Kabbalah Library

193. King David placed himself in four ways: He placed himself with the poor, placed himself with the pious, placed himself with the servant‎s, and placed himself with those who dedicate themselves and devote their souls to sanctifying the Creator. He placed himself with the poor, as it is written, “for I am poor and destitute.” He placed himself with the pious, as it is written, “Protect my soul for I am pious.” One must not pretend to be wicked; thus, will he never commit his sins? After all, by this he shows himself as wicked. However, when he confesses his sins, he is pious, since he came to seek redemption, and he pulls himself out from the bad side, which was in his filth thus far, and now he has adhered to the upper right, Hesed, which is stretched out to welcome him. Since he adhered to Hesed, he is called Hassid.

194. It cannot be said that the Creator does not accept him until he details all his sins since the day he came to the world, or including those who were hidden from him and he cannot remember them. This is not so. Rather, he needs to explain only those sins he remembers. If he places his will in them, to regret them during the confession, all the other sins follow them. Just as one does not check the holes at the top of the house, and the holes at the bottom of the house, in rooting out the leaven, but checks according to what his eyes see, according to what he can see, everything follows this and is canceled with it.

195. We also learn this concerning afflictions, twenty-four tops of organs that do not defile because of sustainability, that the priest would not trouble himself in their regard, to see them. It is written, “so far as the priest can see,” which is a place where the priest can see the affliction at once, with one look, and does not need to bow down and raise his eyes to here and to there.

Here, too, he does not need to explain his sins since the day he has been in the world, which is like the holes at the bottom of the house, which he does not need to check, and not the sins he had forgotten, that he cannot remember, which are like the holes at the top of the house. Rather, it is “so far as the priest can see”; what he could see with one look, and everyone followed them. After this, David built himself before his master.

197. I raised my hands in prayer before the holy king. It is forbidden for a person to raise his hands up except during prayer, and in blessings, and in pleading before his master, as it is written, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High.” He interprets, “I have raised my hand,” in prayer, since the fingers of the hands have sublime things in them, and now I raise my hand in prayer.

Anyone who arranges these four—poor, Hassidim, servant‎s, and those who sanctify the Creator—and himself willingly engages in this correction properly, through this correction, his prayer will not return empty handed.

198. First, one should make himself into a servant‎, to praise his master and sing before him. This is in the praises before the prayer. Then, one should make oneself a servant‎, meaning after he prayed the Standing Prayer [Amidah], he is a servant‎ who prays to his master. Afterwards, he will make himself into a servant‎, after he has prayed his entire prayer and left. This is why David made himself a servant‎ three times in this prayer, as it is written, “Save Your servant, you are My God. Rejoice the soul of Your servant. Give Your strength to Your servant.” Thus, three times one must make oneself a servant: before the prayer, after the Eighteen Prayer [another name for Amidah], and after the entire prayer.

199. Afterwards, one should place oneself among those who have devoted themselves to sanctifying the Creator in the unification of Hear O Israel, for anyone who places his will this way in this verse, it is considered as though he has devoted himself to sanctifying the Creator.

200. Afterwards, he must make himself as a poor man, since when he enters and knocks on the doors of the Most High, when he says the blessing Steadfast and True, and attaches redemption to prayer, he should be brokenhearted, poor and destitute during the Amidah prayer, in the Eighteen. He should place his will to be incorporated among the destitute in breaking the heart and in the lowliness of the soul.

201. Afterwards, he should place himself among the Hassidim during the blessing “Who hears the prayer,” to interpret his sins, since this is what one should do in “Who hears a prayer” in order to adhere to the right, which is Hesed, stretched out to welcome the returning, and then he is called Hassid. Thus, these four are as they should be.

202. One who incorporates all those is one who should incorporate them, and this is the servant, who contains all the others, which are sanctifying the Creator, poor, and Hassid. They are three servants in three places, and they are all one. It is written about them, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master.” Between a servant and a servant are those others. Between the first servant, before the prayer, and the last servant, after the Amidah prayer, one should devote himself to sanctifying the Creator, and make himself poor and destitute in the Standing prayer [Amidah], and place himself among the Hassidim in “Who hears a prayer.” The third servant is after he has finished and arranged everything after the whole prayer.

203. At the same time when the man arranged all those four orders in the will of the heart, it pleases the Creator and He spreads His right [hand] over him in the third servant after the entire prayer, and declares about him and tells him, “You are My servant,” as it is written, “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” Certainly, the prayer of that person will never return empty to the world.

204. Two of those three servants contain all the others within them: Sanctifying the Creator, poor, and Hassid. The third servant is poised to seal in it the imprint of above, to place in it the king’s right hand, and with which he is praised. However, those two servants, the first one before the prayer, and the second one after the Standing prayer, are the totality of everything. King David praised himself with them, as it is written, “O Lord, for I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant,” since these contain all the others.

The third servant, after the entire prayer, stands this way to redeem me, as it is written, “Save Your servant; You are My God.” One who arranges this way, it will be known to him that the Creator praises Himself with him and declares about him, “You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

205. We read about this, “more desirable than gold, than much fine gold, and sweeter than honey.” How sweet are the ancient words that the first ones have established. When we taste them, we cannot eat them since we do not understand them. But the verse proves about three servants, and they are one, in one place. Two are as was said before, and the third one is for the Creator to crown Himself with.

It is written, “For it is to Me that the people of Israel are servants; they are My servants.” They are two servants, before the prayer and after the Standing prayer. And it is written, “They shall not be sold as slaves,” which is the third, since the Creator had to be crowned in that third servant. This is why he will not be sold as a slave, since he belongs to the Creator.

206. It is written, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” One who is accustomed to coming to the synagogue to pray, and one day he does not come, the Creator asks about him and says, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light.” But what is “obeys the voice of his servant”? Whose? If his servant is a prophet or another person, then who placed a prophet or another person to the prayer? Is it because he prayed his prayer that he obeys the voice of a prophet or of another person in the world?

107. However, one who prays prayers each day, hears the voice, that the Creator calls him, and He is glorified in him and says that he is His servant. That is, He obeys the voice of the one who is called “His servant,” since it is a sublime praise, that a voice comes out about him, that he is His servant. Also, the voice is heard through all those firmaments that he is a servant of the Holy King. And this is “obeys the voice of His slave.”

208. “Let him who walks in darkness and has no light…” Did he walk in darkness because he did not come to pray? However, before Israel assemble in synagogues to pray, the Sitra Achra stands and closes all the upper lights so they do not expand and come out on the world. Three times a day, the Sitra Achra, male and female, go out and roam the world. That time is established for a prayer, since there is no slandering at all.

209. That time is the time for a prayer, since because the Sitra Achra walk to roam the mountains of darkness and the high mountain, at that time, they open the windows of the upper lights and come out and are present on synagogues, in the heads of those who pray the prayers, and the lights spread over their heads.

The Creator asks about the one who is not there and says, “It is a shame that so and so, who was usually here, has now gone to darkness, that he moved from the lights and went to roam in mountains in the world, since he is under the control of the Sitra Achra in the mountains of darkness. He has come out from the brightness, which is the light that shines at schools, and he has no part in it. He has no brightness, as it expands and is present on the others in the synagogue; he has lost so much good!”

If he were there, then, as it is written, “Let him trust in the name of the Lord, included in the first servant, before the prayer, “and rely on his God,” the second servant after the Standing prayer.

210. All the lions in the world are mighty, and Rabbi Shimon and his son more than all of them. All the lions in the world, it is hard to take out prey from their mouths, while those, it is easy to take out prey, words of Torah, from their mouths. They hunt prey and give to everyone.

211. “Who walks in darkness.” Should it not have written “Who walked”? However, because the Sitra Achra are in a connection of male and female and promptly separate, “who walks,” in connection, and they are one. “Darkness,” for they have parted. They begin in connection and immediately separate. It is written similarly, “A stormy wind comes,” which is male and female of the Sitra Achra, who are called “stormy wind,” and then it is written “comes,” in singular form and feminine [in Hebrew], since the female leaves the male, as they immediately separate.