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6.1.21

 Talking with God as one talks to a good friend [that Rav Nahman calls "Hitbodadut"]. Even though I assume most people do this automatically when a time of crisis arrives but with Rav Nahman of Uman this was a major goal in life. That is to spend as much time as possible praying to God and learning Torah. It just so happened that in a way that Carl Jung calls synchronicity that soon after I got this idea from the books of Rav Nahman that I also found myself in Safed in Israel surrounded by forests. So I actually has some opportunity to do this on a daily basis.

Now the actual idea of Rab Nahman was a bit different than a fellow by the name of Brother Lawrence who also talked with God all the time but that was amongst his regular chores. [See the book The Presence of God.] But with Rav Nahman the idea was to actually go out to the forests or any area where no one else is and to spend as much time as possible talking with God as a friend.

So you can ask the obvious question that there is no such commandment to do this. Learning Torah is what the Torah holds one ought to do all the time as the four volume of Nefesh Hachaim of Rav Chaim of Voloshin makes clear. Even so I can see the point of Rav Nahman since we do find that there is a commandments to pray to God in times of trouble. [See Nahmanides on the commandments ]. So Rav Nahman noticed that all of us are in times of trouble in spirit and body. The only thing is a lot of us do not realize it. So it is better to go to God and ask help even before the troubles begin.