“Everything in the world depends upon repentance and prayer. When a person sheds tears during prayer, there is no gate these tears cannot enter.” -Zohar, Shemot, Verse 203.
Crying is the most powerful and positive prayer. It can change your entire life.
Kabbalistically, each and every action we do - charity, prayer, meditation, study - reveals spiritual light. But what happens if we do not approach these actions with the right consciousness? The Zohar shares that the revelation of spiritual energy remains in front of a gate between us and the 99% metaphysical realm; waiting for us to open it.
The reason this spiritual energy waits is because our action was not done with a full-heart.
What the Zohar is teaching here is that singular action that can open more spiritual gates than any other is a prayer that is prayed with tears. Not the tears of a victim, but the tears of repentance; tears that represent true desire, tears that represent true craving, tears that represent the pain of our limitations.
When we realize how limited we are, when we realize how huge our potential is, when we realize the beauty of the options and the possibilities the Creator has given us, it brings us a strong craving and desire. That is what manifests prayerful tears.
When those tears come up, it is an indication that we are truly opening the spiritual gates, and nothing will stop us. As the Zohar states, everything in this world depends on repentance. That means in spite of all the negativity we have done and in spite of all the blockages we have built, if we have a true and strong desire, we can change everything.
The mere fact that we admit to having a limitation is what prayerful tears are about: we want to do anything in our power to change, but we do not know where to start. The fact that we are willing to do anything has by itself the power of repentance, the power to open all the spiritual gates.
“Behold a weeping boy” (Shemot 2:6). Since he wept, all the difficult decrees were removed from him. It is written: “And she had compassion on him (Ibid.), because she was stirred with compassion and she pitied him. -Zohar, Shemot, Verse 204.
This is more than a nice lesson. These words of the Zohar are a cosmic download of full-hearted energy, and by scanning and reading them this week, they give us divine assistance to let our guard down and feel the pain of our limitations. Human nature runs away from the embarrassment and effort of feeling this type of pain, yet it is the very thing that fuels our miraculous transformation.
Our pain is our power.
Read the full Zohar portion of Shemot and connect to the energy of the week here.