The Secret of the Prayer of the Poor: When the Broken Heart Pierces the Gates of Heaven
Class No. 2 | Thursday, Parshas Kedoshim, 27 Nissan 5755 - Morning Class at the Yeshiva
When all the gates are locked, only the broken heart and the simple cry can pierce the heavens. A stirring class on the power of the 'prayer of the poor,' the secret of King David, and the way every person can bind himself to the tzaddikim and the brokenhearted so that his prayer will be accepted.
The foundation of everything is the broken heart. The lower a person is, the higher he can ascend. Sometimes a person has less intellect, less understanding, less desire—and he is broken by this. But he should not think that he can get by without this brokenheartedness, nor should he say, "I have a visa to Rebbe Nachman, I am already Breslov, everything is fine."
There is no visa to Rebbe Nachman, no visa to Uman, and no visa to the World to Come without personal spiritual work. These are false illusions. A person thinks that because he helped build the Kloyz (main Breslov synagogue) or did some other deed, he has acquired his portion in the World to Come. But the truth is that until a person truly opens his eyes, he will be broken again and again. It does not happen all at once.
Crying Over Guarding the Eyes
There is a story about a flour merchant who heard terrible sounds of crying echoing from the women's section of the synagogue. He was certain that someone was being beaten there, or perhaps a tragedy had occurred. He ran over and found a Jew crying profusely in Hisbodedus (secluded personal prayer). This was the tzaddik Rabbi Shmuel Shapiro zt"l. The merchant was so moved by these tears that he immediately sent a sack of flour to the rabbi's home.
What was he crying about so intensely? About guarding his eyes. Over every single sight, he would cry, begging Hashem to open his eyes anew in holiness. A person cannot imagine what a forbidden sight truly is, and how much pain one should feel over it. If not for tzaddikim like Rabbi Shmuel Shapiro, who guarded their eyes with such mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice), we would not even know that the concept of guarding one's eyes exists in the world. We would think it was just some story from three thousand years ago at the Giving of the Torah.
Rabbi Shmuel's wife, when she was still a twelve-year-old girl, read the book Shivchei HaRan (Praises of Rebbe Nachman) and cried, praying for a groom who would be so deeply attached to the tzaddik. When Rabbi Shmuel was suggested as a shidduch (marriage match), everyone opposed it, but she insisted: "This is the kind of groom I want! One who prays, who guards his eyes." A person must realize that this applies to every moment and every second. We must cry over this: "Master of the Universe, grant me the merit to guard my eyes."
Hashem Desires the Prayer of the Poor
If a person does not cry, his prayer does not ascend on high. The tears of the poor person, who pours out his heart with grievances before Hashem—Hashem has no greater desire and pleasure than this. Hashem yearns to hear this prayer. Sometimes, Hashem intentionally takes away a person's intellect, leaving him in darkness, just so that he will cry.
Why were the Matriarchs barren? So that they would cry. Sometimes, a person's mental clarity is taken away during Hisbodedus, and he cries out: "How long will I lack the intellect to learn? Master of the Universe, why do I have the mind for other things, but specifically when it comes to the Gemara, my head is blocked?" Hashem wants this person to cry, and this crying will elevate all the prayers.
Moshe Rabbeinu had to pray for forty days and forty nights to save the Jewish people. But the prayer of a brokenhearted poor person is accepted in a single second. It pierces through everything.
King David and the Locked Gates
King David saw with his Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Inspiration) that all the windows of the firmament were closed. A person comes to pray and sees that everything is locked. And suddenly, the prayer of a poor person arrives, filled with grievances, with cries from the depths of the heart: "Why am I poor? Why do I lack intellect?"—and this prayer pierces straight through the firmament, elevating all the other prayers along with it, even the prayer of King David himself that had been waiting there.
When King David saw that only the prayer of a poor person opens the gates, he decided: "I too will be a poor person." He stripped off his royal garments, sat on the ground, and began to cry, saying:
"A prayer of David: Incline Your ear, Hashem, answer me, for I am poor and destitute" (Tehillim 86:1).
But then a Heavenly Voice emerged and said to him: "David, what is this act? Are you putting on a show? You take off your shoes and cry, but you are a king! You have conquered nations all the way to Damascus, you rule over the world—what kind of poor person are you?"
When David heard this Heavenly Voice, he was truly broken. He realized that despite all his greatness, he was nothing. Then, out of this genuine brokenness, the awesome prayer of Psalm 102 poured forth from him:
"A prayer of the poor person when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before Hashem."
King David earned the title of "poor" only when he truly understood his own lowliness. He composed this prayer for all the poor and brokenhearted souls in every generation.
The Power of the "Mekasher" (Connector)
What should a person do if he feels that he is not broken? He has money in the bank, his children are settled, everything looks good, and he cannot manage to feel a broken heart. The holy Zohar says: He should associate himself with all the poor.
A person must say before prayer: "I hereby connect myself to all the poor of the generation, and to all the poor of all generations." The moment he connects himself to them, his prayer "hitches a ride" on their prayer. One of the poor people who pierces the heavens with his crying drags your prayer up along with his.
King David would connect himself to four types of broken people:
1. To the poor and the destitute.
2. To the pious and the tzaddikim.
3. To slaves: David saw that there is nothing more broken than a slave. People who lost their families, were dragged through the snows to the slave markets, beaten and tortured. He would pray: "Like the eyes of slaves to the hand of their masters... be gracious to us, Hashem, be gracious to us."