Prayer—Turning To Oneself

Question: There are many definitions of prayer that don’t exactly coincide with each other. But everyone  understands that prayer is an appeal to the Creator, to God.

Usually, a prayer is structured as follows: first comes the praise of the Creator, second, a plea for forgiveness for some sins, and third is gratitude for everything good you’ve received from the Creator.
Is it the same in Kabbalah or somehow different?

Answer: In Kabbalah it is all a one-sided game.

I have no one to address, not because there is no upper force, but because there is no point in addressing it since a prayer, from the verb “Lehitpalel,” means to judge oneself. Nobody is judging me, and if I have to turn to someone—it is only to myself.

In fact, this is how all prayers work. With its help, through the means of addressing myself, I have to check myself: What am I doing well? Which parts am I not doing well? What can I do to improve my state, to get better at? What does it mean to become better? Compared to whom and how? And so on.
Naturally, I have to praise the Creator so that the quality of the Creator, love and bestowal, is most preferred in my eyes.

Question: Do I have to ask for forgiveness and if so from whom?

Answer: There is no one to ask for forgiveness because the Creator is the absolute. If I turn to Him asking for forgiveness, it means that, practically, I am turning to myself. And I begin to feel whether I have acted correctly, how I should have behaved, and how I should act in the future. So it is self-judgment, realizing one’s evil and how to turn it into good.

And then I thank the Creator for helping me. But again,  I am addressing myself the whole time because the Creator is the absolute quality of love and bestowal, which we can awaken but only in the measure of our desire to be similar to Him.

Question: So, does the Creator answer only the right prayer?

Answer: Of course. And the right prayer is my desire to become similar to Him. Nothing else.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/1/19