Open Your Mouth, Everything is Prepared for You – Parashat Vayetzei by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

THE REBBE SAYS IN LESSON 83: “AND HE REACHED THE PLACE” – THE AMIDAH PRAYER IS THE “PLACE.” You reached the Amidah prayer; you reached the right place.  A person who stands for the Amidah is found at the Foundation Stone.  He’s found right now in the Holy Temple.  He’s in the King’s chamber.  When a person reaches such a place, to prayer, at that time, a person isn’t found in the world at all.  He doesn’t exist, and there is no one here except for the King Himself.  One only sees that the entire earth is filled with His Glory and only sees Hashem.  One doesn’t see anything except for Hashem Yitbarach. If you have reached the Amidah prayer, if you’ve reached this place, here is the salvation, here is the million dollar jackpot.  You reached the right place!  What, are you fleeing?  Start to pray letter by letter, word for word.  You are in the chamber of the King; at the very least, stand for twenty minutes, a minute for every blessing.   You reached, “Refa’einu – Heal us” – here is the healing!  “Barech Aleinu – Bless us” – here is the livelihood!  You reached “Hashiveinu – Return us” – here is the teshuva (repentance)!  If you pray slowly, you will see that you will be saved with all forms of salvation!  There are 18 blessings parallel to the 18 vertebrae.  The “Tikkuney Zohar” explains that the shefa (spiritual and physical influx of blessing) comes down from the upper worlds to the lower worlds through the Amidah prayer.  Do you want for the shefa to flow – shefa of healing, livelihood, intellect, brains?  It needs to flow by way of 18 worlds, which are the 18 blessings.  Did you skip the Amidah?  Did you say it quickly?  The channels remain blocked, and the shefa cannot descend. The time for Minchah has arrived!  Why are you running away?  To where are you hurrying?  Stand for Minchah like a human being.  We pray Minchah for 40 minutes – you should also pray for 40 minutes.  What’s with you that you must finish the prayer first?  You are not the prayer leader!  The prayer leader needs to finish first, but you can stand for the Amidah for even an hour.  The Rebbe revealed that in prayer are all the salvations.  You don’t have anything to fear.  You don’t have anything to worry about.  The enemy will turn into your friend.  Do you have fear – what will be with the child?  What will be with the livelihood?  Stand for the Amidah – you will have all the salvations. Why doesn’t a person pray properly?  Because he doesn’t believe in the power of prayer.  Anyone who doesn’t pray properly, it’s only because he doesn’t have faith.  Why doesn’t a person pray slowly and doesn’t focus in prayer?  Because he thinks that he doesn’t need prayer.  Baruch Hashem, everything works out for him wonderfully without prayer.  He’s a millionaire without prayer.  The reason a person doesn’t pray with focus is because he simply lost his faith, like all the gentiles, who live without faith.  Because certainly if he would have complete faith, he would prayer every letter and every word with intention.  If he had a tiny bit of humility and would reduce his self-importance, constrict his mind, his ego, he would begin to pray with intention. If a person had complete faith and would believe that Hashem Yitbarach stands over him and hears every single word that comes out of his mouth and listens to his prayer, then he would pray properly.  The Kadosh Baruch Hu waits for your prayer.  He wants to give you everything.  He wants to bring us Mashiach.  He is just waiting for one prayer with intention -- one prayer with a broken heart, one prayer word for word, letter by letter.  He is simply waiting for this, longing for this.  This is basically our problem.  Because if we would pray one prayer with intention, Mashiach would come today, at this moment, this second. “WHEN A PERSON STANDS TO PRAY AND SAYS THE WORDS OF PRAYER, HE GATHERS BEAUTIFUL BLOSSOMS, FLOWERS AND ROSES” (LIKUTEY MOHARAN 65) When a person walks in the field, he sees anemones, cyclamens, and daffodils.  Then he wants to picks the entire field.  He cannot leave the field.  He walks and gathers more beautiful roses, more cyclamens, and more daffodils.  His soul returns to him.  So prayer needs to be.  Every letter is like an anemone, like a cyclamen, because every single word is an entire world.  When a person stands to pray and to say the words of prayer, he gathers blossoms, flowers, and roses.  A person needs to enter into the word, into the Amidah, into the letters.  Because every letter tells you stories.  It wants to give you all the gifts in the world.  Every letter wants to give you all the shefa in the world.  Through every single letter, another portion of a person’s soul is added to him.  The Rebbe says that the word comes and requests of you and beseeches you, “Why are you in a hurry, why are you running?  I will give you everything that you want.  I will give you whatever you want.”  Every letter grasps the person, embraces him, hugs him, says to him, “Do no depart from me.  Why are you rushing?  Why are you running away?”  With every single letter, a person draws onto himself all the shefa in the world, and one can bestow upon others and all generations, like Rabbeinu, who bestows shefa to all generations, to the days of Mashiach and the resurrection of the dead.  Because he stood for the Amidah prayer for several hours, every prayer slowly, and felt that every letter grasps him.  Therefore, he merited to complete his entire mission at the age of 38 and a half years. As soon as the first letter of prayer is uttered – for example, the Bet in the word “Baruch” – it pleads and asks the person: “Don’t part from me.  Say the word Baruch slowly.  I will give you everything.  How can you part from me?”  “Baruch” is all the blessings in the world.  Just from the word “Baruch” alone, the neshama should already depart because of so much devekut (attachment to the Divine).  The Bet says: “How can you leave me?  I don’t understand.  Stand by me, say me for a few seconds.  Stand patiently for a few seconds.  Say Baruch slowly.  You’ll receive an apartment, healing, everything that you need.  Why do you run away?  I love you.  I want you to say me slowly.  Don’t you see my beauty, my splendor, my radiance, my glory?  I will give you what you want.  Just be faithful to me.  Do not part from me so quickly, because of the great connection and love that we have between us.” RABBI NATAN PRAYS “THAT I SHOULD HAVE THE POWER TO DETACH MYSELF FROM THE LETTERS,” BECAUSE THE LETTERS GRASP A PERSON SO STRONGLY THAT HE CANNOT DETACH HIMSELF FROM THEM Until the age of 20, a person thinks that they are alive, that they are in control of their life.  Until the age of 20, a person isn’t punished from Heaven.  After 20, he’ll suddenly be ill, his wife will be ill, the child will be ill.  Every day, he has to go to the emergency room.  He doesn’t get what is being alluded to him: Start to pray!  Pray the Amidah with intention.  Say “Refa’einu” slowly – draw healing to everyone, to all the Jewish people.  “For You are a faithful and compassionate King and Healer.”  What?  Is the doctor at the clinic faithful?  Does he care about you?  Even if he is the most careful, most meticulous, it’s only for the sake of his career; that’s what interests him.  He isn’t faithful and he isn’t compassionate!  But Hashem Yitbarach is a faithful and compassionate King and Healer.  He takes care of you with total dedication.  He doesn’t need your money, honor, to fill out a report that he took care of another sick person, to receive some type of promotion.  You reached “Refa’einu”?  Receive all the healing in the world.  Stand like a man and say word by word, letter by letter, “Heal us Hashem, and we shall be healed.”  Heal me, heal me, God, faithful Healer. FOR EVERY JEW, ALL THE MIRACLES AND WONDERS ARE PREPARED.  EVERYTHING IS READY FOR HIM.  HASHEM IS JUST WAITING FOR ONE TO OPEN HIS MOUTH. TEFILAH L'ANI -- PRAYER TO PRAY WITH INTENTION Ribbono Shel Olam – Master of the Universe, Living and Enduring, Whose Glory fills the entire earth, Holy of Holies, that nothing can impede [Your] purpose from You, Stronger than all the strong, Mightier than all the mighty, Victorious over all the victorious, let me merit to focus in my prayer in every letter and word, and that I should believe with complete faith that You protect me, and stand over me every single second, and hear every letter and every utterance that leaves my mouth, and that You want to bestow upon me every good in the world, and You have infinite sorrow from not being able to bestow upon me, for You are full of compassion, and You are entirely and exclusively filled only with compassion, and we have no comprehension of Your infinite compassion, that You want to bestow endlessly and boundlessly only by way of the letters of prayer.  Therefore, from now on, may I merit to focus with all my heart, with every thread of my soul, on every single letter in prayer, and not utter any letter or word without intention.