DEUT419 The rabbi's, endeavoring to discover a basis for prayer in the Torah, found it implied in the Deuteronomic monition: "To love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart with all your soul" (this verse). They asked: "What is the service of the heart?" And replied: "It is prayer." Sifre, Deut. 11:13; Taan. 2a. Though the worship of prayer did not come into its own until the sacrificial worship ceased, attempts were made to trace the institution of prayer to the patriarchs themselves. R. Elazar ranked prayer above sacrifice. Ber. 26b; 32b. R. Joshua b. Levi believed it to be so efficacious that it breaks even an iron wall which separates Israel from the Heavenly Father. Sotah 38b. Prayer removes all obstacles and dangers to the spiritual life. Maimonides treats prayer in his Code under the section Ahavah. Love is, indeed, the life breath of prayer, love in the sense of longing and yearning for God and of the direction of the spirit and self-dedication to Him. It is the placing of oneself at the disposal of God, offering heart and mind, soul and being upon His altar. R. Nahman of Bratzlav considered prayer a category of faith, of spiritual creativeness which fills the emptiness of the heart with the consciousness of the Divine. Through prayer God's holiness increases. True spiritual vitality is derived only through prayer. Horodetzki, Torat R. Nahman, Tephllah.