The Baal Shem Tov on Prayer

The Soul said to the Master that he was given access all of his spiritual revelations, not because he had learned so much Talmud and Law, but because of his prayer. For he always prayed with great intensity. And thus, he was given access to upper levels.

Rabbi Yisrael Ba'al Shem, peace be upon him, said, "Make an opening (tzohar) for the ark (teivah)." (Gen. 6:16) That is, let your word (teivah) shine (matzhir).

For every letter contains worlds, souls and Divinity. These ascend and become bound up and united with one another, with Divinity. The letters then unite and become bound together to form a word (teivah), becoming truly unified in Divinity. The human being, therefore, must bring all of these aspects into their soul. All worlds will then be unified as one and ascend, and then great, immeasurable joy and delight will be created.

It is impossible to pray with intention unless one is given strength. And so one must ask the Blessed God for help and support, and think about how good it would be if the Blessed God helped to at least have intention for half the prayer...

Even if at the beginning of prayer, a person is unable to pray with attachment, nevertheless, he should say the words with great intention, and strengthen oneself, bit by bit, until the Blessed God helps him to pray with full attachment.

A person should not say too many Psalms before they pray, so that they do not weaken their body. For then they will not even have strength to say the essential prayers, the obligations of the day - that is Psukei d'Zimra, Shema, and the Amidah - with real attachment - because they have lost all their energy on other things before they even prayed.

You should think to oneself, before prayer, that you are ready to die from the intense concentration of this prayer. For there are those who do concentrate so intensely that sometimes they get close to death after saying only two or three words before the Blessed One.

And when you think this way, you should say in your heart, "How can I have any agenda or pride in this prayer since, after all, I could die after just one or two words?"

For truly, it is a great kindness that the Blesssed God gives you the strength to finish your prayer alive.

When a person is on a low level, then it is better that they pray from a Siddur, because through the power of seeing the words, they can pray with better intention.

But when a person attaches to the upper worlds, then it is better that they close their eyes, so that nothing distracts them from being attached to the upper worlds.

Prayer is coupling with the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence. And so just like at the beginning of coupling, one has to move, so one must move oneself at the beginning of prayer. Then afterwards, one can stand without moving and be completely attached to the Shekhinah. From the strength one gathered from moving oneself, one can come to a great awakening, and realize: Why am I moving myself, for surely the Shekhinah is standing right here with me. And from this, one comes to great excitement.

Our Teacher, Rabbi Yisrael Ba'al Shem said: When the body is sick, the soul is also weak, and cannot pray properly, even if one is free from all sin. Therefore, a person must take great care of the health of their body.

A person should not say, “On Shabbat I’ll pray with intention, but not during the week.” For one should not be like those who serve a king when the king is standing in front of them, and are deeply attached to their service - but when the king is not in front of them, they are not so eager in their service. That is not a loyal servant.

Rather one must know with faith that it it is bad for them to be without the king, and one should push away all the guards until one is able to come before the king. And even though one may not be able to talk to the king or even to approach him, nevertheless, the king will grant one’s wish, for he is merciful beyond belief.

You must learn and train yourself to pray with a low voice, even the Songs [of Praise], and to cry out silently. Whatever you say, whether it be in song or study, should be said with all your strength, as it is said, “All my bones shall say...” (Psalm 35:10)

An outcry rooted in deveikut is silent.

I heard from my teacher of blessed memory that it happens that some need to strengthen themselves before prayer, in order to have the mental channels (mochin) open to pray without any foreign thoughts at all, or to pray with cleaving. This is done by singing or by studying Torah before standing to pray, and this opens up the mental channels. There are some, however, who when they begin with many songs and Torah study have no mental channels open for prayer. This is the meaning of the Talmudic teaching (Menachot 110a): "One who brings much or one who brings little [are equal], as long as their heart is directed towards heaven" - as long as one has these mental channels, mochin, they are equal... and the words of the wise are pleasant.

One should set an intention in prayer to awaken the letters with which the heavens and the earth and all creatures and worlds, above and below, were created. As such, in reciting prayer and praise, you are speaking together with all the worlds and all the creatures, because you are awakening the letters, and the letters are the life-force of all creation. Therefore, you are speaking together with all of them, and raise up all creatures in heaven and on earth with this intention.

And when the elevated ones pray with such intention, they are even able to awaken the letters of the simpler creatures, and then they, too, are also able to pray with greater attunement and passion, and return to the good.

The Baal Shem Tov revealed this, and told his disciples: you need to pray even for that chirping bird flying there.

When a human being speaks with love and with awe, the Shechinah herself yearns to listen to their words, like a mother yearning for her child to speak some intelligible words and make her husband proud. So too, when your powerful words ascends on high and are adorned, this power gives rise to intense wonder, and all the angels ask: "Who is like Your people Israel, one nation." (I Chronicles 27:21)

It is crucial, therefore, to speak at least one word of prayer with love and with awe, because this is enough to arouse the angels to sing to the Holy One, and you arouse all the worlds when you are devoted to the Holy One - all the worlds become devoted to the Holy One too.

On Rosh Hashanah of 1746, I performed, by means of an oath, an elevation of the soul - as you know - and I saw wondrous things, things I had never seen before. And what I saw and learned when on my journey there, it is impossible to convey in words, even here face to face...

I ascended, level after level, until I entered the palace of Moshiach, and there Moshiach sat learning Torah with all the scholars and all the righteous, and even the seven shepherds were there. I witnessed incredible joy there, though I did not know exactly what it was for. I thought maybe it was because I had died and left the world [and they were welcoming me], though I found out eventually that I had not died...

And so I asked Moshiach, "When will the Master come?" And he answered me, "You will know it is time when 'your wellsprings overflow into the public square'." That is, what I have been teaching you

Movement and Stillness

At first one must awaken one's body, with all one's might, so that the power of the soul can shine forth. As it says in the Zohar: "A wooden beam that will not burn should be splintered, and then it will become aflame." Afterward, one will be able to worship with the mind alone, without any movement of the body.

And sometimes, when a person is attached to the upper world, to the Blessed Creator, one must be careful not to make any movement in the body at all, so that one's attachment will not be broken.

When one wishes to be in hitboddedut (seclusion/isolation/aloneness), one must have a friend with them. For one person alone is in danger. So there should be two people in one room, but each one is alone with the Blessed Creator.

And sometimes, when one is truly attached, one can be alone with oneself even in a house full of people.

HaDeveikut (attachment/clinging) is when someone is saying a word and they draw it out long. For because of their deveikut they do not want to separate themselves from the word, and so they draw it out.

When one wishes to pray, one should be state of awe, for this is the gate through which one enters to stand before God. Say in your heart: “To whom do I wish to attach myself? To the One who created all worlds with speech, gives them existence and sustains them.” Contemplate God's greatness and exaltedness, and then you will be able to enter the supernal worlds.

If a person is praying, and they start thinking about something else, then - have mercy - the klippah (husk/shell) "rides" on the word. For thought rides on speech. As it says, "[I have likened you, my darling, to a mare in Pharaoh's chariots." (Song of Songs 1:9) The horses are like words, and Pharaoh is like a strange thought riding on one...

It would be better if such a person had kept silent.

"Know what is above [from] you." (Avot 2:1) Meaning, know that everything that is above you, it all comes from you.

And if one's prayer is pure and clear, then certainly the sacred breath (hevel) coming out of their mouth in prayer will join and connect with the supernal breath (hevel) that constantly comes into a person and attaches to them. As our Holy Sages said in the Midrash on the verse (Psalms 150:6) "Every soul (neshamah) will praise God" - this means that with each and every breath (neshimah) that one breathes out, goes out from below to above and returns from above to below - certainly through this process some piece of divinity from within a person is now connected to its root.

Our sages taught (in Pesachim 117a) that whenever a psalm begins with "A song to David (mizmor leDavid)", that indicates that he would first play music and only then would the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, descend on him. The song would bring the holy spirit to David. And whenever the psalm begins "To David, a song (leDavid mizmor)", first the Shechinah would descend upon him with the holy spirit, and afterwards he would recite poetry and song.

And when we recite the Book of Psalms ourselves, we ought to be embarrassed and ashamed, for when does the Holy Spirit ever descend upon us, either before or after? With that in mind, we should be careful to say the psalms in holiness and in purity, in awe and wonder.

The wise person with 'eyes in their head' has the sense to know: if the time is ripe to become attuned to inner mysteries and to delight in them - how good! But if one sees that they are in the mystery of smallness and cannot find attunement, for distracting thoughts overpower them - in this case, one should pray like a day-old child from the written text.

This was attested to by my teacher, when he was in a foreign land for some time, he fell into such a state, and everything escaped him - so he would cleave himself to the letters.

When one is in a state of smallness, they can still cleave well to the Shekhinah, and then - suddenly! - in a single moment, when one thinks of the higher worlds, they will immediately be in the higher worlds. Because as a person thinks - there they are. And if one was not in the higher worlds, one would not be able to think of them at all.

One must to proceed from level to level in prayer, and not spend all one's strength at the beginning. Rather, one should begin with balance, and then in the middle, cleave with intense cleaving (deveikut), and then one will be able to say all the words of the prayer quickly. Even if at the beginning of the prayer, one is unable to pray with this intense cleaving, one should still say the words with great intention (kavannah). Slowly, one builds up the strength until God helps them be able to pray with great deveikut.

Even when one falls from their spiritual level, one should cleave to the Creator in smallness of thought. For even above there is sometimes smallness, in Ze'ir Anpin, the 'small face' of the Divine.

And from this smallness one can come to greatness, like with coals: if there is even one spark that remains, one can blow on it strongly until it becomes a huge fire. This is not the case when there is not even one small spark, there no fire can be raised. So too, if one is not constantly cleaving with a small thought to the Blessed One, their soul might be extinguished - God forbid!

The Baal Shem Tov explained the verse (Psalms 71:9) "Do not cast me away in the time (le'et) of my old age." This means do not cast away this moment (et) and let it grow old. For sometimes it happens that your worship grows old as time goes by.