' and the `Prayer of God.' This is the way to attain joy, and it is joy that gives us the strength and determination necessary to enter the gates of holiness and draw close to the genuine Tzaddikim. With their help we can attain complete faith. The basis for all these attainments is prayer. Prayer encompasses everything. In essence prayer stems from awe -- the awe which fills one with such a deep sense of shame before God that one could never think of transgressing, God forbid. One who reaches the levels we have mentioned will have `hands' with which to receive the guidance of the true spiritual leaders. Then the world will be free of persecution and divisiveness and peace will spread everywhere. Peace will reign between Israel and their Father in Heaven, and the forces of Holiness will be secure under the `seal within the seal' (22:10).

32) When a person prays with such intensity that he sacrifices himself completely and `kills' himself in his prayers, he should understand that wherever he finds extraneous thoughts entering his mind which need to be elevated, this is where he needs to put in the fiercest efforts in order to elevate the sparks of holiness (26).

33) It takes great determination to deal with the extraneous thoughts which come while praying. The whole medley of thoughts and ideas which are with a person all