קְדֻשָּׁה - וּבוֹ נִכְלָל קִדּוּשׁ הַשֵּׁם

The essence of holiness is the holiness of the covenant, and this is merited through the holiness of the tongue and speech, by sanctifying it with holy words and guarding oneself from all kinds of blemishes of speech, until one merits that his speech and tongue are in the aspect of the perfection of the holy tongue. And through this, one merits the holiness of the covenant (19).

One must sanctify his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, that is, he must guard himself from uttering falsehood from his mouth and from other blemished speech, and he must have fear of Heaven, through which he sanctifies the nose. And he must have faith in the sages, through which he sanctifies the ears and listens to their words. And he must close his eyes from seeing evil, and through this, he merits complete knowledge and attains the intellect, which is the aspect of divine abundance, the aspect of the Holy Spirit. Also, through being humble, lowly, patient, and not becoming angry at his disgrace, through this, he sanctifies the nose completely. Also, through being a faithful spirit who conceals a matter, being careful not to reveal a secret that does not need to be revealed, through this, he sanctifies the ears (21).

Through giving one’s life for the sanctification of Hashem, one merits peace, and through this, one merits to speak holy words of Torah and prayer, and to connect thought well to speech. Therefore, a good counsel for praying with intention is to accept in one’s thought to give one’s life for the sanctification of Hashem. Even without this, the primary perfection of prayer is to pray with self-sacrifice [see Tefillah, entry 26] (80).

Even the least among Israel, even the sinners of Israel, when they want to make them forsake their religion, Heaven forbid, they give their lives for the sanctification of Hashem, as has already been visibly seen many times. Therefore, a person must remind himself of this every day, that he is willing to give his life for the sanctification of Hashem, for this is the essence of the holiness of a Jew. And through this, he will merit peace and to pray with intention, as mentioned above (there).

One must recite the Shema with self-sacrifice for the sanctification of Hashem, that is, he should visualize in his thought all four death penalties of the court, as if they are stoning and burning him, and so on, and visualize the death in his thought with such strong thought that he actually feels the pain of death for the sake of the holiness of His Name, blessed be He, for thought has great power. And one can, through visualizing death in his thought, actually feel the pain of death. And one who wishes to conduct himself thus must be precise not to remain there when he feels that his soul is close to departing, so that he does not die before his time, Heaven forbid (193).

The primary unification above is achieved through giving one’s life for the sanctification of Hashem (260). There are great tzaddikim who have a great name from afar, but many disgrace their name and speak against them, and they suffer bloodshed from this. And they accept all this upon themselves for the sanctification of Hashem, and through this, they save myriads of souls of Israel from death and killing, Heaven forbid (there).

The very thing that most dominates a person, that very thing he must specifically break for the sake of Hashem, blessed be He, for this is the essence of his service, and this is the aspect of giving one’s life. And one who is very afraid of death, he specifically needs more to accept upon himself to give his life for the sanctification of Hashem (Sichot Haran 57).