Parashat Ki Tavo - The Power of Crying Out to Hashem and the Secret of Deep Counsels

"And we cried out to Hashem..." (Devarim 26:7)

A person needs to reveal the deep counsels! A person needs to reveal the deep counsels that will pull him out of the lowest depths of the abyss and beneath it, as it is written:

"Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water" (Mishlei 20:5).

The main thing is the cries that one cries out to Hashem day and night! Every hour crying out to Hashem! Because one must draw down the counsels through crying out. For all counsels are revealed through crying out to Hashem. Baruch Hashem, we sleep well, eat well, drink and are happy – this is wonderful until 120 years! Until a million years! But the question is, where will we get with the eating and drinking? Where will we get? If we do not cry out to Hashem, where will we get? Because when one eats well and sleeps well, then automatically the counsels disappear, there are no counsels!

Breslov is only crying out to Hashem! Everyone cries out to Hashem to get out of his lowest depths, to get out of his forbidden sights, from his forbidden thoughts. One must constantly cry out to Hashem to reveal the counsels of our Rebbe. One must reveal the "Flowing Brook" (Nachal Novea) – our Rebbe is flowing springs, but one needs to dig a little! One needs to dig a few centimeters! If a person gives one true cry, then entire geysers will burst forth, rivers of water will come out, all the counsels on how to get out of the lowest depths will be revealed to him. And when a person is in public, he can cry out quietly:

"Out of the depths I have called to You, Hashem" (Tehillim 130:1) – the cry of the heart from the depths.

The Seven Voices of the Giving of the Torah

All the counsels are drawn down through the "voices". There are seven voices:

"The voice of Hashem is upon the waters... The voice of Hashem hews out flames of fire... The voice of Hashem makes the desert tremble... The voice of Hashem frightens the hinds and strips the forests bare" (Tehillim 29).

There are such voices that strip forests bare! There are such voices that uproot trees! Such cries we must cry out to Hashem! At the time Hashem gave the Torah, He gave it with such voices that the whole world trembled, all the mountains were uprooted from their places. And we must awaken these voices every moment, we must awaken the seven voices of the Giving of the Torah every moment. Hashem can give you such voices, such cries, that all the mountains will be uprooted from their places! All the foreign ideas, all the bad habits, all the lusts, all the bad you received in your genes, in your nature – everything will be uprooted! All things will be uprooted from their places.

Rabbi Shmuel Shapiro, one of the greatest Breslov chassidim, would cry out from Maariv until morning until he would vomit blood, the veins in his throat would burst, he would be bleeding and yet he would still cry out to Hashem. And in the merit of this, he had such holy and pure grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We must restore the crown of Breslov to its former glory, we must cry out such cries to Hashem, such voices until the counsels are revealed.

The counsels are revealed through the voice of Hashem, because Hashem speaks to us every second and every minute, Hashem cries out to us every moment. When a person cries out to Hashem, he awakens the Supernal Voice and then all the deep counsels to get out of the lowest depths are revealed. So even if a person has long peyot and a long beard and everything is wonderful, he has a great appearance! But if he does not give cries to Hashem, then he will sink into the lowest depths of the abyss and beneath it with the peyot and the beard.

The Immense Virtue of the Ba'al Teshuvah

If you merited to be a ba'al teshuvah, then prove that you are a ba'al teshuvah! Prove it! Give cries to Hashem! Do not leave the Gemara! Do not leave the Likutey Halachot! Do not leave the Siddur! Cry out to Hashem: "I don't want to fall anymore! I don't want to go to the places I used to be! I don't want my children to go through what I went through!".

You are now a captive, you are in the lowest depths, Esav found prey! He hunted you! The kelipot hunted you! Cry out to Hashem: "Please Hashem, save now," "Hashem, save." You were not born a tzaddik, you are now at age 20 just starting to learn, it is a billion times harder! A billion times! But the reward will also be a billion times greater. The harder it is for a person, the greater the reward will be. If you cry out to Hashem, the world will be built! Wars will be canceled! You will cry out to Hashem and you will bring thousands more back in teshuvah.

In order to reach any point of holiness, you need to cry out cries up to the heart of heaven. Because certainly you have no desire to learn, certainly you have no desire to pray, does a person change in a second? It's the same lady in a different cloak, it's all the same thing! You just put on a shtreimel and a long coat! A person says: If so, what did I become a ba'al teshuvah for? In truth, you became a ba'al teshuvah so that you would cry out to Hashem, so that you would scream to Hashem, and this is the virtue of the ba'al teshuvah.

It is hard for him to learn Gemara, it is hard for him to pray, it is hard for him to sing Shabbat zemirot, it is hard for him to hold out in the yeshiva for so many hours, and therefore he begins to cry out and cry out up to the heart of heaven. And through this, the Zohar says, he merits and ascends to the highest places! He ascends up to the Sefirah of Binah, where the secret of the Geulah (Redemption) is. But a person who was born a tzaddik from Mea Shearim, what does he need to cry out for? He sings the Shabbat zemirot easily, he prays, he sits quietly in the yeshiva, he does not feel that he needs to cry out to Hashem, he simply continues in the furrow. And therefore the Zohar says about him that he only ascends up to the Sefirah of Yesod. And in truth, even one who was born in Mea Shearim, he too can be in the aspect of a ba'al teshuvah, he too can cry out to Hashem like a ba'al teshuvah, and this is only if he merits to feel his lack and sees how far he is from Hashem.

The Miracles are According to the Cries

A person must believe that Hashem is looking to do miracles and wonders for him every moment, as it is written:

"And His wonders to the children of men" (Tehillim 107:8).

Hashem wants to do wondrous wonders with us:

"In You our fathers trusted... To You they cried out and they escaped" (Tehillim 22:5-6).

The miracles and wonders are according to the cries! They are according to the screams! Because a person's salvation is ready to come every second and every moment. In whatever trouble he may be, in whatever place he may be, even in the heart of the sea! Even in the middle of the desert! Wherever he may be! In whatever trouble he finds himself! Hashem has aligned all the systems to help him, all the salvations he needs are already prepared! He just needs to give one cry to Hashem, one true cry.

The Light of the King's Face: The Inner Connection with the Creator

Hashem feels that we are disconnecting from Him. Hashem sanctified (betrothed) us, just as a man betroths a woman, and we cannot look to the sides, just as a woman must be faithful to her husband. If she does things without her husband knowing about it, without connection to her husband, she has essentially disconnected herself from her husband and is leading to a process of disconnection, God forbid. This is essentially our connection with Hashem. Any place where one cannot bring Hashem there, such as to the feast of Achashverosh, if I cannot bring Hashem with me, the book of Tehillim with me, the Tikkun Haklali with me, the Jewish heart yearning for the truth with me – then it is a sign that this place is not good.

How were they saved from this thing? Every Jew, within his innermost being, has this great light of His blessed Essence; this light, which is the highest light, is found in the simplest Jew in the world. When they tell him to do all sorts of things and he thinks: "This will not disconnect me from Hashem, what's the big deal, I'll just chat a bit now, I'll say all sorts of irrelevant things, I'll speak a little lashon hara, I'll read some foolish books, I'll speak idle words, I'll indulge in all sorts of unnecessary foods – this will not disconnect me from Hashem because I am strong," this is called a spirit of folly (ruach shtut). A spirit of folly has entered him. Meaning, someone confused him into thinking he wouldn't disconnect.

But if we were to say to him: "Listen, with this thing you are speaking, you are disconnecting from Hashem," he would not speak. With this deed you are doing now, with your excessive eating you are now disconnecting – he would not do it, he would not eat. If he knew that he was truly going to disconnect, he would be ready to die for the sanctification of Hashem's Name (Kiddush Hashem) and not disconnect. And this is what happened to the Jewish people. This great light of His blessed Essence, which beats in every simplest Jew, this light itself awakens and essentially does the work of itaruta d'letata, of an awakening from below. The work of a Jew who serves Hashem with earnestness and simplicity. Because a person cannot completely disconnect from Hashem; Hashem is our soul, He is our life, "For He is your life." We know that there is nothing besides You. If we do not have You, we are ready to die.

A Story for the Parashah: Let Us Search and Examine Our Ways

"Let us search and examine our ways, and return to Hashem" (Eichah 3:40)

In the year 5627 (1867), a deadly plague broke out in Bauska, which claimed many victims among the members of the community. As is customary in Israel, the Jews of the city gathered in the synagogues to pour out speech and prayer before the Dweller on High. And when the plague in the city did not cease, the heads of the community decided to assign several dignitaries, who were accepted by the public as complete tzaddikim, to investigate and inquire in all the neighborhoods of the city, to see if someone had not stumbled in a grave sin, thereby bringing upon his place of residence the great trouble that had befallen them.

And before they carried out this decision, the heads of the community turned to their beloved rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai, so that he would give his consent to this. Rabbi Mordechai listened with great attention to the words of those who came, but firmly rejected the practical proposal of the community leaders, and said to them among other things: "I believe, like you, that there is no punishment without sin, and at all times we must examine our deeds and rectify our ways, for 'There is no righteous man on earth who does good and sins not' (Kohelet 7:20). However, in this matter we must adhere at all times to the following rule: Iniquities and sins a person must search for, not in others - but in himself!"

"And when every person in our city fulfills in himself 'Let us search and examine our ways, and return to Hashem' – for it is written 'our ways', our own ways! And not those of others – only then will our large public automatically be purified from all sin and iniquity, and the verse will be fulfilled in us: 'There is no breach... and no outcry in our streets' (Tehillim 144:14)... And surely then the plague will stop!".

A Prayer of the Afflicted

Master of the Universe, just as You brought Yonah down to the deepest depths of the abysses in the heart of the seas, so that he would cry out from the depths over his troubles and over the loss of the world, so too now You have not brought us down to the deepest depths in spirituality and in physicality, to which Israel has never fallen, except so that we will cry out to You and You will redeem us. For You have no desire in the loss of Israel, Your treasured nation, nor in the loss of the world and its destruction, and all the revelation of Your judgment is nothing but an immense loving-kindness to return us to You, so that we will call and cry out to You from the depths of the heart.