Hayom Yom: Tackling Life's Tasks - 5 Kislev

Living as a Chassid

The four rungs of this cosmic ladder provide access from This World to the heavenly realms.

Acknowledgment, the first rung of prayer, lifts us beyond our earthiness. What does acknowledgment mean? To accept the validity of another person’s position even when one does not fully understand it. In spiritual terms, this means accepting such concepts as the unity of G‑d, His presence in the world, and His desire that we serve Him, even when we have not yet plumbed the full depth of their meaning. This is the attitude with which one begins praying.

When climbing a ladder, it is the ascent to the first rung that lifts one above the earth. All the later ascents are relative. Similarly in prayer, the humble recognition of a spiritual truth that one has not fully grasped lifts one out of the limits of his personal ego and thus allows his spiritual feelings to find expression.

The next stages of prayer — Pesukei DeZimra, the blessings that frame the Shema, and the Shema — speak of G‑d’s greatness, His oneness and His presence in creation. These stages move us from acknowledgment to understanding. As a result, the heart responds to the mind and one is motivated to some measure of love and fear of G‑d.

With the next stage, the Shemoneh Esreh prayer, a person enters a state of bittul, like a servant standing before his master.6 He no longer thinks of himself or even of his individual love for G‑d, but instead sees himself as existing only for His sake. Even the material requests of Shemoneh Esreh are not made to satisfy our needs and wants, but so that G‑d’s Will be fulfilled in the world. When the preparatory steps are taken in the proper manner, the germinal connection with G‑d that had previously been rooted in one’s belief and understanding blossoms into actual experience.

Day after day, a chassid humbly endeavors to ascend the ladder anew, striving to scale uncharted heights of spiritual awareness and closeness to G‑d.7