The Torah Elevates Our Prayers -- Parashat Lech Lecha by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

“GO AWAY FROM YOUR LAND, FROM YOUR BIRTHPLACE, AND FROM YOUR FATHER’S HOUSE, TO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU…AND I WILL MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT.” “I WILL MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT” – THIS IS AN ALLUSION TO LEARNING SHAS (TALMUD).  “YOUR NAME (SHEMECHA)” IS THE NUMERICAL VALUE OF 360.  “SHAS” IS THE NUMERICAL VALUE OF 360.  YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT IF A PERSON DOESN’T LEARN SHAS, THEN HE DOESN’T HAVE ANYTHING.   HE DOESN’T HAVE AN IMAGE OF GOD, AND HE’S NOT EVEN A PERSON.  THE WHOLE NAME OF A PERSON, THE ENTIRE ESSENCE OF A PERSON IS BUILT THROUGH LEARNING SHAS.  THE ENTIRE PERSON IS ONLY SHAS, AND THIS IS WHAT HASHEM PROMISED AVRAHAM AVINU, “I WILL MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT,” THAT THIS IS TO SAY THAT HIS DESCENDANTS WILL BE INVOLVED IN TORAH AND WILL LEARN SHAS (SHEMECHA), AND ONLY THIS IS CALLED “SINCERITY,” AS IT IS WRITTEN, “FORTUNATE ARE THOSE WHOSE WAY IS SINCERE, WHO WALK WITH THE TORAH OF HASHEM” (TEHILIM 119:1). The Rebbe brings in Lesson 1 [of Likutey Moharan]: “Know, that through the Torah, all prayers and requests that we request and pray for are accepted.  The grace and importance of Israel are thus enhanced and elevated in the estimation of all of whom they may have need, whether in matters spiritual or physical.”  Only through Torah are all prays and requests accepted.  Any time that a person sees that a prayer was not accepted, it is because he doesn’t learn enough Shas.  All the grace and importance of Israel is dependent on those who learn Shas, because the Torah is called, “a beloved doe and a graceful gazelle (yaalat chein)” that bestows grace (maalah chein) on those who study it.  The Torah mamash bestows grace upon a person.  When a person comes home, if he learned Torah, he merits to grace.  His wife sees that he has grace, that the Shechinah (Divine Presence) rests on him.  Then there will be joy at home.  But if he comes without Torah, without grace, irritable, then there will be no joy in such a home. And now, in our many sins, the grace and importance of Israel have fallen.  Now, most of the importance and grace are found with the gentiles, with the wicked.  This is for only one reason: We don’t learn Shas.  “For the Jew must always focus on the inner intelligence of every matter, and bind himself to the wisdom and inner intelligence that is to be found in each thing.  This, so that the intelligence which is in each thing may enlighten him, because the inner intelligence is a great light that shines for a person in all his ways.”  The true intelligence is only learning Shas.  Outside of this, there is no intelligence in the world.  What shines for a person and guides him is only the intellect. A person must ensure that the intellect will shine more and more, expansively, as it is written, “growing brighter until high noon.”  All the Divine service of a person is only to expand the intellect, and according to how much he expands his intellect and learns Shas, so does he build the Temple.  If we want to build the Temple, to hasten the redemption, we need to expand the intellect, expand our knowledge, as our Sages said, “Anyone who has knowledge, it is as if the Temple was built in his days,” because the reason that the Temple hasn’t been built is because people don’t learn Shas with analysis, in depth.  Today, to build the Temple is simply to learn Shas.  The moment that a person learns Shas, the Sitra Atra (the forces of evil) will fall.  And one needs to sharpen the intellect.  The Divine service of a person is to sharpen the intellect, to learn Torah, that he will have quick and sharp mind, a mind which shines, like Rabbeinu says, “It is a great mitzvah to sharpen the intellect.  The “Chesed L’Avraham” says, that there are ten layers of obstruction on the mind, ten klipot (impure husks) on the mind, and every person needs to remove the klipot, to polish them, to cleanse them, and this is only through learning Shas with analysis and in depth. A person needs to know that Breslov and Gemara are one thing.  The point of Breslov is that we go according to what is written and not according to emotions and opinions, and not according to what is convenient.  “Go forth by the footsteps of the flock and graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ dwellings” – that one needs to listen to voice of the Tzaddikim, the voice of the shepherds.  If you are a Breslov Chasid, you need to listen to Likutey Moharan, the first thing in Likutey Moharan [Lesson 1] – it is written that a person needs to have intellect, to learn Shas, and only this is called sincerity. “Fortunate are those whose way is sincere, who walk with the Torah of Hashem” – a person needs to know that Breslov Chasidut does not, God forbid, come to annul even an apex of a Yud, nor any custom of the Jewish people, nor anything which is accepted by the Jewish people.  It only comes to add more, to add more fear of God, more guarding one’s eyes, more holiness.  A person has heresy in his heart.  He doesn’t believe that Hashem stands with him at every moment.  If a person doesn’t pray with intention, doesn’t feel that Hashem stands in front of him, it’s because he has heresy in his heart, that he doesn’t believe that Hashem is present.  When a person talks to a friend, he’s careful to think through every word that leaves his mouth, especially if this is a king, he is more careful, so that they won’t catch him on some mistake, God forbid, on something illogical that he might say.  When he talks to a friend, he doesn’t just talk.  He can talk for ten hours, because he sees a “person” with a face, hands, feet.  But Hashem lives and endures and is present in front of us, and we don’t feel Him.  The fact that a person doesn’t feel Hashem and doesn’t pray with intention shows that we don’t have intellect, that we don’t have a mind.  This is only because he lacks intellect, like how there are illnesses where people lose their minds and don’t recognize their parents.  So too when a person doesn’t have intellect.  He doesn’t have Torah, he doesn’t recognize his father and mother, which is the Kadosh Baruch Hu.  If a person could, he would transplant for himself intellect, but they still haven’t found a way to transplant a brain. To receive intellect and a mind, says Rabbeinu HaKadosh, is only through learning Shas in depth, learning Torah, and when one learns Torah, one merits to nullify the heresy in his heart, to feel Hashem.  [We merit] to grace and importance, and one’s prayers and requests are accepted.