Credo of a Modern Kabbalist by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Author:Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi [by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, with Rabbi Daniel Siegel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781412236973
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
Published: 2006-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

In this chapter, I wanted to discuss the “why” of prayer more than the “how.” What takes place in prayer? What are the urges that bring us to it and what are the dimensions with which we get in touch? What are the transformations we have

to do? So now, I want to spell out how that manifests on each level.

First of all, it would help to know how a photocopier works. You take something on which there is some printing and put it into the machine. There is a lens which then focusses the light and the dark parts of the printed material on a plate, which gets charged electrostatically. Where the original is light (i.e. not printed), the charge won’t pick up dust and where the original is dark (i.e. printed), the charge will pick up dust. The dust is a carbon dust and, as a piece of paper goes by, the carbon dust is pressed onto the piece of paper. The dust only stays in those places where the original was dark and that’s how, photographically, the printer’s ink is attracted to those spots by the electrical charge.

There is a level in which prayer does something similar. I put out in the universe and say, “Master of the universe, God...,” which is another way of saying, “I inform the consciousness of the cosmos that there is a need here to be filled.” I’m charging this need with negative electrons and saying that what is needed here is a healing. I say healing, but what I’m saying is healing negative to attract healing positive. I do believe that the universe responds to signals that come from us in a deep way. I also believe that the means by which we communicate with the universe to put out the signals of what it is that we need is what prayer on a simple level is all about. I have a friend who always talked about the “Cosmic Gazette.” We put ads in the Cosmic Gazette, in the classified section-healing wanted by this person on behalf of that person in that place. There is a grid that gets charged negatively to attract the positive blessing into that space. That is the basic functional element of prayer. When someone stands in a hospital room praying for the person in bed, s/he is sending out a message to the universal forces of health, of balance, and of healing, asking them to concentrate here in that room. The consciousness of the person who is holding her/his mind in that spot becomes a lens which focuses the response of the cosmos into this place. So, on the bottom level, what it means to say, “Ribbono Shel Olam, I need something,” is to charge this field. This is how prayer works in the world of assiyah.

Now we come to the world of feeling, the world of y’tzirah. What does prayer do in the world of feeling? When I say that I love you, I’m not providing

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