The Secret of the Broken Heart: The Cry That Pierces All the Gates of Heaven

Lesson #2 | Thursday, Parshas Kedoshim, 27th of Nissan 5755 – Morning Class at the Yeshiva

King David saw that all the gates of Heaven were locked, until the prayer of a brokenhearted poor person arrived and opened them all in a single moment. How does one merit the power of 'A Prayer for the Poor,' and what is the advice for someone who feels far from true brokenheartedness? A fascinating class on the power to connect ourselves to the Tzaddikim and those who sacrifice their lives.

The foundation of everything is the broken heart. The lower a person is, with a deeper broken heart, the higher they can ascend. Sometimes a person has less intellect, less understanding, or less desire, and they are broken by this. A person should not say to themselves: "It's fine, I have a visa to the Rebbe, I am already Breslov, everything is arranged." There is no automatic "visa" to the Rebbe, neither to Uman nor to the World to Come. These are false delusions. What will be with him after a hundred and twenty years? Until a person truly opens their eyes, nothing moves. It doesn't happen all at once; we are broken again and again, so that we may build the true vessels.

Guarding the Eyes with Self-Sacrifice (Mesirus Nefesh)

A person must remember the spiritual pain contained in every forbidden sight. We cannot imagine at all the significance of guarding one's eyes. There was a hidden Tzaddik, R' Shmuel Shapira zt"l. If we hadn't seen Shmuel Shapira, we wouldn't know that such a concept of guarding the eyes exists in the world. We would think it's some story from three thousand years ago, from the Giving of the Torah. But it applies to every moment and every second.

It is told about his grandmother, that already from the age of twelve she cried and asked for such a groom. The book 'Shivchei HaRan' (Praises of Rebbe Nachman) fell into her hands; she read the introduction about the Rebbe's greatness, and although she came from a Litvish home, she said: "I want a groom like this." When the shidduch (match) was proposed, the family opposed it because he was a Breslover, but she saw him at a wedding sitting with his eyes closed and said: "He is the one I want! I have prayed for this since age twelve." A person can merit the levels of an angel, like Shmuel Shapira who guarded his eyes with self-sacrifice, but one must cry for it. To cry with a broken heart, terrible weeping, over every blemish and every sight.

The Virtue of the Prayer of the Poor

If a person does not cry, their prayer struggles to ascend. In contrast, the tears of the poor person—that person who pours out their heart with complaints before Hashem—the Holy One, Blessed is He, has no greater desire and pleasure than from them. Hashem yearns to hear this prayer. Sometimes Hashem takes away a person's intellect on purpose, or leaves the matriarchs barren, just so they will cry. A person asks in Hisbodedus: "Master of the World, why do I lack the mind to learn? To fix a table I have brains, but in Gemara my head shuts down?" The answer is that Hashem wants this person to cry, and this crying will elevate all the prayers in the world.

Moshe Rabbeinu needed to pray forty days and forty nights for Hashem to accept his prayer for the Jewish people. But "A Prayer for the Poor"—this is accepted in a single second. The prayer of a poor person with a broken heart pierces firmaments and elevates all other prayers with it.

King David saw with his Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Spirit) all the windows of the firmament closed. All the gates were locked. And behold, suddenly comes the prayer of a poor person, with complaints and shouts: "Why am I poor? Why do I have no intellect?", and this prayer pierces straight through the firmament, blasts open all the locks, and elevates with it even the prayer of King David, which had been waiting there for hours for someone to open the gate for it.

King David Requests to be Poor

When King David saw that only the prayer of a poor person pierces all the screens, he decided: "I, too, will be poor." He took off his royal garments, sat on the ground, and began to cry and say: > "A Prayer of David: Incline Your ear, O Hashem, answer me, for I am poor and destitute" (Psalms 86).

A Heavenly Voice came out and said to him: "David, what show are you putting on? You are a king who rules over nations, you conquered up to Damascus, you are entirely radiating royal glory—what kind of poor man are you? Why are you acting?" When David heard this Heavenly Voice, he was truly broken. He understood that one cannot put on "shows" of being poor. Out of this genuine brokenness, a completely different psalm emerged from him—Psalm 102:
> "A prayer for the poor man when he wraps himself [in faintness], and pours out his speech before Hashem."

Here David no longer says "for I am poor and destitute," but rather he nullifies himself completely and connects to the essence of the true poor man.

The Secret of "Hareini Mekasher" (I Hereby Bind Myself)

The question arises, what should a person do who does not feel lowliness? The holy Zohar asks: A person who has a million dollars in the bank, has married off all his children, everything is going smoothly for him—how will he pray like a poor man? He doesn't know how to be broken.

The advice is: "Let him associate himself with all the poor." Let him say before the prayer: "I hereby bind myself to all the poor people in this generation, and to all the poor of all generations." The moment he binds himself to the poor, the wretched, and the brokenhearted, his prayer "hitches a ride" on their prayer. When one of the poor people pierces the windows of the firmament with his weeping, he drags with him the prayer of the one who bound himself to him.

Whoever feels that their prayer is not ascending, let them believe in this power. One does not need angels or seraphim; when a person makes themselves like a poor man and binds themselves to Klal Yisrael (the collective of Israel), the prayer ascends directly. King David would make four bindings: to all the poor, to all the Chassidim, to all the tortured slaves, and to all those who died for Kiddush Hashem (Sanctification of the Name).

Connecting to Those Who Sacrificed Their Lives

The highest level is to bind ourselves to those who died for Kiddush Hashem. King David says: > "Save Your servant, You are my God... for to You, O Hashem, I lift my soul" (Nafshi Esa).
"I lift my soul"—this is the connection to all those holy ones who sacrificed their souls. In our generation, a person must bind themselves to all the six million, to all those who are killed for Kiddush Hashem every day. Whoever binds themselves to them is promised that their suffering atones for him as well.

Hashem has no greater "pleasing scent" than a generation of destruction (Shmad), a generation where Jews sacrifice their souls with faith (Emunah). When we travel to Uman or to the graves of Tzaddikim, the goal is to bond with those who sacrificed their souls, with the souls of the Tzaddikim and the holy ones. This is the main tikkun (rectification) of a person—that they can walk in this world, amidst all the dangers, and no one can touch them, because they are connected at every moment to eternity, to all those holy ones, and in this merit, we will be worthy of the complete Geulah (Redemption).

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