Knowledge is Power.  G-dly Knowledge is super Power.

Once a student follower of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk; 1787 -1859 Poland, came to visit his spiritual mentor and guide. The Rabbi of Kotzk asked him to share an inspiration from his father in law who was a well know author of Torah studies.

“My father in law would say. When Aaron the great priest lost his two sons on the day the sanctuary was dedicated, the Bible says, “Aaron was silent”. His response to this terrible catastrophe was to recognize the hopelessness of a human, to ever understand the ways of an infinite G-d. His reaction to this event, and his response or lack of it to G-d, was greatly praised.

However King David expresses himself in the book of Psalms, “So that I am able to SING your honor and NEVER be silent.” Even in times of pain and hard ships King David would sing G-ds praises.”

The Rabbi of Kotzk was tremendously ecstatic from this understanding. “We see the great virtue of King David, and the joy that permeated him through and through. “

In the book of the Zohar it tells us, the ladder Jacob saw in a prophetical dream on his way out of Israel, represents the method of connecting with G-d through prayer. The ladder was “standing firmly in the ground and its top was high in the heavens. And behold, the Angels were going up and down.”

Normally Angels, who are completely spiritual, would be coming down from heaven and then bringing back a report to G-d?

When a person prays, and he/she vocalizes their praise, their needs, their thanks to G-d…. this creates a real spiritual energy similar to neuro transmitters. These are the Angels, who are the results of this expression in the heart and it is them that bring the prayer before G-d. Therefore the Angels which were created by Jacobs’s prayers, were moving upwards having started from Jacob, in order to bring from the source of all the blessings, up in heaven, what is necessary down here in this world.

The ladder of prayer that reaches high up in the heavens, must start down in the earth. In the code of Jewish law it is written, “A person should not approach his prayers, but only with a bent over head.” An outstretched head exudes arrogance; a bent over head represents humility.

The ladder in Jacobs dream had four rungs. The first step in approaching G-d is, acknowledgement. Realizing, as hard as we try, in the end we are not self-made. Realizing, it is G-ds input and influence that finally creates the results we seek. We don’t control the crazies in the world, or the price of oil, or the weather, or the desire of someone else to compete with our source of income. We acknowledge G-ds power over everything and thank Him for all His Kindness.

The next step in proper prayer, that accomplishes a transformation in an individual, in other words, the person benefited from praying, is the emotional excitement over the special opportunities G-d grants us every day that He has faith in us and wakes us. We hear the melody in the Universe, the beauty of existence, and we sing along.

The third step as designed by the great Spiritual giants of the great assembly, headed by the prophet Ezra, is moving up from emotional excitement to intellectual appreciation.

Here we recite the passage, which is a commandment and a serious source of strength from G-d, “Hear O Israel, G-d our G-d, G-d is one.” We involve our mental capacities in connecting ourselves with the awareness, that all is G-d. How we feed our mind ends up becoming who we are. When one contemplates deeply on the Oneness of G-d, and that there is nothing else besides Him, this takes us to the Heavens with the fourth rung.

At the fourth level of prayer, we are standing with our entire being and presence before G-d, totally connected to His, awareness. When two people in any relationship are so close to each other, it is natural each one feels for the other and will do whatever possible for the other. This is the fourth level where we ask for what we need.

The holy Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchok Luria said. “All his great levels of Holiness and spirituality were reached only because of his constant joy and happiness.”