One of the most mysterious ideas of Jewish tradition is the power of unity.
Unity is more than simply being together because, after all, people can be on
different corners of the world and still be united. And, of course, people can be
one meter apart from each other and can visibly be separated. This is seen in
many different forms of relationship between people. Unity is therefore a matter
of the heart.
Yet, we often hear in stories when people gathered together to pray and
were answered much quicker than had they been doing it alone. This is something
that can’t be underestimated, no matter what type of salvation one needs. Prayer
in a group has tremendous power. It’s also quite frightening that back in the days
of the Tower of Babel, the population gathered together to rebel against Hashem
and, in the merit of their unity (for evil!), were spared from being killed.
Why is unity so important and powerful?
Kabbalistic concepts and stories
It’s fascinating to see that even though Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai could’ve
written the Zohar on his own (with maybe a scribe as a helper), he chose 9 other
disciples. Though he could’ve spoken the whole Zohar on his own, he let all his
disciples speak many passages of the Idra Rabba and Idra Zutra. The Ba’al Shem
Tov once gathered a Minyan (quorum of men to pray) and included in it thieves
and bandits. His argument was that “the Gates of Heaven were locked and he
needed experts in lockpicking to open them up”!
In Halacha, we don’t say Kaddish or say Kedusha or the blessings of the
Torah in a group of 9 fantastic Tzaddikim in the synagogue, but if we add one bar-
mitzvah boy (age 13 and up) who can barely read, we do.
It’s taught in the Sha’ar HaGilgulim by Rav Chaim Vital and the writings of
the Ari that each one of us come from a specific spiritual root corresponding to a
member of Ze’ir Anpin (the 6 sephirot of Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod
and Yesod) of the world of Atzilut. Some come from the feet (like Rabbi Akiva and
King Chizkiyahu), some come from the hands, some come from the head, eyes,
and so on.
We also see from Parshat Shelach that the first time Hashem used the term
Ed’a (congregation) was when referring to the 10 spies who sinned by speaking
bad about the Land of Yisrael, and caused tremendous damage to the Shekhina.
This episode reveals to us that the reverse is also true: a congregation of 10 good
people can cause tremendous good to the world as a whole and bring down a lot
more blessing. This is also due to the fact that the souls from different roots
combine to form a “window” through which Hashem’s presence come to bless us.
And this is definitely also valid for women.
In many books either from Kabbalah, thought, or mussar, we find the idea
of a person emulating Hashem’s middot (personal attributes). This principle is
used here in a group of people praying or doing Mitzvot as each of their positive
aspects combine to form a more accurate “portrait” of the divine image.
However, the reverse in this case is not true. Meaning, Hashem actually ignores
each person’s negative traits merely because all of them are included in the
whole! There’s another beautiful aspect to this idea which is that, even when, in
some parts of the prayer, one doesn’t have full concentration or good intents,
Hashem considers the other people’s prayers which were said properly as if it was
said by him as well!
Emuna Builder’s Tehilim Group
As it turns out, Emuna Builders have an all women Tehilim group to pray for
each of us for anything you need. We are united and build strong bonds of
friendship together, no matter where we are. All women who want to join us, and
thereby increase our praying power, are more than welcome!
As we wrote many times before, Tehilim has tremendous power. Our
sages teach in the Midrash Shocher Tov that Kind David asked Hashem to
consider one who reads Tehilim as if he was studying the Tractates of Negayim
and Ohalot, two of the most difficult tractates of the Talmud. Rabbi Shenur
Zalman of Lyadi used to say that “had we known the power of Tehilim, we’d be
saying them non-stop all day long”.
We would be happy to meet you and hope you will join our group to bring
blessings to all of us together. Let me know if you have any questions in over e-
mail at www.emundabuilders.com
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