אות - רכה

Once he laughed and said: If they would let a dead man enter among the investigators while they are sitting and investigating with their wisdom, all their wisdoms would be nullified.

[On the Greatness of Hisbodidus:]

I found in the handwriting of the associates: He said that it is better for the hisbodidus to be outside the city in a place of grasses — for the grasses cause the heart to be aroused.[415]

415. RAK: See above, sections 98, 144, 163.

I heard in his name that he said: Certainly there are upright people even though they do not have hisbodidus. But I call them "fleytis" — rushed and confused. And suddenly when Mashiach comes and calls them, they will be flustered and confused. But we — we will be like a person after sleep whose mind is calm and well-settled. So too our minds will be calm and well-settled upon us without tumult or confusion.

I heard in his name that he was speaking with one of the young men and strengthening him greatly, greatly in hisbodidus and personal conversation between himself and his Maker in the spoken language as was his custom, o.b.m. And he told him that at first this was the essential prayer — what each one would speak what was in his heart before Hashem Yisburach in the language in which one spoke, as explained in the Rambam at the beginning of the Laws of Prayer (Prayer 1:2, 4) — see there, where he explains this well: that at first this was the essential prayer etc. But then the Men of the Great Assembly, etc., and they instituted the order of prayer — see there. But even so, by right this is the essential prayer. Therefore even now that we pray the order of prayer that the Men of the Great Assembly instituted — it is very good for a person to habitually pray before Hashem Yisburach with personal prayers and supplications and requests from his heart in the language he understands — that Hashem Yisburach grant him merit to serve Him in truth. For this is the essential prayer as mentioned above. And see elsewhere in many places in our words how much a person must habituate himself and strengthen himself in this practice — for through this specifically all the Tzadikim came to their level.[416] See there well.