Lessons in the service of Hashem from the Maamar
The first stage in coming to a real recognition of Hashem is for a Jew to awaken in himself a strong feeling of love for Hashem, to the point that he wants to leave behind the limitations of physical existence in order to experience Hashem’s reality. He creates this feeling by thinking about how Hashem’s existence is of a totally different and infinitely more exalted nature than that of anything in this world or anything that Hashem created or revealed. This process of thinking about Hashem’s true existence happens at the time of davening (prayer) when a Jew thinks about what they are saying. Besides the simple meaning of the words, they also think over an idea explaining Hashem’s true existence that they learned in Chassidus.
Only after a person reveals in himself strong feelings for Hashem until it affects his physical life is he ready to forget about himself and his feelings and totally dedicate himself to the point of totally losing his ego. If he tries to forget about his feelings in order to serve Hashem then he will be lacking in actually refining his physicality, since only when he comes to an emotional feeling for Hashem is his holy awareness permeating his physical body.
In order to come to reveal feelings for Hashem during davening (prayer), it is very helpful to sing holy melodies, called nigunim, which help arouse the feelings for Hashem that correspond to what we are thinking about in davening (just like the Leviim used song and music to help people arouse their feelings for Hashem).
