Laws of Life – A New Light

In Chapter 4 of A New Light, Rabbi Arush provides four laws to guide us in our spiritual journey. Let’s start with the first three. 
 

Law #1 – You Cannot Do It Alone 

Hashem created the Evil Inclination and gave us the power to vanquish it. However, we cannot  overcome  the  Evil  Inclination  by  ourselves,  without the help of G-d. 
 
If we fail to realize this, we will become despondent over inevitable setbacks. Self-persecution is caused by the false belief that we alone have the power to overcome our Evil Inclination. Eventually, we believe that we are hopeless failures. 
 
The primary human drives are for sensuality and everything connected to the lust for forbidden relations, the desire for money, the craving to eat, and the need for honor. He says that when lust and desires rule over a person, it can totally destroy his judgment and basic humanity. We need to recognize that we are under a relentless assault by the Evil Inclination and that we must appeal to Hashem for help in order to survive. 

Rabbi Arush explains that prayer is the Good Inclination. Therefore, if you don’t pray and ask for help every day, and do personal prayer and spiritual accounting every day, you don’t have a Good Inclination! Is it any wonder then that you don’t succeed to change and improve? Is it surprising that you fall into the Evil Inclination? Without prayer, you are going into battle against a mighty and numerous enemy, and you have no weapon! 

 
Law #2 – Prayer Overrides Nature 

G-d created the world, and therefore, all of the power of nature is in the Hands of the Creator. One of the lesser known laws of nature, is that prayer changes nature. That truth was built into the creation by G-d!  

Therefore, it is possible to change nature with prayer! We must be patient, persevere, and really believe in the power of prayer. This is based on a fundamental belief that Hashem is all powerful, that He loves us and wants the best for us. Prayers are accepted according to the emuna that is in them, and prayers with emuna change nature!  

This is why when we truly thank Hashem, only wanting to be happy with Hashem’s will and whatever He is doing for us even though it’s hard and not something we would choose on our own, miracles happen. Cancelling your will before Hashem’s will and thanking Hashem for whatever He is doing, is perfect and complete emuna – therefore, the prayers are accepted and now nature changes accordingly. 

Law #3 – If You Pray Enough and Don’t Give Up, You Get  

This axiom is stated in the Gemara (Berachos 32b) by Rabbi Chanin in the name of Rabbi Chanina. A spiritual law is no different from any other law of nature that is familiar to us – so this is something you can really count on! 
 
Hashem wants us to engage in a lot of prayer in order to receive abundance. We don’t pray in order to persuade Hashem. He wants to give us more than we want to receive. We pray only to build vessels that we need to receive the Creator’s goodness and kindness. Therefore, the longer we pray, and with more emuna and desire, the more we can receive. 
 
Rabbi Natan of Breslev explains an ironclad principal. If something is lacking, the lack stems from a deficiency of prayer. Hence, if we lack something, it is because we did not pray enough for it. 
 
Rabbi Arush says this is a real pity, because it may be that due to a person’s merits and good deeds, G-d wants to give him a great amount of holiness and purity, fear of Heaven, love of Hashem and more. However, he must have the requisite vessels. If he does not pray, then he has no vessels, and therefore he can’t receive. 
 
For example, our holy Matriarchs were promised children and they had many merits. However, without prayer they would have not have conceived. The same applies to our holy Patriarchs and the promise of Hashem to redeem them. If they did not pray, they would not have been redeemed. From this, we can conclude that the life of every person proceeds in accordance with his prayers. 

Remember one critical detail – in spirituality, you get whatever you want, if you will only continue to pray and do your best without giving up. But when it comes to physical matters, you get what you NEED.  

When it comes to our physical needs, someone with emuna only thanks Hashem because He knows what is truly best for us. Only Hashem knows if what we want is really good for us and will bring us closer to our spiritual rectification and purpose in this world, with is the real definition of “good” in this world.  

But when it comes to our spiritual aspirations – our desire to change a bad character trait, or our desire to overcome a specific bodily lust – this is where the work of the will comes in full force. Here, there is no question whether or not Hashem wants to give us what we want, because Hashem always wants us to improve spiritually and come closer to Him – this is the purpose of creation! And there is also no question whether or not what we want is good for us, because more spirituality is always good for us. So here, we just pray and pray and pray some more, with the emuna that Hashem loves us and certainly wants to save us even more than we want to be saved! 

However, you need to learn how to Escape the Trap of the Evil Inclination, if you want to really win the war.