Spiritual Inspiration by the Bucketful!

Welcome!
With God's help, Chambers of the Palace: Teachings of R. Nachman of Breslov will soon be available as a printed book. If you want to be notified when it comes out, please email me, at yacovdavid@gmail.com.

In addition, God willing, this blog will post other teachings of R. Nachman on a regular basis. Please visit often.

Here is what some reviewers have said of Chambers of the Palace.

“I thoroughly enjoyed The Chambers of the Palace. The editing and translations are superb – kol hakavod!”—R. Lazer Brody

"For those seeking an entrance into the realm of Jewish spiritual and mystical teachings, there is no better guide than Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. Nor is there a better introduction to Rabbi Nachman's teachings than The Chambers of the Palace. In this beautifully translated work, Shulman has selected the essential teachings from a vast library of writings and organized them into 42 primary categories”—Howard Schwartz (Gabriel's Palace, Elijah's Violin, et al.), St. Louis-Post Dispatch.

"A scholarly, well-researched, well-written contribution to Judaic studies”—Wisconsin Bookwatch.

Again, send me an email and I'll let you know when the book becomes available.

Monday, December 3, 2007

A Person Has to Pray to God

A person has to pray to God, clinging to Him intensely.

But if sometimes you cannot pray with such cleaving to God, don’t say that because you can’t concentrate properly and cling to God in your prayer, and your prayer will not be accepted, that you won’t pray at all.

R. Chaninah ben Dosa said that “when my prayer rolls smoothly in my mouth, I know that it has been accepted…” (Berachot 34b). [At other times, his prayer wasn’t smooth in his mouth—but he prayed at those times too.]

If you pray and cling to God, then your prayer is smooth in your mouth and it is accepted. If not, heaven forbid, the opposite holds true.

Still, don’t let that discourage you. Instead, always pray.

And if you cannot pray and cling to God properly, pray with all your might.

And when you pray and cling to God properly, then you will lift up all of your other prayers as well.

“I pleaded with Hashem at that time, saying” (Deuteronomy 3:23).

“I pleaded with Hashem”—constantly, whether clinging to Him or not.

“At that time, saying.” When a person can pray and cling to God, when his prayer rolls smoothly in his mouth, when he is saying them easily because he is praying and cleaving to God, then all of his prayers rise to God.
Likutei Moharan 99

No comments: