Posts
HH
The Writings of Rabbi Nachman
101.
In every single person there is an aspect of a 'radiant
countenance' which reflects knowledge and perception of the holy Torah in the
aspect of the Elixir of Life; this is the sanctity of the Jewish People who, in
the source, are very far away from bad attributes and physical cravings. Each
person also has within him an aspect of the Seventy Nations who are an aspect
of the Poison of Death, an aspect of a 'dark countenance' which is an aspect of
darkness and the concealment of understanding. By a person exerting himself to
study the Torah for the sake of Heaven until he merits to ascertain and
understand the wisdom of the holy Torah, through this he abandons the aspect of
'dark countenance' and turns it into an aspect of 'radiant countenance'. As a result, his
enslavement to physical desires and negative attributes, which stem from the
Seventy Nations, who are an aspect of the 'dark countenance', is nullified.
Then he is called a 'man', an aspect of "That is the Torah, a man"
(Numbers, 19), an aspect of "You are called man" (Yevomot, 61), for
the essence of the name 'man' we merit to through the holy Torah which is an
aspect of a 'radiant countenance'; it reflects the distancing from and breaking
of all the physical cravings and negative attributes. Through this a man merits
to have the yoke of his enslavement to the Seventy Nations nullified, also in
the physical realm, as the Sages said, "Whoever takes upon himself the
yoke of the Torah" etc. (Perkei Avot,Ch.3).
Prayer (101)
Master
of the World, unique Lord, Who gives the Torah. You revealed to us that all the
strength of the other nations is from the Seventy Faces of Darkness. That is to
say, by our being lax in studying Torah and not studying in depth as we should,
as a result ,the paths of Torah are blocked and become darkened in our eyes.
Then, all the physical cravings and bad traits overcome us Heaven save us, for
they stem from the other nations whose strength is drawn from the Faces of
Darkness. This itself leads to the governments becoming more forceful, Heaven
forbid and they decree harsh judgments upon us, Heaven preserve us. But what
can we do to rectify this. The burden of making a living, the strength of the
evil urge and the many troubles make it hard for us to study properly. Even the
little we study the darkness in our eyes and our blocked minds prevent us from
studying or understanding properly. Mostly we do not understand even the simple meaning of things.
We certainly do not understand the depth of things, not the pleasantness, inner
essence or secrets of the Torah. For we do not merit to see the light of the
face of the holy Torah. We are far, far away for the Seventy Faces of the
Torah, from the Seventy Faces of Light which subdue the Seventy Faces of
Darkness. When they are subdued automatically the governments of the seventy
nations, whose strength comes from those Seventy Faces of Darkness, are broken
and fall. But how do we merit to this. In Your bountiful compassion, have mercy
on us and grant us a portion in Your Torah. Merit us from now on to be aroused
to serve You. Let us start from now on to study Torah by day and night. Do not
let m burden of making a living disturb us, rather let others work for us. As a
result, may our main involvement be
studying the Torah in this world and may it accompany us to the World to Come.
In
Your immense bountiful mercy, enlighten our eyes in Your Torah and open up our
hearts so that me merit to understand well and with great speed any part of the
Torah we study. Let us study all the books of Your Torah every day, Tanach,
Talmud, Halacha, Midrashim, the holy Zohar and the Tikkunim; all the writings
of the Ariz”l and those of the true tzaddikim. May we finish them and then
study them again and again during our lifetime. Have mercy on us for Your
Name’s sake and merit us to study consistently with holiness and persistence by
day and night. By this, may we break, nullify and kill all the evil cravings
and all the evil traits in our body.
Merciful
One, grant us intelligence and understanding to hear, study and teach, keep and
perform all the words of Your Torah, with love. Merit us to put all our mind
and thoughts into Your holy Torah at all times in such a way that the Torah
will shine upon us the holy pleasantness of the light of its face. May it
radiate upon us and protect us by all the Seventy Faces of the Torah which the true tzaddikim merited to
ascertain. As a result, enable us to break and nullify all the physical cravings
and bad traits from within us.
In
these troubled times have mercy on us, do it for Your sake, for the Sake of our
Fathers and for the sake of all the holy and awesome tzaddikim who were in each
generation. Then speedily break and nullify all the harsh decrees from upon us,
whether those that have already been decreed or whether those that they want to
decree against us Heaven forbid. Let no impression of them remain at all. May
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your
countenance, G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Amen.
102.
Each person should be careful to pray in such a way
that he can arouse and draw down bounty into the world. This depends on fear,
for "whoever has fear of heaven, his words are heard" (B'rachot, 6).
There are two kinds of fear, that's to say, there is a sublime fear which comes
to a person sometimes when he wants. For fear like this there is no reward.
There is another kind of fear which comes to a person from his own strength.
This fear is an aspect of "A tzaddik rules in the fear of G-d"
(Shmuel,II, 23:3). With fear like this, his prayer is heard and bounty descends
into the world; the Kingdom of G-d then becomes revealed and magnified.
Prayer (102)
Master
of the World, implant in our hearts always Your fear and awe. Merit us to be
like ‘a tzaddik rules through fear of G-d’. That is to say, let us not have to
wait for You to bestow upon us Your Sublime fear from Above. Please enable us
to draw upon ourselves on every occasion Your holy fear. May we have fear
before You, at all times, at ever moment, true fear and perfect fear; a sublime
fear, a fear of Your grandeur. As a result, accept all our prayers with mercy
and with favour. Listen always to the voice of our supplications, as the Sages
said: “Anyone who has fear of G-d, his words are heard” (by G-d).
Through
our prayers, may we have the power to arouse bounty in the world. Bestow great
bounty to the Jewish People. As a result, let all the husks of the Other Side
be subdued completely under the Holy Shechinah. Then make all the evil blow
away like smoke and remove the dominion of evil from the earth. Fulfill in us
the verse: “And G-d will be King over all the earth and on that day G-d will be
One and His Name will be One”.
103.
Regarding that which Moshe called the descendants of
the Tribes of Gad and Reuben "a band of sinners" (Numbers, 32:14) and
the Targum Unkulus translates as "students of guilty men", see the
full text.
104.
The Midrash says that because Moshe called the
descendants of Gad and Reuben "a ban of sinners" he was punished that
his grandchild served the idol worship of Micah. See the full text for an
explanation.
105.
The essence of repentance depends on the Torah. That's
to say, when a person studies Torah and exerts himself in it until he is able to
deduce one thing from another and can innovate ideas for the sake of Heaven,
this is complete repentance. He then returns and joins together all the letters
and their combinations, which are his portion in the generality of worlds, to
their source and to their proper place; he returns them all from the places to
which they were expelled and dispersed. He becomes a new human being and then
his mind is calm. He merits to arouse G-d's compassion in such a way that G-d
Himself prays for him. That's to say, the Holy One, out of His simple mercy,
arouses His great and infinite compassion. As a result, the person will have a
great and complete salvation. Amen.
Prayer (105)
May
it be Your will, G-d, our G-d, G-d of our Fathers, have mercy upon us. Help us
to merit to engage in studying Your Holy Torah. May words of Torah never cease
from my mouth and the mouth of our children, forever. Merit us to understand
completely all the words of Your holy Torah with great speed. Then let lus
understand one thing from another and create true Torah innovations,
innovations that will find favour before Your Throne of Glory. By studying
Torah may we achieve full repentance for all our sins, iniquities and willful
sins that we have committed over the years. Let the light of the Torah really
return us to the path of goodness and through studying Torah may we separate,
collect and raise all the holy sparks and combinations of letters that have
fallen from all the worlds into the husks because of us. They have scattered to
where they have scattered and fallen where they have fallen.
Have
mercy upon us, upon all the holy sparks and upon all the holy letters which are
separated and scattered among the nations and among the husks. Help us to
return in true repentance to You. Please hasten to clarify, collect and redeem
all the holy sparks from their exile. Return them to their place in peace and
by this,
Rectify
the blemish of the worlds.
Draw
holy understanding and great mercy in the world. Nullify anger and cruelty from
the world. Please, You Yourself, pray on our behalf. By Your simple mercy,
arouse Your great plentiful mercy. You know Lord our G-d, that none can stand
up for us other than You. Our Father, our King, pray for us. We have no one to
rely on other than our Father in Heaven, so have mercy and compassion upon us.
Save us for Your Name’s Sake. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, oh G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer.
106.
When a person is in a state of 'constricted consciousness'
he has to strengthen himself to achieve 'expanded consciousness'. Upon
achieving 'expanded consciousness' he sweetens all the harsh decrees and brings
upon himself loving-kindness and mercy. If he himself cannot achieve this
'expanded consciousness', the best advice is to enlighten others. By this, his
own 'expanded consciousness' will be aroused.
Prayer (106)
You
endow man with knowledge and teach the frail in sight. Grant us wisdom, insight
and knowledge for You know how greatly a person needs mercy if he lacks
knowledge in the service of G-d. You
also informed us how all the harsh decrees and suffering, Heaven save us, are
drawn upon us only because our brains of limited perception. Therefore, have
mercy on us, and in Your bountiful compassion, merit us to strengthen ourselves
each time and rise from there ‘small brains’to
‘expansive
brains’ of understanding. Bestow upon us a bounty of knowledge and wisdom.
Merit us also to give intelligence to others so that they will also have a radiance
of true knowledge, thus raising me from the aspect of ‘small brains’ to
‘expansive brains’. By this alone may my own brains be aroused. Then sweeten
and nullify from over us and all the Jewish People, all the harsh decrees.
Fulfill in us the verse: ‘Draw Your loving-kindness to those who you know You:’
107.
When the evil urge becomes strong you instilling within
you a sense of self-importance making you consider yourself to already be a
tzaddik who "rules with the fear of G-d" and that G-d's desire is in
your hands, so to speak, for "who rules Me, tzaddik", then one has to
take to heart this itself and say, 'How can I rule when I have pride and the
Holy One doesn't dwell with me?', as the Sages have said.
108.
When a Jew is praying properly with concentration or he
is speaking to G-d in personal prayers, as is fitting, and in the middle he
falls from his spiritual level, this stems from a blemish in his faith. Then it
is necessary for his heart to feel broken within him and for him to be ashamed
of himself at having fallen and at being thrown down from heaven to earth. He
should then have mercy on himself until he sighs about this. By this sighing he
will return to his previous spiritual level.
Prayer (108)
Master
of the World, merciful One, Who cures those with broken hearts, You know my
broken and depressed heart. Have mercy on my broken heart for it is broken to
smithereens; for my thoughts of my heart are scattered and dispersed to the
ends of the earth. I am really responsible for all this but I did not have bad
intentions.
Master
of the World, You know the hidden secrets of the world, You see into the
chamber of our hearts. Before You all the hidden thoughts of the heart are
revealed. You know how hard this itself is for me; it confuses and obstructs me
a lot. Even if sometimes in Your great compassion You send me some words and I
begin to explain to You all that is in my heart, after a while my heart becomes
blocked in the middle of speaking. So also my heart suddenly becomes sealed. I
do not know what to do. You seem to hide Your face from me. You have already
revealed to us that this is caused by us blemishing our faith for this is
considered to be like idol worship. Now, my Father in Heaven, what can I do to
atone for this? Oh, what can I do to return Your face towards me. When will I
merit to pure faith so that I can speak openly before You, as if face to face,
like one speaks to a friend.
Help
me and save me so I can accustom myself to sigh, deep sighs from the depths of
the heart about my vast distance from You because of my many sins, especially
blemishes to faith. Merit me to truly feel my pain and immense suffering such
that I really sigh from the depths of my heart. May my spirit be broken within
me in a way that will arouse Your true compassion upon me. Open Your hand in
mercy and good will and bring me back to You in repentance face to face. Father
in Heave, faithful King, G-d of faith, You know everything that happens to us
and to every individual regarding holy faith. In You great compassion, You
planted Your faith with us, but because of the immense number of our sins we
still get thoughts of blasphemy. This is the main form of our distance from
You. It causes a concealment of Your face, which is the greatest of all our
troubles and distress.
Guard
us and protect us from now on from all sorts of disbelief and blasphemous
thoughts. Rather, merit me to believe in You Lord our G-d, in Your Holy Torah
and in Your tzaddikim with total faith, a faith that is pure and perfect. May
my faith be so strong that it is as if I see You, eye to eye. By this, may fear
of You be on my face; let me feel shame, so that I will never sin again nor
blemish in any way. Let awe, dread and
fear of You, with great shame, descend upon me immediately knowing that You
stand over me, and see my every deed , at all times and at every moment. And
merit me, through the strength of my holy belief, to pray, plead and
Speak openly before You with all my heart and with
proper thoughts. Let my mind be connected firmly to the words of prayer without
any extraneous thought. The, may all my words and conversations with You be as
if face to face, like someone speaking to his friend.
Have
mercy upon me like a father over his son. Save me on every occasion by all
kinds of salvation. May You be blessed for ever.
Amen and Amen.
109. HOLY SIGHING
a)
Holy sighing is very precious, for
by sighing about feeling distant from holiness, one breaks the cord of impurity
and becomes attached to the cord of holiness. Similarly, if one sighs at
lacking some physical desire that one craves for, the opposite takes place,
Heaven forbid.
b)
When a Jew sighs about his sins or
about how little he has achieved spiritually, this is better than several acts
of self-mortification or fasts.
Prayer (109)
O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers. Please
help me to return in really perfect repentance before You. Master of the World.
You know how greatly I have distanced myself from You because of many and
immense iniquities and willful transgressions which reach to the Heavens. I do
not know any way to return to You. My mind has become very confused, befouled
and materialized because of the material and foul matter and evil cravings that
have taken hold of me and attached themselves to me very much. Master of all
the World, take pity and have mercy upon me; grant me good council, how to look
for, search out and find some road, course or pathway, such that from now on I
can merit to return to You. In Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to often sigh
before You from the depths of my heart about my great distance from You. Let me
merit to really come closer to You. May I really sigh about this at all times
such that my body be broken by each and every sigh. By these sighs, let me
merit to extract the spirit and air of the Other Side and to plant within me
the spirit and air of holiness. Through this, may I uproot and cut the cord of
impurity which has become tied to me because of my many iniquities. Help me,
very speedily, to cut and break myself completely fro the cord of impurity. Let
me cleave and tie myself, in a very strong bond, to the cord of holiness, for
ever and ever, for all eternities. Break, drive out and nullify from me, from
my body, my soul, my spirit and my higher soul, all sorts of impurities of the
Other Side. In Your mercy, bring me close to the cord of holiness and tie me to
it with a strong and firm knot from now on, for ever.
From
now on, draw upon me a good long life, by way of the cord of holiness. Be
gracious and bestow upon us good bounty, blessings, compassion, life, peace and
plenty; real life; life of holiness; life that has fear of Heaven; life in
which merit to really perfect repentance, in which we always serve You and
cleave to the Source of Life. Living G-d, our Portion in Life, our Rock, give
us life in the light of Your Countenance; raise me so that I live a life of
holiness. Take pity on me, help me and make my heart cleave to Your
commandments. Let me merit to always cleave to You forever more. In Your mercy
protect me and save me from sighs of the Other Side. Let no breath or sigh for
the cravings and vanities of This World leave my mouth. Heaven forbid. Rather,
may all my sights, yearnings and desires be only for Your Name, for Your
worship, to really come closer to You. May I always cleave to You and may it be
fulfilled in me the verse which says: “You who cleave to the Lord, you G-d, are
all alive this day”.
Amen and Amen.
110.
The Torah is spiritual and a spiritual thing does not take up any space.
Therefore, whoever is pure and his actions are upright and his intellect is
spiritual, he can grasp the entire Torah and not forget anything. However,
someone who materializes the words of the Torah, making them crude, he will
come to forget the Torah, Heaven forbid.
Prayer (110)
Please
G-d, save me in Your bountiful mercy, so that I merit to engage in studying
Torah for its own sake, with great consistency and perseverance, by day and
night. Be with me always to assist and save me so that I will not materialize or
darken the words of Torah in my mouth, Heaven forbid. Rather, merit me to study
Torah with great holiness and purity, nullifying myself and all my materiality
at the time of studying. By this let me feel in my heart and mind the sweetness
and pleasantness of the spirituality of the mind. Rather, merit me to pure
thoughts, holy thoughts which are really bright and proper.
Let
me constantly serve You with true Fear of Heaven and wholeheartedly. Enable me
to come close to genuine tzaddikim and to pure, straightforward Jews until they
bring me into the realm of holiness and genuine repentance.
111.
The initial letters of "The head of the People of Israel"
("rosh bnei Israel") spells out r-b-i (rabbi). And on the contrary,
the initial letters of "The wicked will be cut off in darkness"
(Shmuel, I, 2:9) – ('r'shayim b'hoshech idamoo') also spell out r-b-i
(rabbi).
112.
The rule which can be derived from this discourse
practically is the great virtue of a word of truth in prayer. By this, G-d
Himself will radiate light so that a person can see the openings in that are in
the impurity so he can escape the darkness and come to great light etc. (This
has already been referred to in discourse number 9. See there.) Here it is explained further such that an intelligent
person will understand that he needs to pray all his life in order to merit
just once in his lifetime to pray one word of truth before G-d as is fitting.
Through this advice a person can become a really kosher Jew all his life, for,
in whatever situation, he can always revitalize and sustain himself, through
the truth which is the light of G-d Himself: because all the darkness won't
block Him out. This is because of the fact that there is no impurity or force
of the Other Side in the world without some openings through which it is
possible to escape from there. It is only that we don’t see them because of the
great darkness which exists there. However, by truth, G-d Himself will
illuminate the place so he can merit to see and find the opening of hope even
within the depths of his fall; he will be able to escape the darkness and reach
light, thus really continually coming closer to G-d. Amen.
113.
The Baal Shem Tov said that before the Heavenly Court
sentences a person to a hard decree they ask the person himself being sentenced
if he agrees; if so, the decree is then finalized, Heaven forbid. In other
words they ask him about a similar case and he says what the punishment should
be; then he is sentenced. This is like we find with King David to whom the
prophet Natan told the story about the guest and the sheep (Shmuel, II, 12:1)
and then David was sentenced to what he said. In all the words and accounts
that a person hears he must be very careful not to decide someone's punishment;
this is a danger to life, for accounts of events contain very sublime matters.
114.
The matter of controversy against tzaddikim was already
referred to in discourse number 88. See there. Here the Rebbe adds that
sometimes there is a wicked person who opposes the tzaddik. All this is also
directed from Above so that the tzaddik can draw down abundance. The wicked
person, however, "wants to kill him but G-d does not forsake him"
(Psalms,37:32-33).
115.
Someone who was interested in material things all his
life then later becomes enthused and wants to progress in the paths of G-d, the
attribute of strict justice accuses him and doesn't let him come close to G-d;
it arranges obstacles and when the fool sees obstacles he backs away. But
someone who has sense brings himself closer to G-d especially at such a time
for he looks and finds the Creator in the obstacle itself. In truth, the Holy
One Himself is hidden in this obstacle.
Prayer (115)
You
love judgment, therefore You agree so to speak, to arrange obstacles that
prevent us from the path of life; this is what we deserve according to our
deeds. But, You let us know through Your holy Sages that You love the People of
Israel even more than You love judgment. Therefore, out of Your great love for
us, You desire greatly that every Jew, even the worst of the worst, will come
close to You and serve You with all his heart. You therefore, so to speak, hide
Yourself within the obstacles such that someone with understanding can look in
One obstacle and fin You within it. For, in truth, there is no obstacle in the
world at all. By the obstacles themselves we can come closer to You if we
really search for truth. But You know the poverty of our minds and their
foolishness; such that it is hard and a burden for us to break even one
obstacle at all for as soon as we see an obstacle we retreat.
Therefore,
please bring us closer to You in charity and as a gift out of loving kindness.
Give us the strength to break all the obstacles that come from the aspect of
harsh decrees and judgment. Sweeten and nullify all the harsh decrees from upon
us and from me all the Jewish People. Do not let any obstacle prevent us from
now on from truly coming close to You. Act charitably to us in judgment.
Blessed are You, oh King who loves charity and
judgment.
116.
The person who gives charity is saved from sins.
Prayer (116)
Master
of the World, merit me to give away a lot of charity to deserving poor people.
Make us feel in our heart mercy towards the poo people and merit us to bestow
upon them great loving kindness. By this have mercy upon us, as the Sages
said: ‘Anyone who has mercy on others
from Heaven they have mercy on him’.
Save
us from all kinds of spirit of folly and by this, protect us from coming to any
form of sin. Merit us to perform Your will all the days of our life.
Amen.
117.
At the conclusion of Shabbat a revelation of Elijah the
Prophet begins. This discards falsehood which is an aspect of the Serpent which
brought death to the world. For this reason it is hard to sleep then, for sleep
is also a reflection of death. ( See full text ). Another reason is because
reciting Havdalah at the conclusion of Shabbat is an aspect of Understanding
for "if there is no understanding how can one differentiate" (Jerusalem
Talmud,B'rachot,Ch.5). Consequently, it is hard to sleep then, for sleep is an
absence of understanding.
Prayer (117)
You
informed us that every motzei Shabbat an aspect of the revelation of Eliyahu
the Prophet begins. Therefore, have mercy upon us and merit us to receive the
holiness of Shabbat properly. By this, merit us immediately after Shabbat ends
to receive a true radiance of the revelation of the prophet. Merit us to
perform the mitzvah of Havdala over wine every motzei Shabbat. As a result,
enable us to receive radiance of true, holy understanding such that we merit to
serve You with full understanding all through the week. Help us to distance all
falsehood which stems from an aspect of the serpent who brought death to the world. Merit us to
cleave to the attribute of truth which is an aspect of the elixir of life. So
may it be Your will.
Amen.
118.
a)
When you study Torah it is good to
elucidate it in a language that you understand. This is a benefit for the
world.
b)
Each tzaddik of the generation is
a reflection of Moshe, the Meshiach. And when he makes Torah innovations it is
an aspect of "the spirit of G-d" which is 'the spirit of Meshiach,
hovering over the surface of the waters of the Torah' (Zohar, V'yeshev,pg.192).
Just like Meshiach suffers evils for the sake of the Jewish People, to atone
for them, so each tzaddik of the generation takes upon himself suffering for
the whole of the Jewish People in order to ease their lot. Furthermore, the
fact that we do not merit to ascertain the Torah innovations of the tzaddik in
their fullness, in the loftiest heights, as uttered in the mouth of the
tzaddik, but rather, it has to be elucidated for us through mundane means, in
Yiddish etc., in everyday language that we are used to speaking, this is also an
aspect of, "He was pained because of our transgressions"
(Isaiah,53:5) – an aspect of "he is (worked) in pain because of
us"(Zohar,Tetzeh,pg.280). This is true also of the tzaddik, an aspect of
"he suffers evil to atone for us."
Prayer (118)
Master
of the World, who gives the Torah, have mercy upon us and let us merit to
engage in learning Your holy Torah for its own sake, with great diligence and
perseverance. Grant us merit to learn a great deal every day. Help us so that
every holy book we learn we are able to explain well, in a way that we
understand. Let this be in such a way that we merit to arouse and draw upon
ourselves the spirit of Messiah which is “the spirit of G-d that hovers over
the waters”, waters which represent the Torah. Messiah suffers many illnesses
and is afflicted with great suffering because our willful transgressions and
iniquities, this being in order to atone for us and to save us from all the
troubles. By this he gives us a chance to survive. Have mercy upon him and upon
us and let us merit to engage a great deal in learning Torah. Let us explain
well each thing that we learn in a language that is understood, especially when
learning with friends or with students, such that our words enter their ears
and hearts. By this, let the spirit of Messiah be aroused upon us. He suffers
greatly for us. He lowers himself and dresses himself in several common,
everyday appearances in order to be with us, in order to revive us and
establish us in the midst of this long, powerful and bitter exile.
Our
Father, merciful Father, have mercy upon us, help us and save us, in his merit,
in his strength. Save us from all the troubles and from all the harsh decrees,
whether those that have already been passed against us or those that they wait
to decree. Heaven forbid, for the “power of endurance fails.” Rock of Israel,
rise and come to the assistance of Israel. Speedily save us in these troubled
times through the strength and merit our righteous Messiah, the holy one of
Israel. Fulfill in us the verse which says: “Now I know that he Lord saves His
anointed (Messiah); He will hear him from His holy heaven with the saving
strength of His right hand”. And it says, “Great deliverance He gives to His
king and shows loving-kindness to His Messiah, to David and to his seed
forever.” And it says, “The Lord is their strength and He is the saying
strength of His Messiah.” Save us Lord: let the King hear us when we call.”
Amen
and Amen.
119.
On Shabbat Understanding is drawn upon each person.
Through this the attribute of compassion becomes strengthened within him so
that he has mercy on other humans, for compassion depends on
Understanding. Then through his having
compassion, Heaven takes compassion on him.
Prayer
119
You
grant knowledge to man. Please bestow upon us wisdom, insight and knowledge. By
this merit us to cleave to the attribute of compassion so that we have
compassion on others. Save us from all kinds of anger and cruelty which stem
from foolishness and a lack of knowledge. Rather enable us to overcome this and
listen ourselves each time to behave with compassion. As a result please have
mercy upon us from Heaven as the Sages said: “Anyone who has compassion over
others, they have compassion on him from Heaven”.
You
know how much we need a salvation and mercy from Heaven, each person in his own
way. Only You know all the difficult experiences both spiritually and
materially that occur to us nowadays in general and individually. You who know how great our weakness is and
the deficiencies of our knowledge. As a result we have not the power to arouse
Your compassion over us in a complete way.
You
revealed to us that the holy Shabbat is an aspect of knowledge for on Shabbat
each Jew draws upon himself holy knowledge. Therefore, please have mercy upon
us and merit us to receive Shabbat properly such that through this we will be
able to receive the light of knowledge. As a result, let us ascertain the
attribute of compassion and have mercy on other Jews, so that I can do good for
them, as is fitting. Save me from all sorts of anger, sweeten and nullify all
the harsh decrees from upon us and from upon all the Jewish People.
Amen. May it be so.
120.
When one studies from a book it hasn't as much strength
to arouse a person as when he hears directly from the mouth of the tzaddik
himself. This is explained in the Torah. (See original text)
121.
Any place where a person sees and studies in a book, he
should find himself. That's to say, he should take some ethical teaching from
it. He should see his worthlessness and lowliness. This is a sign that he
desires to perform G-d's will.
Prayer 120 – 121
Master
of the Universe, grant me the merit to come close to true tzaddikim and to hear
words of Torah and inspiration from their mouths so that I will receive real
spiritual arousal in the service of G-d with fear of Heaven. You know that I
have already looked into a number of holy books of ethics but I still have not
really been inspired by them. This is because books are on the level of
‘action’ and after the sin of the golden calf we lost the crown of ‘action’. So
merit me to hear words of Torah and inspiration with my own ears from the mouth
of the tzaddik for this is an aspect of ‘listening’ and ‘Comprehending’. If we
hear directly from him this will have more power to arouse us to truly repent.
So
merit me to yearn and long so much to serve You with great desire that in my
book I learn from I will immediately find myself. In other words let me see
my own worthlessness and lowly spiritual
status. As a result may I get great spiritual arousal and inspiration to serve
You from each and every holy book that I study. May I receive from them good
advice, inspiration and tremendous encouragement in Your service. Fulfill in
the verse that says: “Behold I have come to the scroll of the book that is
written for me specifically”. May I consider everything I learn from a book to
G-d written “for me” as if it is speaks to me personally, telling me to perform
Your will.
Amen. So may it be Your will.
122.
The desire to be
victorious doesn't suffer truth. Even if the truth becomes clear before a
person's eyes, he will reject it because of the desire to win the debate.
Therefore, someone who wants the absolute truth must first set aside the desire
to be victorious; then he will be able to see the truth if he wants. But with
the Holy One, even in the attribute of Victory, is all Truth. This is "And
also, the Victory of Israel will not lie" (Shmuel I, 15:29).
Prayer
122
Save
me from the trait of wanting to triumph over others. Let me feel more
comfortable to be vanquished than to win. For You know how very many people
have lost their world completely. Heaven preserve us through this trait of
being wanting to be. Triumph does not allow for truth. Even if a person sees
with his own eyes that something is true, he will reject if for the sake of
triumphing. Merit me to cleave to the attribute of truth and to always admit
the truth. Let me always speak the truth for specifically by this, I will
eventually merit to vanquish all those who oppose me and try to distance me
from the path of truth. Protect me so that I do not mislead myself through the
trait of wanting to vanquish others.
You
taught us that You yearn and long for the Jewish People to triumph over You in
their prayers such that You change Your will, so to speak, to our will. You
take great delight when we triumph over You. And how could we do this other
than by You sending us the words and claims by which to vanquish You.
So
have mercy on me and send me words in order to explain myself before You at all
times with new and proper claims, requests, supplications, appeasements
until
I vanquish You so to speak. As a result, bring me close to You, even though I
am not deserving, for Your compassion is immense.
Amen,
so may it be Your will.
123.
The main thing and
foundation that everything depends on is that a Jew connect himself to the
tzaddik of the generation and accept whatever he says, whether a major thing or
a minor thing, without swerving from his words, Heaven forbid, to the right or
left. He must throw away all his wisdom and discard all his understanding, as
if he hasn't any intelligence apart from what he will receive from the tzaddik
or genuine rabbi of the generation. All the time that even some independent
intelligence remains, he has not reached perfection and still isn't attached to
the tzaddik. So too the main element of the Jewish People's receiving of the
Torah at Sinai was that they discarded all their wisdom; they believed in G-d
and His servant Moshe. That is what it says, "a foolish and unwise
nation" (Deut. 32:6) which Unkulus translates as "a nation who
accepted the Torah and were not wise."
Similarly, the
essence of accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven is by discarding and nullifying
all forms of wisdom. One just needs to go with purity and simplicity for only
the holy Torah is true wisdom. All other wisdoms are nothing in comparison.
Prayer
123
“Blessed
are those whose path is simplicity, who walk in the Torah of the Lord”. I will
behave wisely in a perfect, pure way. When will You come to me? I will walk
with a pure heart within my house”. Let (my deeds of) purity and integrity
protect me. I hope and wait for You”. As for me I will walk in my purity;
redeem me and be merciful upon me”. Master of the World, full of mercy, whose
deeds are perfect and who is pure and shows His purity with the pure. Have
mercy upon me and let me merit to real purity and simplicity May I merit to
really attach myself in purity and simplicity to the real tzaddikim, the pious
and pure people in the generation who merited to serve real tzaddikim and to
receive from them the path of truth and honesty. Grant me the merit to discard,
remove and nullify all my wisdom, intellect and perception before them such
that it is as if I have no intellect at all. Let me fulfill all that they say
and anything they say let that be it! Let me not stray to the right or the left
of what they say. Master of the Compassion, have mercy upon me and save me from
all sorts of confusions, from all sorts of worldly wisdoms that are not true.
Have mercy upon me and save me from them. Do not let my heart be delivered into
their ways. Let me now stray from the words of the truly holy tzaddikim who
lead us in mercy, in truth and purity according to the ways of the Torah that
we received from the mouth of our teacher, Moses, may he rest in peace. Protect
us and save us from all sorts of denial of faith and things that confuse our
faith, which are the result of these alien wisdoms. Let me merit to really and
truly enter into the paths of purity and simplicity in such a way that I merit
to really perfect belief and to fulfill all Your Torah with love, truth, purity
and simplicity all the days of my life.
“Let
my heart be pure in Your statutes so that I will not be ashamed”. For “You are
the Lord, G-d, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and
gave him the name Abraham. And found his heart to be faithful before You”. He
walked before You in purity and simplicity, for he was the first of all the
true, pure and honest believers who serve You in purity and simplicity, in
truth and perfect belief. In his merit and the merit of all the true, pure
tzadikkim, have mercy upon me and let me merit to begin now to go in Your ways,
with purity and simplicity, with truth and perfect belief. Remove from my heart
its stubbornness os that I will not lead my heart into foolishness, into paths
of worthless wisdoms that are customary in the world, wisdoms that severely
confuse and prevent us from thinking about our purpose in life, our final end
and how to really com closer to You. Let me clear out and drive out from my
heart all these wisdoms. May I really and truly know the immensity of my
foolishness and how much I lack perception, as is written, “Surely I am more
brutish than any man and haven’t the understanding of a man”. And it is
written: “I was brutish and without knowledge: I was like a beast before You”.
And, ”I said I will be wise; but it was far from me”. Have mercy upon me so
that I will not mislead myself with any worldly wisdom which can confuse very
much. Rather, may I merit to fulfill, with truth and purity, all that our true
Sages say. Let me nullify my perception and intellect completely before them,
as I have no intellect at all, which is really the truth. May I merit to
fulfill the verse which says: “Lord, who will abide in Your Tabernacle and who
will dwell on Your holy Mount? He who walks in purity (simplicity), performs
righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart”.
May
it be pleasing before You, Lord, our G-d and G-d of our Fathers, full of
loving-kindness, who does much good, that, in Your bountiful compassion, You
have mercy upon me. Show me, teach me and guide me in the ways of the real
purity and simplicity, with perfect faith, without any worthless wisdoms at
all. You know that we have no way to come close to You other than by complete
purity and simplicity, with truth and perfect faith. I believe and understand
from afar, that even in the depths of our descent at present, in the midst of
the force of this bitter exile, in body and spirit, there are ways of purity
and simplicity and faith. Every person, wherever he is (in terms of his
spiritual level), can remove himself from his exile and descent by means of the
pathways of purity and simplicity; he can find the straight way and correct
advice, he can find You in every place, even he who has fallen to wherever he
is fallen. Everyone can rise out of their fall and descent and can come close
and attach themselves to You. They can please and appease You with purity and
simplicity, with prayer, supplications, truth and perfect faith, for these You
desire, as it says, “My eyes will be upon the faithful of the land that they
may dwell with me. He who walks in a pure (simple) way, he will serve me”. And
it says: “Blessed are those whose path is simplicity, who walk in the Torah of
the Lord”. Let me merit to all that I have requested before You. May the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance,
O Lord, my Rock and Redeemer.
124.
When one speaks to
G-d and explains oneself with claims and requests, wanting to be victorious
over the Holy One, so to speak, so that He should fulfill one's request, G-d
has pleasure and joy from this. Therefore, G-d sends such a person words to
speak so he will be able to win G-d over. Without this it would certainly be
impossible for a human of flesh and blood to be victorious over G-d. But G-d
Himself helps him in this.
125.
Eating on Shabbat is
very precious and holy; it is a mitzvah to have plenty of food on Shabbat, for
eating is entirely Godliness, entirely holy. Therefore we must be very careful
that it contains no element of or attachment to the weekdays. That's to say,
one shouldn't eat simply because one is hungry from the day before or in order
not to be hungry the day after for then one's eating contains a portion from
the weekdays. Consequently one has to have in mind when eating on Shabbat that
it is only for the sake of the holiness of Shabbat itself. This is an aspect of
the three times it says "today" in the verses about eating on
Shabbat, alluding to the need to eat only for the holiness of Shabbat and for
the honour of the day itself.
126.
Immediately when
Shabbat enters, because of the extra soul's great delight at Shabbat's arrival,
we instantly start to pine for and regret the loss of this extra soul at the
conclusion of Shabbat. This is an aspect of what we recite at the beginning of
Shabbat – "Shabbat Vayinafesh" (Exodus 31:17) which the Sages said
(Betza,15) means "Since Shabbat ends, 'vayi' ('woe') one loses the
'nefesh' (the soul)." This is like it brings in the Zohar that the time
when the group of followers of Rabbi Shimon took great delight in the holiness
of the revelations of Rabbi Shimon, they began to pine a great deal and said
'vayi'- woe- to the generation when he (Rabbi Shimon) passes away. This is
exactly like the above regarding Shabbat.
Prayer
125 – 126
Master
of the World, let us merit to welcome properly the holiness of Shabbat. May I
merit to fulfill the commandment of eating three meals every single Shabbat and
to fulfill properly the commandment of
delight on Shabbat, to eat, drink and have plenty of delights for the sake of
Shabbat. You know how great is the virtue of the preciousness of eating on
Shabbat. Grant us merit to fulfill perfectly that which is written about eating
on Shabbat: “…eat it today for today is a Shabbaot for the Lord; today you will
not find it in the field.” From this the Sages learnt that a person must eat
three meals on Shabbat for “today” is written three times. Let me merit to eat
the Shabbat meals with great holiness and may I have in mind at every meal that
now I am not eating for the delight (pleasure) of the body, nor as I eat during
the weekdays, when it is the usual custom of people to eat not for the sake of
a commandment but, rather, to stave off hunger, for these are meals we are
permitted (but not commanded) to eat. Sometimes one eats because one is hungry from
the day before and sometimes one eats so as not to be hungry the following day,
but on Shabbat let me have in mind at every meal that I am eating only for the
sake of the honour of the day, for the honour of Shabbat, which is an aspect of
“eat it today, for today is a Shabbat of the Lord”. By this, may the days of
the week have no hold or control over the holiness of eating on Shabbat, for
then I eat only for the sake of Shabbat to fulfill the commandment of eating a
Shabbat meal and not because I want to prevent being hungry on weekdays. May I
have many good foods and drinks for the honour of Shabbat and may I know and
believe with complete faith that eating on Shabbat is something else entirely
from eating during the weekdays. Outside forces (outside the realm of holiness)
have no hold whatsoever over our eating on Shabbat, for eating on Shabbat is
all divine, all holy, as You informed us by Your holy Sages, may their memories
be blessed. May I merit to draw holiness from the holiness of eating on Shabbat
to my eating during the weekdays, as the Rabbis said of the sage Shamai, who
used to eat for the sake of Shabbat every day, all throughout his entire life.
May I also grasp the attribute of the sage Hillel, who used to say, “Blessed is
the Lord every day”.
Let
me not think or worry from one day to another at all and let me merit to really
feel in my heart the pleasantness (sweetness and delight) of the holiness of
Shabbat, and to feel the holiness of the extra soul that comes to a person
every Shabbat. May I welcome the extra soul of Shabbat immediately upon the
entry of Shabbat and to feel in my heart the pleasantness of its holiness such
that I immediately begin to long for and feel sorrow about the loss of the
extra soul (after the end of Shabbat). May I merit by this to connect myself so
much to the holiness of Shabbat and the holiness of the extra soul which comes
on Shabbat that, during the weekdays also, there will remain with me a great
impression of its holiness. By this, may I also serve You sincerely during the
weekdays and draw upon myself every time the holiness of Shabbat, and may I
long for and desire very much to welcome the holiness of Shabbat, which comes
with extra radiance and extra holiness, until I merit by this to really welcome
every single Shabbat with extra holiness and the most tremendous radiance. May
I welcome the extra soul, spirit and higher soul every single Shabbat in the
greatest possible spiritual level and may I merit to come close to real
tzaddikim who are themselves the aspect of Shabbat, as the Sages said. May I
feel the pleasantness of their holiness, until, at all times (for many days and
years), I will have in mind great sorrow and great longing because of my
separation from them after they pass away, just like the group of students of
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai used to say when bemoaning the time when he would pass
away. Let me merit to think about this and to attach myself so much to the
pleasantness of their holiness during their lifetime that, by this I receive
from them every time a great and true radiance in my mind, in my heart, in my
soul, spirit and higher soul, even after they pass away; for tzaddikim after
their death are called “alive”. Even more so, tzaddikim are greater after their
death than when they were alive!
Let me merit to hear Torah from the mouth of
true tzaddikim and let me really feel the greatness of the wonder and awe of
their new Torah insights such that I cannot stop myself from praising them in
their presence. By this, may I merit to have revealed to me more wonderful and
awesome new Torah insights. So also with the holiness of Shabbat. May I say
many praises and sings songs of praise of Shabbat with great happiness, with
wonderful desire and great yearning, such that by this I merit to receive, even
more so every time, the pleasantness of the holiness of Shabbat. Fulfill in me
the verse which says: “If you turn away your foot from (violating) Shabbat”
etc. “and call the Shabbat a delight, the holy of the Lord and honoured……. Then
you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride upon the
high places of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken”.
127.
A Jew's clothes
should always be without blemish and not torn. The clothes themselves act as a
prosecuting counsel against him if he isn't careful to guard them and honour
them properly and doesn't keep them clean.
128.
There are people who
are a little kosher; because such a person cares about fear of G-d, he lowers his
eyes a little and doesn't look at women. Nevertheless he steals a sideways
glance. This is like the Sages said about the evil urge, "they put out his
eyes" (Yoma,69B); he blinds the eyes of the evil urge by preventing
himself from staring. And even so, the evil urge remains, for he looks out from
the side of his eye.
(Prayer
127-128)
Master
of the Universe merit me to always wear
new clothing that is complete and untorn for You have taught us that clothes
are the secret of ‘chashmal’ a protective barrier. However, when clothes are
torn this spoils the protection. Merit us to guard our clothes and to honour
them properly, keeping them clean.
Please
protect me so that I will not look at anything that can damage my eyes even if
it is only a moments glance out of the side of the eye. Merit me to fulfill the
verses: “Do not follow after your heart and after you eyes” and “ I have mad a
covenant with my eyes”.
129. A LAND WHICH
EATS ITS INHABITANTS
a)
Belief alone, that he believes in the tzaddik and comes close to him
even if one doesn't receive anything from him, is itself very good, for, by
faith, and just coming close, the bad within a person gets eaten and turns into
the essence of the tzaddik – on condition that the person's intention is for the
sake of Heaven. But whoever travels and brings himself to a tzaddik for an
ulterior motive, this won't help him at all.
b)
Whoever travels to the Land of Israel and his intention is really for
the sake of Heaven, in order to return to G-d by this, the Land of Israel will
certainly benefit him a great deal. Just by entering the Land of Israel he will
be devoured by it and turn into the holy essence of the Land. Therefore, even
"if a Jew walks four paces in Israel he is certain to be a son of the
World to Come"(Ketuvot,111). However, if his desire in this has nothing to
do with the service of G-d, to eliminate the evil in him, dwelling in Israel
will not benefit him for the Land of Israel will spit him out, like it says,
"Like it spewed…" (Levit.18:28).
(Prayer
129)
May
it be Your will, O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, G-d of Faith, that You
grant us merit, by Your bountiful mercy and immense loving kindness, to really
perfect, wholehearted faith. May I merit to believe in You and in Your true
tzaddikim with really perfect faith. May I merit to enter into, cleave to and
be enveloped within perfect, holy faith. Let me be strong and bold in holy
faith such that I merit to turn the materiality of my body into the essence of
holy faith. May the holy faith consume me until all the evil which has a hold
in me be devoured and nullified. Let me merit to turn from evil to good by way
of perfect faith, so that I merit to be included and nullified totally within
holy faith. Let me merit very speedily to come to the land of Israel with out
harm and there to come close and cleave to true tzaddikim, with great
attachment and really perfect belief.
In
Your great compassion, have mercy upon me; do not repay me according to my
sins. In Your mercy, open for me the gates of holy belief; help me enter into
faith with truth, to be enveloped within it completely such that I merit to be
consumed by faith and to turn into its holy essence, the essence of the holy
Land of Israel, the essence of the holiness of true tzaddikim. Do not let the
Land or holy faith vomit me out as it did the other nations who came before me.
Even though I am not fitting or worthy to touch holy faith or the holy Land of
Israel or to come close to real tzaddikim, for I have committed many evil deeds
and spoilt my holiness, nevertheless, Lord, Your compassion is great. So have
mercy upon me, help me, save me and grant me merit so that the holy faith will
be able to stomach within itself an to always retain me, until I become
consumed and really changed into the essence of holy faith.
You,
who are full of compassion, let me merit to perfect faith in all aspects, for
we have no hope or support nowadays other than by holy faith. You know the
immense yoke and force of the exile upon our souls because of the cravings of
the body which overcome us all the time. Because of our many iniquities, we no
longer have the strength to stand against them and break them and nullify them
completely. We have only the strength of holy belief, that You will bring us into
faith, such that we merit to be consumed by faith and change to the essence of
holy faith. Our eyes, O Lord turn towards faith. In Your plentiful mercy, let
me merit to really perfect, holy belief, as is Your desire. “All Your
commandments are faith”. “I will sing of the loving-kindness of the Lord
forever; with my mouth I will make known. Your faith to all generations”. “For
I have said: A world of loving-kindness will be built up: Your faith You will
establish in the very heavens”……..”Your faith is round about You”. Fulfill in
us the verse which says: “I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in
judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will betroth you to Me in
faith and you will know the Lord”.
Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen.
130.
By being humble, a
person is saved from the craving for sex and merits to guard his brit (his
sexual purity). On the other hand, through haughtiness and pride, the evil urge
overcomes him with this craving.
(Prayer 130).
I have stretched out
my hands to You. Instruct and teach me Your paths of truth and Your upright
advice at all times in such a way that I merit to quickly repent for having bad
deeds and indecent thoughts. Then merit me, as a result, for a speedy
rectification of the brit in a really complete way as You desire. Grant me true
knowledge and intelligence so that I will know to truly feel my lowliness. Let
no thought of pride or haughtiness come into my mind for according to my true
worthlessness I should not have to pray at all to e saved from pride. Who am I
that I should feel any pride! But You know how strange thoughts of pride
confuse my mind especially when I want to perform something in the realm of
holiness.
Therefore I have
come before You, Mercirful One, Who knows the hidden things, have compassion on
me constantly and be with me on all occasions. Guard me always so that no
thoughts of pride or haughtiness come into my heart at all. Rather, merit me to
true humility in such a way that I
achieve real holiness of the brit. You have already informed us throught Your
holy sages that by humility one merits to guard the brit. But save us from
false humility. Give me only genuine humility as You desire. May the words of
my mouth and the meditations of my heart find favour before You, G-d, my Rock
and Redeemer.
131.
A person has to fear
and be frightened of receiving honour, for honour is a great danger, a mortal
danger. Therefore, when honour comes to a person he has to be very careful to
accept it properly, for G-d's sake alone. If, Heaven forbid, he blemishes the
honour even by a hair's breadth and doesn't accept it properly, he may die
because of this, Heaven forbid.
132.
There is a tzaddik
who is well known in his area but in another area nearby he isn't famous and
isn't important at all. Then again in another area he is very famous. However,
the truth is that even in the place where he isn't famous or important at all,
there also the essence of its existence and vitality comes only through the
tzaddik – it is just hidden. This is an aspect of what it says in the Zohar
(Tetze,pg.280) – "There is a stream that flows out from one place and goes
under the ground until it flows and comes out in another place. And even in the
place where it goes under the ground, it waters the roots of the trees."
133.
The truth is that
the holy Torah and the true tzaddikim illuminate all the worlds with a very
great light. Their light is thousands and tens of thousands times greater than
all This World and its vanities. However, because people are deeply involved in
the vanities of This World and this is very close to their eyes, they imagine
there is nothing better than this. Therefore, This World, even though it is
small and of very little worth and has no significance at all, even so, it
stands opposite their eyes and prevents them from seeing the great and holy
light of the Torah and of the true tzaddikim. It is like holding a small coin
right in front of your eyes such that you can't even see a huge mountain, even
though the mountain is thousands and tens of thousands times bigger than the
small coin. So it is with this small world. The craving for money - the coin in
front of a person's eyes- prevents him from seeing the great light of the Torah
and the tzaddikim. On the other hand, if a person really takes this itself to
heart, how such a small object like this can delay and prevent him from seeing
such great lights, all because it is very close to his eyes, then with a slight
movement he can remove This World from before his eyes. That's to say, he
should turn his eyes away from the world and not look at This World. Rather, he
should raise his head and lift up his eyes to look above this very small world
which blocks his vision and acts as a barrier. Then immediately he will merit
to see perfectly the great and immense light of the Torah and the true
tzaddikim. Just like the comparison to the coin mentioned previously, he can
easily discard it from in front of his eyes and then he will see straight away
the huge mountain. This is exactly so regarding the world and the Torah, like
the Baal Shem Tov said, "Oi vavoi, Woe is me! The world is full of
heavenly lights and very wonderful, awesome secrets and the small hand in front
of the eyes can stop a person from seeing great lights like these!"
(Prayer
133)
I
have come before You, G-d my G-d and G-d of our fathers, to ask that You have
compassion upon me. Grant me advice, strength and encouragement how to block
and remove my materialistic eyes and thoughts from looking at the vanities of
this world from now on, especially when I begin to think about something which
leads to indecent thoughts, Heaven forbid. For the truth is that I believe that
we always have free choice. However because of the immense bitterness of my
habits it is hard for me to hold my thoughts in the realm of holiness. But You
can help me have apathy, for Your Name’s sake, for the sake of Your honour, so
save me from now on from whatever I have to be saved from.
Arouse
Your mercy upon me and come to my assistance so that I merit to remove my eyes
from looking at This World both materially and spiritually. Just let me turn my
eyes, heart and mind to always look at the light of the Torah and the true
Tzaddikim who shine with their great, awesome and sublime light. And may this
nullify from me all the physical cravings of the world. I believe truthfully
with complete faith that all This World and all its cravings and vanities are
no more than a speech against the Torah and the Holy tzaddikim who shine
throughout all the worlds with a great wonderful and awesome light. It is just
that this world, which is so small in size and essence and quality, appears in
front of the eyes of people and prevents or delays them from perceiving the
great previous light of the Torah and the tzaddikim. Have mercy on us for Your
Name’s Sake. Let me not follow after my eyes, rather help me not to raise my
eyes to look at the dealings of This World, its vanities and evil cravings
which, in the end, are very bitter.
Direct
my vision and sight towards the light of the Torah and the true tzaddikim at
all times. By this, let all the cravings and affairs of This World be nullified
from me. Merit me to spend all my days striving to come close to genuine
tzaddikim and for the holy Torah which they drive down, reveal and radiate
throughout the entire world all the time.
Help
us for Your Name’s Sake. Our Father and King, reveal the glory of Your Kingdom
over us speedily through Your holy Torah and merit me from now on to repent
fully and purely as You desire. Shine
Your Countenance upon Your servant. Save us in Your loving kindness.
Amen.
134.
One must be very
careful when saying Torah in public that one's words are divisible so that each
person will only hear what he needs to and not more. Even though one says Torah
in public to everybody equally, nevertheless the words shouldn't enter the
person's heart other than what relates to him and that he needs.
135. "I WILL TAKE THE APPOINTED TIME"
(Psalms,75:3)
a) Honouring Festivals and receiving them with
happiness, joy and generosity, delighting in them with food and drink and
suitable clothing according to one's ability, has a special power to save a
person from haughtiness.
b) Coming close to a tzaddik also nullifies
haughtiness. Therefore if a person is humble, this is a sign that he is really
attached to a tzaddik.
c) The main form of attachment is love, meaning
that you should love the tzaddik with perfect love, attaching your soul to his
soul to such a degree that love for the tzaddik nullifies your love for women,
like it says, "Your love for me was wonderful, more than the love of
women" (Shmuel,II,1:26).
d) When one receives a Festival as is fitting,
this is an aspect of seeing the face of one's rabbi on the Festival, even
though one is miles away from him. So also the opposite, if one is attached to
the tzaddik one can feel the sanctity of the Festival. By this, one elevates
the Kingdom of Holiness from among the husks so the Kingdom of Evil falls and
the power of the Nations is nullified.
e) On a Festival one should repent out of a
feeling of joy, for on all Festivals the world is judged, as the Sages said,
"On four occasions…" (Rosh Hashana,16). Therefore, one has to repent
at those times. By this the Kingdom of Holiness is extracted from among the
husks, as mentioned previously, and one hastens the Redemption.
(Prayer
135)
May
I find favour before You, O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, so that in
Your bountiful mercy, I merit to really come close and attach myself to true
tzaddikim, with real desire in my heart and soul, with really great, powerful
love. Let me love them with such great love that my love of them will be
greater and more wonderful than the love for women, until all my love for women
and craving for sex be nullified from me by my overwhelming love of the
tzaddikim. Take pity and have mercy upon me; let me merit to real love of the
tzaddikim and by this may I merit to attach myself very greatly and firmly to
them. Let my soul be tied up in theirs in a very, very strong bond from now,
forever until eternity, for eternities.
May
it be Your will O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that in Your bountiful
mercy and tremendous loving-kindness, I merit to welcome all the Festivals and
Holy Days with great holiness and purity, with great happiness and joy and
wisdom, with absolute perfection as is really Your desire. May I behold the
face of my rabbi on the Festival even when I am far from Him. (When you
celebrate the Festivals fittingly it is equivalent to seeing your rabbi…..This
is true even if you and he are physically miles apart! – Torah 135 Likutei
Moharan).
May
I merit to behold the faces of the true tzaddikim, to recognize them and love
them and to draw upon myself their holiness by welcoming the Holy festival
which is drawn from them. By this, may I merit to the Forty-Nine Gates of
Wisdom which are revealed and radiate on the Festival. Open for me the light of
the holy mind; let me merit to a great and wonderful power to really look into
Your Torah and service. By this, may all the foolishness of all sorts of
self-importance, pride and haughtiness be nullified. May I merit to completely
perfect humility as is Your good desire. Always draw upon me and all of Israel
the holiness of Moses, our teacher, may he rest in peace, who merited to real
humility; as is written: “Now the man Moshe was very humble, more so than all
other men on the face of the earth”. Have mercy upon us, You who are full of
compassion, that we merit, through the strength of welcoming the Festivals –
“Festivals of the Lord, holy convocations” – to draw upon ourselves the
holiness of all true tzaddikim. May all the true holy brains and intellect,
drawn from the Festivals, be drawn upon us by them so that, by this, we merit to
nullify and cast off from ourselves all sorts of self-importance, pride and
extraneous motives. Through this, may we merit to real humility, to the
humility of Moses, our teacher, may he rest in peace.
Master
of the World, You know my great distance from true humility. “Surely I am more
ignorant than any man and have not the understanding of a man”. In my many
iniquities I do not know at all what true humility is, for humility is greater
than everything. Lord of compassion, have mercy upon me and let me merit to the
real holiness of each Festival until I merit by this to know and acknowledge
very well the virtue of the greatness of the true tzaddikim, until I nullify
myself to them in utter self-nullification. By this, may all sorts of pride,
haughtiness, self-importance and extraneous motives and everything else bad
that one can talk of or think of be nullified automatically from me; such that
I merit to real humility as is Your real desire.
Master
of the World, let me merit to fear Your Name really and truly and
wholeheartedly. Fulfill in us the verse which says “By humility (comes) fear of
G-d”. Let me merit return in complete repentance before You through the
radiance of the holiness of the Festival, for You have already revealed to us
that the Festivals are days of judgement, days of repentance. By this, may I
merit to rectify all the blemishes that I caused to the aspect of the Kingdom
of Holiness by my immense iniquities and wilful transgressions. I caused, so to
speak, the Kingdom of Holiness to fall. By this the four kingdoms of the Other
Side became stronger, especially the husk of Amalek, may his name be wiped out,
for he is the generality of all husks; as it says: “The first of the nations is
Amalek”. Therefore take pity and have mercy upon me and return in complete
repentance before You. By this, may I merit to raise the holy Kingdom from its
fall so that all the four kingdoms of the Other Side be nullified, especially
the kingdom of Amalek, may his name and memory be wiped out.
May
I merit to come close to and really attach myself to true tzaddikim who occupy
themselves merited to the aspect of Kingdom. They create the principal holiness
of the Festival, which is the raising of the aspect of the Kingdom of Holiness
from amount the husks and the nullifying of all the power and rule of the four
kingdoms of the Other Side. Therefore, by attaching myself to true tzaddikim,
maybe someone very lowly, rotten and insignificant as myself can also welcome
the holiness of the Festival such that I merit to real humility, true, holy
fear and to perfect repentance and speedy redemption; as the rabbis of bless
memory said: Repentance is great since it brings closer the redemption”.
136.
You must look at the
entire person and judge him favourably. This is true even of those who oppose
you; you must investigate and find merit in them with regard to their
opposition. Through this you will be able to nullify the opposition completely
or there will be a downfall to those who oppose you.
(Prayer
136)
My
Father in Heaven. Assist me and save me so that I may judge every Jew on the
side of merit, even those who incite controversy against true tzaddikim and
even consult them. Merit me to fulfill that which the Sages said. “Do not judge
your fellow until you arrive at his place”. In this way may all the controversy
in the world be nullified and let great pace be drawn down so that all Jews
become united.
In
Your bountiful mercy, help me to repent
fully before You until I reach the holiness and virtue of all those Jews who
are far above me in their holiness and purity. May I truly reach their place
and unite with them with great peace. Teach me to find in them merits and
goodness even in the fact that they argue against us. In such a way may I raise
them and enter them into the scales of merit. Then they will unite with us
totally and perfectly and controversy will be nullified from among all the
Jewish people. Please put into the hearts of those who oppose and argue against
the truth the thought that they retract all their hate and controversy and instead pursue truth and peace. And those who hate and oppose the truth, who do
not really desire peace, subdue them and bring them down to the dust.
Have
mercy for Your Name’s sake. Place peace in the world for You know how much
controversy damages the Jewish People. Merciful One, in Your awesome wonders,
act to draw down real peace into the world. Fulfill the verse: “Who makes peace
in the Heavens, bring peace upon us and upon all the Jewish People. Amen.
137.
The Divine portion
from Above (the soul) which is in me tells me and teaches me "to keep Your
words" (Psalms, 119:57).
(Prayer
137-8)
Master
of the Universe, help me to nullify and subdue the coarseness of my body, it
opposes the light of my neshama which is a holy portion from Above. Merit me to
hear well in my heart what my neshama tells me and teaches me about keeping
Your commandments. Purify my heart to serve You truthfully. May I subdue and
nullify the evil urge that dwells in my heart until‘my heart is a void within
me’. Help me to purify and cleanse my heart from all kinds of extravenous and
bad thoughts. Merit me to be totally honest with a pure heart. Through this,
may the truth of the light of godliness be revealed and shine in my heart, for
you informed us that the heart of each Jew is full of godliness.
Purify
my heart so much that I will be able to know future events for my heart talks
to me. Merit me that everything my heart tells me will really be the word of
G-d.
138.
Someone who has an
upright heart, like it says, "My heart is void within me" (Psalms,
109:22), can know the future by what his heart tells him, for that is actually
the word of G-d.
139
On weekdays, when
the external (impure) forces have control, when a Jew performs a mitzvah the
husk takes nourishment from the 'legs' of the mitzvah so that it cannot ascend
and go before G-d. But on Shabbat, when the control of external forces is
nullified, then the mitzvah ascends and goes before the Holy One. This is an
aspect of what it says, "If you return your foot because of Shabbat"
(Isaiah, 58:13). The Holy One enjoys and takes delight in the mitzvah and makes
from the person's steps a well-trodden path.
140.
The tzaddik himself
cannot be grasped; we have no apprehension of him for he is far beyond our
understanding. It is only through his followers, who are close to him and who
are not yet so distant from the public, about whom we have some grasp, that
through them we can understand something about the virtue of the tzaddik.
Prayer
140)
Please
merit me to come close to true tzaddikim and to really believe in them. Even
thought I have no real grasp of them and their great holiness, nevertheless,
help me to have a little understanding of the great virtue of the tzaddikim by
seeing the excellence of those who are attached to them and serve You with
perfect fear. Therefore, merit me not to have any doubts or questions about the
true tzaddikim. Rather may I really believe in them though I have no grasp of
their spiritual level, for they are far beyond our human intelligence. Merit me
to be counted among their followers and to come close to true tzaddikim. Let me
listen to their advice and perform everything they teach me so that, by this, I
can reach complete success, spiritually and materially in This World and the
World to Come.
Amen,
may it be so.
141. "AND THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL
CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART" (Deut.
30:6)
a) If a person were to merit to really feel the
pain of his sins, that's to say he circumcises the foreskin of his heart such
that he really feels his immense pain, feeling sorry, regretting and returning
to G-d in true repentance, then all the hearts of his seed which were drawn out
of him will also feel it, whether his actual sons or whether those drops of
seed that were drawn to another place, Heaven forbid. All of them will have the
foreskin of their hearts circumcised and feel to where they have been set down.
There will be a great uproar among them so they will all be aroused to repentance.
b) The period in which it is opportune to do
this is the month of Elul; then one can merit to really feel the pain of one's
sins to such a degree that also all the hearts of one's offspring will feel to
where they have been drawn and a great uproar will be made among them, arousing
them all to repentance.
(Prayer
141)
G-d,
my G-d, G-d of my Fathers, can help me and save me. Out of Your great
loving-kindness enable me to really feel the pain of my many, sins, iniquities
and wilfill sins which are vast, reaching as they do to the heights of the
heavens. This is especially true regarding blemishes of the brit. I have
spoiled the drops of the brain by expending them wastefully, whether
intentionally or not. If I were to begin to feel the pain of the immensity of
this great and awesome sin, I do not know if I could survive even an hour. You
informed us, through Your true tzaddikim the seriousness of this blemish. It
causes the extension of the destruction of the holy Temple, delays the
Redemption and causes the Shechinah to descend into exile, Heaven forbid. We
draw enslaved souls into the realm of the husks and from each wasted sperm we
create damaging forces, Heaven preserve us. Through this we spoil all the
twenty-two letters of the Torah which are included in the drops of semen.
The
truth is that my heart is so blocked, confused and crooked that I do not feel
the pain of my sins at all, despite their immensity. And even if I say ‘oih and
woe’ a thousand times I still do not feel the pain at all.
Help
me to speedily merit to return to You in repentance with all my heart. Open my
heart in such a way that I will really feel the pain of my enormous sins. Just
let me shout out from my heart, a great and bitter scream as is fitting to
shout out about my sins. I will shout out to You with all my heart, with a
truly broken heart until all the hearts of all the wasted sperm will feel it,
wherever they got drawn to. Then all their hearts will be circumcised such that
they feel the immense pain and distress of their being in the depths of hell
and places of filth. Let me make such a great noise among these drops that they
are all aroused to return to You. May they start to feel remorse and really
long for a rectification.
Please
G-d deal with our rectification and redeem us speedily from all the filthy and
spoilt places. Circumcise our hearts so we will love Your Name. Merit me very
soon to circumcise the foreskin of my heart and the hearts of my offspring,
especially during the holy days of Elul. Help me to prepare myself so that in
the month of Elul I will merit to fully circumcise my heart and those of my
children As a result, may the true tzaddikim rectify me and my family
completely during my lifetime.
142.
Someone who cannot
study Torah at all, such as an ignoramus or someone who is without any book, or
he is travelling or in a desert etc., but his heart burns with longing and great desire to study Torah, then this
desire in itself to study is an aspect of studying Torah from a book. (See full
text).
(Prayer
142)
“My
soul desired and even longed for the courts of G-d; my heart and my flesh sing
out for the living G-d”.
“My
soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where
there is no water.”
“My
soul thirsts for G-d, for the living G-d; when will I come and appear before
G-d.”
Master
of the World, You know how very great the obstacles are that I now face in all
the things related to holiness such as Torah, prayer and good deeds. It is
impossible to clarify even the minutest part of the many confusions and
obstacles and delays that I encounter in everything to do with holiness. Even
when I perform some commandment, or do something holy, it is very, very
confused and muddled. It is very far away from the perfection of the rectification
that we need to accomplish by each commandment, for, through my many
iniquities, I have become very distant from Your Torah and Your commandments.
In my own eyes I am really like someone wandering, lost in the desert, in a
place of darkness and bleakness, of very great darkness. I do not have any idea
at all what to do to return to the true, straight and proper path, to be
really, perfect as You desire. I walk in the ephemeral world. “I am like a
drunken man and like a man overcome with wine” wandering to and fro. I am
confused and mixed up with thousands and tens of thousands of confusions upon
confusions and multiple obstacles which prevent me and confuse me from truly
perfectly coming closer to You an Your Torah – for which purpose I was created.
What will I do for the day of reckoning? “What shall I do when G-d rises up?
When He visits judgment, what shall I answer Him?” I do not know at all wit
what to revive my very, very miserable and bitter soul, which is blemished and
mixed up so very much, other than belonging, yearning and wanting to come
closer to You, to Your service and to Your Torah, for there is an immense
virtue to holy desire and longing, as revealed to us by our holy Sages.
Therefore,
I have com before You, my Father in Heaven, my Father, Father of mercy, who
grants good even to the guilty. Grant me much good and let me merit to always
yearn for, long for and desire You, Your service and Your Torah with intense
longing and strong and forceful desire; until, in Your mercy, I merit to learn
a great deal every day and to recite many prayers, supplications, requests,
songs and songs of praise, every single day. Help me to perform many
commandment and good deeds every single day of my life. Even when, according to
Your desire, there is a need to stop learning etc. and even if sometimes I am I
places where it is impossible to learn and to engage in Your service, grant me
merit and help me that I have a craving and strong desire to learn Torah and to
really serve You until this desire rises before You and is considered as if I
actually performed a commandment or learnt Torah. You, who are full of
compassion, have mercy upon me and help me start training myself to always
yearn for, long for and desire Your Torah and Your service very strongly and
sincerely, and to really come closer to You. By this real desire and willpower
in the heart, may I merit to learn from the Supernal Book, written on the
Supernal Heart by the true tzaddikim, for You hearken and listen to the words
of each one of them in his own place.
You
join them together and write from them a book of remembrance for those who
think in their heart and really desire to learn Your Torah and to do Your
will, as is written: “Then they who
feared the Lord and thought about His Name:. Let me merit also to receive and
draw upon myself a great radiance from this Supernal Heart and to learn from
this Supernal Book. I am far away from
everything but I anticipate Your mercy and Your loving-kindness and that You
will grant me the merit to a real desire and longing to come closer to You, to
Your service and to Your Torah. Let it be in such a way that I quickly,
sincerely return to You, as is Your good desire. Take pity and have mercy upon
me in Your bountiful mercy, in Your great mercy. Help me for I have relied upon
You for support. “For Your are the glory of their strength; in Your favour our
horn will be exalted”. “ May the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance,
O G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer”.
Amen
and Amen.
143.
By accepting advice
from true tzaddikim one sweetens the harsh judgements. This also will bring a
person a salvation. But if one doesn't accept advice from tzaddikim it is
possible that something bad will happen, Heaven forbid, brought about by the
person himself, as it says, "The foolishness of a man perverts his
way..." (Proverbs,19:3). On the other hand, if he accepted advice from
tzaddikim and then, afterwards, it doesn't work out well for him, he will know
that is only because it is decreed from Above.
(Prayer
143)
“You
will guide me with Your advice and afterward receive me to glory”. Master of
the World, my King, my G-d, to You I will pray…Have mercy upon me for Your
Name’s sake, for You know how great is the lack of advice and how immense are
the doubts I have about everything. Usually my advice is ambiguous. I do not
know how to give counsel to my soul about anything, whether important or
insignificant. This greatly prevents me from serving G-d and from true
repentance. Master of Compassion, have mercy upon me. “Great in advice and
mighty in deed”, let me merit to always accept all the advice from the true
tzaddikim and really righteous people of the generation whose advice all comes
from the Torah and they received it from their rabbis, the holy, true
tzaddikim. May we merit to really come close to them and to accept their advice
about everything in the world, whether worship of G-d, trading, business, money
matters and all other things. Let me ask their advice with regard to all things
and let me merit to receive counsel and wisdom from them. Let their wisdom
radiate within me and by this, let great loving-kindness be drawn upon me.
Sweeten and nullify from upon me all the harsh judgements in the world. Let me
merit to complete salvation at all times, as it says: “There is salvation in
the multitude of cousellors”. Protect me and save me at all times so that I
never stumble because of ad advice, Heave forbid. Save me from drawing upon
myself any anguish, suffering or damage. Heaven forbid, by foolish advice,
Heaven forbid. Rather, let me always strive to accept all advice from the real
tzaddikim and righteous people of the generation, in such a way that their holy
wisdom radiate within me. Arouse Your great mercy and loving-kindness upon me
at all times; always save me from what I need to be saved from, both physically
and spiritually…May the words of my mouth and the contemplation of my heart
find favour before You, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Blessed be the Lord forever.
Amen
and Amen.
144.
The tzaddik who
breaks the craving to eat even on days when the Sages allowed eating and
drinking, as they said of Festivals, "Half to G-d and half to
yourselves" (Pesachim,68), if even then his desire is under control, then
for this tzaddik there is no difference between life and death, for he always
serves G-d.
145.
Someone who holds
himself back from the desire to arouse controversy, merits to have people say a
halachic decision in his name (after his death). Then he lives in two worlds
and it is as if he hadn't died.
(Prayer
144 – 5)
You
who revive the dead with great compassion, in Your bountiful mercy, revive me
and preserve me and save m so that I merit from now on to conquer my evil urge
and help me to always be in complete control of my desires, even the desires
that are permitted, even on the day when food and rink are permitted. With
regard to these desires, let me merit to behave, in great holiness and purity
for Your Name’s sake alone, without any desire of the body at all. Master of
the World, say to my troubles, ‘Enough!’ Quickly deliver me a complete
salvation from all the desires of This World. Take pity and have mercy upon my
wretched soul, which has already been blemished a great deal by evil desires,
as You know. In Your great compassion and great loving-kindness, have pity upon me, from now on, and grant me
the power and might and true advice at all times in such a way that I merit to
nullify all me desires completely, until I merit to the true life, the eternal
life, in This World and in the World to Come. Even when the time comes for me
to depart from the world let there be no difference for me between life and
after death. Rather, let it all be the same. Let me always merit to serve You
truly, whether whilst alive in This World or whether after my passing on to the
World to Come, such that I always be alive even after my passing away. Let me
live and never die. Let me be amongst the tzaddikim who, even after their
death, are called ‘alive’. “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the
living”. I shall not die but shall live and recount the deeds of G-d”.
Master
of the World, save me from dispute. Help me and save me so that I can hold back
my desires from discord. Let me not have any desire to be involved in dispute,
Heaven forbid, rather let me always try with all my might to quiet the
dissension and dispute. May I always really chase after peace until, by this I
merit to have people as a Torah law in my name after my departure from This World.
May my lips murmur in the grave and let me merit to live in two worlds and
never die. Rather, let me always be really within the generality of life.
146.
The Torah stands by
a person even when his desires are at full force. It calls out to him "Until
when will fools love foolishness" (Proverbs, 1:22). Because of the force
of his desires, he doesn't hear its call. He commits the sin because of the
spirit of foolishness that entered him. However, after he has fulfilled his
desire he feels immediately the voice of its call and regrets the sin.
(Prayer
146)
Master
of the Universe, You informed us that even when the physical cravings of a
person are at their strongest such that it is difficult to break them or hold
himself back from them, even so the Torah stands by a person and calls him,
announcing: ‘Until when fools will you love folly’. And even though he may not
hear the call because of his cravings, after the craving finishes he will
immediately hear the call. As a result he will feel regret about the sin or
craving for he heard the wisdom of the Torah which makes the fool wise. You
also revealed to us how the Torah gives witness about man’s deeds since it
stands after a person and calls him even at the time when he acts discreetly.
Therefore, have mercy over us so that we remember each time that the Torah is
united to You. As a result, it goes with us to all the lowliest and dirtiest
places and calls us to turn aside from the paths of hell and death.
By
this we can break all our cravings because of the immense shame and fear of G-d
we will have fear of the holy Torah which stands before us and constantly call
to us. How can we raise our heads before You when the Torah itself gives
witness about our deeds.
Master
of the Universe, have mercy on us from now on and merit us to abandon our evil
ways very speedily. Let us return to You for You are bountiful in Your
forgiveness.
147.
A person who is
brazen-faced has no portion in the Torah. Likewise, the opposite, someone who
has no holy boldness also lacks a portion in the Torah. One has to have holy
boldness, as the Sages said, "Be bold as a leopard" (Perkei Avot,
Ch.5) The characteristic of humility is
something else completely. The essence of humility is to be at such a spiritual
level that one can praise oneself that one is humble, like Moshe, who wrote
about himself in the Torah, "And the man Moshe was humble..." This is
like we find that Rav Yosef said of himself, "Don't say there is no
humility; there is me" (Sotah, 49). This is the ultimate level of
humility.
(Prayer
147)
Merit
me to holy audacity so I can be as bold as a leopard. Let me have holy audacity
against all those who stand in my way preventing me from serving G-d, Heaven
Forbid. Help me to be very strong in my boldness against them. Let me never be
ashamed at all by their mockery nor spend time arguing with them. On the
contrary, however much they rise against me to stop me from Torah and Prayer ,
may my holy boldness just become that much stronger, so that I can break all the obstacles. Someone who
lacks this holy boldness lacks a portion in the holy Torah for the main
strength in Torah and serving G-d depends on this holy boldness. This boldness
adds strength and might in the World Above, so to speak. Then, from Above, they
add strength and holy boldness to the person so he can withstand all the
obstacles and break them. Please help me to begin and bring to completion
anything I want to achieve in the service of G-d.
Similarly,
merit me to find the right path in the attribute of humility so that I can be
very lowly and humble in relation to all other people. However, let me not be
lowly and worthless in my own eyes such that I feel ashamed when mockers stand
in the way of my serving G-d. On the contrary may I strengthen myself with holy
boldness against them. Let me not take any notice of them at all. Then draw
upon me a radiance of the true humility of Moses.
148.
The attribute of Fear of G-d has many levels, fear above fear into
infinity. (See full text)
(Prayer
148)
Merit
me to perfect fear of G-d, as it says: “The heel of humility is fear of G-d”.
“The beginning of wisdom is fear of G-d”. There exists one fear above another.
Let me go from one level of fear to progressively higher levels. Merit me to
draw upon myself, Your holy fear from a higher level such that I achieve
loftier and loftier levels in the attribute of fear, without end.
Amen,
so may it be.
149. "AT MIDNIGHT I WILL
RISE TO GIVE THANKS TO YOU" (Psalms,119:62)
a) Rising at midnight (chatzot)
sweetens harsh judgements and has the effect of a charm like giving money ( a
pidyon) for a redemption.
b) The time of midnight is always
six hours after the beginning of the night, whether in the summer or the
winter. Then the time of chatzot begins and continues until the end of the
second watch, that's to say, for two hours. In the morning it is good to look
at the sky for, by this, one draws 'Understanding' (Da'at) upon oneself. (See
the Zohar, B"shalach, pg.57)
(Prayer
149)
“At
midnight I will rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous
judgments”. You, who are full of mercy, who awakens the sleepers and arouses
the slumberers. Take pity and have compassion upon me; in Your bountiful mercy,
let me merit to rise every single night of my life at exactly midnight. Let me
merit to awaken from my sleep at exactly midnight, with tremendous speed and
without any laziness or difficulty at all. Do not let sleep or slumber overcome
me, Heaven forbid. Do not let anything prevent me from this.
In
Your bountiful mercy and great loving-kindness awaken the northern wind which
blows through the harp of King David at midnight, and from there let there be
drawn upon me a spiritual arousal, so that I always awaken from my sleep at
midnight. ‘Awaken, my glory; awake psaltery and harp; I myself will awake at
dawn”.
Master
of the World. You warned us in several ways to always rise at midnight, as is
written in the holy Zohar where there are awesome warnings about this. However,
You know that the obstacles have multiplied and overcome each one of us,
preventing us from this such that most nights we have not managed to rise at
midnight. Therefore, Master of all, abundantly strong to save, I have come
before You; give me advice how to merit to this, to always rise at exactly
midnight which is immediately after six hours from the beginning of the night,
both in summer and winter. Let me awake then with great speed and say the
Midnight Prayer; to mourn and wail over the destruction of the Holy Temple;
over the exile of the Torah whose secrets have been passed to external forces;
and over my many and enormous sins, iniquities and willful transgressions which
have caused all this and lengthened the exile so much. Maker of all, it is
clear to You how very much I have lengthened the exile because of my many
transgressions, both generally and specifically. Oh, Oh, woe is me! What can I
say? What can I speak? How can I justify myself? Behold, I stand before You in
great guilt. What is passed is passed. Let me merit from now on to truly return
to the straight path. Let me not lose any night of my nights by not rising at
midnight. Always be with me; help me and guard me so that rising at midnight
will not harm me in any way at all. Let me not suffer any headache or any harm
from this. My Father in Heaven, raise me and hasten me. Grant me merit from now
on to always rise at exactly midnight, every night whether on a weekday,
Shabbat or Festival, whether at home or traveling and to recite the midnight
prayer to sweeten and nullify all the harsh judgments from upon myself and all
my family and all Your Nation, the sons of Israel.
Let
me look at the heavens every morning and by this, help me to draw upon myself
holy perception, a refined and pure perception, a true perception by which I
can merit to really return to You, to be really as You desire from now on and
forever. Let there be drawn upon me every morning a thread of loving-kindness
from the ‘morning of Abraham”. May you fulfill the verse which states: “The
Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime and in the night His song
shall be with me; a prayer to the G-d of my life (who gives life)”. And it
says, “Your loving-kindness O Lord is in the heaves; Your faithfulness reaches
to the clouds”. And it says, “They are new every morning; great is Your
faithfulness”. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
pleasing before Your Countenance, O G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Amen
and Amen.
150.
He (Joseph) saw the likeness of the image of his father, Ya'acov
(Sotah,36; Midrash Tanchuma,V'Yeshev). This is a very hidden thing, how this
likeness appeared. Certainly Ya'acov did not know about this for he thought
Joseph had "without doubt been torn in pieces" (Gen.37:34). And the
virtue of standing up to the temptation even though Joseph saw the image of his
father is something hidden and concealed from humans.
151.
A special charm which merits a person to have children is that the
husband and the wife both recite the Torah portion "On the first of the
months" before they have relations. So also, if a child is sick, Heaven
forbid, the husband and wife should both recite the portion "On the first
of the months".
(Prayer
151)
“New
moons You gave to your People as a time of atonement for all their offspring” Master
of the Universe, merit me, among all the Jewish People to bring up my children
to Torah, marriage and good deeds. Save us, from now on, from all kinds of
anguish regarding our children. Draw upon us and our offspring long life.
Master of the World, You informed us that the death of small children, Heaven
preserve us, stems from the blemishing (waning) of the moon for this indicates
a lack of light which leads to children’s illnesses, Heaven forbid. But on Rosh
Chodesh (the first day of the new month) the moon’s light begins to grow and
become rectified. This is the time of atonement for all our offspring. Then,
atonement, forgiveness and a sweetening of harsh decrees are drawn into the
world. Therefore please merit us, in Your great mercy, to receive the holiness
of the first day of months, as is fitting. May it be Your will that You raise
us in joy and return us to our land and there we will bring sacrifices before
You both the obligatory continual offerings and the additional offerings of
Rosh Chodesh. Let us bring them before You with love, as we are commanded.
You
know that when we learn or recite the passages about sacrifices it is
considered by You as if we had actually brought them at their proper time and
place. Therefore, may it be Your will that by reciting the passage “on the
first day of the months” whenever we do, even not on Rosh Chodesh, it be
considred as if we had brought the
sacrifice on Rosh Chodesh itself. By this, draw down a rectification and
fullness to the moon. And by this, bestow upon us atonement, forgiveness and a
sweetening of harsh decrees. And may all the offspring of the Jewish People
merit for good long lives. Enable us to perform the commandment of blessing the
new moon every month in the proper time, as You desire.
Amen.
152.
When a holy neshama comes into the world with the branches that belong
to it, the husk surrounds it leaving just an opening facing faith – opposite
faith the opening is ajar. Sometimes because of a blemish in the branches, they
are thrown away from there, meaning from faith. Then the husk spreads also over
the entrance and they cannot enter or come close to their source which is the
neshama, as mentioned above. Behold, the blocking of the entrance, meaning the
faith, is only temporary, when they need to throw outside someone who is not
worthy to approach, but immediately afterwards the entrance is opened again as
in the beginning. However, when there are many blemishes, Heaven forbid, they
fear and suspect that the entrance will be blocked completely, Heaven forbid,
by the increased strength of the surrounding husk. Then, they place someone
with fear of Heaven in the entrance way so he will guard the entrance, stopping
people from entering. Even so, this is useful against the surrounding husk, for
it is impossible for the husk to gain strength and spread across the entrance
because of the person with fear of G-d who is standing there.
By self- sacrifice, when a Jew sacrifices his
soul in order to travel and come close to a tzaddik, it is possible for him to
attach himself to the tzaddik even though the one who fears G-d is guarding the
entrance so people will not enter there. But, despite this (self-sacrifice) it
is impossible for him to receive a radiance of wisdom, that's to say, the brain
itself.
(Prayer
152
Master
of the Universe Who forgives and pardons our sins. As a free gift, grant us
lovingly Your holy faith. Merit us to real belief in Torah scholars and
tzaddikim. Save us so that we can enter the gateways of holiness and really
come close to genuine tzaddikim. Have mercy on us in Your bountiful compassion
and grant us complete faith, really and
truly. You know we have no hope apart from faith in the tzaddikim without them
we cannot raise our hands or legs. Do it for Your Name’s sake. Don’t every
throw us away from holy belief. Don’t close the entrance. Please don’t lock the
door in our face, Heaven forbid. Have compassion upon the Jewish People. How
will someone like me, filthy with bad deeds, enter the gateway of holiness
which is holy belief? How can I come close to the true tzaddikim
who
is the source of my soul?
Open
up for me the entrances to the realm of holiness. Bestow upon me Your holy
belief so that I will merit to be bold, strong and consistent in my holy
belief, believing in true tzaddikim, coming close to them and drawing vitality
from their holy wisdom. Break, uproot and nullify all the husks and forces of
evil that encircle them. All the opposition to the tzadddikim, doubts,
questions and confusions about them stem from these husks. So, please open for
us the gateways of faith in such a way that no husk or evil force will have the
strength to hide the truth from us nor close the gateway, Heaven forbid. Master
of the World, full of compassion have mercy on us and command all the guards
that stand in the entranceway to be nullified and driven away. Remove the
barriers from the entrance.
Help
me and my offspring and all Jewish
children to have real self sacrifice being prepared to give away our bodies and
souls and money in order to come close to the
true tzaddik in such a way that we draw from his holy wisdom. G-d please
redeem us speedily both generally and individually. Don’t caste us away from
before You and don’t take from us the spirit of Your holiness. Don’t caste us
into old age nor desert us. When our strength fails, open the gateway for us
before it is locked. Many days and years of our lives have already passed and
the gateways of holiness are still closed to us; they are locked in our face
because of our many iniquities and immense sins. Arouse Your mercy over such a
poor soul as myself who has been standing near the entrance for many years.
Don’t hide Your countenance from me. May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of my heart find favour before You, G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.
153.
The student and the rabbi are an aspect of the sun and the moon. If the
student has a face, meaning that he has a radiant countenance, then he can
receive the light of the face of the rabbi such that the light of the face of the
rabbi can actually be reflected in the face of the student. This is like the
moon which receives light from the sun. This is the subject of receiving the
face of a Torah scholar. That's to say, it means actually receiving the face of
the rabbi into one's own face. However, if the student hasn't a face, in other
words, he has a 'dark countenance' because he is entrenched deeply in the
craving for money, then the face of the rabbi isn't reflected in him. So also,
someone who has brazenness also has no face of holiness so he cannot receive
the face of the rabbi in his own face, as explained above.
(Prayer
153)
Master
of the Universe, please allow me to come close to true tzaddikim and Torah
sholars. Merit me to receive their holy faces each time such that I acquire a
great radiance in my face from the light of their holy countenance just as the
moon reflects the light of the sun. Merit me to attach myself to the tzaddikim
so much that I actually receive the light of their countenance in my face. May
the countenance of the tzaddik or Torah scholar then be seen in my face. By
this, merit me to a face of the tzaddik or Torah scholar them seen in my face.
By this, merit me to a face of brightness and save me from all forms of
darkness in the face which stems especially from the craving for money. When a
person has a face of darkness (of worry and sadness) he cannot receive the holy
countenance of the tzaddik in his own face. Furthermore, save me from
arrogance, for someone who is arrogant has no face of holiness. Then he
certainly cannot receive the light of the face of the tzaddik in his own face.
Merit
me, each time, to talk to the true tzaddik and to hear Torah innovations from
him, face to face. Then let me merge with him and become truly attached to him,
becoming totally united with his holy words. Merit me to nullify myself to his
holy words completely so that there is no separation between me and his holy
words. May it be as if his holy words come from me. This is an aspect of “G-d
spoke face to face with them”, at Mount Sinai. As a a result, merit me to have
all the tzaddik’s holy words carved within my heart such that they shine and
radiate into my soul, spirit and neshama, for ever and ever, for all eternity.
Amen.
So may it me.
154.
The advice to be learnt from this Torah is that by private secluded
prayers and conversations with G-d, when a Jew scrutinizes and judges himself
in the World Below, through this no harsh judgement from Above rests on him.
Then he doesn't need to fear anything and, by this, he elevates fear to its
source, to Da'at (Understanding) meaning that he knows whom to fear etc. This
has been explained at length in Torah 14. See there.
(Prayer
154)
“The
Lord, the Lord, G-d, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth”. In Your bountiful mercy let me merit and all of Israel to
have real desires, yearnings and longings to come to the Land of Israel, until
I merit, in Your bountiful mercy and immense loving-kindness to manage to turn
these desires into deeds, to travel and reach the Land of Israel, the holy
Land, because of my very great distance from You and because of the immenseness
of my materiality, the crookedness in my heart and the confusion of my mind.
Because of all this I need to be in the Land in which the primary pillar of the
source of holy belief exists. There is found the root of the generality of the
holiness of Israel. It is the Land which the Lord chose for His Chosen People,
Israel. It is the Land which G-d always cares for, the Land of true life,
eternal life; a desirable, good and spacious land which You gave to our fathers
as an inheritance in favour, a land in which is found the “city of our G-d, the
Mount of His Sanctuary. Fair in situation, the joy of all the land”.
Please
Lord, merciful One, full of compassion; charitable One, full of
loving-kindness. Good One who is full of good, Tzaddik, full of righteousness.
Saviour, full of deliverance. Do good with me, as is Your desire. Let me merit,
out of compassion and loving-kindness and as a gift, to come very quickly to
the Land of Israel, the holy Land, the Land which our forefathers inherited the
land in which all the true tzaddikim really desired and longed to be. Most of
them came there and rectified whatever they did and merited to what every they
merited , doing everything through the holiness of the Land of |Israel which is
the focal point of holiness of all the world. Abraham, the Patriarch, worked
and strived very many y ears to get there. He beheld, saw, understood,
searched, sealed, cut out, measured and counted until G-d revealed to him the
holy Land, which is the foundation of the focal point of holiness, the
foundation of belief; He promised him to give it as an inheritance to his
offspring and their descendants in each of the generations. Therefore have
mercy upon us for Your Name’s sake. Even though I am completely and utterly
despicable and worthless, in the merit and strength of Abraham and all the
tzaddikim who merited to come to Israel, let me also merit quickly to skip and
jump over all the obstacles, delays and disputes that prevent me from traveling
to the Land of Israel. Let me break very quickly all the obstacles and come
very speedily to the holy Land of Israel.
Please,
my Father, Merciful Father, have mercy upon me, wretched, poor person as myself
who pleads before You, who asks for charity, for an undeserved present. I also
have not merited to tell the truth because of the greatness of the confusion
and stupefication of my mind, as is known to You, compassionate Lord. Even so,
I await Your salvation, Your goodness. Your great loving-kindness, Your awesome
and wonderful righteousness. Take pity and have mercy upon me. Bring me quickly
and safely to the Land of Israel. Strengthen and embolden my mind and heart so
that I merit to overcome all the obstacles, delays and confusions and all the
obstacles of the mind. Grant me plenty of money for the expenses and everything
needed on the trip. May I travel peacefully and arrive to the Land of Israel, safely in terms of my body, my Torah
and my money. May I arrive safely without any harm. Save me from all sorts of
bad thoughts and all sorts of blemishes. Let me not be hurt, Heaven forbid, by
anything in the world during this long journey, whether in body, soul or
monetarily, whether materially or spiritually.
May I leave in peace and arrive in peace. May
I merit to achieve all my needs there, in the Land of Israel, and to really
come closer to You by the way of the holiness of the Land of Israel; may I rise
spiritually from level to level in great holiness and purity, as is Your good
desire.
May
I merit, by the holiness of the Land of Israel, to break the attribute of anger
completely. May I have patience in all its aspects, so that I always overcome
my anger. Let me not be angry or strict about anything in the world. Rather,
let me serve You perfectly and faithfully, with great simplicity and may I
learn Torah and pray with tremendously great devotion and put all my strength
and thoughts, my and heart and mind into each and every word of the very, very
holy and awesome prayers. May I know and believe with perfect faith that the
whole world is full of Your glory.
You
hear and listen to every word or prayer. Let me know before whom I stand,
before the King of Kings, the Holy One. By this may I draw upon myself great
fear and awe of You. Help me to concentrate very well on every word without
letting my mind wander from any word of prayer and its meaning. Save me from
any extraneous thought during the time of prayer. Rather merit me to attach my
mind to the words of prayer very firmly indeed. As a result allow me to become
stronger and stronger in Torah and prayer. Merit me to perform good deed with
great zeal, and tremendous joy. I do not want to take any notice of any
distraction or confusion, obstacle or delay. Help me not to be confused by them
at all. Save me from any laziness, sadness or weakness of mind. On the
contrary, in Your boundless mercy, help me through holy faith to break and
completely nullify all kinds of laziness, heaviness, obstacles from the mind or
from physical things. Let me nullify sadness, depression, improper thoughts,
confusions and crookedness of the heart. Then merit me to the trait of real
patience so that I can overcome and ignore all the obstacles and confusions.
Let me not pay any attention to them at all. Bestow upon me the power to grow
and flourish in Your service which stems from faith. Guard me so that nothing
damages me at all. Anything that do I in the service of G-d, in Torah and
mitzvoth, may I always be successful.
For
Your Name’s sake do it.
155. SADNESS IS A VERY BAD TRAIT
a) Faith is an aspect of the
power of growth and the power of sprouting (See full text). This is an aspect
of longevity. That's to say, when a person has perfect faith, he grows and
blossoms in the service of G-d: no matter what happens to him, no confusion or
obstacle can confuse him; he just remains patient, accepting any suffering that
occurs to him; since all the obstacles and confusions in the service of G-d,
which keep him distant from those who fear G-d, are all because of laziness,
sadness and slowness caused by a lack of faith. If a person had complete faith
in the truth, as is proper, he would certainly run and make great haste to come
close to those who fear G-d. Similarly, the reason he doesn't pray properly is
also because of laziness and sluggishness caused by a lack of faith. Certainly,
if he had complete faith and believed that G-d stands over him and hears every
single word he says and listens to the voice of his prayer, he would surely
pray properly, with great enthusiasm and desire. But the main confusion during
prayer is caused by a lack of faith. So also, the entire reason for becoming
distant from tzaddikim or those who fear G-d and from true service of G-d, is
due to a lack of faith which, in turn, leads to laziness, sadness and slowness,
as explained. However, when a person has complete faith, nothing can prevent
him; he just remains patient ready to suffer anything. Then he grows and
blossoms in the service of G-d, whatever happens.
b) To merit to faith and
longevity, as above, is by the Land of Israel. Every person has to ask from G-d
that he will have feelings of yearning and longing for the Land of Israel until
he merits to come there. He should also ask that all the tzaddikim feel longing
for the Land of Israel. This acts like a charm to nullify anger and sadness,
for faith and longevity to which one merits in the Land of Israel are the
opposite of anger and sadness.
156.
The holy advice which can be learnt from this Torah in brief has already
been brought in Torah 21, look there.
(Prayer
156)
You,
who are full of mercy, holy and awesome One, who purifies the impure, speedily
purify my heart, pardon me with regard to the past; help me and save me in the
future so that I merit to drive out and remove from my heart all the evil
thoughts and all the confused ideas and all sorts of blemished thoughts that
are in the heart. Let me extricate, drive out and remove them from my heart and
may I strengthen myself and embolden myself at all times, so that I direct my
heart towards You. Merciful One, Full of Compassion, let me merit to fervour,
to holy enthusiasm of the heart. Act for the sake of our ancestors and sages
and true tzaddikim, who bring righteousness to the public like stars shine
forever more. Grant me merit, in their strength, to also be amongst those who
bring righteousness to the many. |Let me judge each person on the side of merit
and to bring many people closer to Your worship, to fear of You and to Your
Torah. May I shine and radiate and inform all of Your People, Israel of Your
truth; let my sincere words enter their hearts such that their hearts be warmed
with great and holy enthusiasm and fervour to really return to You. By this,
may increasingly great warmth and enthusiasm be drawn upon me every time. Let
me merit to always receive and draw into my heart holy enthusiasm and fervour
from our rabbis, our teachers, the tazddikim who cleave to You, O Lord, our
G-d. They receive fire from above, “burning coals of fire”, in order to enflame
and warm the hearts of Israel with holy enthusiasm and fervour thought their
very word being like burning coals of the fire. Take pity on Your people,
Israel so that their holy fire of enthusiasm never be extinguished. Fulfill in
us the verse which says: “Let the fire on the altar be kept burning; let it not
go out”. May we all merit to receive their holy fire all the time so as to warm
and enthuse the heart of Your People, Israel, with holy fervour towards You, to
serve You truly in the right degree and measure, as is Your good desire.
However much You give merit to instill holy enthusiasm and fervour in the
hearts of others, so let me merit to have added and drawn upon me, many more
times over, holy enthusiasm of the heart and fervour from Above through our
ancestors, teachers and tzaddikim who perform Your will, – “Your servants, a
flaming fire”. By this, may I extricate, drive out and remove from my heart all
the spirit of foolishness and all the evil thoughts and ideas, such that I soon
merit to real purity of the heart. And through this, may I truly speak new,
holy, pure words before You every time, to make You want to speedily bring me
closer to You, so that I will always really cleave to You. May the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my heart find favour before You, O Lord, my Rock
and Redeemer.
157.
Someone who cleaves to truth, to words of Torah spoken out by a tzaddik,
and really enjoys them, will afterwards certainly not be able to bear or desire
at all the life of This World.
(Prayer
157)
May
it be Your will, O Lord, my G-d and G-d of my fathers, that You grant me the
merit to cleave to Your holy Torah. Open my heart and mind until I merit to
hear and understand well, in my heart, all the words of Your holy, pure and
perfect Torah which ‘returns the soul and makes wise the fool; that gladdens
the heart and enlightens the eyes, exists for ever and His righteousness
altogether’. May I merit to feel very clearly the wonderful pleasure of the
delight and sweetness of the new, holy and very awesome interpretations of the
Torah which the true tzaddikim revealed and which give life to all the worlds.
Let me enjoy and take delight in the Lord, in the words of Your holy Torah such
that I loathe and depise the life of This World, with its desires and
vanities! May all the life of This World
be nullified completely in my eyes, by the greatness of the pleasure, delight
and enjoyment that I merit to get from the words of Your holy, awesome Torah,
whose every word lives and existes, is faithful and delightful forever. “They
are more desirable than gold, than much fine gold; sweeter than honey and the
honeycomb”.
For
really, from a distance I see in my mind the pleasantness of the depth of Your
Torah, whose every single word ascends to Ein Sof (the Infinite) and descends
without end; whose each word ties, joins and includes all the words together;
whose every word give wonderful advice to all those on a high level or a low level,
how to merit to know You and to really cleave to You. “How great are Your deeds
O Lord, how infinitely profound Your thoughts”. If we were to merit to listen
and incline our ears and hearts very well to one word of Your holy Torah which
You revealed to us by Your servant Moses and by all the true tzaddikim in every
generation until today, we would become nullified completely! However, because
of our many iniquities we do not merit to transfer the mind into the heart and
to nullify by this the cravings of the heart. For our hearts are full of
extraneous thoughts, cravings, confusions, reflections and crookedness, such
that our hearts are very far away from the words of Your holy Torah. Therefore
we do not feel the delight and sweetness of its pure words. Please, One and
only Lord, who teaches Torah to His Nation, Israel, have mercy upon us for Your
Name’s sake. Open our hearts by our learning Your Torah. Let our hearts really
cleave to the words of Your holy Torah, until we merit to enjoy and take great
delight in the words of Your holy Torah, such that, by this, we despise all the
life of This World, its desires and vanities. Grant us really good, long lives
and let us cleave to You and to Your holy Torah and commandments for ever. Let
us not stray from Your desire, to the right or to the left. Please, O Lord, our
G-d, cause the words of Your Torah to be a delight in our mouths so that we,
and our descendants and the descendants of Your Nation, the House of Israel,
may all know Your Name and learn Your Torah for its own sake, until we merit
“to behold the beauty of the Lord and to visit His Temple”, from and forever.
Amen,
Selah.
158.
The wicked are full of regrets. These feelings of regret come together
in a certain person, and as a result his heart suddenly becomes enflamed with
desire for G-d and he begins to serve G-d, but after a short time this
disappears and he returns to his previous self. Sometimes it may last a few
days or weeks but not for ever and not for a lengthy period. All this is because
the arousal came to him only from an aspect of regrets, as mentioned. However,
there are people whose enthusiasm (in
the service of G-d) comes not from these regrets but rather from another place,
for not all people are the same in this.
159.
In the holy Torah there are two powers – fire and water. So also in a
person when he is engaged in studying Torah; vapours come out of him and they
contain warmth and dampness so they are also an aspect of fire and water.
Someone who merits to have his Torah studying rise up to the Shechinah, these
two powers are turned into spiritual and material bounty. However, not every
person merits that his studying will rise to the Shechinah. Then, when the
Torah is spoken out, the vapour cannot rise to the place that is ready for it.
At the same time 'those impure forces appointed to punish people
appropriately', which have control at night time, come and hit it, knocking it
down such that it disperses throughout the world; all the world's people
breathe in the air which is full of these Torah words which didn't merit to
rise up but rather were scattered in the air of the world. Then, through a
great Torah scholar and tzaddik, or at least a kosher Jew who fears G-d, the
vapour becomes dew of Torah. A few then merit to gain from this Torah
perceptions or Torah innovations. And those lowlier Jews who cannot gain
perceptions or innovate, they receive from this a new feeling of arousal and a
strong desire to study Torah. This is also an aspect of innovation for his
desire and arousal for Torah was renewed. However, when Jews who are nor
virtuous receive from this dew ( called 'tal') for them it turns into
thirty-nine (the numerical value of 'tal') forms of work (learnt from the
building of the Tabernacle). As a result, they get a strong desire and renewed
arousal to strive and make strenuous efforts in the various kinds of work of
This World. This (the thirty-nine forms of work) is exactly the opposite of the
'dew' ( whose numerical value is also thirty-nine) of the Torah.
(Prayer
159)
Master
of the World, Who bestows the Torah, help me and save me, merit me to study
Torah by day and night. Sanctify us in Your commandments and give us a portion
in Your Torah. Purify my thoughts and heart so that I can serve You without
ulterior motives an study Torah for Your sake alone. All for G-d alone. Help me
at all times to sanctify and purify myself properly so that all my studying
will be for the sake of the Shechinah which is an intermediary between the
world and the Holy One. May the Holy Shechinah accept all my Torah study with
great love. By this, draw upon us all sorts of bounty created by our studying
spiritual and material bounty. Let the bounty from our studying Torah rise and
give vitality to all the worlds above, all the angels, the Seraphim, Ophanim
and holy Chiot. And may material bounty descend to all the Jewish People from
our studies. Bestow upon us children, long life and a good livelihood in great
plenty and holiness.
So
also, have mercy upon us and help us so that all the vapours and air that we
breathe in from the Torah of simple, lowly Jews who do not merit to raise their
Torah to the Shechinah be for the good. Merit us to turn these vapours, that
are scattered through the air at night into the dew of Torah, heavenly lights
and an elixir of life. As a result, merit us to arouse ourselves everyday with
renewed desire and longing to engage in studying the Torah. May Your holy Torah
be completely new in our eyes each day. Merit us to rise from one level to
another in Your sublime holiness until I manage to create genuine Torah
innovations from the vapours of other People, as You desire.
Guard
and save us in Your immense compassion, so that these fallen vapours will not
harm us, causing us to chase after business affairs with great efforts. Please,
save us from the craving for money and all the burdens of this world and its
vanities.
I
caste all my hopes upon You and trust that You will bestow upon me a good
livelihood so that I can put all my yearning into studying Torah and serving
You, day and night. Then, may I feel renewed spiritual arousal, every day and
every hour, with great desire to cleave to You, Your Torah and Service with all
my heart, from now on and forever.
Amen,
Selah.
160.
The pulse throbs and beats in a person and sometimes reminds him of the
service of G-d. This is an aspect of "my beloved is knocking" (Song
of Songs,5:2). And occasionally it reminds a person of the opposite, Heaven
forbid.
(Prayer
160)
G-d,
our G-d and G-d of our Fathers, may it find favour before You that I merit to
always receive through my neshama holy and pure vapours which stem from holy
words. By this, give me a holy pulse. In Your bountiful compassion, help me so
that my pulse will always beat for the good. Remind me through the pulse to
serve You, as it says “The sound of by beloved knocks”. Guard me and save me
from the spirit of folly, from the evil spirit.
Don’t let me breathe any bad air or spirit which comes from the Other
Side, caused from blemished words. Protect me from any pulse of the Other Side
which reminds a person of the physical cravings and vanities of the This World.
By this protection, save me from any sin or iniquity from now on and forever.
Please, Merciful One, in Your bountiful compassion and immense loving kindness,
merit me to return to You in complete repentance very quickly. Let me serve You
always with all my heart. May I really cleave to You, together with all my
offspring and all the Jewish People from now on and forever.
Amen,
Selah.
161.
Controversy elevates and raises a person like running water which
elevates and raises a tree which is lying in the earth.
162.
Through humility, when a person is absolutely nothing, he will merit to
Torah and greatness together. But, without humility, it is very hard to find
Torah and greatness together.
163. FOUR NEED TO GIVE THANKS
a) Because of the craving to eat
and drink, a Jew cannot speak out anything to G-d. (See Torah 62)
b) 'All the four have to give
thanks' allude to the troubles of the soul in the service of G-d. This is an aspect of, "wandered in the desert",
"sick", "imprisoned"; "they rise to the sky and
descend to the depths" (Psalms,107:26) is an aspect of "those who
descend to the sea in ships" (Psalms,107:23). The soul suffers torture, suffering,
big wanderings and strange troubles etc. The Holy One saves the soul each time
from all these trouble. About this we are obliged to continually give thanks.
164.
Sometimes a Jew comes to the tzaddik who is the curer of sick souls and
he wants that the tzaddik will give him a cure, that's to say, pathways and
ways of conduct, according to what he understands. But, the truth is that the
tzaddik has very precious, important cures and other straight pathways which he
needs to instill in a person in order to really cure him. Sometimes the tzaddik
cannot reveal to this person the inner essence of the Torah needed for this
person's cure so that it won't be turned into the elixir of death, Heaven
forbid. Therefore the tzaddik has to clothe this inner essence of the Torah in
other words of Torah. And sometimes even this the person cannot receive so the
tzaddik is forced to clothe the Torah further in everyday stories in order that
a person can receive his proper cure.
(Prayer
164)
Master
of the Universe, merit me to come close to genuine tzaddikim, to stand before
You and serve them; let me hear and accept with love anything they say, whether
words of Torah or, seemingly mundane conversations. Whatever they say to me or
command me to do, help me to behave with total faith that it is all for the
good, to cure my soul. May I nullify my mind to their knowledge without a
moment of doubt about them. Help me to always know and believe that they are
the true curers of our souls.
Master
of the Universe. I certainly believe with total belief that the Torah is the
general cure for all our spiritual illnesses but I know in my soul, that I have
sinned so much therefore it is difficult for me to receive my complete cure
through the Torah alone. So have mercy on me and merit me to come close to true
tzaddikim who are the real curers of our souls for they know how to clothe the
light of the holy Torah in such a way
that it will not become an elixir of death, Heaven forbid..On the contrary, my
I receive from it an elixir of life to cure all my spiritual illnesses. For
this reason the tzaddikim sometimes clothe the inner essence of the Torah in
other simple words. And occasionally our illness is so great that even this we
cannot tolerate, so they are forced to clothe the light of the holy Torah in
mundane stories etc. All this acts to cure our souls. Therefore, please enable
us to accept with great love anything that they say with true yearning and
complete faith.
Eventually
may all our Torah study turn into an elixir of life for us. Help us to study
the holy Torah by day and night. Fulfill in us the very which says: “They are
life to those who speak them out and a cure to all one’s flesh”.
165.
Suffer and accept with love all the bad and suffering that occurs to
you, Heaven forbid, for it is fitting that you know that , according to your
deeds, G-d still deals with you out of immense mercy. You really deserve much,
much more suffering, Heaven forbid, according to your deeds.
(Prayer
165)
Blessed
is the man whom You chastise O Lord, and teach him from Your Torah”. Master of
the World, Full of Compassion, who is good and does good for all, help me and
save me so that I accept everything with love. Even when, in Your mercy, You
sometimes send me some suffering which appears to be evil, Heaven forbid, let
me merit to accept everything with really great love. Open my heart with great
holiness so that I merit to really know and understand that someone like
myself, as I am now, after all that I have done against You, gets everything
from You in infinitely great and immeasurable compassion and loving-kindness.
It is impossible to clarify or tell of the numerous and immense mercies,
loving-kindnesses and favours that You performed for me and still perform for
me and which You will do for me in the future. What can I do? My transgressions
have stupefied my heart and made my mind
and heart so crooked that I am not worthy to feel Your love in my heart. They
even want to lead my heart astray all the time, to cast doubts upon Your good
attributes, Heaven forbid. Therefore I have come before You to plead that You
be full of compassion towards me. Preserve me and save me from all sorts of
crookedness of the heart. Strengthen my heart and mind in Your holy belief so
as to know and believe always that You are righteous, O Lord, and Your
judgements are just. In comparison to my evil and blemished deeds. You deal
with me in great, immeasurable loving-kindness and mercy. In Your great mercy
and loving-kindness take pity and have mercy upon me; protect me and save me
from all sorts of evils and troubles and from all the suffering in the world,
for You are gracious and forgive abundantly. I know that, according to my
immense and numerous transgressions, all the suffering in the world would not
be enough, Heaven forbid, to rectify even one sin, even the slightest of my
transgressions. However, Your mercy will go before me, for You can pardon and
forgive me without any suffering at all, as it says: “You have the power to
forgive so that You may be feared….for with the Lord there is mercy and the
power of plentiful redemption. He will redeem Israel from all their
iniquities”.
Therefore
Master of Compassion, I have stretched out my hands in prayer to You; have
mercy upon me and preserve my soul from all sorts of evils and troubles and all
sorts of suffering in the world. Don’t act towards us according to our sins;
don’t repay us according to our iniquities. Please, Lord, You who are good and
do good, perform for us the wonder of a lifetime – help us and save us so that
we merit to accept with truly great love all the suffering that You decide we
need, according to Your truly merciful and kind ways. Don’t send me any
suffering other than when, in Your most sublime holiness,You help me to really
question Your ways at all. Let me give my soul as a guilt offering. Have mercy
upon me, for Your sake. Don’t let me kick against suffering but, rather, give
me strength and understanding to really accept it with love when, in Your true
mercy, You want to chastise me with love, as a father chastises his son. In
Your bountiful mercy, ease my suffering as much as is possible, for my strength
or understanding to accept the suffering at all. Act with me according to Your
attribute of loving-kindness, “Don’t rebuke me in Your anger nor chastise me in
Your fury”. You who are full of mercy, make my will as You desire so that I
merit to nullify my will completely in the face of Your will. Let me have no
personal will at all, rather, let my will be that everything should be as You
truly desire, from now on, forever.
Amen,
Selah.
166.
When the public are with the tzaddik, he has dominion.
167.
Know and believe that each Shabbat that you spend with the true Torah
scholar (tzaddik) is considered as if you fasted.
(Prayer
166 – 7)
Master
of the Universe, merit me to be with the true tzaddik regularly, especially
when all his followers collect around him to hear from him words of the living
G-d.
Let
me receive a radiance of his holy face. May I always be counted among his
followers and become part of them. Enable us to regularly come to home several
times a year especially those times specially designated for his followers to
gather around him. At any time when the tzaddik wants to sweeten the harsh
decrees and to nullify them from over the Jewish People, arouse then the desire
and yearning of all his followers to come and collect around the tzaddik even
at a time not previously designated for it. By this, the tzaddik has dominion
and greater force and has the most power to nullify the harsh decrees and
sweeten them.
Merit
us to regularly come to the tzaddik on Shabbat several times every year. May we
eat with him at his Shabbat meal. For You have told us that the days of Shabbat
we spend with a tzaddik is considered lie a fast-day. So help us to come close
on Shabbat to the true tzaddik who is very eminent indeed and may this be
considered even more beneficial in serving G-d than many days of fasting.
168.
When a person has haughtiness it is a sign that he will have trouble,
Heaven preserve us. So also, the opposite- when a person is humble and lowly he
will achieve great honour.
(Prayer
168)
Help
us never to stumble by feeling proud or arrogant, Heaven forbid. Let us not
have any desire or longing for status or imaginary honour. On the contrary,
merit us to always run away from honour so that we will not come to any
distress, Heaven forbid, as it says. “Before a fall, pride”. Any honour that I
receive may it be with great holiness, only for the sake of Heaven. Fulfill in
us the verse: “Before honour, humility”.
Amen,
so may it be Your Will.
169.
a) Through meditation, when a
person judges and evaluates himself if it is proper to behave like this, and he
rectifies his deeds so that he behaves according to the laws and statutes of
the Torah, the harsh judgements are sweetened. As a result he merits to such
joy that he dances out of happiness.
b) The main blemishing of the
brit is because of sadness and depression. So also the opposite – by happiness,
the Holy One Himself guards the person's brit; that's to say, G-d Himself helps
him to guard his holy brit.
(Prayer
169)
Help
me and save me for Your Name’s Sake. Teach and instruct me how to merit to
examine and judge myself, at this time of distress. I do not know how to fiind
advice for my soul to save myself from sinning at least from now on. Until when
will I (add you name) son/daughter of (add mother’s name) shout out form my
captivity. From where can I take advice about how to examine my deeds and judge
myself regarding all my actions and traits. I know that most of my deeds are
improper and very blemished. My thoughts are especially bad and confused.
Heaven help me. It seems to me that I have not got myself under control. How
can I merit to holy judgment, to examine carefully my thoughts and deeds in
order to judge myself, by myself. Help me to find good advice at all times in
such a way that I can carry it out and refrain from my bad deeds and blemished
thoughts. You, Who are full of compassion, help me and save me with Your true
salvation.
From
where can I start; I am far away from joy, for I have blemished the brit
considerably.
So
also the opposite. It is hard and a
burden for me to repent for having blemished the brit and to rectify it for I
am very distant from happiness. The essence of guarding the brit is by means of
happiness the sages have taught us. So help me to judge myself every day about
all my deeds so that I can return to You in truly complete repentance. Merit me
to holy judgments so I will judge myself
so I will judge myself as is fitting, as You desire and as the true tzaddikim
desire, until I can remove and nullify all the judgements and harsh decrees
from upon me. Let them not have my strength to accuse me and arouse harsh
judgment against me at all. I know Master of the Universe, that I have not the
strength to remove the harsh judgment by myself, so please arouse the power of
the holy judgment of the true tzaddik who engaged in judging themselves all
their lives in order to remove the harsh judgments, suffering an distress from
all the Jewish People. In their merit and their power, drive away, break
sweeten and nullify all the harsh judgments and decrees from upon me and all my
family and all the Jewish People. Nullify all the troubles, generally and
specifically, materially and spiritually in body, soul and money. Please do not
give any strength to the ‘messengers’, who are instruments of the Heavenly
Court, to carry out the harsh decrees against us.
We
have no-one to rely upon other than You, Your compassion and Your great and
holy power. Please do not look at our bad deeds. We have already suffered a lot
because of them. Rather, look carefully at the little point of good that
remains in us, even in the worst sinners among the Jewish People. Have mercy on
the remains of Your People. Save me from all evil, from all harsh decrees in
the world. Then by the removal and nullification of all the harsh decrees,
merit us to such great joy that it spreads down to our legs and we start to
dancing. May we rejoice in Your Salvation. Have mercy on us; strengthen us on
the Festivals to rejoice with all our might. Give us the power to always be
happy until we achieve a real guarding of the brit through holy joy as is
fitting for a Jew who is Your Chosen People. In You bountiful compassion, guard
our holy brit from all kinds of blemishes in the world, for You work wonders.
Merit us very speedily to a complete rectification of the brit, as is Your
desire. Help us and redeem us for Your Name’s sake. Bring joy to the soul of
Your servant for my soul reaches out to You.
170.
By means of the troubles and suffering that a person experiences, the
materiality and coarseness of his body is subdued. As a result, the inner form
of his soul grows and radiates. By this he can carry erect and raise up many
people to their source.
(Prayer
170)
G-d,
my G-d and G-d of my Fathers please help me to I cease sinning from now on. In
Your bountiful mercy, please wipe out whatever I sinned against You but not by
our suffering or by serious illnesses. Master of the Universe, You know that we
are so lowly and so weak that we have not the strength to bare any suffering at
all. Our mind are limited and very confused, especially so when we experience
suffering, Heaven save us. It is even hard for us to shout and cry out to You
to plead for mercy. We are inert, sleepy, tired and exhausted from the burden
of the suffering. We cannot move ourselves at all.
You
know the innumerable troubles and immense suffering that the true tzaddikim experience.
Apart from their own great and bitter suffering they feel the distress of the
Jewish People, generally and individually. But they are on such a great
spiritual level that they can take all the suffering. In addition however much
greater their distress is, greater because of
the suffering and troubles of the Jewish People, their material body is
subdued more and more. Their mind and inner essence shines more and more as
their soul grows. As a result it is almost as if they carry and lift up all Jewish
souls, especially those close to them. They support, raise and return many
Jewish soul to their source. But what can we answer after them?
The
truth is that we know and believe with complete faith that all the suffering
You occasionally send us occasionally is certainly for our benefit, in order to
subdue the body by crushing the materiality. The inner essence of the soul will
grow. However, our strength is minimal so we cannot take any suffering at all.
Therefore, please have mercy on us in the merit of our Fathers and all the true
tazddikim who suffered so much for our sake. Save us from now on from all kinds
of distress and suffering. Redeem us, for Your Name’s sake.
Amen, So may it be.
171.
When a new insight in the service of G-d is aroused and revealed, there
are "tzaddikim who walk in them" (Hoshea, 14:10) and serve G-d with
this insight. "And transgressors
stumble in them" (ibid) – means that they don't serve G-d with this
insight. Furthermore, they abuse and insult the general public because they
know about this new insight whereas the general public doesn't know.
(Prayer
171)
Master
of the Universe, merit us to come close to true tzaddikim and to hear Torah
innovations from their mouths. Enable us to receive from them a new
understanding in the service of G-d which was unknown to us until them. By
this, help us to really awaken ourselves in the service of G-d. That is to say,
from now on, may we follow the path of truth as You desire. Let us truly serve
You using this new understnding that You reveal to us each time through the
true tzaddikim in each generation. Protect and save us so that, Heaven forbid,
we should not be an aspect of “sinners stumble in them” (words of Torah). Not
only do they not serve You with this new understanding that was revealed to
them, they even use it to be arrogant towards other people. So, merit us to
receive all these holy understandings and to use them only for the sake of the
service of G-d.
172. FULFILLING DEFICIENCES
a) All the things a person lacks,
whether in regard to children or an income or health, everything is due to the
person himself, for the light of G-d always flows upon him, but, by the
person's grossness and his bad deeds he creates a shadow around himself so that
the light of G-d doesn't reach him. This is what leads to all his deficiencies.
Therefore, if a person merits to rectify his deeds, attributes and all his
grossness to such a degree that he merits to nullify himself completely,
becoming an aspect of 'nothing', until he is not from This World at all, then
he doesn't create a shadow and merits to receive the light of G-d perfectly and
automatically all his deficiencies are fulfilled.
b) The wise who are an aspect of
"nothing" merit to glory which is the main essence of G-d's light.
c) When G-d and also the tzaddik
show a joyful countenance, there is life and good for the world. The reverse is
also true, Heaven forbid.
(Prayer
172)
Master
of the Universe, You informed us that all the deficiencies a person has,
whether in children, health or financially, are all caused by the person
himself for the light of G-d is shines upon
a person constantly. However, through a person’s bad deeds he creates a
shadow for himself which blocks the light and bounty of the Holy One from him.
Therefore please have mercy on us and merit us to repent fully before You and
improve all our deeds from now on. Help us to subdue and nullify all the
materiality and coarseness of our bodies to such a degree that no worldly
desire will be left in us. As a result, merit us to receive the light of G-d
and may The honour of G-d be raised and aggrandized by us. Master of the World,
merit us to nullify ourselves completely until we become nothing and merge in truth. By this, may we really
receive fully the holy light of wisdom and understanding. Then let the light of
G-d’s honour shine upon us our Father. Bless us all as one in the Light of Your
Countenance. Help us so that the true tzaddikim will show us a friendly face,
a blessing and success, life, loving
kindness and mercy, ourselves and all of the Jewish People.
Amen,
so may it be.
173.
The nefesh and faith are one aspect. There is a world of faith from
which the attribute of faith is taken and the world of faith itself also has
faith in G-d; this is an aspect of the root of faith which is an aspect of the
inner essence of faith; this is also an aspect of the inner essence of the
nefesh. The person who writes gives his nefesh into the writing, like it says,
"My soul in the writing comes out" (Shabbat, 105). Therefore, through
the script the true tzaddik can recognize the soul and the inner essence of the
soul, the faith, and source of faith of the writer. What a person speaks with
the tzaddik is of greater value than the writing, for the written script is
only an action of the nefesh, whereas the speech is the nefesh itself.
Therefore he can see the essence of the nefesh itself.
(Prayer
173)
Master
of the Universe, You revealed to us that through a person’s handwriting a
tzaddik can know the inner essence of the soul of the writer, his faith and the
soucre of his faith which is the inner essence of his faith. The writer puts
his soul into the writing, Furthermore, the inner essence of his soul and
speech is of a greater status that the writing because the latter is only an
expression of the soul, whereas speech is the very essence of the soul itself.
So
have mercy upon us and merit us to minimize as much as possible our speaking
and writing about mundane matters in order not to diminish the holiness of our
souls and their inner essence. Rather, merit us to maximize our speaking and
writing of words of Torah and words of faith for this will bring a greater radiance of holiness and faith into
our souls and into the inner essence of our souls.
Help
us so that even when sometimes it is necessary to talk and write about mundane
matters, especially when we have to do so in the languages of the nations, that
we can force ourselves to do it as much as we can without purring all our minds
into it. Rather, let our souls, together with our inner souls, cleave to Your
holy Torah all the time with holy faith.
Merit
us to engage in studying Your holy Torah a lot, every single day while
attaching ourselves to its inner holiness, which is the hidden light of Your
G-dliness clothed within the letter of the holy Torah. May we merit to talk a
lot with true tzaddikim and hear many Torah innovations directly from their
mouths of from their writings. Through this, let us merit to receive a great
radiance from the light of their holy souls and their holy faith such that it
will revive our souls.
Amen.
So may it be.
174.
When harsh judgements overcome a person, Heaven forbid, any person
praying for him shouldn't mention his name so that the harsh judgements won't
become even stronger, Heaven forbid. { See B'rachot,34, Magen Avraham Orech
Chaim Ch.119,par.1}
175.
The main virtue of crying is when it stems from joy and happiness. It is
very good that even regret comes from happiness meaning that out of his great
joy in G-d he feels regret and pines about having rebelled against Him. Then he
will be aroused to cry because of joy.
(Prayer 175)
Master of the World, merit us to always be happy and to remind ourselves
at all times of Your wonderful acts of loving-kindness which You perform for us
all the time; And above all, that You chose us from all the nations and raised
us above all their languages; You sanctified us through Your commandments and
brought us close to Your servcie. Your great and holy Name You used to call us.
So, let us be very happy with this to such a degree that we will truly regret
having rebelled against You through our innumerable sins. You have bestowed
loving-kindness upon us yet we have paid You back with evil. Please help us to
regret this and ong so much to come close to You that we are aroused to great
crying which stems f rom tremendous joy and yearning to cleave to You. You
informed us that the main perfection of
crying is when it comes from great joy at knowing Your Name. Then, by this
crying, enable us to sweeten all the harsh judgments and rid ourselves of
sadness. Let us sweeten the harsh judgments at their source in the World Above,
in Binah, which is the root of all crying and joy. Arouse great compassion upon
us in the World Above, as it says, ‘Behold a child cries and You have mercy on
him.’
Amen.
176.
One has to hurry a lot and drive out of one's heart the spirit of folly
that entered him and cleaves to him. By attachment to the true tzaddik, that
one loves him with all one's soul, through this one drives out very speedily
the spirit of folly from the heart. As a result one merits to a broken heart.
(Prayer
176)
“A
broken depressed heart, do not reject G-d: Master of the Universe, merit us to
really attach ourselves to true tzadikkim and to love them with all our soul.
Then through this may our hearts become merged with the heart of the true
tzaddikim. Let our hearts become completely united with theirs until, by this
all the spirit of folly that has clung to us in our heart, gets driven out. Let
this spirit of folly leave our hearts with great haste so that we can achieve a
really broken heart. Fulfill in us the verse which says: “G-d is close to those
with a broken heart and saves those with a lowly spirit”. So may it be Your
desire.
177.
a) There are some true tzaddikim
who have such power that when they drink wine they sometimes merit to receive
such wisdom and holy brains that they can through this atone and forgive the
sins of the People of Israel, like it says, "And the wise man will atone it"
(Proverbs,16:14).
b) A person has to nullify his
desire completely in relation to the will of G-d so that he has no other desire
than G-d's, whether he has money and children or not, Heaven forbid. When he
satisfies himself and is content with G-d's desire alone, then he gives reign
to G-d's Kingdom over himself.
(Prayer
177)
Master
of the Universe, merit us to come close to true tzakkikim and Torah scholars
and may we fill their throats with wine for You taught us about the great power
of the true tzaddikim and the great holiness of their eating and drinking.
Sometimes just by drinking a little quantity of wine they merit to receive
wisdom and such holy brains that, by this alone, they can achieve atonement and
forgiveness for the sons of the Jewish People, as it says of Moshe: And G-d
said, “ have forgiven, You asked”. Merit us to guard the brit with absolute
holiness such that we achieve holy brains which are perfect. Let us, take upon
ourselves the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven completely so that we nullify all
our desires, to Your will. May we have no desire, other than to fulfill Your
will until we become really satisfied with whatever You desire. Let us know and
believe perfectly that whatever the Merciful One does is for the good, for G-d
is good for everything and has mercy over all His created beings. Merit us to
raise up and exchange the glory of Your
Kingship over us at all times. And speedily uproot and break the kingdom of the
wicked so that You throw them down and subdue them very soon, in our lifetime.
Reign over us G-d, You alone. “Pray G-d reign forever, Your G-d, Zion, from
generation to generation. Praise G-d.
178.
When confessing one has to detail
one's sins for a person must confess each time specifically by speaking out in
detail what he did. There are many obstacles to doing this: sometimes a person
forgets the sin, or he remembers the sin but finds it hard to speak it out in
confession. But by the means of the joy of a mitzvah such as the mitzvah of a
wedding, or by making an effort to be very happy when performing a mitzvah
until one dances a lot with joy, by this one can make a confession which
rectifies the blemish of one's sins.
(Prayer
178)
“I
will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth. I will praise Him among the multitude.
For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those who
condemn his soul”. Master of the World, You who greatly pardon, who wants
repentance, teach me how to praise You now, how to gladden my soul now, in such
a way that I merit by happiness to confess before You and detail before You all
my sins that I have committed from when I was born until this day. Thereby may
I merit to truly return to You.
Master
of the World, merciful Father, You know the joy wedged in my heart on one side
and sadness on the other side. The greatness of the happiness and joy that I
should feel as a result of my portion in life is immeasurable, beyond value and
beyond counting , for in Your great mercy, You granted me merit to be born from
the seed of Israel, the Chosen Nation from all the nations, and the Nation
elevated above all languages.
You
cherish us by all sorts of terms of endearment; You love Your people, Israel
very greatly, love for ever and ever for all eternities. From Your love and
compassion for Your People, Israel, You multiplied for us the learning of the
Torah and the commandments such that there is no end to the happiness that we
have, for we should be happy and rejoice very greatly in every commandment for
they give renewed strength to the soul and gladden the heart, as is written:
“The statutes of the Lord are right, gladdening the heart”. However, because of
the multitude of my iniquities and immense wilful transgressions, sadness,
worries and melancholy bear down upon me at all times, “For I will declare my
iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin”. You know that this sadness and
melancholy does great harm to Your service, for, because of the sadness my
heart has become stupefied and my mind confused until I cannot awaken myself to
truly return to You. Even to confess before You and detail my sins and explain
myself before You is very difficult and a burden because my heart has become
stupefied by the sadness and melancholy.
Therefore,
I have come before You who are full of mercy, Master of happiness and joy, to
ask that You have mercy upon me and teach me how to gladden my soul at all
times, for, in Your great mercy, You have already taught me by holy tzaddikim
that even if a person is as he is, even if he does what he does, even so, even
thought he is there in that situation, he must force himself, with all his
powers, to distance himself from sadness and to gladden his soul at all
times, knowing that he has merited,
nonetheless to be from the seed of Israel.
He
must also search and desire to find in himself good points from the many
commandments that he merited to perform during the years. Every single Jew has
many commandments to his credit, for even the sinners of Israel are full of
commandments like the seeds of a pomegranate. In this it is fitting that ever
Jew be happy and rejoice a great deal even the least of the least and the worst
of the worst.
Master
of the World, Master of Wonders, my Father, merciful Father who has might and
joy in Your place. Come to my help and save me so that I merit to collect and
gather together all the fragments of happiness from all the commandments and
good points that I have merited to from when I was born until this day. May all
these fragments of happiness gather together in me such that with great force
they overcome the sadness and melancholy of my numerous iniquities, until I
merit b y this to always be happy with all my might. May I merit to always
overcome and strengthen myself with happiness and joy by all sorts of ways of
counsel, which You taught me by Your holy tzaddikim.
Help
me to strengthen myself with great happiness such that I merit to dance from
happiness. Let me merit always to the happiness of a commandment whether it is
being happy in the fulfilling of a commandment whether at a wedding, gladdening
the bridegroom and bride, or whether at other happy occasions when fulfilling
commandments. Always save me and help me to have at all times great joy and
happiness stemming from the happiness of a commandment, so much so that I dance
a great deal because of the happiness. May I merit to be happy and dance so
much that I merit to traverse the entire structure of happiness and dancing
which is comprised of 248 limbs and 365 sinews, for happiness is the root of
the focal point of all the 613 commandments in the Torah, as it is written:
“The statutes of the Lord are right; they gladden the heart”.
In
Your great mercy, let the happiness of all the truly good points that are in me
enflamed within me during the years, in Your great loving-kindness; let the
happiness shine with a great and wonderful light such that, by this, I nullify
all the darkness, obstacles, worries and sadness caused by the multiplicity of
immense sins, iniquities and willful transgressions that I committed before You
during the years. If they are very, very great, even so, in Your merciful eyes
virtues are considered greater and in Your great strength You can add a great
light by the happiness of the commandments and good points that are in me,
until they will overcome the darkness and sadness of my many iniquities and
until the bad becomes nullified in relation to the good and the sadness of
iniquities becomes nullified against the happiness of the commandments. May I
merit to always be happy and dance a great deal through the happiness of a
commandment until I merit to really perfect happiness and t
Completely
perfect all the structure of happiness and dancing. By this, may I merit, in
Your bountiful mercy, to judge myself truly and confess before You at all times
by speaking out the specific details of my sins. May no obstacles or delay
prevent me from this. May forgetfulness not overcome me so that as to cause me
to forget to specify one of my sins before You. Let nothing confuse me, rather,
may I just merit to truly confess before You and detail, specifically each sin.
You, who are full of compassion, be ready to help me so that I merit, by
confessing to build and perfect the power of speech in the way of ultimate
perfection.
By
this, may the Supernal Voice join and be in complete unity with the power of
speech in a way that, by this, all my sins, iniquities and wilful
transgressions be rectified. May I perfect all the Names that are within Your
great Name, which I spoiled.
Master
of the World, Master of the World, who will give me now a mouth to speak and
explain myself before You? How can I now find the strength to pour out my heart
as water before the Countenance of the Lord? Master of the World, You who are
full of mercy – “My King and my G-d, I will pray to You” – teach me how to
triumph over You so that You bring me to truly repent completely before You. My
Father, Rock, Redeemer, Deliverer, who observes in order to better my end, help
me, in Your tremendous mercy, in Your great saving, in Your wonderful ways of
counsel, such that I merit to always be happy. “Gladden the soul of Your
servant, for to You Lord, I lift up my soul”. Strengthen me and embolden me
each time to overcome sadness and make happiness dominant. Strengthen me with
all sorts of happiness and gladden my soul through all the paths of happiness
that the holy sages taught us, in such a way that I merit to always be happy
and that I not let sadness approach me in any way whatsoever; let sadness and
melancholy have no strength to stupefy my heart, Heaven forbid. Let nothing
confuse my mind, rather, may I merit at all times to overcome everything by
great happiness and tremendous joy until I merit to speak out my confession
before You with happiness and to pour out my heart before the Countenance of
the Lord and to illucidate myself before You every day in a broken and contrite
heart, as befits me.
Afterwards,
may I immediately return to a feeling of happiness with great vigour and
strength and to increase the extra happiness every time with all my might until
I merit to truly repent and to always serve You, “with joyfulness and with
gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things”. For upon Your great,
awesome, holy Name I relied, You can help me even now to always strengthen my
happiness. I will rejoice and be happy in Your saving. “I will be glad and
rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your Name, most High”. Draw happiness
upon us from the source of happiness, from the happiness of the future which is
ready to come to us very son through our righteous Messiah, as it is written:
“For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and
the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the
field shall clap their hands”.
Hasten
and hurry our redemption; comfort and gladden us and all Your Nation, Israel,
very speedily in our days. Fulfill very speedily that which is written, “For
the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will
make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy
and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of the melody”.
Amen
and Amen.
179. THE GREAT VIRTUE OF FASTING
a) A fast nullifies controversy,
both material and spiritual, for when one cannot pray or do what one needs to
do in the service of G-d, this is also a type of controversy. The fast is
beneficial to this in that it subdues the heart making it cleave to the Holy
One; it makes peace.
b) The fast revives the dead;
that's to say, it revives those days that passed in darkness and had no life to
them. Someone who blemishes a certain day, by not performing mitzvoth or good
deeds, and even more so when he does something evil, Heaven forbid, causes that
day not to have any life. He kills that day (See inside). The fast revives
these dead days; everything is according to the fast. However much more one
fasts, so one revives more of the dead days spent in darkness.
c) By a fast one merits to joy;
according to the number of days of the fast, so one merits to more joy.
(Prayer
179)
Lord,
G-d of truth, Unique and Eternal One, who thinks of ways that he who is far
away (from holiness) will not be banished; who is good and does good to all;
who watches the wicked person and desires his being found righteous; who
‘reads’ the generations beforehand and wants repentance – have mercy upon me
for Your Name’s sake, for the sake of our holy forefathers, return us in
perfect repentance before You. Enable me, from now on, to walk in Your statutes
and keep Your commandments, forever.
Master
of the World, full of mercy, who knows the hidden things; exalted and holy One
“who performs mighty acts, creates new things; the Lord of wars, who sows acts
of kindness and brings forth works of salvation; who creates healing; awesome
praise, Master of wonders; He whom, in His goodness, constantly renews each day
the act of Creation,” and who always does very, very great and wonderful new
miracles every day, which are hidden and too sublime to be understood by us,
for we do not know the immensity of Your greatness and Your wonders which You
perform all the time. All Your deeds, wonders and favours that You perform, all
of the time and at every hour, all of them, as one, are only for the true and
ultimate good, which is to bring about causes sot that we merit to return to
You truly in complete repentance. This is the primary, true ultimate good of
all that is good. You alone know how much You create new things every day in
order to bring me and all Israel back to You in true, perfect repentance; in order
to purify and rectify our souls, spirits and higher souls and in order that the
souls of Your Nation, Israel, become purified from their defilement. Every day,
at all times, every hour, You perform completely new wonders for this purpose.
No day is similar to another. Every day, all times, every hour and every
moment, You perform wonders to alter the functioning of the worlds through very
many wonderful, endless changes. All this is for the good of the (people of
the) world, for their true and eternal good, in order to give them innumerable
signs in different aspects and ways, by which You call every individual,
wherever he is at this moment, to truly draw him close to You. This alone is a
really good favour; there is no other favour in the world at all apart from
this.
Behold,
I acknowledge and give thanks before You, my Father, my merciful Father, the
good King who does good to all, for all the acts of loving-kindness, favours,
salvations and wonders that You have done for me from when I was born until
today. After all that has happened to me, after all that I have transgressed,
by accident or deliberately by force of circumstance or willingly, after all
these, Your mercy upon me still has not ceased. You awaken me and still
strengthen and encourage me to wait for Your salvation and to arrange these
words of mine before You. Besides this, You grant me merit every day to some
awesome points of goodness which sanctify me with the holiness of Israel, with
the holiness of Your awesome commandments which You give me merit to seize
every day in the ephemeral and perishable world, a world which vanishes and
passes away like the blink of an eye. How great is the good You have done for
me. “What shall I render to the Lord for all His favours towards me?”
Therefore
let Your servant still find in his heart to plead before You, to prostrate
himself in the face of Your mercy and loving-kindness. So I have come before
You, Master of Compassion, Master of Salvation. “Great in counsel and mighty in
deeds”, that You really show me the paths of repentance. Be with me always and
truly guide me every hour along the straight path, in such a way that I merit
to truly return to You very quickly with complete repentance.
In
Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to welcome the holy Day of Atonement in
great holiness, great happiness and immense joy. May I merit to carry out all the five forms
of self-denial on the Day of Atonement in absolute perfection, as is proper,
and may I pray all the five prayers of the Day in immense and awesome
devotion. May I confess my sins through
many forms of spoken confession, and let me regret the past completely and
really leave my bad ways and evil and confusing thoughts. Let me take upon
myself a very firm resolution never to return to the way of folly. Let me not
do again that which is bad in Your eyes. Help me to return in complete and true
repentance before You, in happiness, fear and love and let me cry a lot out of
happiness.
You,
who are full of compassion, let me merit to the holiness of the frightening,
awesome and very sublime Day of Atonement, for it is a great, holy, awesome,
frightening and mighty day. It is one day in the year that You chose for Your
nation, to forgive their sins and to atone for the wilful transgressions on
this awesome day. Have mercy upon us and let us merit to welcome properly this
great and awesome day, and to return in truly perfect repentance in such a way
that You forgive, pardon and atone for us for all our sins of error, iniquities
and willful transgressions that are more immense, more numerous and heavier
than the sands of the sea. Help us, in the merit of the essential holiness of
this sacred day and in the merit of the holy fast of this awesome day,
essential holiness of this sacred day and in the merit of the holy fast of this
awesome day, the fast of the Day of Atonement, that we merit by this to
subjugate all our desires to Your desire, O G-d, to subdue, break and nullify
all sorts of desires in the face of Your desire, such that we are left with no will
or craving at all against Your will. So, may we always be as You desire, never
turning to the right or left of Your desire. By this may we merit that, in Your
mercy You cancel the will of others in favour of or will. Cancel from us all
sorts of strife in the world, whether that which is between people or that
which is within me: “there is no peace in my bones because of my sin”. In
everything that I want to do concerning holiness I have many, immense
obstacles; obstacles beyond measure. The main obstacles are those of the brain
and the heart. May I merit to nullify them all by the holy fast of the Day of
Atonement which consists of all the days of the entire year… Have mercy upon us
and let us merit to sincerely return in complete repentance throughout the
entire year, especially on the holy Day of Atonement. Help us to complete the
fast of the Day of Atonement with tremendous, awesome holiness and with really
great happiness and joy such that, by this, I can sanctify myself from now on
and know how to behave with regard to fasts during the whole year. May I really
be as Your good desire, in order that I never be ashamed or disgraced or
stumble.
You,
who are full of compassion, You know how many really dead and ruined days are
resting in the place where they are because of the multiplicity and immensity
of my many willful transgressions that I Have committed during the years, right
up to this day. You know how I extracted the life from many days with very
great cruelty. It is bad enough that I did not add life from Above to these
days through Torah and prayer, but I also extracted completely from them their
actual life by the many transgressions I committed in them. The rectification
of these dead days is by many fasts, as You revealed to us by Your holy Sages.
Have mercy upon me. Help me and save me in Your immense compassion and Your
awesome and wonderful loving-kindness, so that I merit, through the power of
the holy fast of the Day of Atonement and the power of all the fasts You helped
me to merit throughout my life, to rectify all those dead days.
Please
guide us and teach us the really tru path how to behave regarding fasting. You
have revealed to us through the Sages the immense value of fast days and
fasting which is one of the main means of repentance. On the other hand, we
have been warned in holy books not to fast without the permission of the true
sage, especially when on is a Torah scholar and the fast causes one to cease
studying because of weakness. But You, Lord our G-d of truth, before Youall the
hidden things of the heart are revealed. You see all the doubts I have about
this in prinicple in my heart over and above all the many obstacles of the mind caused by doubts and confusions about
fasting, as I mentioned previously. Therefore, I have come before You merciful
One, to ask to know how to behave regarding this on each occasion. Let me not
be confused a lot by these doubts so that I do not cease even momentarily from
my service. Rather grant me calmness of mind. Show me the way to behave in the
matter of fasting and oter areas of serving You.
May
I merit to subdue and nullify my blemished desires, negating them completely to
Your will. Let me attach my heart to You
and Your true servants so that I swerve neither to the right or left from what
You desire from now on and forever. By this, please negate the wishes of others
who oppose my desire to serve You. Prevent them from having any strength to
disturb me or cause me to stop serving You, even for a moment. Cancel all the
controversy from the world, whether from those people who wish to oppose me or
whether from the controversy within my heart. Merit me to great peace in all
its aspects in such a way that I can truly repent and become as You desire from
now on and always. Then, in You great compassion, merit me to really immense
happiness at all times in the service of Your Name.
In
Your mercy, receive all my days with love and desire. Bring me close to You and
may my soul always rejoice to suc a degree that I rectify all the days I have
blemished during my lifetime. Then may I really come to You and to serve You
both myself and all my descendants for al generations. He who makes peace in
the Heavens, in mercy spread peace over us and over all the Jewish People.
Amen.
180.
See inside regarding the special power of giving money for a redemption.
(Prayer
180)
Some
who receives redemption money should say the following prayer:
May
it find favour before You that all the harsh decrees and severeties be
sweetened from upon (so and so son/daughter of…….) by the Supreme Wonder (Pele Elion) who is great love, complete and
simple mercy with no mixture of severity at all. Kin, Redeemer, Saviour, redeem
and save, answer and have mercy at all times of distress and suffering; have
compassion on the sick person (so and so son/daughter of…..). Redeem him/her
speedily from all his/her distress, from all kinds of illnesses, aches and
pains and suffering. Sweeten and nullify
all the harsh decrees from upon him/her in the merit of the money he/she gave
me for his/her redemption. Have mercy upon us and consider the money that
he/she gave me as if the money had reached the hands of the holy tzaddikim who
know how to do the redemption and thus to Sweeten
and cancel all the harsh decrees by taking in their hands the money in which
the severe decrees have a hold. Therefore I give over my hands and all the
intentions of my heart and mind to those tzaddikim. May my actions be
considered as their actions, my hands as their hands and my mouth as their
mouth. And let their intentions have our good in mind so as to redeem us
properly through this money which came into my hands; may they sweeten and
nullify all the harsh decrees from upon (so and so son/daughter of …..) in
their heavenly source, in the supernal Binah.
Sweeten
the harsh decrees from This World of Asiyah by the three hands (right, left and
both clasped together) in the world of Yetzirah which add up to forty-two
(three hands multiplied by forteen joints on each hand) which corresponds to
the initial letters in the prayer of Rebbe Nachman ben Hakana, ‘Anna Bekoach’.
-
Anna bekoach, gedulas yemincha
tatir tzerora.
We
beg You, with the strength of the greatness of Your right hand untie the bundle
(of our sins).
-
Kabel rinas amcha, sagvenu
tahreinu nora
Accept
the song of Your People; strengthen us, purify us o Awesome One
-
Na Gibor dorshei yichudcha k’babat shamrem
Please
Stron One, those who search for Your Oneness, like the pupil of an eye, guard
them.
-
Barchem taharem, rachamem
tzickatcha tamid gamlem
Bless
them, purify them, show them mercy, may Your righteousness always reward them.
-
Chasin, Kadosh b’rov tovcha nahel
adatecha
Powerful
Holy One with Your abundant goodness, guide Your congregation.
-
Yachid Geyeh, L’amcha p’nai zochrei
k’dushatecha
Unique
One, Exalted One, to Your People turn, to those who proclaim Your holiness.
-
Shavateinu, kabel u’shma tza’akateineu yodea talumot
Our
prayers accept and hear our cries knower of mysteries.
-
Baruch shem k’vod malchoto l’olam
va-edd
Blessed
is the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.
And
in the world of Beriyah all the harsh decrees will be sweetened through the
three hands which allude to the two Names of G-d. (Ehyeh, 21 YHV 21) that add
up to forty-two. And in Atzilut all the harsh decrees will be sweetened by the
Name YHVH, in its simple four-letter form, its expanded form and its expanded
expansion, which add up to forty-two. Please, Merciful One, have mercy on this sick person (or this
person who has another kind of distress, Heaven forbid). Arouse all the three
hands in the Supernal Binah in all the Three worlds, Atzilut, Beriyah and
Yetzirah. These three hands are called ‘the great hand, ‘the strong hand’ and
‘the high hand’. Then by this sweeten and nullify all the harsh decrees in This
World of Asiyah from upon this sick person and from all the Jewish People.
Redeem this person and from all the Jewish People. Redeem this person from all
his troubles and all the harsh judgments that were decreed upon him even if it
is after the decree has been sealed. Send him a full cure speedily from Heaven,
a spiritual cure and physical cure, together with all the Jewish People. Teach
me at all times when someone brings me money for a redemption to know and
direct my mind to how much money this person needs to give for his redemption,
according to the harsh decrees that have a hold on him. Also have mercy on the person who brings the
money so that he will not feel misery but rather I will give as he should so
that all the harsh decrees will leave him and rise to reach the three holy
sublime hands. Then let the decrees be sweetened in their heavenly source in
Supernal Bina.
It
is clear and known to You that I do not know how to behave in this matter
Merciful One, have compassion on this poor generation when there is no –one who
can stand up for us. Have mercy on the People and on this sick person; sweeten
and nullify all the harsh decrees from upon him and form upon all the Jewish
People. Cure him speedily. Bring him a full recovery. Return him to his former
strength in the near future and arouse his heart to really return to You. Be
full of mercy towards him for You are the Master of compassion. Redeem the
Jewish People from all its troubles. We have no-one to rely on other than Our Father
in Heaven, as it says: “He will redeem the Jewish People from all its
iniquities.
Amen.
So may it be Your will.
181.
a) When a number of people join
together to oppose one person, even though the latter may be more important
than them, nevertheless, they can cause him to fall. This is only if they are
not wicked people for the joining of the wicked is not counted. However, if
they are not wicked, they can cause a person they are opposing to fall through
their joining forces together. This is true even though each of the group is
less important than him, unless the victim is of very great stature; then, on
the contrary, they become nullified to him. And when they cause a person to
fall, the main element of the fall is that he falls into the craving for sex,
Heaven preserve us.
b) All the things that are spoken
against a true tzaddik and his followers are all great favours, materially and
spiritually, for they give them stability.
182.
All that the world talk about during all of the days of the Counting of
the Omer relates to the counting (number) of that particular day. Someone who
understands can hear this and understand it; if he pays attention well to their
accounts of events he will hear that they are only talking about the count of
that particular day.
183.
The tzaddikim in the generation sit arranged in a circle. They are an
aspect of G-d's 'bet din' (rabbinical court) and He is head of the 'bet din'.
From them judgement extends to every individual, whether to the side of merit
or of guilt. So also, they give out the income of each individual as is due to
him. The main thing is that there be love between them to such a degree that
they are an aspect of 'seeing each other' (as if sitting opposite each other in
a circle).
184.
When you speak to your friend with the fear of Heaven, even though he
doesn't receive from you, nevertheless you yourself will receive spiritual
arousal from your friend. This is because, by the words you speak out to your
friend, the spiritual light returns to you. If you were to speak these words to
yourself it could be that you wouldn't be aroused by them at all. On the other
hand, by what you say to your friend, even though he isn't aroused,
nevertheless you yourself will be aroused because the words return to you through
an aspect of 'hitting', like someone who hits and throws an object at a wall,
the object returns to him.
(Prayer
184)
May it be Your will, O Lord, my G-d and G-d
of my fathers, that You help me to merit to attach myself and commit myself to
Your service and Your fear every single day. May we merit so that each
individual will talk with his fellow about fear of Heaven and arouse him to
Your service and Your fear. May each one remind his fellow, encourage him and
inform him of Your truth and faith and greatness and goodness which fill the
entire world. May the Direct Light and Reflected Light be drawn by us all the
time and let the building of holiness be completed perfectly by us every day,
every hour, every moment. Let all the holy lights shine in our hearts in order
that we really arouse ourselves to return to You wholeheartedly; let us not
follow the evil cravings of the heart. Rather, let us merit all our lives to
engage in learning Torah, in praying and doing good deeds. Let us add holiness
and perception every single day and let every day be lengthier thank the one
before it, with holiness, purity, fear and love, with truth and faith, in order
that we never be ashamed or disgraced until the end of time. Fulfill in us the
verse which says: “Then they who feared the Lord spoke often one to another:
and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written
before Him for those who feared the Lord and who thought about His Name”. May
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your
Countenance, O G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.
Amen and Amen.
185.
The main form of perfection if fear of G-d. There are two kinds of fear.
There is someone who fears G-d because of His greatness and exaltedness,
because He is great and omnipotent. By such fear one perfects the Name of the
Holy One. There is another kind of fear, a lower kind which is when fear is
aroused by lowly, earthly fears, by fear of an animal or a minister or some
other fear. Through this a person remembers and comes to fear of G-d. As a
result of this fear, bounty comes into the world. One has to make a vessel in
order to receive the bounty. This is done by great longing and the desire to
travel to true tzaddikim. Then an impression of the vessel is created. Later,
when he comes to the tzaddik, the vessel is made.
Whoever has to make more strenuous efforts and faces obstacles at the
beginning of his coming close to G-d, when he breaks them he creates a
correspondingly larger vessel. For example, if he has obstacles from his
father, father-in-law and wife etc. and other similar obstacles and he needs to
make great efforts and strengthen himself a lot in order to break them. By this
he creates a vessel to receive within it later on holiness and purity. However
much more a person needs to make efforts and face obstacles, and he breaks
them, the greater the vessel is to receive within it holiness and purity needed
to come closer to G-d. Then he merits to fear and to draw down all the good
bounty and he merits to perfect the Holy Name. For the main form of perfection
is through the fear of G-d.
(Prayer 185)
O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, the
G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, the G-d of Jacob, great, mighty and awesome
G-d: May it be Your will that You have mercy upon me and bestow upon me Your
holy dread, awe and fear. Guard me and save me from all sorts of ‘fallen’
fears, extraneous fears. Let me not be frightened or afraid of anything in this
world, not from an evil animal, thieves, oppressors, or wicked people. Let me
not be afraid of anything that people usually are afraid of. Protect me and
save me from all of them so that I will not be afraid or frightened of them at
all. Rather, let me merit, immediately and at great speed, to perceive the real
truth - that they have no power to frighten or scare me other than by fear from
above having fallen and its becoming clothed in physical things. May I raise
fear to its source, so as to be in awe and dread of You and Your Presence which
is terrifying and awesome: let this be, such that I merit to real holy fear and
merit to raise all the fallen fears to their source, to their proper place.
Raise me from level to level, higher and higher, until I merit to reach
perfect, sublime fear, so that I will not have to draw fear upon myself by
being aroused through lowly things into which sublime fear has fallen.
Rather, may I merit to arouse myself to
perfect fear before You, such that You increase my wisdom, insight and
perception with great holiness, until I achieve perfect, sublime fear through
contemplation of Your greatness and grandeur; may You be blessed forever. Your
fear is upon all Angels of the Heavens, upon all those who dwell above and
below. All of them tremble and are in dread before You…. You, who are full of
mercy, great, mighty and awesome G-d, grant me really perfect fear, fear of
punishment and fear of Your grandeur with the utmost, perfect holiness. Help me
and save me very soon and let me merit to have of You upon my face so that I
will never again commit any sin or transgression at all. If I have
transgressed, so let me neither return to nor add to my folly. In Your
bountiful mercy, let me and my seed and all the seed of Your Nation, the House
of Israel, merit to come close to tzaddikim, who are the treasure of Fear of
Heaven, for they are full of fear, awe and dread of You. Let me merit to really
come close to them until I merit, through them, to receive holy and pure fear,
lower fear and higher fear, forever higher and higher, with really total perfection.
Come to my aid and save me at all times so that I can break through all the
great, immense obstacles and veils that separate us and prevent our coming
close to tzaddikim who really fear the Lord…..
Merciful and Righteous One, mighty, awesome
and fearful One. You know the immense holy fear to which the true tzaddikim
merited through their worship, striving and real self-sacrifice for You, until
they merited to recognize. You and fear You with wonderful fear, sublime fear,
higher and higher, such that there is strength to their holy fear to also reach
us. Please have mercy upon us for their sake a nd bestow upon us something of
their holy and wonderful fear such that we also will merit to always have
perfect fear before You. May Your fear be on our faces so that we never again
sin. Let us return to You, truly and wholeheartedly. Have mercy upon me for
Your Name’s sake and let me merit to always yearn and desire to come close to
real tzaddikim and those who really fear You.
May I merit, by the real craving and desire
to break all sorts of obstacles in the world, to bear all sorts of hardships,
efforts and suffering in order to come close to true tzaddikim; until I merit
to come close to them and really cleave to them and to draw and receive from
them really perfect fear in such a way that I merit to be truly as You desire,
forever and ever……….
Master of the World, Full of Compassion,
awesome and sublime – answer me! Let m e merit very soon to really perfect
fear. You are holy and Your Name is awesome. All the hosts of Heaven crawl and
tremble in fear of Your Name. Seraphim, Chayot and the holy Opanim and all the
awesome Angels tremble and are afraid of the spelendour of Your Majesty. All of
them perform You will with awe and fear. Grant us fear, Merciful One; grant us
fear, awesome and Fearful One. G-d of all the tzaddikim, who are the source of
fear – grant us fear. Bestow Your awe, O Lord our G-d, upon all Your works and
Your dread over all that You have created so that all Your works may fear You
and all Your creatures may cast themselves down before You; may all form one
single band to do Your will with all their heart. Master of the World, You are
certainly awesome. Do awesome and wonderful things with us in such a manner
that we merit to really return to You….
Holy and awesome One, save us and grant us
merit to achieve all that we have requested from You. Grant us really perfect
fear of You until we merit, by this fear, to give You great satisfaction and
pleasure through this, bestow upon us great bounty, blessing, compassion, life
and peace, healthy children and plentiful income, wealth, honour and life and
everything good, materially and spiritually in This World and the Next, in
order that we never be ashamed or disgraced and never stumble, forever and
ever. Quickly raise us higher and higher
until we merit to the most perfect, sublime fear. By this, may all our deeds be
perfected before You with great perfection until we merit that Your great, holy
Name be perfected by us at all times with utter perfection, as is Your good
will. May Your Name be extolled forever and let all the people of the world
return to You and serve You with great awe, fear and fright. “Let them praise
Your great and awesome Name; for it is holy”. Fulfill very soon the verse which
says: “G-d shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth will fear Him”. And it
says: “For the Lord, Most High is awesome, He is a great King over all the
earth”. May the words of my mouth and the contemplation of my heart find favour
before You O Lord, my Rock and Redeemer. “Blessed be the Lord, the G-d and G-d
of Israel who alone does wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious Name
forever; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory”.
Amen and Amen.
186.
Through faith, which means believing in the words of the tzaddik, one
can see great wonders from him at all times, for the tzaddik is certainly full
of wonders. When you believe in the true tzaddik, you will understand
retrospectively that everything that occurred to you was alluded to in the
words of the tzaddik and that was his intention. In the words that he spoke to
you he gave a clue that so it would be. Anything that happened later on, you
can see was all alluded to in his words.
(Prayer 186)
Master of the Universe, merit me to true and
perfect faith in holy wise men who believe completely in the words of the true
tzaddikim. Let me really believe that all their words and deeds are not simple
but rather they contain mysteries and great secrets. They are full of wonders.
Within their words are concealed phenomenal, wonderful and awesome innovations.
May I merit to see the might of G-d and His wonders through the holy words of
the tzaddikim. Enable us to see that everything that occurs to us throughout
our lives, was alluded to in their holy words, said in truth, with wonderful
sublime and awesome wisdom. All this was
alluded to in their words and conversations which we heard from them or from
others in their name or from their holy awesome books.
Merciful One, merit us to perfect faith,
understanding and intelligence such that I will be able to see, in retrospect,
that everything that occurred to us through Your mercy, was alluded to
previously in their holy words. Merit me to always be close to and cleave to
true tzaddikim and their loyal followers. May I follow in their paths of
honesty and simplicity and behave in them with perfect faith until I really
return to You, as You desire.
Bring our
redemption speedily, bring us the righteous Messiah. Fulfill in us the
verse which says: “As in the days of
leaving Egypt, let us see wonders”. May the words of my mouth and the
contemplations of my heart find favour before You, G-d my Rock and Redeemer.
Blessed are You G-d, the G-d of Israel who performs wonders alone. Let the
world be filled with Your glory.
Amen and Amen.
187
The fact that G-d pays a person measure for measure, according to his
deeds, is a great act of loving-kindness from G-d for, by this, he can
understand his sin and repent. The main place that G-d pays a person measure
for measure is in the Land of Israel, because there G-d is careful to pay
exactly according to a person's deeds. This is what it says, "a land which
devours its inhabitants" (Numbers, 13:32): "devour", in Hebrew,
"a-ce-l- et", spells out the initial letters
of the verse, "you pay a person according to his deeds"(Psalms,62) –
"ata.t'shalem l'ish c'ma'asehoo".
188.
Before a child comes out into the air of the world they teach him and
show him everything he needs to do and ascertain in his lifetime in This World.
Since he is born into the air of This World, immediately everything is
forgotten and lost from him. Because of this he has to travel to the tzaddik to
seek and ask after his loss, for all these lost things of all the people of the
world are all in the hands of the tzaddik.
(Prayer 188)
Merciful One You know all the knowledge and
perception that my neshama had before it left the womb and entered the air of
This World. During the nine months in the womb a light shone over my head and I
could see from one end of the world to another. But when I was born,
immediately it was all forgotten and with this great light was lost. Now during
all my life, I need to inquire after and search for what I lost and forgot.
Because of my very coarse materiality and stubborness, not only did I not
endeavour to search for whatever I lost, I even did the reverse and followed
the physical cravings of my heart, thus adding sins and blemishes against
You. As a result of this, with my own
hands, I have lost a lot more and distanced myself from You. All the good of my
neshama, an eternal good, become forgotten and lost. I know no way to search
for my losses. My losses are very many. I have almost lost myself completely,
Heaven forbid. Now what shall I do?
Master of the World, You know all the
mysteries and see everything until the End of Days. You alone know where all my
innumerable losses are. In Your great loving-kindness, You had mercy on us and
revealed to us that all our losses, of each and every individual, are to be
found in the hands of the true tzaddikim. However, because of our many
iniquities we are very far away from those true tzaddikim who have all our
losses. We do not know who the tzaddik is who has all our losses. Furthermore,
we do not even know any way how to search for and request from the tzaddik all
our innumerable and immense individual losses. Merciful One, open Your eyes and
see our emptiness. We go like someone who has lost the way, like orphans
without a father, lie the defiled without a way to become purified. Where can we go to for help?
I raise my eyes to the hills; from where will my help come. To where can I
escape for help?
The loving-kindnesses of G-d never cease for
His compassion is endless. Therefore, I have come befoe You to plead that You
have mercy on em for Your Name’s sake. Please open Your eyes speedily so that I
can see and know the true tzaddik in whose possession I can find all my losses.
Let me break and overcome all the obstacles speedily. Merciful One, help me to
make great efforts, with all my strength, to search after all my losses , all
my life, until I merit to find them very soon. As a result, may I return to
You, know You come close to You and really and truly cleave to You,. From now
on, save me from causing any more losses ever again. Have mercy on me and
listen to my prayer. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart
find favour before You, my Rock and Redeemer.
Amen. Amen.
189.
The essence of the bite of the Serpent (its true poison) is sadness and
laziness. Consequently one must be very careful to avoid sadness and laziness.
(Prayer 189)
Even
if the commandments we perform are full of worthless matter, ulterior motivs,
extraneous thoughts and confusion and we have not yet done one commandment
perfectly, even so it is impossible that there should not be some good points
within us, in every commandment that each one of has merited to perform
sometimes, whether ritual fringes (tzitzit) or tefillin or welcoming Shabbat or
Festivals or giving some charity, performning an act of loving-kindness, or
keeping away from forbidden foods and so on. Certainly in every commandment and
good deed there is, at the least, some good point. Because of these good points
it is fitting to rejoice all the days of our lives, even in the midst of our
great inferiority, for we have merited to cause some satisfaction before You by
various good points to which we have merited during our lifetimes. By this may
we merit to truly enter the side of merit and always gladden our souls such
that we merit to really repent completely. I believe with perfect faith, hat by
this wonderful path and channel of loving-kindness there is also hope for me
and even for all the very bad sinners of Israel, to merit, from now on, to
really perfect repentance and to always be happy.
Master of the World, Living G-d and King of
the World, the Happiness of Israel, have mercy upon me for Your Name’s sake.
Save me from sadness and laziness which were among my troubles, preventing me
from much Torah, prayers and from much good. They brought me to what they
brought me for You informed us by Your holy sages that the principal aspect of
the ‘serpent’s bite’ is sadness and laziness, Heaven forbid. Have mercy upon
me. You who are full of mercy; save me from now on from such bites. Give me
life that I may live. “Gladden the soul of Your servant for I lift up my soul
to You, O Lord”. “Let me hear joy and
gladness, that the bones which You have broken may rejoice”. Let me merit to
always be swift in Your Torah and service; let me merit to great swiftness and
tremendous happiness, as is fitting in Your holy service and Torah, which are
our life and the length of our days, in This World and in the Next, forever and
for eternity.
Apart from this, everything is just emptiness,
it is complete vanity. It has no substance. “What profit has a man from all his
labour which he does under the sun?” apart from Torah, prayers and other
service of G-d. He who revives the dead with great compassion, supports those
who fall, heals the sick, unchains the bound and keeps faith with the
slumberers in the dust – revive me and
raise me from the dust of the earth to which we have really descended because
of our many iniquities, “For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly
cleaves to the earth. Arise for our help and redeem s for Your mercies’ sake.
“My soul cleaves to the earth; revive me according to Your words”. For you
raise the poor from the dust and the needy from the dung-heap. In Your mercy
and wonders, raise me from all the descents and declines into which I have
fallen until now. No one can raise me other than You and the real tzaddikim.
Let me merit to swiftness and happiness which gives life to the mind and all
the structure of man. Your hand shall be established with me; You arm will
strengthen me. Strengthen me every time in the way of Your profound and
wonderful advice, in such a way that I merit to drive out completely the
sadness and laziness and turn them into great swiftness and happiness. Let my
soul live and it will praise You; let You judgments help me”.
Nothing is too wondrous for You and nothing
is prevented from You. Who is like You, Master of mighty acts and who is like
You a King who kills and restores life and who causes salvation to grow.
Fulfill in me a real reviving of the dear, for You have already performed
countless wonders for me, every day, at all times, every hour, from when I was
born until this very day.
Revive me and raise me, from now on, to a
real life in This World and in the World to Come. In Your mercy and through
Your great wonders, let us taste from the life to which the true tzaddikim
merited, may their memories be blessed, who lived a real spiritual and eternal
life at all times and merited to a new, awesome and wonderful life every time.
There is strength in their lives to bestow upon me the light of life, even now
as I am now, in such a sway that I also merit to live a real life, at least
from now on – a long life, a good life, a life which may really be call life.
“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at
Your right hand there are pleasures for eternity”. May the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, O Lord, my
Rock and Redeemer”.
Amen.
190.
The true tzaddik is an aspect of Moshe; in whatever G-d commands him to
do he has no choice about doing it. The main choice he has is in understanding
G-d's desire, meaning to understand G-d's will in things about which He didn't
reveal His will openly, an aspect of "Moshe added a day from his own
understanding" (Shabbat, 87). Upon this was dependent the free will of
Moshe, to receive the Torah or not, for he understood that it was impossible to
receive the Torah other than after three days of preparation as indeed happened.
The Holy One only told him to prepare for two days and Moshe himself needed to
understand on his own and to choose to receive the Torah after adding an
additional day.
(Prayer 190)
Master of the Universe, Giver of the Torah,
Who loves the Jewish People and chooses His Nation with love. In Your
compassion, You gave us free choice so that we will have the power to choose
life, or the opposite, Heaven forbid. This power of choice given to humans is
an incredible wonder, the greatest wonder of
all You wonders which You created in all the worlds. There is no
comparable wonder and secret in all Creation, throughout all the worlds. It is
a sublime wonder , a wonderful innovation and mystery that a created being
should have the power of choice to choose to follow go the way that he wants,
to do as You desire or to oppose it, Heaven forbid.
So, I have come before You, Master of
wonders, to ask that You help and save me; be with me always so that I will
merit to consistently choose life and follow the path of goodness, as You
desire, and as the true tzaddikim desire. Le me now swerve to the right or left
from Your desire, throughout all the days of my life. Master of the World, You
taught us that the main power of choice of the Jewish People, who received the
Torah through Moshe, is only because You, G-d did not speak directly to the
People of Israel but rather, only through Moshe. As a result, we have choice
about anything in the Torah, for anything You say directly to a person negates
all his free choice. Therefore, Moshe had no choice regarding the commandments
of the Torah; all his choice was only in regard to whether to add a day in
preparation for receiving the Torah or not. This he had to decide from his own
understanding for He was forced to understand by himself how to behave. This
was the real choice.
However, because of my spiritual poverty,
with physical cravings and flawed attributes overcoming me, as if they were
chasing after me very much at every moment, I have great choice regarding
anything in the Torah. I need a lot of encouragement, strengthening, saving and
immense mercy from You, Blessed One, so that I can direct my choice towards choosing life while feeling
disgusted with evil. But what can I do?
In addition to this weakness, I have further doubts about how to behave
regarding several things. My understanding and opinion is
Divided and uncertain into two, so I do not
know what You really want. If I knew, I would certainly behave as You want.
Now, L-rd. G-d.our Father, we are all creatures of Your handiwork, so show us and teach us how to
behave. Moshe and other great tzaddikim who had choice, were very strong
indeed; they were like angels, having broken all physical cravings. They did
not have any free choice with regard to any physical craving. But myself, a
coarse and material person, I have sinned greatly against You because the
physical cravings pursue me. My power of choice is very material indeed. What
can I do? Besides these cravings I also have many confusions and doubts. I do not
know how to decide or behave in a number of issues. How can I find the right
path to really and truly come close to You.
Master of the World, because of my great
confusion the clarity of my thought and
expression has been blocked such that I cannot express myself in prayer before
You. But, You, know all the hidden recesses of my heart. Teach me how to behave
in all these matters of doubt during the rest of my life. Grant me advice and
strength for this strenuous war. Rise to help me so that I incline my heart to
choose good in all matters and act according to Your real desire, according to
the Torah. Enable me to direct my choice at all times to the path of life,
goodness and truth. Open my eyes in Your Torah and in Your mercy, teach me to
find the truth in all the issues which I am doubtful about.
Direct my heart to fear of Your Name. Master
of the World, Merciful One, merit me to merge with the true tzaddikim until all
the physical cravings and vanities of This World become nullified from me.
Rather help me to take upon myself the yoke of studying Torah, prayer and the
service of G-d in general, such as by giving charity and doing good deeds. Save
me from doubts, confusions and bad advice. Let me always know what Your real
desire is in all things. I depend upon You in all my actions and I will perform
whatever You want. Have mercy on me and all those dependent on me. Stretch out
You hand to help me, for I have chosen Your commandments, “I have strayed like
a sheep that is lost; seek out Your servant, for Your commandments I have not
forgotten”.
Amen.
191.
The main feeling of the delight and pleasure of the World to Come and
all the Three Hundred and Ten Worlds which the Holy One will bequeath to each
tzaddik in the future is only in the heart, for the heart can ascertain in its
small place things that are beyond measure and number. There is the place of
the feeling of all the delights and pleasures. Therefore, one person can sit
next to his fellow in Gan Eden and feel all the delights and pleasures and all
the Three Hundred and Ten Worlds whereas his friend, even though he is sitting
next to him, feels nothing because his heart lacks all the delights and
pleasures his friend the tzaddik feels in his heart; happy is he.
(Prayer 191)
G-d, my G-d, You created man, out of Your
goodness and compassion, for him to know and recognize You, “to behold the
delight of G-d and contemplate in this sanctuary”. This is the main and most
wonderful delight of all delights in This World and all the worlds; the latter
cannot be called delights at all in comparison. Happy is he who merits to this.
In Your mercy, You promised, through Your
holy wise men, to give each tzaddik an inheritance of three-hundred and ten
worlds. And You revealed to us that all these three-hundred and ten worlds we
can feel only in our hearts. Therefore, it can happen that one person is
sitting next to his friend and the former experiences the delight of
three-hundred and ten worlds in Gan Eden, whereas his friend next to him feels
nothing for his heart lacks all this. Now, Father in Heaven, have compassion
over me and enable me from now on to be among those who fear You and really
perform Your will. As a result, out of Your wonderful goodness and compassion
merit me to inherit those three hundred and ten worlds in my heart; let m come
to know and recognize You with real, holy perception which is an aspect of
inheriting three hundred and ten worlds.
Master of the World, Merciful One, You know
how far away I am from this. I still have to pray and plead with You to be
saved from Hell and from its lowest levels. As if it was not enough to have
sinned in my early years, I have added more and more, newer blemishes. What can
I say? How can I justify myself? But You have revealed to us through Your true
tzaddikim, Your immense mercy and boundless loving-kindness. Therefore I am
obliged in every situation to strengthen myself and throw myself before You to
pray that I may still merit to all these delights in all the worlds. Your true
tzaddikim warned us to always hoe and yearn for this.
Have mercy on me and come to my assistance so
that I, at least from now on, arouse myself to return to You. Help me to be a
kosher Jew from now on, as You desire and as the tzaddikim expect from us, so
that I can merit to inherit those three-hundred and ten worlds.
You perform wonders beyond estimation, so,
from now on merit me (….so and so, son
of….) at least to be really as You desire at al times. Let me not return to my
folly. Help me from now on to drive out all bad thoughts and all confused
thoughts. Be with me at all times to help me draw pure thoughts into my Torah
studying and prayers, in such a way that I will always cleave to Your through
Your Torah and Your service. May the words of my mouth and the contemplation of
my heart find favor before You., G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.
Amen and Amen.
192. THE VIRTUE OF HEARING THE WORDS OF A TZADDIK
a)
Someone who hears words from the
mouth of the true tzaddik, especially when he sees him at the same time,
receives an aspect of the face of the tzaddik, and an aspect of his
intelligence and soul. However, he has to guard himself against forgetting, for
a lapse of memory causes him to forget all this. When one merits to memory, to
remember the words of the tzaddik as he said them, or by reviewing them a
hundred and one times so he remembers, then when he says this in the name of
the tzaddik, the image of the face of the tzaddik appears before him and this
is as if the tzaddik himself said the words; but the remembering has to be
truly with the power of memory.
b)
When one hears an innovation
directly from the tzaddik at the time when he thought of it then one will
remember it well. But, when one doesn't hear it directly from the tzaddik
himself or even if one hears it later from him, not when he innovated the idea,
then it is very easy to forget.
c)
In every book there is the image
of the face of the Torah scholar who innovated the words in the book.
d)
The word of truth that is spoken
out by the true tzaddik, even about worldly things, is more precious than the
words of Torah of another tzaddik for in the latter's words there can be many
mixtures (of truth and falsehood)
whereas the words of the true tzaddik contain only truth. Since the tzaddik
himself is only truth and he contains no mixtures, nothing is more precious
than him.
e)
Truth is the face of all the faces
of holiness.
(Prayer 192)
Master of the World, who remembers the
forgotten things, You are He who is Eternal. There is no forgetfulness before
the Throne of Your Glory. Help me and save me for Your Name’s sake, so that I
merit to remember very well by means of the power of memory, every single word
that I heard from their mouths or read from their written works. You know the
immense loftiness and sublime virtue of every one of their holy words, even
about worldly matters. It is impossible to set a value to them, for all their
words are truthful and just. He who merits to really accept their words and engrave them well in the power of
his memory receives his face and mind and soul from the tzaddik, and then the
light of the face of thee tzaddik, his mind and his soul, are engraved in the
mind of the receiver and listener, especially when one hears from them holy
words of Torah. Several times a spark was ignited in my heart because of the
immense, wonderful holiness of their awesome words which sine upon the earth
and its inhabitants a very, very wonderful and awesome light which is beyond
estimation. However, because of my many iniquities, forgetfulness has overcome and
the shining light of their words have been forgotten. Consequently, I have
become as distant from You as I have. I have forgotten that which is good for
me; I have forgotten their holiness. “I am as forgotten from the heart as a
dead man. I am like a broken vessel”.
Therefore, I have come before You, Master of
mercy, who recalls the forgotten things, to ask that from now on You have mercy
upon me and grant me the merit to remember all the words of truth that I will
learn from their holy books. Remind me of all that I have heard already but
forgotten. In Your mercy, bring it all back to my memory and let me never ever
forget again something that I have learnt. Let this be so all the days of my
life.
Come to my aid and save me very soon so that
I may perform that which the Sages warned us to do, which is to picture in the
mind at the time of learning the image and face of the Tanna or the tzaddik
whose holy words I am learning. It should be as if the Tanna or tzaddik were
standing before me. So also, when I tell others of his words of Torah, let his
holy image be pictured before me until it is considered as if the Tanna or
tzaddik himself speaks with them and they hear his words from his holy mouth;
then let his holy words complete their mission perfectly. May the tzaddikim
finish all the rectifications that they began to draw into the world, to really
return all the world to Your worship and
to Your Torah.
Let me merit to review every word and every true innovation
of the holy Torah, one hundred and one times at least, so that I remember every
word very well. Let me never forget anything that I have learnt, even one word, such that the face,
intellect and soul of the true tzaddikim whose words I am learning will all be
engraved and pictured in my mind, intellect and soul and so that I will really
taste the pleasantness and sweetness of their very lofty words.
Shine into my mind and soul the light of the
sparks of their radiating words. Shine a very, very, lofty and awesome light so
that I merit to return to You in
repentance very soon. Let me throw away all the idols of silver and gold and
let me not follow my evil arbitrariness and stubbornness of heart. Let me draw
myself away from the vanities of This World, its cravings and delights. Rather,
may I direct all my aim in life, longing, desire and hope towards the Eternal
World to Come. Do not let me exchange the permanent world for a world which
passes as a shadow and is gone.
Have mercy upon me for Your Name’s sake and
let me merit to a real, holy memory, so that I remember well all the words of
the holy Torah. Let me merit to be consistent in my learning, to learn Your
holy Torah day and night. Let me review each thing one hundred and one times
such that I remember very well every word of the Torah, every innovation,
explanation and counsel that You revealed to us in Your holy Torah, which is
full of holy and awesome advice and lights. Through the power of memory may I
remember them all very well all the days of my life, forever , until the day
that You will peacefully gather me to You. Let me merit to come there (before
You in the World of Truth) with all the words of Torah. Let all the words of
the Written and Oral Torah be attached, engraved, included and united in my
mind and soul. In Your compassion let me be considered among those who fear You
and engage in learning Your Torah, about whom it says “Blessed is he who comes
here with his learning at Hand’s reach”. Have mercy upon me for Your Name’s
sake, for in my oppression I know my own lowliness and worthlessness and how
far away I am from all this. However, I
rely upon Your bountiful mercy, for You are good and do good to all. You desire
that we pray and plead before You for all the really great, eternal favours. On
this I rely. Blessed is the Lord, G-d, the G-d of Israel who alone does
wonders. May His glorious Name be blessed forever and let His glory fill the
Earth.
Amen . Amen.
193.
The
power of thought has great strength. If you focus your thoughts very firmly on
any idea in the world, you can make it
happen; you just have to think about it with a negation of all feelings. The
power of thought is so forceful that a person can actually sacrifice his soul
in his mind. That's to say, he can take upon himself, in his thoughts, to be
willing to sacrifice his soul to sanctify G-d's Name in any form of death, such
that he really feels the anguish of death. However, one can actually die
through this. Therefore, when a person feels that his soul is about to leave
his body, he has to prevent this and distance himself so that he doesn't remain
there; thus he will not die before his time, Heaven forbid.
(Prayer 193)
Master of the Universe, merit me to sacrifice
my soul for Your Name’s sake at all times, especially at the time of reciting
Shema when accepting upon myself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. Merit me to
unify Your Name every day, morning and
evening with self-sacrifice for Your Name’s sake, with all my heart, with joy
and great pleasure. Let me really accept upon myself the four types of death,
punishment meted out by a Jewish court of justice (bet din) – stoning, burning,
execution and strangulation – especially when I say Shema every day. May I be
very content to die by means of any of these deaths and accept to suffer any
torture of suffering in order to sanctify Your Great Name. Help me with Your
great power and bountiful mercy, to
strengthen my mind with regard to self-sacrifice, so that my thoughts will be
very strong and decisive, both internally and externally.
Let me picture in my mind all these deaths
and suffering with great clarity and intensity, while nullifying all my senses
to such a degree. That I really feel in my mind the anguish of dying, as if
they were killing and torturing me and by this I was sanctifying You holy and
Great Name. Let there be no difference between the pain of real death and the
pain of the imagined death which I accept in my heart. Help me and save me;
teach me how to behave in this matter. May I always be prepared to really
accept upon myself with love, self-sacrifice and death in order to sanctify
Your Name.
Master of the World, Merciful One; Master of
everything; Holy of all holies. You know that I the depths of our exile we have
no support to depend on other than the power and merit of the true tzaddikim
who sacrifice their lives to sanctify Your Name.
Therefore, have mercy on us, for Your Name’s
sake. Merit us to become merged within these holy tzaddikim. You know the
innermost secrets of our heart. And You know that each and every Jew would really
be content to give over his soul in order to sanctify You Name, as we have
heard with our own ears about several simple Jews who died and suffered torture
in order to sanctify You Name. Even I, who am impoverished in deeds and
despicable in my immense coarse materiality and innumerable sins, am
nevertheless prepare to give up my life immediately in order to sanctify Your
Name. Now I take upon myself, with all my heart and soul, death through,
stoning, burning, killing and strangling for the sake of the sanctification of
Your Name.
Please in Your bountiful mercy, remember all
the holy Jews and tzaddikim throughout the generations who sacrificed their
souls in order to sanctify Your Name. Remember especially the merit of the
tzaddik and tanna, Ravvi Akiva, may his memory be blessed, who was tortured and
died while saying “G-d is One.”
Also remember the merit of his fellows, the
ten martyrs, who all suffered great torture until they died while sanctifying
Your great and holy Name. Happy is their portion. So also several Jewish
communities who were tortured and killed while sanctifying Your Name. Remember
these souls killed on the altar to glorify Your Name. Thus sweeten the harsh
judgements against us and remove Your anger from upon us. Nullify all the harsh
decrees against us and against all the Jewish People.
May Your compassion be turned for the good
such that I really come to return to You. Let me always do as You desire, all
the days of my life without falling back into foolishness. Through the power
and merit of the true tzaddikim guard us and remove us from all our sins and
blemishes into which we have fallen. Master of the World, what can we say? What
can we answer? How can we justify ourselves? We have cast all our prayers upon
You. We have spread our hands out in prayer to You. Help us and merit us,
through the merit of the holy Jews, who have sacrificed their lives to sanctify
Your Name. Have mercy on Your great and holy honour. Take revenge very
speedily, in our days, against those who have spilt Jewish blood. Hasten our
redemption Father in Heaven, sanctify Your Name, in Your world, upon the Jewish
People. Save us very soon for Your Name’s sake. Blessed is he who sanctifies
G-d’s Name in public.
194
Someone
who wants honour for himself is a fool (See inside).
(Prayer 194)
King of honour, let me merit to really and
truly run away from honour. Be with me always. Grant me real wisdom,
understanding and perception and give me merit to know Your greatness, Your
exaltedness and Your rulership, for all the earth is full of Your glory. In
every single word, whether spoken or written, the glory of Your Kingdom is
clothed, for speech is the palace of the King. Who is the fool who would want
to get honour in the presence of the King?! All the honour and greatness and
rulership is His alone. On the contrary, I should distance myself from honour and run away from it with
absolute truth. Let me give all the honour to You and to those who truly fear
You, whose honour Your really desire. Fulfill the psalm which says: “Lift up
your heads, O gates, be raised up you everlasting doors; and the King of glory
shall enter. Who, then, is the King of glory!” Blessed be His glorious Name for
ever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory.
Amen and Amen.
195.
"IN THE TIME OF DISTRESS, YOU RELIEVED ME" (Psalms,4:2)
You
have to know that in all the different types of distress and suffering in the
world there is to be found some element of relief. Apart from having to hope
expectantly that, in G-d's loving-kindness you will be saved and the distress
will be nullified completely, also in the distress itself there is certainly
some kind of relief. You need to look carefully to find the relief within the
distress. By this, you will be able to bear and accept anything that happens to
you without getting confused in any way. Then you will be able to come closer
to the Holy One at all times in whatever situation befalls you. As a result,
G-d will bring you salvation.
(Prayer 195)
“When I call, answer me O, G-d of my
Vindication; in my distress You have relieved me, be gracious to me and hear my
prayer. (Psalms4,2). Master of the World. You are full of compassion and are
good to all. Help me and open my eyes, heart and mind so that I always perceive
all the good and relief that You bestow me. You bring me relief even within the
distress and anguish itself. Only through this I acquire life-force and a
continued existence during my distress. I know no-where to run to from myself
for I myself am the main reason for everything that occurs to me because of my
many iniquities and bad thoughts. Despite this Your loving kindness stays with
me. Your love is very, very great every single day and every hour. Without Your
wonderful, sublime and awesome loving-kindness that You bestow upon me every
moment, I would have become lost all hope because of my impoverished spiritual
condition.
Since Your love and bountiful mercy dwell
upon me, so immensely, help me and save me so that I feel, see recognize all
Your loving kindnesses which You bestow upon me every moment; even within the
distress there are elements of relief and salvation. Then, as a result, merit
me to always be happy with Your salvations, to strengthen myself and pray
before You whatever the situation may be. Let me always give thanks for the
past an d shout out to You about the future. May there be no crookedness in my
heart at all about the way You run the world for Your ways are really correct
and righteous. In everything that occurs to me and to the Jewish People let me
believe with perfect faith that You are completely righteous. Your rule the
world and its people with love and mercy. You who are full of compassion, have
mercy on me at all times; drive out and nullify from us any crookedness that
exists in our hearts such that no doubts about how You run the world arise in
our minds. Rather, merit me to just look at and perceive the wonderful elements
of relief and Your goodness which exist even within distressful experiences.
You provide us with relief in wonderful ways and give great salvations. Please
save us and redeem us very speedily.
Our Father, my Father, Merciful One, answer
us oh G-d for we are in a period of great distress. Rock of Israel, rise and
come to our assistance. Help us and redeem us; guard us and save us from any
blemish to faith. We have no-one to stand up for us. Have mercy on us for Your
Name’s sake. In Your bountiful compassion, have mercy over every single Jewish
soul so that none of them fall away from holy faith as a result of what befalls
them. On the contrary, by this let us strengthen and arouse ourselves to return
to You with all our hears. We will pray and shout out to Your until You answer
us. May we really believe that You will never leave us, Heaven forbid. So, save
us and atone for our sins, for Your Name’s sake. May the words of my mouth and
the thoughts of my mind find favour before You, my Rock and Redeemer.
196.
It
is forbidden for a person to be stubborn in his prayers by insisting that G-d
does exactly what he wants. This is like taking something by force and by
theft. Rather, one has to pray with supplications asking for mercy – if G-d
gives He will and if not then not.
(Prayer 196)
Master of the World, merit us to pray before
You only in the aspect of mercy and supplications, as the Sages said: ‘Do not
make your prayers routine, rather mercy and supplications before the Creator’.
Let us not pray with an insistence that You fulfill our wishes for You have
already informed us that such a prayer is like taking something by force, by
theft. One can come to great mistakes by praying like this. It is like forcing
the ‘hour’, taking something before its proper time. About that it says,
‘Someone who forces the hour, the hour forces him’. Rather let us pray always
as if we are asking for mercy and pleading with You. Merit us to always
strengthen our service of G-d in prayer. May we fulfill that which the Sages
said: If your prayers go unanswered,
return and hope again. We should always ask for mercy, but not make demands as
if we deserve the reward. We rely on Your bountiful mercy and rest upon Your
salvation which we look forward to, for You are merciful and control the world
with compassion.
197.
Regarding
humility it is not a virtue to show oneself with one's head bent down like a
fool, as if one is humble- this is false humility. The essence of perfect
humility is with wisdom; by speaking slander as the world does, humility and
wisdom become separated. Then it is impossible for tzaddikim to be humble other
than someone who is on such a very great spiritual level of humility that even
the slander people talk doesn't harm his humility.
( n.b. According to this we can understand
the translation of Unkulus (Sh'lach,13:16) which says that Moshe, when he saw
the humility of Hoshea, renamed him Yehoshua – 'may G-d save you". In
other words, he prayed that Yehoshua's humility wouldn't be harmed by the
slander of the spies.)
(Prayer 197)
Master of the World, protect me from the sin
of speaking evil slander, or even from speaking harmful praise; for You taught
us the severity of this sin of speaking
slander. It is considered comparable to idol worship, fornication and
spilling blood. You also revealed to us that when the public speak slander this
damages the attribute of humility such that it is impossible for tzaddikim to
be really and truly humble. That is to say they cannot be humble whilst at the
same time having intelligence and wisdom which prevent false humility. Have
mercy on us and help us at least from now on, so that we do not stumble and
create a blemish by speaking slander. Help the tzaddikim and grant them great
wisdom so that they can be so perfect in the attribute of humility that even
the blemish of slander spoken by the
world will not damage their humility. Merit them to the humility of Moshe who
was more humble than any person on earth despite the fact that people spoke
slanderously about him Please help us and all the Jewish people to be really
humble. Save us from any kind of false humility so that we will not
deliberately show ourselves as being humble by our bowed head. Father, merit us
to really be humble with true wisdom and understanding. Fulfill in us the verse
which says “The heel of humility is fear of G-d, contentment, honour and life”.
198.
When
a person shouts out to the Holy One, he is told to move, like it says,
"Why do you cry out to me, … go forward" (Ex.14:15).
199.
When
one feels the sweet taste of the Torah one is saved from the punishment of
becoming a widower of having one's wife die, Heaven forbid.
(Prayer 199)
Master of the World, merit me to study a
great deal of Torah every day and let me feel the pleasantness and holy
sweetness of the holy Torah. Help us so that we will not stumble, Heaven forbid
and become trapped by the imaginary sweetness of the physical cravings and
vanities of this world. Even in those things that are absolutely necessary in
this world such as the needs of the body, merit us to make do with the minimum
and be satisfied. And in this also let all our thoughts and intentions only be
for the sake of Heaven, not for any bodily pleasure. Please help us so that we
will not be trapped, Heaven forbid, into the illusory sweetness of the craving
for sexual pleasure. Rather, merit us to really feel the sweetness of the
Torah, to such a degree that through love of the sweetness of the Torah, the
imaginary sweetness of love of women becomes nullified from us. As a result of
this may all the harsh decrees and punishments become softened and nullified
from upon us, especially the bitter punishment of the death of one’s first
wife, Heaven forbid. The Sages emphasized the bitterness of this punishment of
the death of the wife on one’s youth, saying that if equates to seeing of the
destruction of the Temple in one’s own lifetime. The world becomes darkened,
one’s steps become shortened and one’s advice falls. For a man only finds contentment from his
first wife.
You know how great the trial is and how much
suffering a man experiences usually from his second wife. This is especially so
because the second marriage partner is according to the man’s deeds and who can
say that he has purified and cleansed himself from his sins. You also know how
hard it for a man to find a suitable second marriage partner, as the Sages
said: finding a marriage partner is a s hard as splitting the Red Sea. This is
particularly true of the second marriage.
Therefore, have mercy upon us and protect us
so that we do not come to this punishment, Heaven forbid, of becoming a
widower. Merit us to spend our days in pleasantness with the wife of our youth.
And someone who has already been punished by becoming a widower, have mercy on
him and arrange for him a suitable marriage partner, arrange for him to find
her quickly and with ease and let her be his true, suitable marriage partner
designated from Heaven.
200.
The
tzaddikim of our generation are the very same tzaddikkim who lived in earlier
times; this is the secret of reincarnation. They have already studied Torah in
poverty, therefore, now they merit to study it in wealth.
201.
CHARITY SAVES FROM DEATH
a) On the verse (Lamentations,2:9) "They
have made a noise in the house of the L-rd, as on the day of a solemn
assembly", the Targum alludes to the fact that in Pesach one needs to
raise ones voice in prayer.
b) 'Charity saves from death'- 'tzaddaka tatzil
mimavet'- spells from its initial letters matzot.
(n. b. From this we can see that charity has
the special power to save a Jew in Pesach from the prohibition of chametz which
is from the Realm of Death; it merits us to the
holiness of eating matzah with perfection. This is also an indication
why the Rabbis of earlier generations established the custom of giving charity
to poor people before Pesach.)
c) Distributing charity has a special power to
negate epilepsy, may Heaven spare us, as alluded to in the initial letters of
the verse, "He distributed freely, he has given to the poor"
(Psalms,112:9) – 'p(h)izar natan l'evionim'- 'n(o)ph(e)l', meaning 'one who
falls regularly', an epileptic.
(Prayer 201)
Master of the Universe, merit me to receive the holiness of the festival
of Pesach’ in its proper time in a perfect way. Help us to perform perfectly
all the mitzvoth that are customary during Pesach. May we pray during Pesach
with great concentration while raising our voices.
Protect us from transgressing the prohibition of eating chametz during
the very holy days of Pesach. Enable us to donate charity liberally to poor
people prior to Pesach especially to give them matzot. Fulfill in us the verse
“Charity will save from death”. Save us from the prohibition of eating chametz
during Pesach for chametz comes from the Side of Death.
Merit us to eat matzah during Pesach and by this to draw great holiness
upon our eating throughout the year. Grant us holy life –force through our
eating and pray we always be able to scatter lots of charity. Then, save us
from all kinds of illness of epilepsy. Please send a complete cure to all the
Jewish People, particularly to those who are inflicted with epilepsy, Heaven
forbid, fulfill the verse: “G-d supports all those who fall and straightens all
those who are bent over”. Help us, as it says: “Oh that day I will raise up the
fallen tabernacle of David”.
202.
However
much smaller a person's intelligence is, so the more one has to give him
honour. Therefore, a person has to expand his mind so that he doesn't desire
honour, but rather, he will run away from it.
203.
Mordechai
used to walk close to the courtyard of the women in order to know how Esther
was, for she is the Shechina as is known. For Mordechai was able to ascertain
this, to know how the Shechina was by hearing the conversations of the women.
204.
The
money that one gives to a Torah scholar is an aspect of actual Torah studying.
Therefore even a sin cannot extinguish the money given to a Torah scholar, for
a sin doesn't extinguish Torah. This is the word 'money'- 'ma'o(v)t'- the
initial letters spell 'v 'ain avera m'khavai Torah' –
"A sin doesn't extinguish Torah" (Sutah,21).
(Prayer 204)
Master of the Universe, merit us to donate a
lot of charity to true Torah scholars such that I really become considered a
supporter of Torah. Fulfill in me the verse: “It is the Tree of Life for those
who hold onto it and happy are those who support it”. May the money that I give
to Torah scholars be a great merit for me, to such a degree that it be
considered an aspect of studying the Torah itself. The Sages said: “A sin does
not extinguish the merit of studying Torah.” Similarly, let none of my many sins
extinguish the light of the mitzvah of giving charity to Torah scholars. On the
contrary, by this mitzvah, may I merit to be saved from all kinds of sins. By
this, merit me to complete repentance until You pardon and forgive all my sins,
from my youth until today.
Perfect all Your holy Names which I have
blemished and help me to fix for myself a certain time to study Torah every
day. Let me be very firm about this so I become consistent in my study of Your
holy Torah. Don’t let anything bother or disturb me. Arrange a satisfactory
income for me in an honorable way without my having to make strenuous efforts.
Please do not let sins delay the income. On the contrary, may the power and
merit of the charity I gave to Torah scholars, and the Torah that I myself
study, find favour in Your eyes sot that
no sin will extinguish the merit of the Torah, furthermore, let this
stand up for me and bring about an atonement for all my sins. Then may I find
success in all my pursuits, whether spiritual or material. Fulfill in us the
verse that says: “In G-d’s Torah is his desire and his Torah, he meditates day
and night. He will be like a tree, deeply rooted alongside brooks of water,
that yields its fruit in its season and whose leaf never withers and everything
that he does will succeed.”
Amen. So may it be.
205.
A RECTIFICATION FOR A NOCTURNAL EMISSION
The
rectification for a nocturnal emission, may the Merciful One protect us, is to
recite ten Psalms on the same day that it occurred, Heaven forbid, for reciting
Psalms has the power to extract the sperm from the husk which captured it. One
has to have in mind when reciting the ten Psalms that the word Tehillim
(Psalms) has the numerical value of 485 which is exactly the numerical value of
the two Holy Names 'El' 'Elohim' when written in full like this: 'elef, lamed'
(El) elef, lamed, hey, yud, mem (Elohim). By these two Names the sperm is
extracted from the husk called 'Lilit' ( a husk appointed to capture wasted
sperm) whose numerical value is 480; together with the five letters of her name
this makes 485 (the same as Tehillim).
For the reason why one has to recite
specifically ten Psalms, see the original text. These are the ten Psalms to
recite: A Michtam of David (16); To David a maskil (32); Blessed is he who
gives intelligence to the poor (41); As the hart pants (42); To a chief
musician, don't destroy (59); To a chief musician, to Yedutun (77); A Prayer to
Moshe (90); Give thanks to the Lord, call (105); By the Rivers of Bavel (137);
Halleluya, Praise G-d in His sanctuary (150).
These ten Psalms are a very great
rectification for this blemish. Someone who merits to recite them on the same
day as he blemished doesn't have to worry at all any more about that awesome
blemish for it has certainly been rectified by reciting these ten Psalms.
206.
I HAVE GONE ASTRAY LIKE A LOST SHEEP
The
Holy One usually calls a person immediately when He sees that the person is
going astray from the path of intelligence. To one person He calls by hints,
while another He calls out with an actual call. To another He 'kicks and hits'
(i.e. He inflicts suffering on them). All the time a person hasn't gone too far
astray from the path of straightness (Torah) he can easily return because he
still recognizes the voice (of G-d) and is used to it for he was recently close
to the Holy One and hasn't yet forgotten His voice. On the other hand, when he
has already wandered far away from the path then he will have already forgotten
the voice of the Torah and of the Holy One; he won't recognize the voice; it
will then be hard for him to return. This is similar to a shepherd whose sheep
has wandered away from the path. When it still hasn't wandered too far away it
can still recognize the voice of the shepherd. Then, when the shepherd calls
it, the sheep will immediately follow him. But when it wanders far away from
the path, then it will have already forgotten the voice of the shepherd and no
longer recognize it; the shepherd also gives up looking for it because a long
time has passed since it got lost.
Therefore, we need to ask from G-d, to shout
out in a loud voice, from the depths of the heart, "I have gone astray
like a lost sheep; search for Your servant." That's to say, hurry to
search for me while I at least remember the voice of Torah and mitzvot. This is
"And Your commandments I haven't forgotten yet." Therefore, have
mercy on me and make haste to search for me immediately so that I will not
become lost, Heaven forbid.
(Prayer 206)
“Master of the World, full of compassion, if
I said I would tell how I went astray and was led astray these may days and
years, from my birth until today, masses of sheets of paper would not suffice
nor could the Earth contain all my
words; all the “skins of the rams of Neviot” would not be enough to use a
parchments to be written on, neither would all the languages of the world be
enough to explain or to tell the phenomenally great mistakes I have made. I
went astray on very, very spoiled, blemished, confusing paths, for I perverted
my deeds; I sinned by error, performed iniquities and sinned willfully; I
attracted the evil urge upon myself until I came to what I came to and spoiled
what I spoiled. Every single time, by every sin, by every bad thought, by every
single blemish, I went astray and was led astray to very confusing and spoiled
paths indeed. From all these confusing paths there are other such paths that
mislead and spoil very much. I used to walk and go astray, progress and then go
astray, during many days and years. As if it was not enough how I had strayed a
great deal after previous sins, I even added new sins every day, sin upon sin,
error upon error, bad thoughts upon bad thoughts, confusion upon confusion,
such that they have come up to my neck and caused my strength to fail.
Behold, I am full of shame and reproach
before You, full of sins of error, iniquities and willful transgressions, from
the sole of my foot to the crown of my head, from the day I began to perceive
until today.Help a wanderer who has gone astray on confused and spoiled paths
and who is full of confused thoughts, as I am today. Show me the true path and
the correct advice, in such a way that I merit very soon to follow the straight
paths, as is Your real, good desire. May I merit from now on to really return
to You, to really serve You with fear and love.
Master of the World, You have already warned
us and encouraged us, by Your holy Sages, to quickly return to You with
complete repentance while young, while I am youthful and soft and a real
youngster, while I still have not gone astray so much on the confusing paths,
while I still have not forgotten Your holy voice with which You call and
declare to every time to return to You. And now, what shall I do after I have
not listened to the voices of my teachers and rabbis and I have aged very much
through my sins, so much so that I have almost forgotten Your call and the
voice of the Torah and the commandments which declare before me all the time to
return from my confused paths; I do not hearken or recognize their call at all.
Even so, You have already informed us that there is no despair in the world at
all and I still have hope, for You think of ways not to banish us from You,
even he who has already gone completely astray. Heaven forbid. You think of
ways to bring him close to You, for You do not desire death of he who is
considered dead, rather You desire that the wicked return (repent) from his bad
ways and live; until the day of his death. You will wait for him. If he
repents, You will immediately accept him
I see and gaze from afar upon Your immense
compassion for me and great, loving-kindness towards me, even now, for even
until old age. You will not leave me. You think from afar to better my end. You
call me and send me holy signs all the time, also now, so that I will have
mercy on myself, at least from now on and leave my bad ways and reprehensible
thoughts in order to return to You; then You will have compassion upon me.
Sometimes You call be by an actual call, by Your holy tzaddikim who reprimand
me openly from a hidden love. Many times You showed me Your kindly countenance
and Your good ways and the immense mercy You have upon me. We give our thanks
to You and recite Your praises, for Your miracles which are with us each day
and for Your wondrous deeds and favours that are performed at all times. Even
if sometimes You ‘kick’ me and afflict me with suffering. Heaven forbid. This
is also with great mercy and loving-kindness; everything is for my good, in
order to cleanse me of my iniquities and to remind me to return in complete
repentance before You. I know also that the Torah and the commandments still
declare and call out before me all the time and awaken my heart to return to
You. If I still have not merited to hearken to their voice and fulfill their
words, nevertheless, at least I know and understand all this, for You still
have not despaired of me. Heaven forbid. You have not despaired of bringing me
closer to You.
Therefore, while my soul is still within me,
I will shout and cry out to You, so that You quickly seek me out and return to
me while I still have not completely forgotten. Heaven forbid, the voice of the
Torah and the commandments. Listen to and accept this prayer of mine in the
merit of King David, may he rest in peace, who was a very great and awesome
tzaddik indeed. So also the rest of the holy tzaddikim who came after him, for
they all shouted out to You: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek You
servant, for I do not forget Your commandments”. In their merit and their great
strength, have pity and compassion on a lost flock and on today’s stray sheep,
for I am as one of them. May I merit also to be among the lost ones being
searched for by their master; search after me until You find me and return to
me in complete repentance before You.
207.
All
forms of speech are an aspect of Gevorot (harsh judgements) which we need to
sweeten. The sweetening is by studying Torah and speaking good things.
Therefore one has to be careful to guard one's speech very much so as not to
say anything bad, especially slander, Heaven forbid. And even more, much more,
one must be very careful not to say anything bad about the tzaddik of the
generation, Heaven forbid, so as not to increase the harsh judgements, Heaven
forbid. By saying bad things like this one can cause the tzaddik of the
generation to fall from his spiritual level, Heaven forbid, when he isn't
powerful enough to sweeten these harsh judgements, or he may even pass away as
a result of this, Heaven forbid. Then, through his death, his soul sweetens
these harsh judgements.
(Prayer 207)
Master of the World, abundant in kindness and
faithfulness, have mercy upon me; guard me and save me from words of evil,
especially from slander. May I never say anything bad about any Jew in the
world, even about the most insignificant and lowly of them. Even more so, may I
never say anything derogatory about any of the tzaddikim of the generation who
are engaged in Your service. Have compassion on me; protect and save me so that
I will not say anything to belittle their honour, Heaven forbid, whether in
their presence of not”. My G-d, guard my
tongue from evil and my lips from speaking deceitfully. To those who curse me
let my soul be silent and “ let my soul be like the dust to all”. Master of the
World, have mercy on me; guard me from words of argument and controversy.
Protect me from mistakenly thinking that it is a mitzvah to speak badly about
any of these people. I really do not want such mitzvoth, not them nor their
reward. Have mercy on our souls, spirits and neshamot. Save us and all Jews
from speaking slander or spreading controversy, especially nowadays when
controversy is prevalent among the Jewish leaders, as prophesied by our Sages.
In this Period of distress, have mercy on us all. Save me from any evil or
blemished words. Don’t let my heart be inclined to encourage words of evil by
searching for blemishes and flaws in other Jews.
In Your immense compassion and wonderful
love, provide us with the strength to sweeten all kinds of harsh decrees that
occur to people, especially to the great spiritual leaders. Have mercy on us
and be with us always so that we merit to always strengthen ourselves, with all
our might, to speak words of Torah, recite prayers and express fear of Heaven.
By this, may we be able to sweeten all kinds of severe judgement in the world
which stem from the blemished power of speech.
Guard and save us from all forms of severity
so that they will not reach us. Be compassionate, especially upon the spiritual
leaders of the generation upon whom the harsh decrees fall. Be with them at all
times and sweeten those decrees. Give them the power to sweeten all the
severities in the world which they experience. Protect us and every individual
Jew, especially the spiritual leaders of the generation, particularly at times
when we haven’t the power to sweeten the severities ourselves, Heaven
forbid.
Give strength to the true tzaddikim of the
generation to sweeten all harsh decrees in the world until they turn into Torah
of loving-kindness, teaching others of Your Might and the glory of Your
Kingdom. Master of the World, Who knows all hidden things, only You know what
is happening and how many souls have sunk under these harsh decrees, Heaven
forbid, because they did not have the strength to sweeten them. As a result
they have fallen away from the Torah and they speak badly of the tzaddikim.
This has caused several holy tazddikim to pass away and now we remain like
orphans without a father. We have no-one to rely on other that our Father in
Heaven.
Have Mercy on al Jews; protect them and save
them so they will not blemish their power of speech at all. Save us so that the
sever decrees do not embitter our hearts causing us to speak evil of another
Jew. Especially protect the spiritual leader of the generation from the severe
decrees so that they will not speak arrogantly and contemptuously against the
tzaddikim of the generation. Give us the strength to sweeten all the harsh
decrees that come upon every one of us. Let us sweeten them until they turn
into total loving-kindness through our words of Torah, prayer and true fear of
G-d.
May we all study Torah in order to teach it
to others and by this, sweeten all the harsh decrees in the world. Nullify all
the harsh judgments and severe decrees from the Jewish People. Draw upon us
loving-kindness at all times so that we all return to You very speedily, as You
desire. Merit us to speak words of Your Torah, day and night from now on and
forever.
Amen.
208. "THE WICKED WATCH FOR THE
TZADDIK" (Psalms, 37:32)
a) The fact that the wicked make trouble for the
tzaddikim and persecute them, is arranged by G-d so that the tzaddik will
consider and examine his deeds; the wicked are like guards who protect the
tzaddik from falling into materiality.
b) It
is also a good thing for the tzaddikim that there is some controversy against
them, for this covers them so that they will not become revealed and made
famous more than they need to be. However, those who oppose them want to cover
them completely and remove them from the world, Heaven forbid, but the Holy One
doesn't desert the tzaddikim leaving them in the hands of the wicked.
209.
Every
person has bad prayers, as the Sages said, "The thief cries out to G-d
before his burglary" (B'rachot,63 as brought in the Ein Ya'acov).
Afterwards when a person prepares to pray, the bad prayer comes and confuses
him. The rectification for this is to host Torah scholars in your house.
(Prayer 209)
G-d, our G-d, G-d of our Fathers, in Your
bountiful mercy may it find favour before You to help me host true Torah
Scholars in my house. Merit me to receive them with great honour such that this
mitzvah of hosting Torah Scholars rises before You as if I had brought a
‘tamid’ sacrifice. In this merit, enable me to pray with great concentration,
with all my heart and with pure thoughts all for Your Name’s Sake alone,
without any confusion at all and without any extraneous thoughts. Protect and
save me from bad prayers. Don’t let the bad prayers confuse and spoil the holy
pure prayers. Rectify and purify my prayers so that they become fluent and
perfect. Let my prayers rise further and further above until they find favour
before You. Let them rise above to be a crown for Your head. Fulfill all my
wishes for the good out of Your loving-kindness. Listen G-d to my prayers;
hearken to my supplications. I pray to You G-d at the time of favour. G-d, in
Your great loving-kindness answer me. “May my prayer be pleasant to You and I
will take joy in G-d. Let sins cease from the earth and the wicked will be no
more. Bless my soul G-d; praise G-d”.
210.
By
conducting business affairs with faith one fulfills the positive commandment of
"And you shall love G-d"; the Name of G-d becomes loved through your
conduct. (See Torah discourse 93). As a result, your income will come without
effort or bother.
(Prayer 210)
O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers,
please help me and save me so that I merit to turn away from evil and merit to
always do good in Your eyes. Bless me with love, grace, loving-kindness and
mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see me. Grant me good and
loving-kindness. Let me merit to perform perfectly the command of “love the
Lord You G-d’ and may G-d’s Name become loved through me. Let my business
dealing be honest and let me speak quietly and calmly with people; let G-d and
others find satisfaction in me such that I be loved above and charming below.
May I find ‘favour and good understanding in the sight of G- and man”.
Please have mercy on me and arrange a
plentiful income for me. Provide me with all I need and all the needs of my
household before I lack them without bother or the necessity to make efforts.
Master of the World You know how hard it is to make a living – it is like
splitting the Red Sea. But You are great and have immense power. With Your
immense power and Your loving-kindness, You split the Red Sea with ease. Who
can tell You what to do; nothing is beyond You. So in the merit of our first
Patriach, Avraham, the man of love, provide us with a generous income for the
sake of his love, without having to make strenuous efforts. Let us not come to
the need to take presents or loans from others.
Thus, merit me to always keep Your
commandments and to study Your Torah, all the days of my life and those of my
children and their children, together with all the offspring of the Jewish
People, from now on and forever. Fulfill in us the verse “Cast all your
supplications upon G-d and He will provide you with an income”. The eyes of all
expect You and You provide them their food on time; open You hand and satisfy
every living being according to his need.
My Father, compassionate Father, provide me
with an income and food much more than, I deserve according to my poor deeds.
Just provide for me out of compassion, as it says, “ He gives food to all
flesh, for His kindness is eternal.” Help me, for I rely on You. Come speedily
to my help, my Lord and Saviour.
211
The
reason that people travel to tzaddikim on Rosh Hashana is because the main
sweetening of all harsh decrees is only through sanctifying and purifying one's
thoughts. And it is impossible to do this other than by attaching oneself to
tzaddikim. Rosh Hashana is the source of all harsh decrees of the entire year,
so one has to purify one's thoughts in order to sweeten them. Because of this
we travel to tzadadikim, to merit to sanctify our thoughts and to sweeten the harsh decrees.
(Prayer 211)
May it be Your will, Lord, our G-d and G-d of
our fathers, that in Your bountiful mercy we merit to travel to true tzaddikim
on Rosh HaShana and to be always attached to true tzaddikim. By this, may I
merit to sanctify my mind and thoughts with great holiness. Have mercy upon me
in Your great compassion. Come to my aid and save me from now on from all sorts
of extraneous thoughts and all sorts of blemishes of the mind which exist in
the world. In Your graciousness, grant us from You, wisdom, knowledge, insight
and intellect and let me merit, very quickly to really perfect purity of
thought.
In Your bountiful mercy, sweeten and nullify
the harsh judgments from upon us and from all Your Nation, the House of Israel,
from now on, forever. May we merit to receive the holiness of Rosh HasShana
through the true tzaddikim and to complete all the rectifications that we need
to accomplish on Rosh HaShana which is the source of the judgements of all the
year. May our thoughts always be holy and pure, especially on the holy Rosh
HaShana. I plead with You, Merciful One, in Your abundant compassion, have
mercy upon us, grant us merit and favour us with the utmost holiness of thought
on Rosh HaShana. Protect us and save us so that no strange or extraneous
thought enter our minds at all. Rather,
may we rejoice in Your Name all the day, with dread and fear, with great
holiness and purity, with holy, refined and pure thoughts in utter purity and
clarity, until we merit, through the strength of attachment to true tzaddikim
to rectify and complete all the clarifications on Rosh HaShana. Let us separate
all the holy sparks form the depths of the husks, to sweeten and nullify all
the harsh judgements in the world, from over us and over all Your Nation, the
House of Israel. Draw upon us only goodness, loving-kindness, salvation and
tremendous compassion “from the beginning of the year even until the end o f
the year”. Write down and seal our fate on Rosh HaShana to a good, long-life
with peace, a real life, a life of fear of Heaven, a life in which we merit to
keep Your commandments to truly carry out Your will wholeheartedly and to
rectify all that we have blemished in our lifetime until today. Bestow upon us
good, compassion, life, peace and the best of everything.
Master of the World, You know the greatness
of the obligation to travel to real tzaddikim on RoshHaShana and You also know
the immense multiplicity of obstacles to this which overcome us from all sides.
You, who are compassionate on the poor, take pity and be merciful to us; help
us and let us merit to break all the obstacles. Show us Your ways, guide us in
Your truth and teach us so that we merit to travel to real tzaddikim on Rosh
HaShana in such a way that we merit, through them, to true holiness of thought.
You know that now, in the period of the Footsteps of the Messiah, our primary
support and salvation is only through the holy days of Rosh HaShana, in which
we are supported to come closer to You and to draw Your Divinity and Kingship
upon us, fro Rosh HaShana and then throughout the entire year. We do not know
what to do on these holy of Rosh HaShana, how to appease You, as is fitting in
order to give You reign over us with dread and fear; we do not know how to
stand firm against all the haters and accusers, to silence the mouth of our
adversaries and accusers other that in the merit and strength of the true
tzaddikim. Upon them we rely and in them we are supported, for they will fight
before us, subdue and throw down all our haters and persecutors; they will draw
upon us the holiness of Rosh HaShana in a perfect way.
Therefore, have mercy upon us and come to our
aid so that we merit to break all the obstacles, until we merit to come to the
true tzaddikim on Rosh HaShana and to really attach ourselves to them and to
merit to complete holiness of thought through them. May we sweeten and nullify
all the harsh judgements and draw upon us good loving-kindness; may we merit to
recognize and know Your exalted majesty and dominion over us. Reign over us in
Your glory, very soon, and may every created thing know that You are his
Creator; may every creature understand that You formed him and may everything
which has breath in its nostrils say, Lord, G-d of Israel, King, His Kingdom
rules over all. Purify us and sanctify us in Your most lofty holiness from now
on and forever.
Amen, Selah.
212.
a) By clapping hands during prayer one can
recite properly the praises and descriptions of G-d which we call and imagine
Him; this is an aspect of 'Gazing at a picture of G-d.' This is also an aspect
of "The hands of man under their wings" (Ezekiel, 10:21). For wings
are an aspect of speech, as it says, "That which has wings shall tell the
matter" (Eccl. 10:20). Also by clapping, one's prayer is included in the
Written and Oral Torah.
b) One receives the power of speech by attaching
oneself to tzaddikim.
(Prayer 212)
Unique, Ancient One, You are sealed and hidden
from all the worlds; no mind can grasp You at all. But, out of great
compassion, You have had mercy on us and given us permission to imagine and
call You through Names, titles and descriptions which Your prophets revealed to
us. By this, we merit to draw down Your Glory and Divine Presence upon us. In
Your bountiful mercy, help and save us so that from now on we can arouse
ourselves and really strengthen ourselves to pray with great concentration. Let
us listen to all the holy and awesome words that we recite during the prayers,
the morning blessings, sacrifices, praises, sh’ma , amida and all the prayers
that follow on. All the details of the prayers and every word of praise or
description with which we call You, they are all an aspect of a ‘picture’ of
G-d.
Merit us to pray before You with great
concentration and spiritual arousal from the depths of our hearts to such a
degree that we merit to clap our hands at the time of praying with tremendous
enthusiasm and joy. Let me pray with great desire until I merit to behold the
‘picture’ of G-d.
And by clapping our hands, may our prayers
merge into the written Torah and the Oral Torah which represent a writing hand
and a sealing hand. Have mercy on us for Your Name’s Sake. Merit me to pray
with really great concentration and enthusiasm until our hands are aroused to
clap during the prayers. By this, enable me to see the ‘picture’ of G-d, to
really recognize You. Only for this purpose were we created. Please help me at
all times not to lose this eternal good which I can achieve. Merit me to attach
myself to true tzaddikim and by this, achieve perfection of the power of speech
so that I can speak out lots of words of Torah and prayers, with fear of G-d.
Fill my mouth with Your praises all the day.
May I bless G-d at all times, continually with words of His praise in my mouth.
Blessed be G-d, forever.
Amen and Amen.
213.
a) There is a Name S-E-L which comes from the
initial letters of the verse "Eta Seter Li" –
"You shelter me" (Psalms,32:7). When the Holy One wants to save a
person from death which has been decreed against him and to cover and hide him
from The Angel of Death, he hides and covers him with this Name. The Angel of
Death then searches for a place to enter under this cover and shelter, but as
soon as he looks at the person, he remains powerless because of this Name (see
inside).
b) One must make a pause between the words
"Seter li" and the next word "mitzar" so as not to create
from the initial letters the Name, Samel, Heaven forbid.
(Prayer 213)
“You are a Shelter for me; preserve me from
distress, envelope me with glad song of rescue. Selah”.
Merciful One, have mercy on Your Nation, the
Jewish People, especially on all Jewish towns and cities which all kinds of
illnesses abound, Heaven preserve us. Have compassion upon us for Your Name’s
sake. Say to the angel ‘Withdraw your hand. Return the angel’s sword to its
sheath. Be compassionate and have mercy on the remains of Your Nation, the
Jewish People. Don’t let the Destroying Angel come and strike our homes,
damaging or weakening us, Heaven forbid. Mercy! Mercy! Save us! Save us!
Merciful One, Master of Salvations, Creator of healing, Master of wonders and
Awesome of praises, remember Your servants, our Fathers, Sages and true
tzaddikim who existed in each generation. For their sake and for the sake of
Your bountiful mercy, have compassion on us; guard us and save us together with
all Jewish people from all kinds of illnesses and pains so no Jew will suffer
from them.
Please send speedily a full recovery to those
who have already been afflicted with illnesses or pains. Provide them with a
full recovery, spiritually and bodily. Please cure, for Your Name’s sake (so
and so etc). Revive us. Give us life and we will not die.
Only You know how to hide and shelter each
Jew from his enemies who surround him and all of the Jewish People, especially
those who upon whom harsh judgments have already been decreed, Heaven preserve
us. Protect and save them with Your holy Names. Save them, through Your bountiful
mercy, from any trouble, enemy, ambusher or accuser. Defend us. Remove any
enemy, epidemic, sword, starvation or anguish from us. Drive away the Satan
from before us and behind us. In the shade of Your wings, shelter us. Save us
from Your anger for You are our Guardian. Master of all the World, You alone
know in which way to shelter and guard every one of us from all kinds of harsh
decrees. Whether it is before the decree or after, have compassion on us. In
Your awesome wonders, save and protect us, so that no accuser can enter and
take hold of us, Heaven forbid, under the shelter in which You hide us.
In Your mercy and love You shelter us in Your
holy, awesome Names. Fulfill in us and in all the Jewish People the verse,
“Shelter them in the cover of Your Countenance from the haughtiness of man and
hide them in a shelter from the strife of tongues”. “Guard me like the pupil of
the eye; in the shade of Your Wings, Shelter me”, for we have no one to rely on
other that our Father in Heaven. Our eyes are raised to You for we know not
what will be. May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart find
favour before You, my Rock and Redeemer.
Amen, Amen.
214.
Nowadays
we find that people die in the middle of studying Torah unlike earlier generations; then, when a Jew knew the day he
was supposed to die, he would study Torah the entire day and the Angel of Death
couldn't have control over him. Know, if a Jew were to study properly, the
Angel of Death certainly wouldn't have any power. However, if the studying is
not as it should be, especially when studying the Talmud, the Angel acquires
even more strength from the studying. For the word Talmud has the numerical
value of the name of the husk called Lilit. Therefore, studying Talmud has the
power to subdue this husk, or the opposite, Heaven forbid.
215.
There
are twenty four kinds of redemption to sweeten the harsh decrees. Each of the
twenty four courts of justice (in the world above) has a special redemption.
But there is one redemption which includes
all the twenty four courts of justice; only one tzaddik in the generation knows
this redemption. Sometimes even when this tzaddik performs a redemption, it
still isn't effective because it isn't frequent that there is a redemption in
the world below that can sweeten all the twenty four courts of justice at the
same moment. Therefore, when they get such a redemption, they use it for
something else, such as to make converts, for all the time there is idol
worship in the world, G-d's wrath is in the world; when we sweeten the harsh
decrees and the wrath, idol worship is weakened and converts made.
(Prayer 215)
G-d redeems the soul of his servants.
Redeem my soul in peace. G-d, redeem my soul
from the Pit. Master of the World, Merciful One, the King who redeems and
saves, who rescues and sustains, who answers our prayers and has mercy in all
times of trouble and distress; we have no King, Helper or Support other than
You. Have mercy on us, for Your Name’s sake. In Your bountiful mercy shine upon
us a time of favour at all times in the merit of our holy Fathers. Sweeten and
nullify all the harsh decrees from upon us and from all the People of Israel.
Redeem our souls from all decrees and
judgments declared in all the twenty-four holy courts in the World Above,
whether it is still before the final judgment or even after. From all of them,
redeem our souls. Sweeten and nullify all the harsh decrees and suffering to
which they have sentenced us, whether it relates to our body, soul or property,
whether generally individually, for it is revealed and known to You that we now
nothing about how to perform a redemption and thus nullify all the harsh
decrees that they have declared in Your holy courts. Even someone who knows how
to perform a redemption and nullify a certain decree in a certain heavenly
court, nevertheless, he does not know how to nullify all the decrees in all the
twenty-four courts.
As a result, his redemption in not effective.
Therefore, have mercy on us in the power and merit of the great and unique
tzaddikim in their generation, who are an aspect of Moshe for they have the
power to perform a redemption to nullify all the harsh decrees in all the
twenty-four courts. Have mercy on us in the merit of these tzaddikim.
Shine upon us the source of desire as at the
time of Shabbat minchah which is when Moshe passed away, at the time of favour.
By this, redeem our souls and save us from all troubles. Sweeten and nullify
all the harsh judgments that have been decreed in Your holy courts. Save us
from all kinds of illnesses, pains (especially so and so), lack of livelihood
and all sorts of anguish and suffering in the world. In Your immense, bountiful
mercy, save us from all this. In the power and merit of Moshe, who passed away
at Shabbat minchah time and in the power of all the tzaddikim who are an aspect
of Moshe, who know how to perform a redemption and nullify the decree in all
twenty-four heavenly courts, save us from all this.
Please G-d, Merciful One, full of
loving-kindness, who thinks and plans that none of the dispersed be cast out,
Your thoughts and heart are upon each generation. In the merit of the time
tzaddikim who strive to sweeten the harsh judgment from the twenty-four
heavenly courts and to nullify all the harsh decrees in all the worlds, thus
nullifying all the disbelief and creating converts, draw great faith into the
world. Have mercy on us, for their sake and Your sake at this time of great
suffering, when heresy and atheism are
spreading throughout the world, very much Heaven forbid. There is almost no
place to turn to escape. Many Jewish souls we trapped every day in the net of
the heretics. We have no-one to rely on other than our Father in Heaven and on
the power of Moshe and the truly great tzaddikim who know how to draw down the
time of favour and thus to sweeten all the harsh decrees in the world. They
know how to turn religious persecution into favour. Have compassion on us and
teach us how to arouse all these tzaddikim to engage in our rectification and
that of the whole world. Let them not be silent or passive at this time of
anguish, suffering and bitterness in our generation .
You,Who are merciful; Master of wonders.
Perform Your wonders and give power to Your great and awesome tzaddikim to
bring about, by their redemptions and very wonderful and awesome prayers, these
two actions. Further, they nullify all the harsh judgments decreed by the twenty-four heavenly courts,
whether materially or spiritually, in body, soul or property. Secondly, may
they sweeten all Your anger and nullify the idol worship and atheism from the
world, turning religious persecution into favour and thus creating many ba’alei
teshuva and converts throughout the world, for You can do anything. Nothing can
prevent You. By Your immense compassion, You can save us with Your wonderful
ways of salvation.
Master of the World, You alone know the
strength of this sweetening and redemption which alleviates the harsh decrees
of the twenty-four courts. The true, great tzaddikim know the secret of this
wonderful redemption in all its aspects
in the worlds Above. In the strength of this we still have hope to long for
Your salvation. This can bring many souls close to You and enable them to enter
the realm of holy belief. Therefore I still stand and pray before You, pleading
for Your compassion and loving-kindness. I wait and long for Your salvation
every moment until You look down and see us from Heaven. I plead with You to
have mercy on me and all those dependent on me, all my offspring and all of the
Jewish People. Save us very soon. Sweeten and nullify from upon us all the
harsh decerees and nullify all the denials or confusions of faith from upon us
and all Jews and all the world. Strengthen us, keep us alive and sustain us in
Your holy belief at all times. Bring about circumstances so that we will merit
to repent fully, with all our heart, very speedily. Let us not swerve from Your
desire to the right or left. Fulfill in us the verses, “In Your hand I entrust
my spirit;” You redeemed me oh G-d, G-d of truth”. “Draw near to my soul,
redeem it because of my foes, deliver me:. “…abundant with Him is redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel from all its iniquities”. “Redeem, oh G-d, Israel
from all its troubles”.
216.
In
the silent prayer (the Amida) there are eighteen blessings (in Hebrew eighteen,
'chai' has the meaning of 'life') apart from the blessing about the heretics.
This is because, through prayer, we nullify nature which the philosophers call
"the mother of all life" and we subdue and negate the heretics and atheists.
217.
"Zichroo
Torat Moshe" (at the end of Malachi) – "Remember the Torah of
Moshe"- has the initial letters T-M-Z (alluding to the month of Tamuz) but
lacking the letter 'vav', pronounced 'u'. This is because in Tamuz we need to
attract memory, to rectify the forgetfulness created by the breaking of the Two
Tablets of the Torah in Tamuz (on the 17th). Since the Tablets were
broken, the letter 'vav' (whose numerical value is six) disappeared, for the
Tablets' length and breadth were six tefachim.
218
Sometimes
a person suddenly has to travel somewhere far away; this is in order to hide
himself from a harsh judgement decreed against him. Although he doesn't know
this, his soul knows it. This is why he suddenly has the desire to travel.
However, when he becomes known there, it can harm him, Heaven forbid, G-d save
us.
219.
When
a person conceals, hides and humbles himself with humility and a sense of his
own lowliness, the Holy One, so to speak, shows Himself to him in an aspect of
humility and lowliness, constricting His grandeur and majesty; He humbles
Himself, so to speak, and dwells with the person, in the aspect of 'I will
dwell with the depressed'. But when a person takes pride and boasts, Heaven
forbid, the Holy One also shows Himself in His grandeur and majesty; who can
suffer and accept His honour and grandeur, for "Behold , the heaven and
heaven of heavens cannot contain You" (Kings,I,8:27). From this came the
destruction of the Temple, through our sins.
(Prayer 219)
“G-d has reigned; He donned grandeur, G-d
donned strength with which He girded Himself. “Master of the Universe, You
alone know Your greatness and grandeur, for who can fathom even a little of
Your exaltedness, greatness and splendour,as it says, “G-d is great and lauded exceedingly
and His greatness is beyond
investigation”. But, because of the greatness of Your mercy and
bountiful loving-kindness, You wanted to reveal Your Kingship to all the world.
You chose us from all the nations and elevated us above all the languages,
sanctifying us with Your commandments; You, o King, brought us close to Your
service and Your great and holy Name, You called upon us.
You constricted and clothed Your greatness
and grandeur so that we can tolerate to take upon ourselves the yoke of Your
Kingship. You wore the attribute of humility and reduced Yourself, so to speak.
You descended on Mount Sinai to teach YourPeople Torah and mitzvoth You made
heard the glory of Your voice; You spoke with holiness from flames of fire.
Your made them great promises on Mount Sinai such as ‘You will be a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation” and ‘You will be for me a chosen nation’.
These promises are the revelation of an
aspect of Your humility. And all this was in order that the Jewish People take
upon themselves the yoke of Your Kingdom and fear of You in a perfect manner.
Help us to remember this always and keep it in our hearts. Just like You
humbled Yourself. So to speak, You ask the same of us. So, assist us to merit
this attribute of lowliness and humility so that we become really humble before
all others. May we remind ourselves at all times of Your exaltedness and
splendour; because of Your great love of Israel, Your desire to reveal Your
Kingship over them. In order to this You clothed Your grandeur and exaltedness
and constructed it so that it would be revealed. When we remember this we
should automatically merit to nullify ourselves to Your completely, becoming
absolutely ‘nothing’. By this, may we
draw upon ourselves even more perceptions of Your godliness and fear of Heaven
from now on. Let us break and nullify from ourselves the attribute of pride
which led to the destruction of the holy Temple.
Therefore, help us to hide and diminish
ourselves in great humility until, through this we merit to reveal Your
godliness, kingship and fear to all the world. Then they will take upon
themselves the yoke of Your kingdom and You will reign over them forever and
ever, for Your kingdom is eternal, as it says, ‘G-d will reign for ever” and as
it says “And G-d will reign over all the earth; on that day G-d will be one and
His Name one”.
220.
If
a person suffers some anguish, Heaven forbid, and tells it to a wise man, a
strong man or a rich man, such that he arouses their compassion upon him, he
can be saved from his trouble.
221.
a) By giving ma'aser (a tithe from one's income)
the Holy One stretches out His Hand and covers the person in the shadow of His
Hand, thus saving him from his enemies.
b) One also merits, by ma'aser, to be frugal and
to be content with what one has.
(Prayer 221)
Master of the World, in Your bountiful mercy,
help and merit me; grant me a good heart so that I can give lots of charity.
Merit me to give a tenth of my income and of all that You have graciously
bestowed upon me in Your loving-kindness. Please bring me deserving poor people
so as to merit to give them charity. By this, save me from my enemies and
persecutor.
Come to my help and save me; strengthen my
heart so that I merit to always give a tenth of what You have blessed me with.
Stretch out Your great hand to me and grant me a livelihood from You. Provide
me with my needs and the need s of my household in a plentiful manner before I
come to need them.
Fulfill in us the verse: “I pour out upon you
blessing with out end”. And so merit me to always be happy with my portion and
to be satisified with what You grant me. Let me never be craze after money.
Hide me in the shadow of Your wings. Protect me with Your great hand. Cover me
and save from all my enemies and persecutors, materially and spiritually.
Spread peace in the world. Bring a redemption to my soul; against my enemies
redeem me. May the words of my mouth and the meditiations of my heart find
favour before You, G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.
222.
A
person must always be happy and to serve G-d with joy. If, sometimes, one falls
from one's level one must strengthen oneself with the previous days when some
small radiance of clarity shone for you. Hold on now to the radiance and
arousal that you had then until G-d helps you and the light of G-d returns and
shines for you. Amen.
(Prayer 222)
Serve G-d with joy; come before Him with
song. Master of the Universe, merit me to always serve You with joy. Even if I
sometimes fall from my spiritual level, help me to strengthen myself by
remembering the rays of inspiration that shone for me previously and which
aroused and inspired my heart to serve You.
Now also, even though I have fallen from this as well, nevertheless may
I merit to strengthen myself and find inspiritation in the radiance I
experienced in the past. It is certainly fitting that I follow in the footsteps
of others who merit to serve You with genuine love and fear, with great joy and
enthusiasm. This is even more true regarding the many tazddikim in each generation
who merit to serve You truthfully. From them and from the very great tzaddikim
of previous generations I should certainly take inspiration and follow them in
serving You truthfully.
Despite having fallen from this and although
my hear and eyes have become blocked, even so how is it possible to forget and
lose completely, Heaven forbid, what I already had in my hand? How is it
possible not to believe in myself and to make my heart and eyes ignore what my
eyes have seen and my eyes heard? I felt in my brain and heart a holy radiance
from the great longing to believe in You and from the holy pleasantness of
serving You. I cannot even describe this to myself so certainly not to others.
Each person knows what is in his own heart.
I know that the loss of this radiance and my
fall are also for my benefit for, by this descent, I will strengthen myself
even more in Your service. Previously the radiance was only and aspect of
arousal from above but real perfection in the service of G-d requires arousal
from below, from myself. Therefore, I should have, strengthened myself after te
fall rather than letting my heart become blocked and my eyes darkened. However,
there is now despair. Have mercy on me and help me, at least from now on, to
become stronger in Your serviced through the radiance that I experienced
previously. Merit us to rise from all our falls and to arouse ourselves to
serve You truthfully.
Amen so may it be.
223.
It
may be that sometimes the request of the tzaddik is not fulfilled for sometimes
it is heard and sometimes not (Zohar, V'yerah, 105,B). However, there is a
tzaddik who can issue a decree and say "I say that it will be so!"
224.
Even
those who are far away from the tzaddik receive life-force and a spiritual
radiance from him.
225.
There
are several virtues and levels to trust in G-d, infinite in number. However
much more the intelligence is greater, a person's trust is greater. According
to one's trust in G-d, so, one merits to give more charity. As a result, one
merits to perfect and rectify the power of speech which defines Man.
(Prayer 225)
+
You, who are full of mercy, who graciously
gives knowledge to a person, favour me and grant me merit that my intelligence
and knowledge be perfect in such a way that I merit to absolutely perfect trust
and to always trust in You to supply and nourish me to always grant me all that
I lack. May I become stronger all the time and be sure that, in Your
loving-kindness, You will save me from all that I have to be saved from,
materially and spiritually, in body, soul and money. Let me never fall from
this trust, Heaven forbid. Rather, may I merit to become stronger all the time,
every hour in everything that happens to me, to really trust in You always,
without end, forever, as is written: “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the
Lord G-d is everlasting strength”. Let me trust in Your tremendous
loving-kindness and mercy which never ceases and never finishes. Don’t deal
with me according to my sins, Heaven forbid, nor repay me according to my iniquities,
just act according to Your many tremendous wonders, in the old yet new ways of
Your loving-kindness which You create anew at all times and every hour. Grant
me all my income, the income of my household and those dependent on me and all
our needs, with great generosity and even before I need them. Help me and save
me at all times in all that I need to be saved.
Let me merit by strengthening my trust to
give lots of charity all the time and let me not worry from one day to the next
at all. Rather, all that You grant me each day may I give out as charity to
deserving poor people whom, in Your mercy, You arrange and invite for me. May I
merit to support those who truly fear the Lord and who really engaged in Your
Torah and commandments. Let me support and sustain them and provide them with
all that they may lack. Don’t let any obstacle or restriction confuse me.
Rather, let me always become stronger, giving a lot of charity to deserving
poor people and giving a lot of money for anything needed to perform a
commandment and for Torah education, especially for everything which is for the
merit of the general community for generations. May I be strong in my trust in
Your great holy, awesome Name, so that You will always resolve things for the
good on my behalf and never leave me. May it be fulfilled in me the verse which
says: “Blessed is the man who trusts in G-d and to whom G-d is also the source
of his trust”.
226.
There
are songs of moaning and sadness which are an aspect of the Other Side. It is
in the nature of people to be drawn after these songs. When a Jew sings these
songs on Shabbat, he raises them.
(Prayer 226)
Master of the World, who forever protects His
Nation, Israel, guard us and save us so that we will not be drawn at all after
the songs of groaning and sadness that wicked people usually sing. It is the
way of the world to be very much drawn after them. Have mercy upon us, guard us
and save us from these songs, for You know how very much they spoil and blemish
us and how much they damage kosher Jews. Heaven forbid. In the strength and
merit of the true tzaddikim have compassion upon us; come to our help an guard
us at all times so that we merit to be saved from such songs. Let us merit to
always gladden our souls in holiness and purity by tunes and songs of happiness
which draw the heart towards You and Your service. Your Torah and true
tzaddikim.
Help us, in the strength of the true
tzaddikim, that we merit to raise all these songs of the wicked through the
holiness of Shabbat. Give us strength to raise them and turn them into
happiness when we sing them on the holy Shabbat. May the merit of Shabbat
protect us so that the wicked have no strength to draw upon us sadness,
melancholy and sighing, Heaven forbid. Rather, the opposite, may we merit to
clarify them and raise them and turn them from melancholy and sighing, to joy
and happiness. May we come closer to You and be drawn after You and be joyful
as a victor, to run in Your ways, to progress along Your pathways, to engage in
learning Your Torah and to fulfill your commandments. Let us glue ourselves and
attach ourselves to You and to Your true tzaddikim, sincerely and with faith ,
in a strong and firm bond, forever and ever, for all eternities.
You, who are full of compassion, the Happiness
of Israel, have mercy upon us, protect us and save us from all the things that
lead to or attract sadness, melancholy and sighing, Heaven forbid. In Your
mercy, arrange things for the good in such a way that joy and happiness,
strength and gladness always be drawn upon us, for in Your great, holy mighty
and awesome Name we put our trust; we will be joyful and happy in Your
salvation. In Your tremendous compassion, grace and loving-kindness let me
merit to always be glad, especially every Shabbat and on Festivals, with great
happiness and the most tremendous joy, as is fitting to rejoice and be glad on
such holy days as these. “I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy for You have
considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities”. “I will be glad
and rejoice in You. I will sing praise to Your Name, O You Most High”.
May I merit to sing all sorts of songs of
praise every Shabbat and Festival with great happiness and joy, in a voice of
gladness and happiness, with tunes of joy and rejoicing without any trace at
all of sadness, worry or melancholy. Satisfy us from Your good bounty and
gladden our souls in Your salvation; purify our hearts to serve You sincerely.
Fulfill in us, and in every one of Israel, the verse which says: “And my soul
will be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in his salvation”. I will sing to
the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my G-d while I have my being.
My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord”.
May it be Your will that the words of my mouth
and the thoughts of my heart find favour before You, Lord, my Rock and
Redeemer.
Amen, Selah.
227.
When
passing over grasses which are not to be cut (i.e. weeds on a roof ) one should
say to them twice, 'May G-d help'. By this, the souls of the wicked
reincarnated in these grasses will be elevated.
228.
When
the Holy One looks at a neshama and sees that it can arouse others to repent
and to make converts, then G-d Himself, so to speak, seeks and sees to it that
there will be controversy against this neshama.
(Prayer 228)
Please have mercy on us and upon all Jewish
souls who have fallen to wherever they have fallen. Reveal to them and us the
true tzaddikim of this generation who can rectify all Jewish souls, by
returning them to Your Torah. Merit us all, all Jewish souls, to really come
close to You. For You know the great intensity of controversy in these
generations against the genuine tzaddikim, their books and followers. You know
the controversy and accusations that exist against true Torah scholars and
which arise again and again.
Certainly Your intention is for the good in
order to bring Jewish souls close to the true tzaddikim through suffering and
great obstacles. You informed us through the Sages that for this reason we do
not accept converts in the days of Messiah etc. But, the controversy and
obstacles are too strong and too difficult to stand up to; it is very difficult for any Jewish soul
to come close to true tzaddikim and their holy paths because of the immensity
of the endless obstacles. So, please, Father in Heaven, Lord of the entire
world, Merciful One, Who examines the kidneys and heart of every individual,
have compassion upon us and all Jewish souls; ease the controversy and quieten
the arguments. Draw peace upon the world. Certainly during the days of exile we
have to search for the truth while experiencing suffering and difficulties, but
there would still be many obstacles even if You drew peace throughout the
world.
So have mercy upon us and reveal the truth in
the world very soon, so that all the People of the world will see the wonderful
and awesome light that You radiate throughout in the World by the true
tzaddikim in these generations. We have to come close to them and follow their
paths to return to You and truly recognize You. Speedily reveal the truth in
order to save and protect many Jewish souls especially from the traps and nets
spread by the heretics and atheists to catch Jewish youth in their evil school
systems. Have mercy upon us for Your Name’s sake, for the sake of Your
bountiful mercy. See how powerless we have become. You promised us that no
generation is ever left orphaned. Now also there are certainly tzaddikim who
radiate the light of truth and faith throughout the world. They have the power
to bring back all the world to You in repentance but, because of our sins, they
are hidden from us.
Please out of Your compassion, merit us to
great strength, to overcome and break all the obstacles so that we can come
close to true tzaddikim and their followers who are full of fear of G-d. Let us
draw from the wells of wisdom and take upon ourselves their holy advice in such
a way that we really come close to You from now on. May the words of my mouth
and meditation of my heart find favour before You G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.
229.
There
are trees from which beds are made and they have a special power to merit a
person to have children and to raise them. The opposite is also true – there
are trees that are not good etc.
230.
Whoever
has eyes to see, can see and recognize from the face of the student who his
rabbi is, on the condition that he saw the student's rabbi at least once.
231
At
the moment when one recites "And the heavenly legions bow to You" it
is fitting to pray for anything for then all the heavenly legions come to bow
and give praises and thanks to G-d. Therefore, it is good at that moment to
pray to G-d that He command them to bring down anything that we need. For
example, if one needs a cure, have in mind then that G-d command them to
transfer any power needed for one's cure and put it into bread and water and so
on. (See Lekutei Moharan, Pt.2;Torah 1)
232.
When
reciting, "Halleluyah! Praise G-d from the Heavens" etc "praise
Him all His angels… "(Psalm,148; Morning prayers) it is fitting to arouse
oneself to pray with all one's vitality and enthusiasm since, in one's prayers,
one is calling all the angels and seraphim and ophanim and holy chiot and to
all the worlds, commanding them to give thanks and praise to G-d.
233
a) Pure thoughts are an aspect of pure animals,
whereas bad thoughts are an aspect of impure animals. The struggle a person has
in his mind between these thoughts is actually like the struggle between the
pure and impure animals. This is intentional from Above that they will battle
each other, for the Holy One has great pleasure when they struggle and when a
person overcomes the impure animals and defeats them.
b) The rule is that no two thoughts can exist at
the same moment. Therefore, it is easy to drive out the bad thoughts by just
stopping and doing nothing; that's to say, don't think that thought just think
of some other thought of Torah or the service of G-d or even of business etc.
so that one draws one's thoughts to some other thought. By this one will
automatically be freed from bad thoughts that arose for it is completely
impossible to have two thoughts at the same moment. And we have already
explained that we don't need to shake one's head here and there in order to
drive out the bad thoughts for this doesn't help at all. Rather, think another
thought, as mentioned before. Don't look behind you at all, as we said.
(Prayer 233)
Master of the Universe, You know the vast
number of bad thoughts and evil musings that flood our minds at all times. The main essence of a person
in his thought. Therefore bad thoughts overcome us again and again. They are an
aspect of a man of the Other Side. So, please have mercy upon us. Grant us the
power and strength, the holy advice and wisdom, to know how to subdue and
defeat them. You taught us how great the virtue is of holy thoughts. They are
an aspect of pure holy animals as in the holy and awesome Chariot in the world
Above. But, on the other hand, the blemish of bad thoughts is very shameful;
they are an aspect of the impure beasts in the chariot of the Other Side,
Heaven preserve us. When a person overcomes these thoughts and defeats them
this gives great pleasure to the Holy One.
You revealed to us that it is totally
impossible to have two thoughts at the same moment so it is easy to drive out
an evil thought just by restraining oneself. All one has to do is replace that
thought with another thought of Torah, prayer or even business matters. Then,
automatically the bad thought will disappear. We have to fight these bad
thoughts but we do not need to make strange body movements such as shaking the
head etc. in order to drive out these thoughts. We do not need to take notice
of the bad thoughts, we just need to concentrate on what we have to do in
Torah, prayer or business. Therefore, merit us from now on to drive out these
evil thoughts and to nullify them completely so that they never return to our
minds. Let us always have only holy and pure thoughts.
Amen. So may it be.
234.
STORIES ABOUT TZADDIKIM
a) The power of thought is very lofty and
whoever wants to think holy thoughts and rise to the world of thought he has to
remain completely silent. Even if he says then something proper, he will lose
the thought. But, even if he remains completely silent, there still exist many
types of confusions that confuse the thoughts; against this one needs purity of
thought.
b) By hearing stories about tzaddikim one merits
to purity of thought. That's to say, one should tell about what happened to
tzaddikim and all the wonders that they performed, for this is a very great
thing and causes the mind to be purified; this leads to a sweetening of the
harsh decrees and one is saved from all one's troubles. However, it is
impossible to tell stories about tzaddikim unless one knows to distinguish between
light and darkness. In other words one needs to know to distinguish between the
stories of tzaddikim and those of the wicked and of liars. (See inside) One
merits to this through the Land of Israel.
c) The Land of Israel is the all-inclusive
holiness of all the levels of holiness. In Israel a person merits to escape
from the concept of naturalness and come to know and believe that everything
happens through Divine Providence alone. This is the all-inclusive holiness. By
this, one can liken oneself to the Holy One and be able to distinguish between
light and darkness. Then one can tell stories about true tzaddikim for one
knows to distinguish between them and the opposite. As a result, one merits to
purity of thought, to sweeten the harsh decrees and to be saved from all one's
troubles.
d) There is a Name which is used when crowning a
new king. The Name is K'm'ah, the initial letters of the verse "Haskifa
M'ma'on Kad'sh'cha" – "Look down from Your holy habitation"
(Deut.26:15). This is an aspect of "He removes kings and sets up
kings" (Daniel,2:21)- "sets up" is written "ha'k'm",
alluding to the Name K'm'ah. This is also what it says about Joseph,
"Behold, my sheaf arose" (Gen.37:7) – "arose" is written "k'm'ah".
(Prayer 234)
Master of the Universe, You perform wonders
in every generation by Your true tzaddikim as our forefathers told us about the
gret and wonderful miracles and awesome wonders that You performed in each
generation through Your tzaddikim. In this generation there are certainly tzaddikim
who also perform wonders. So, in Your bountiful mercy, help, save and
strengthen me so that I can tell stories of the deeds of the tree tzaddikim and
all that happened to them, their sons and followers. All the great and awesome
wonders and miracles that happened. Let me tell of their holy paths in the
service of G-d and their revelations of godliness. Pray I hear well in my ears
and heart such stories and merit to always tell
them to others.
Merit me to engage in the recounting the
deeds of these true tzaddikim in such a way that I draw upon myself, their
immense holiness and thus purify my mind from all confusions and extraneous,
inappropriate thoughts which all stem from constricted consciousness. Enable me
to achieve expanded consciousness. By this please save and redeem me from all
troubles suffering and from all harsh judgments in the world which all stem
from confusion of the mind and limited perception, Save me from all this and
help me to always recount stories of the deeds of true tzaddikim who reflect
expanded consciousness.
Assist me and save me so that I can desire,
long and yearn to come to the Land of Israel. May I draw upon myself the
holiness of the Land of Israel at all times. Through this may I achieve perfect
faith, to believe perfectly in Your Divine Providence at all times.
Extract me completely from belief in nature.
Let me always remember that there is no nature whatsoever. What appears to be
nature actually only functions according to Divine Providence. You overturn at
will through Your true tzaddikim in each generation; they perform wonderful
innovations in each generation as we have hear from our forefathers.
Have mercy on me and all the Jewish People.
Help us to emulate You so that we can differentiate before light and darkness, until
we know the truth and can distinguish between the stories of tzaddikim and
those of the wicked. Merit me to know about whom and how to recount stories in
such a way that I can purify my thoughts. However, because of our tremendous
weakness, we have become distant from You such that we cannot distinguish
between light and darkness. Therefore, please have compassion on us; help us so
that we achieve perfect faith. Let it be so strong that it will be as if we see
with our own eyes what we believe in. Merit is to believe in You , Lord, our
G-d and in Your Divine Providence which is with every individual at all times.
Master of the Universe, merciful One, You
know how far away I am from having purified my thoughts. I have blemished my
thoughts beyond measure. I have sinned a great deal. I was not careful to catch
my thoughts and prevent them from wandering into imagination, confusions and
impure musings. I spoiled a lot and did what I did because I blemished my
thoughts. In the merit of the prayers of tzaddikim and their power, have mercy
on me; save me; hear the voice of my shouts, the sound of my screams; the voice
of my prayers.
In Your bountiful mercy, draw upon me the
holiness of the Land of Israel, all the ten levels of holiness which are the
generality of all holiness. By this, merit me to perfect faith in Your Divine
Providence which extends throughout all the world at every moment. As a result
of drawing down this holiness of the Land of Israel, may I know how to recount stories of the deeds of
the true tzaddikim until You purify my thoughts. Let me escape all sorts of
confusing thoughts, all kinds of impure musings and unproper thoughts. May I
purify my thoughts from all this. Please help me to rise to the world of holy
thoughts, thoughts of Torah, prayer and of the grandeur of the Creator,
together with thoughts of the greatness of the true tzaddikim. With thoughts of
purity may I have Torah innovations. By all this redeem me from all troubles,
distress and suffering. Sweeten and nullify all the harsh decrees from upon us
and from all the Jewish People.
In Your bountiful loving-kindness have
compassion upon us, at any time when a new King or leader is appointed over us.
May this ruler be kind and have mercy over the People of Israel. Let him
nullify all the harsh decrees from upon us. Have mercy, for Your Name’s Sake
for we have no one to rely upon apart from You. Look down from Your dwelling
place in Heaven and turn all the hearts of the kings and their ministers in our
favour. Bring Meshiach speedily, in our days.
Amen.
235.
Someone
who walks, slips and falls and the people laugh at him and he feels embarrassed
because of this, all this comes as a result of him having blemished the joy of
a Festival. Occasionally this acts as an atonement and sometimes this doesn't
atone but comes to remind him to repent.
(Prayer 235)
Master of the World, guard me and save me so
that I never blemish the happiness of the holy Festivals. Let me merit to
rejoice in great happiness and joy in every single Festival, ‘Festivals of the
Lord, holy convocations’. Let me fulfill with complete perfection the
commandment of “And you shall rejoice in your Festival” with all its details
and exactitudes and all the 613 commandments dependent on it. Guard my soul and
save me from disgracing the Festivals. Have mercy upon me and all Israel. Guard
me and save me so that I will not be included among those who disgrace the
Festivals and thus have no part in the World to Come for they are considered as
if they worship idols. Save me from shame and disgrace that result from the
disgracing of the Festivals, Heaven forbid. Be with me at all times; guard me
and save me so that my steps should not fail.
Don’t let me fall, or stumble, or slip. Let me never ever fall, either
materially or spiritually. Let no one rejoice in my stumbling. Heaven forbid,
not laugh at me. Strengthen me and encourage me in Your wonderful ways in such
a manner that I always merit to the perfect happiness of the Festivals and Holy
Days.
Let me merit in every single Festival to be
happy and rejoice with all my strength and to feel the happiness of the
Festival in my heart. You, who are full of compassion, the Happiness of Israel,
grant me happiness in my heart, especially on the very holy, awesome Festivals.
“We will be glad and rejoice in You”. Have mercy upon me. Pardon me, forgive me
and grant me atonement for all the blemishes I have caused to the happiness of
the Festivals during my lifetime, until this very day. Come to my aid and save
me so that I can rectify everything perfectly. Let me clarify and raise all
‘fallen’ aspects of happiness ** to their proper place, to their source, to the
place that was their abode originally. In Your mercy, accustom me to all the
paths of happiness in such a way that I merit to always be happy, especially on
Shabbat and Festivals. We will be glad and rejoice in Your Salvation. Satisfy
me from Your good (bounty); gladden our souls in Your Salvation; purify our
hearts to serve You truly. O Lord, our G-d, give us as an inheritance Your holy
Festivals, in happiness and rejoicing.
May all Israel, who sanctify Your Name, be
happy in You……..”May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
pleasing before Your countenance, O G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer:.
Amen. Amen.
**
‘Fallen’ happiness means the
happiness people have from things not connected to holiness such as excessive
eating or drinking etc.
236
Someone
who serves as a rabbi, with honesty and simplicity, will merit at the end of
his days to rise to greatness as defined by his generation. And in this
generation, when to be considered famous and a tzaddik is thought to be an
honour, he will merit at the end of his life to be accepted as someone very
famous even though he really isn't other than a kosher and simple Jew. He is
given his reward before he leaves This World, and afterwards…
237
Joining
two things together is through song and musical instruments. (See inside.) This
is reflected in the playing of musical instruments at a wedding.
238.
.
When
two people are divided in their opinion about something and a third person
comes along and agrees with one more than the other, this is because one of the
two is closer to the source of his soul than the other.
239.
THE VIRTUE OF PEACE
a) Because of controversy it is difficult to
pray and to speak holy words, therefore before praying one has to accept upon
oneself the positive mitzvah of "Love your neighbour as yourself" in
order to draw down love and peace, for the essence of the power of speech is
from peace.
b) All spoken words stem from heat. Someone who
has a lot of warmth from the realm of holiness, speaks a great deal to G-d.
(See inside)
(Prayer 239)
Master of the Universe, have mercy upon us.
Save us from arguments and controversy. You know my heart. I do not desire
controversy at all for who am I to cause controversy against any other person
in the world. Other people are infinitely better than me. You know how much
controversy has spread vastly throughout the world. When someone desires peace,
nevertheless he is attacked. Our sins
have caused all this.
Even without this it is also hard to pray
properly but controversy holds back the words of prayer ever more. Father in
Heaven, what can we do? How can we find
the words to pray to You, for all the world is full of controversy. Merciful
One, Have compassion on me. Teach me how to behave towards all other people in
such a way that I can achieve genuine peace
Master of the Universe, Master of Peace, King
of Peace, perform wonders so that all kinds of controversy will be nullified
from the world. Draw a great and wonderful peace into the world such that the
power of speech becomes redeemed from exile.
Open our mouths to always say good things
before You, words of Torah and prayer day and night. Lord, open my lips and may
my mouth speak Your praises. Merit me from now on to guard my mouth so that I
will not say anything which displeases You, Heaven forbid. At the time of
judgement You will tell each person whatever he said, even a small conversation
between husband and wife. Oh! How we should fear the Day of Judgement , the Day of Reproach!. Have mercy upon me for Your Name’s
sake. Guard me and save me from saying anything which is not as You desire.
Forgive me for any blemish in my words that I may have spoken until now. Please
perfect all Your Names which I have blemished. Be with me when I speak. Guard
my soul.
Help
me and save me so that I merit to keep the mitzvah of loving my neigbour as
myself with all my heart and soul. Especially let me have this in mind before
praying every day and by this may my prayers before You be perfect, with great
concentration and the proper intentions. May my prayer find pleasure before
Your Throne of Glory, such that it rises to become a crown upon Your Head.
Fulfill very speedily the verse “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; those who
love you will be serene. May there be peace within your wall…….For the sake of
my brethren and comrades I shall speak of peace in your midst” (Psalms
122,6:8). “He who makes peace in His Heavens, may He make peace upon us and
upon all Israel. Now answer, Amen”.
240.
All
bounty comes only from the true tzaddik Therefore, if a person's income is made
only with great difficulty such that even if he acquires some wealth it may
cost him his life, or the wealth becomes lost and does not remain even for his
children, all this is because of his distance from the tzaddik. The fact that
we see sometimes that someone comes close to the true tzaddik and then looses
his wealth, this is because his soul sees, even if he doesn't, the great
preciousness of the light of the tzadddik, which is more precious than gold and
jewels; as a result he throws away the good fortune of wealth without
hesitation. This is even more true when he merits to feel himself that the
closeness to the true tzaddik is more precious than all the wealth in the
world; then he will certainly not worry about money and won't want wealth at
all.
(Prayer 240)
Master of the Universe, merit us to be really
close to all the true tzaddikim. By this, may each Jew receive his bounty,
through his constellation from those true tzaddikim, each Jew according to his
needs, whether an income or children. Let each Jew receive the bounty from the
tzaddikim with ease and great speed, without any difficulty at all.
You revealed to us that all good abundance
and good things come only through the true tzaddik. When someone is far from
the tzaddik, his constellations find it hard to receive from the tzaddik, for
he is far away. As a result,the constellation is forced to give him great
strength until he can receive from the tzaddik. By this, a person can be harmed
and stumble greatly, sometimes he can even die because of this. Then his bounty
remains for his offspring. And sometimes even this does not remain for them.
So, please merit us to come close to the true tzaddikim even if it seems
sometimes that a person’s bounty declines and his wealth is lost by this. We
will not have doubts about Your Divine Providence and Goodness. We will know
and believe that happens because our constellation sees the immense value and
virtue of the holiness of coming close to the tzaddik and the great spiritual
bounty he can receive from him. As a result, the constellation discards the
material bounty of wealth in order to merit to the spiritual wealth. This is
why the Sages said that, not everyone merits to two tables (i.e. Both material
and spiritual wealth).
Merit us to feel for ourselves that closeness
to the tzaddikim is more precious than all the wealth of the world to such a degree
that we cease worrying about money
altogether; nor will we have any desire for wealth. In Your bountiful mercy,
please arrange for us all we need in a plentiful way, without any worry or
effort on our parts.
241
When
a person has harsh decrees upon him and then another person comes and make
controversy against him, this removes the decrees from him for a human being
has more strength than any decree to take revenge. (See inside) Therefore, a
great tzaddik who takes upon himself to rectify the world sometimes purposely
makes controversy against another tzaddik in order to remove the harsh decrees
from upon him. However, afterwards he acts with mercy and doesn't cause more
suffering to that tzaddik.
(Prayer 241)
Merit us to accept it when the tzaddik
distances s and is sometimes angry with us and even insults us. Let us know and
believe that all this is only for our good in order to sweeten the harsh
decrees from upon us which come from the attribute of strict justice in the
World Above. Merit us that, immediately
after this sweetening of the harsh judgment, the tzaddik will arouse his great
compassion upon us and draw us very close to him.
Amen. So may it be.
242.
a) Lewd thoughts are the prime form of impurity,
an aspect of the impurity of dead body. Charity saves a person from these
thoughts. Even so, it is forbidden to rely on this and to speak a lot to women,
Heaven forbid. Only what one has to say to them doesn't cause harm, through the
merit and strength of charity.
b) Some lewd thoughts stem from such a husk that
it is very hard to escape from them. Even if one closes one's eyes,
nevertheless, whichever direction one turns they appear; charity saves a person
from them.
(Prayer 242)
May it find favour before You, G-d our G-d
and G-d of our fathers, who is slow to anger and abundant in kindness and
truth, that You have mercy on us; help me and save me so that I merit to give a
lot of charity to deserving poor people really and truly for Your Name’s sake,
alone, without any ulterior motives, without any decent at all. Let my hand
always be open to give charity freely, giving to the poor what they lack, with
great joy, a good heart and a pleasant smile. By this may I subdue and nullify
the power of charity of the wicked who oppose the realm of holiness. Let the
wicked have no strength to oppose the Jewish People who wish to really serve
You. Draw upon us Your immense holiness. Bestow upon us the strength and
courage of the true tzaddikim, the elders of holiness. In their merit may we subdue,
break and nullify the old, foolish king(i.e. the evil eye) driving him and his
forces away from our borders. Remove the spirit of impurity from the land.
Nullify any bad thoughts from us for they chase after us at all times,
especially
all those who truly want to come close to
You.
Draw upon us the light of the countenance of
the Living King, the light of the countenance of holiness which stems from the
Supernally Long Face of holiness. By this, merit us to subdue, break and
nullify, from us all evil thoughts which stem from the Long Face of the husks.
Protect us fron being damaged by an evil woman, whose source is from the husks.
It is very hard to escape from these husks. They appear from any direction that
we turn to. Please G-d, You are full of
mercy and abundant in kindness, have mercy on us and save us from the Side of
Death, from indecent thoughts for they are more bitter than death; they are
called the ‘father’ or most extreme of all kinds of impurity. So, have mercy
upon the weak of spirit we are nowadays in the generation of the footsteps of
Meshiach for we have fallen very low and are without help or support. We have
sunk into the murky depths without a foothold.
Be gracious with us so that we will not be
lost. Give us the power subdue, break, drive away and nullify the husk of the
‘Long Face” from ourselves and our surroundings. As a result let us be free of
any evil thoughts that come from this husk.
Grant us true holy advice at all times in
such a way that we merit to be saved from all evil thoughts. Let us always have
truly holy thoughts. Merit us, in Your bountiful mercy, to distribute plenty of
charity for the sake of Your Name alone and by this save us from ‘death’ which
are the evil thoughts, which are referred to as the impurity of death. Fufill
in us the verse “Charity saves from death”.
Save me from being in a crowd of women and
let me not speak a lot with them. Even with my own wife let me minimize my
words as much as possible. Save me from any prohibited form of looking at women
and from indecent thoughts. Let me not follow the desire of my heart and my eyes. Help me, for we depend
upon You. We have no–one to rely upon other that our Father in Heaven.
243.
There
exists one tzaddik who is so great that the world cannot suffer his holiness.
Because of this he is very hidden; we don't see anything of his holiness and
extreme abstinence.
244.
Someone
who is involved with the non-Jews, meaning that he does business and trades
with them, has to guard himself very carefully so as not to fall from his
current level in Judaism. He has to be like a very firm tent-peg, immovable
from his level of kashrut and religious
observance. He needs to pray to G-d a lot to be saved from learning the deeds
and ways of these non-Jews.
245.
There
are chambers of Torah. When someone merits to Torah innovations, he goes from
one chamber to another etc. He then gathers up from the chambers treasures, and
precious, delightful charms; happy is such a person. However, one has to be
very careful not to delude oneself that one has already reached a perfect
understanding. Sometimes a person imagines that he has already entered into the
inner portals of Torah knowledge but the truth is that he is still standing
completely outside for even true, holy Torah perceptions have several aspects.
(See inside) There exist many Torah innovations and perceptions that a person
thinks to be very great but, in truth, they are really only from the Chambers
of Exchange (Realms of Illusion). Therefore, one has to be very careful not to
be misled by this. The very great tzaddik even when he merits to truly great and holy perceptions, nevertheless , in his
eyes they are not considered as anything in relation to his actual great
recognition of the grandeur of the Creator, may He be blessed. As a result, he
endeavours and strengthens himself each time that G-d should begin to show him
the light of the Torah, as if he hadn't yet started to ascertain anything all
his life.
(Prayer 245)
Open my eyes so I may behold the wonders of
Your Torah. Teach me Your statutes. Master of the Universe, who grants
knowledge to man, who teaches Torah to His Nation the Jewish People, You
commanded us, through Your true tzaddikim to study the Torah in depth and find
innovations. In Your great compassion You have had mercy on us and allowed us
to understand a little of Your holy Torah, enough to enable me to strive to
find Torah innovations. It is a duty on every Torah Scholar to endeavour to
find Torah innovations as not to be a dried up tree, Heaven forbid.
I will shout out to You and plead in the
light of Your bountiful mercy and immense loving-kindness, maybe through my
words of truth, I can arouse Your real
compassion upon me until You help me and teach me ideas and paths of truth
every day. Then I will return to Your Torah and merit to study Your holy Torah
constantly, day and night. Let no worries about an income or other bodily needs
distract or bother me. Rather, let me always strive with all my energy to grab
moments and fix regular times from all
my worldy affairs, to study Torah especially at night. Help me to put all my
heart into studying Torah and praying such that I merit through Your mercy, to
open my heart to Your Torah. Open my eyes with wisdom and my intellect with
holiness and purity until I merit to find genuine Torah innovations at all
times and thus to give pleasure to You before Your Throne of Glory. Let this be
a great rectification to my soul, spirit and neshama such that I rectify all that I have blemished throughout
my life, especially evil or blemished thoughts, for in that I sinned a lot.
Assist me, through Your compassion, so that
my thoughts will constantly be attached to Your Torah really strongly. Then
even when I am among other people my inner thoughts will still cleave to Your
holy Torah without forgetting it for even a moment. Let my thoughts be attached
to the holy Torah, so much that even when sleeping, in my dreams I will have
thoughts of true Torah innovations. By this, may I drive out and nullify all
evil thoughts, all kinds of madness and spirits of foolishness that have taken
hold in my heart and mind because of my bad deeds.
In Your bountiful compassion, open for me the
pathways of intellect until I enter the chambers of the holy Torah. Merit me to
enter and journey in Your Holy Torah from chamber to chamber from corridor to
corridor, from house to atticetc. May I connect, join and unite all the rooms
and chamber together very firmly so that I can acquire knowledge of the truth
of Your godliness. Then, grant me a complete gift of all the words of Your holy
Torah with all its Chambers and passageways until it is called ‘my’ Torah.
Therefore, merciful One, have mercy upon me so that even when I discover
genuine Torah innovations I will not delude myself that I have already
succeeded to enter its inner sanctuaries. Rather merit me to understand and
know at all times that I am still far away from the inner truth of the Torah
for it is far, far above our grasp and its inner essence contains deeper and
deeper levels.
Strengthen me so that I can endeavour to
search and ask for the deep truth of Your holy Torah with all my heart and
soul, with true self sacrifice until You open up for me all its gateways and
the inner essence of its chambers more and more. By this, let me come to
understand and perceive the truth of the inner essence of the Torah which is an
aspect of being called ‘Man’ in the realm of holiness. As a result, draw upon
me the image of G-d and may I be subsumed in supernal man with real perfection
such that I can truly perceive You, as You desire and as the true tzaddikim
want from me; for this created.
Have mercy upon me and bring me back in
complete repentance as speedily as possible. May my portion in life be in Your
Torah, for in pleading before You I do not depend on my righteousness;. Rather
I depend on Your bountiful compassion and the strength and great merit of the
true tzaddikim to extract me and purify me from all my impurity very, very
speedily. Merit me during my lifetime to all that I have asked from You,
Merciful One. May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour
before You, G-d my Rock and Redeemer.
Amen.
246.
Occasionally
one has to behave like we find with Yehoshafat about whom it says, "He
lifted his heart in the ways of G-d" (Chronicles, II, 17:6). This is as
beneficial as a fast, for when one must rise to a new spiritual level of
perception, one has to forget one's previous wisdom as we find when Rav Zeira
came to the Land of Israel he fasted in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud
(Baba Metzia,85). By pride, one forgets one's wisdom, as the Sages said,
"Anyone who has pride, his wisdom leaves him" (Pesachim, 66).
Therefore, sometimes one has to lift one's heart in the paths of G-d, which is
an aspect of pride, in order to forget one's previous wisdom. But this needs
great skill for certainly pride is really a severe prohibition; if a person
really feels pride then certainly his wisdom will depart completely from him
and then he won't come to any perception. Consequently, it requires great skill
to lift one's heart just enough to forget one's previous wisdom when it is
needed while, despite this, remaining really humble.
247.
It
states in the Zohar (Zav, pg.27B) that 'teiko' (i.e. a question remaining
undecided) which is mentioned in the Talmud is an aspect of a lack of
rectification ( in Hebrew 'tikon'). That's to say, the letter 'nun' is missing
from 'tikon' leaving 'teiko'. Know that this straight 'nun' (the final long
'nun' of the word 'tikon'), when it is missing from the 'tikon', gets lowered
and bent creating the combination of letters to spell 'kinot' (lamentations).
And when G-d finally redeems us the 'kinot' will turn into 'tikon'; this will
rectify the 'teiko'.
(Prayer 247)
O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, may
it be Your will that You have mercy upon us. Send to us and bring us our
righteous Messiah very speedily. Rectify all This World and all the worlds that
are dependent on this world of action; rectify them from top to bottom. Have
mercy upon him and upon us and bring him safely very soon. Rectify everything
with a wonderful and awesome rectification. Shine upon us the true perception;
open our eyes and hearts to Your Torah. Rather, let it all be as clear to us as
the robe (which we wear). Even all the questions and doubts that remain in the
state of ‘teku’ which includes all the doubts in the world, whether those
doubts which the great Torah-scholars have about the laws and paths of the
Torah or whether the doubts and two-sided advice that is specific to each and
every Jew, from the greatest of the great, to the smallest of the small. There
are many who desire, crave and long very much to return to You, but the paths
of repentance and the Torah are hidden from them; their hearts are split by doubts
and much two-sided advice. This is particularly true of me today, for You know
what has happened to me because of the immense number of doubts and split
advice in my heart regarding several things in several aspects. My mind is very
confused because of this until ‘the power of endurance fails’.
Master of the World, Master of the World, You
know all this. Have mercy on the community of Israel and upon me and send us a
wonderful radiance from the world of rectification which is drawn by our
righteous Messiah. Let this be in such a way that the ‘teku’ be rectified by a
true and wonderful rectification and all the questions become simple and all
the doubts and slight doubts in the world be clarified properly.
Let us merit always to really good and
perfect advice with regard to all the things in the world. Have mercy upon us
and teach us the true path, how to mourn and bewail the destruction of the Holy
Temple at all times, especially at exactly midnight every single night during
this period of three weeks and let us, on the Ninth of Av, recite Lamentations
and other eulogies with a really and truly broken, depressed heart. Let us pour
out our hearts like water before the countenance of the Lord and put our faces
in the dust – maybe there is hope! Let us bang our heads on the walls of our
houses because of the immense number of troubles we have, both generally and
specifically. It has already been many years that our city (Jerusalem) has been
destroyed, our Temple laid to waste and the honour taken from the House of our
life. Every day has more troubles than the day before….
You, who are full of mercy, help us so that
we feel the troubles of Israel and the troubles of our souls very profoundly in
our hearts until we merit to truly break our hearts before You and pour out our
hearts before You, Lord of the Hosts, about the immensity of our willful
transgressions, the multiplicity of our iniquities and the greatness of our
stubbornness, all of which have lengthened our exile and caused us all our
troubles. Let us hold onto belief of our holy fathers, to shout and cry out
with a great and bitter cry.
Let us wander in the markets and streets,
pray, shout, plead to the Lord, the sublime, mighty G-d until the Lord will
look out and observe us from Heaven, until You arouse Your compassion upon us.
Quickly comfort us, save us and redeem us from all suffering and all the
troubles, generally and specifically. Now also, shine upon us a wonderful
radiance from our righteous Messiah in such a way that he will now sweeten all harsh
judgments from over us generally and specifically; he will nullify all the
troubles and suffering and all the decrees that are not good for Israel, from
upon us and from upon all Israel. Shine upon us at all times the light of
truth; always correct us with wonderful, new rectifications. Clarify all
doubts, questions and split advice for us. Let us merit always to really and
truly perfect, complete advice in such a way that we merit to return to You
very soon, wholeheartedly and truthfully. Let us merit to engage in learning
Torah, in prayer and good deeds all the days of our lives. Protect us and save
us at all times from all sorts of iniquities and willful transgressions in the
world. Let us not swerve to the right or left of Your desire. Arouse You mercy
upon Your sons and bring us very soon our righteous Messiah so that he will
redeem us completely and finally. Then rectify for us the ‘teku’ in a perfect
correction (‘tikkun’). Let the letter ‘nun’ from the lamentationsׂ(קינות) be drawn into the
word ‘teku’ (תיקר) so that תיקון (rectification) be made from the word
“teku”. Let all lamentations (‘Kinnot”) be turned into a ‘tikkun’.
You, who are full of compassion, the Master
of salvation, the Master of comfort – please comfort us from all our troubles.
Help us in all our matters and wishes. Spread over us the canopy of Your peace.
Grant us good advice from You; save us quickly for Your Name’s sake. Let us
merit to the real truth. Save me and all of Israel from doubts and split advice
which prevent us and confuse us very much from serving You. Let us merit to
continuous, true and perfect advice in such a way that I merit to really return
to You, to be as is Your good desire, from now on and forever.
Amen. Selah.
248.
By
telling the tales of the deeds of tzaddikim the heart is enthused and aroused
greatly with tremendous desire to cleave to G-d. Several very great and awesome
tzaddikim told us that the main cause of their arousal to serve G-d was by
hearing tales of the deeds of tzaddikim; this enflamed their hearts with desire
to serve G-d such that they toiled in the service of G-d and merited to what
they merited. Happy are they.
249.
The
main place of courage is in the heart. Someone whose heart is strong doesn't
become frightened of anybody or anything. He can perform awesome, heroic deeds,
winning fierce wars through the strength and courage in his heart, for he fears
nothing and runs into the thick of the battle. So it is exactly in the realm of
serving G-d. Understand well.
(Prayer 248 – 249)
Master of the Universe, merit me to engage a
lot in studying the stories of tzaddikim. By this, may I awaken and enthuse my
heart to serve the Holy One with tremendous desire. As a result, arouse the
light of the holy impression that the tzaddik we talk about made, through his
service of G-d. By this holy impression, arouse my heart also in the service of
G-d with great enthusiasm.
Bestow power and great strength in my heart
so that it will be very strong in the service of G-d. Let me fear nothing in
the world, may no obstacle hold me back. Rather, merit me to perform deeds
which are awesome in their power and to conquer great wars through the strength
and courage of my heart. Let me accomplish all that I have to in the service of
G-d in a perfect manner. Grant me the strength to overcome my evil urge with
total perfection. Fulfill in me what the Sages said: “Who is a man of strength,
he who conquers his evil urge”.
Amen. So may it be.
250.
The
main cause of the feeling of suffering and anguish is the lack of
Understanding, meaning that a person doesn't calm his mind and know that
everything occurs in Divine Providence and is for his good. By crying with real
tears in prayer before G-d at the time of anguish and suffering one draws down
Understanding and Divine Providence and ,in turn, this negates the anguish and
suffering.
(Prayer 250)
Unique One, who rules the world with great
loving-kindness and mercy, everything You do with us, in general and
individually, is all for the good. Even all the exiles, troubles and suffering
that we experience, whether the Jewish People as a whole or individual Jews, it
is all for the ultimate good. However, because of the immese darkness of our
exile, in which we dwell among the non-Jews, our mind have become mixed up and
confused so much that we have not the mind to understand or know that
everything that occurs to us is all through Divine Providence and for our good.
Instead we feel immense pain from our many troubles and exile. One thing is
dependent on the other for exile causes a lack of knowledge which, in turn
leads to a sense of exile. The main exile and distress is when we feel the
bitterness of exile and this is all because of the lack of understanding when
fail to we know and understand that everything occurs through Divine Providence
for our eternal good.
Have compassion and mercy upon us at this
time of great trouble. Break and nullify this harsh decree that has been
enacted against us and all those that our enemies want to decree against us,
Heaven forbid, for who can tolerate such troubles. Where can we escape to?
Where can we run to for help?
Teach us and guide us how to draw down
understanding upon ourselves even nowadays so that we believe that everything
occurs with Divine Providence for our good. That is our life and hope and
shelter from all the troubles and suffering that befall us, Heaven preserve us.
From now on, behold our distress and poverty for our pain and the distress in
our heart has become overwhelming.
Remember Your sons who dwell in exile among
the nations. Draw, upon us Your full Providence. Remove us completely from the
path of nature and merit all of us of the Jewish People to know, understand and
believe with complete faith that everything occurs only with Divine Providence.
Extract and redeem us from all the troubles and from exile. Have plentiful
compassion upon us. Draw upon us Your Divine Providence from the end of the
world, from the final Redemption. Through this, make an end of and destroy all
the evil nations who cause us distress. Break and nullify all the harsh decrees
from upon us, whether they have already been decreed or not. Nullify them
completely from upon us as soon as possible. Just as You had mercy upon us and
saved us in the days of Mordechai and Esther, turning anguish into joy and
mourning into a Festival Day, so also have mercy on us now. Cancel this trouble
and harsh decree from upon us, and uproot and nullify completely all the harsh
decrees that they want to inflict upon us, Heaven forbid. Turn everything out
for the good. Swerve the hearts of the leaders of the world and their advisers
in our favour so that the make decisions in our favour, materially and
spiritually.
Master of the Universe, King and Leader, who
looks after us, see our lowly status. Only You know our situation and status
today. Behold from Heaven and see how we have become a mockery in the eyes
of the nations. Only You know to what
extent their thoughts and plans are against us. But You are all of compassion,
great in council and mighty in deed, undo the plans of our enemies. All who
rise against us, speedily undo their plans and spoil their evil thoughts. Grant
us wisdom, understanding and knowledge in our hearts to believe always in Your
individualized Divine Providence. Merit us to pray and pour out our hearts
before You. Let us feel part of the suffering of the People of Israel and merit
us to pray and plead continually a great deal with a broke heart over the
distress of the Jewish People. May we pour out our hearts like water in the
presence of G-d until we really spill tears out before You. And through these
tears let us draw upon us for Name’s sake for we have no-one to rely upon other
than our Father in Heaven. And You, do with us as finds favour in Your eyes. We
know nothing other that to raise our eyes to Heaven. Then place in our hearts
that we all return to You in repentance very speedily. “Create a pure heart for
me, O G-d, and a steadfast spirit renew with in me”. Hasten our redemption, a
complete redemption. Bring us the righteous Meshiach speedily in our days.
Amen. Selah.
251.
IT WILL BE ACCOUNTED AS CHARITY
a) As a result of controversy, thoughts of
wicked people, which are thoughts of atheism, fall upon kosher Jews. The
rectification to this is to remain silent and give over the war to the Holy
One.
b) A Jew of truth who fulfills the mitzvoth with
all their exactitudes, performing them just the same whether between himself
and his Creator or before others, it makes no difference to him for he has no
element of falsehood in him to make a movement in the service of G-d for the
sake of others, Heaven forbid. Such a person draws upon himself the power of
all forms of charity. By this, he nullifies the above mentioned thoughts of
atheism.
(Prayer 251)
You know the immense prevalence of
controversy in the world nowadays. Because of that, bad thoughts overcome us a
great deal, beyond estimation. Due to our many iniquities the immense
controversy leads to thoughts of atheism which come into the minds of kosher
Jews in the generation. And because of our great spiritual poverty and
weakness, we know of now way or advice about how to stand up against these bad
thoughts and many confusions which flood our minds all the time. We have no-one
to rely upon other than our Father in Heaven. So here we cast ourselves upon
You alone; You will fight for us, for you are Master of War, as it says G-d is
Master of War’. Fight for us against our enemies. Help us for we depend upon
You alone.
In Your bountiful mercy, grant me the merit
to give a lot of charity to deserving poor people, for Your Name’s sake alone,
without any lies and without any improper motives. Help us so that we merit to
be included within the attribute of our Patriarch Jacob, may he rest in peace,
whose attribute was truth. Let us merit to the quality of perfect truth. Let us
be worthy of performing all the commandments before the Lord our G-d, just as
He commanded us, in all their details and exactitudes, truly for Your Name’s
sake alone, without any improper motive or thought of doing it for the sake of
the attention of other people, Heaven forbid. Let us merit to be really modest
and discreet, to be exact in performing all the commandments between ourselves
and our Maker; let us perform them in absolute truth, really and truly, for
Your Name’s sake alone.
Help us to cleave to and be included in, real
tzaddikim and in really honest , kosher people. ‘Grant truth to Jacob and
loving-kindness to Abraham which You have sworn to our fathers since olden
days”.
252.
When
there is unity between the tzaddikim then charity causes no harm for, according
to nature, when one gives charity the money becomes lacking from the giver.
But, by unity between the tzaddikim, one can give a lot of charity and yet not
lack any money at all. So also, a person can have true self- sacrifice and,
even so it won't harm him at all and he will remain alive.
s.
253.
Minimizing
sleep lessens the desire for sex (see inside).
(Prayer 252 – 253)
252.
Master
of the Universe, merit us to great peace and unity between the tzaddikim. As a
result, enable us to give away a lot of money to charity. Nevertheless, may we
feel no lack of money from giving plenty of charity. So also, may we have real
self-sacrifice in the service of G-d and in the observance of the Torah. May
none of this harm us.
253
Merit us to reduce our sleeping to a minimum
to the utmost that is possible according to our capability. By this merit us to
dampen the fire which burns within us for all the physical cravings, especially
the craving for women. Help us to understand the right path in this regard so
as not to cut down too much on sleep causing us to weaken and nullify the
desire for sex completely, for we need it to perform the mitzvah of
reproducing. So, help us not to harm our minds at all by minimizing sleep.
Rather, merit us to very pure minds in the most perfect way, as is fitting.
254.
The
eyes are very lofty and sublime things. They always see great and awesome
things; that's to say, visions and heavenly revelations. If a person were to
merit to kosher eyes, he would know great things just from what his eyes
behold, for they continually see heavenly revelations but he doesn't know what
he is seeing.
(Prayer 254)
Merit us to guard our eyes from all kinds of
forbidden sights, Heaven forbid. Father, merit us to holy vision. You have
revealed to us that the eyes of a Jew are very lofty and sublime; they always
see very sublime and awesome things. If a person were to merit to really kosher
eyes, he would know great spiritual things from what his eyes see. Therefore,
merit us to really perfect, holy eyes so we merit to see wonderful and awesome
things. Bestow upon us wisdom, understanding and knowledge and thus merit to
know and ascertain very well at great speed, all the holy, wonderful things our
eyes see, even though all these things pass through our eyesight in a flash.
Fulfill in us the verse: “Unveil my eyes that I may perceive wonders from Your
Torah”, and as it says “With their own eyes they will see that G-d returns to
Zion”.
Amen. So ay it be.
255.
When
a person believes in the tzaddik without any understanding, it is possible that
he will fall from his faith. But, if he also has understanding, meaning that he
recognizes the greatness of the tzaddik, it becomes impossible for him to fall.
256.
The
Name 'Atah' has special power to subdue the waves of the sea.
( n.b. See Chayei Moharan where it explains
that the meaning is one should write on five pieces of parchment the words
"rav chesed", five times on each one. Five times 'rav chesed' (280
x5= 1400) has the numerical value of 'a' (aleph, 1000) 'ta' (400). The five
pieces of parchment have the numerical value of 'ah'(5). That completes the
name 'A-t-ah'. In the midst of a storm on the sea, with the waves mounting pressure,
one throws the five pieces of parchment into the sea and the waves will be
calmed.)
258.
When
there is controversy against a person this can cause him to stray from the path
of G-d and to make him fall from his spiritual level, Heaven forbid, unless he
is a very great man who doesn't fear this, like King David who praised himself
"Many are my persecutors and my enemies yet, even so, " I do not
swerve from Your testimonies" (Psalms, 119:157).
(Prayer 255 – 256- 258)
255.
Master of the Universe, merit us
to believe in the true tzaddikim with perfect faith. Let us understand in our
intellect and mind that we need to believe in them. Let us understand in our
intellect and mind that we need to behave in them. By this, merit us to be very
strong in our faith in true tzaddikim, so firmly that we never fall from it,
for faith alone without understanding a person can fall from, Heaven forbid.
256.
Merit us when we need to cross the
sea. Sometimes, especially when traveling to the Land of Israel, to cross it in
peace. And if the sea is stormy with high waves, merit us to subdue the waves by means of the
Name ‘Ata’ written on five pieces of parchment. By this may the waves be
subdued and calmed.
257.
Guard us to that we never come to
controversy, Heaven forbid. You know how great our weakness is and how little
our worth is. We have no strength at all to suffer the burden of controversy
and persecution. When there is controversy and persecution. When there is
controversy against a person it can cause him to swerve away from the path of
G-d and to fall from his spiritual level, Heaven forbid. Therefore, please have
mercy upon us so that no controversy befalls us. And even when we sometimes
experience controversy from people who rise against us, give us the strength to
overcome them and to be victorious through Your great power and outstretched
hand. Help us not to fall, Heaven forbid, from our spiritual level in the
service of G-d because of the
controversy.
258.
Merit us to meditate and to fully
express our distress before You on each occasion. May we confess our sins and
feel really deep regret about all blemishes and sins that we have committed
against You. Then, merit us that the Shechinah, so to speak, will express its
sorrow before us, explaining how all our blemishes that we caused to our souls
affect it. Let the Shechinah comfort us so that we ask and pray for advice and
strategies how to rectify all our blemishes.
Amen. So may it be Your will.
259.
Each
time that a person speaks alone to G-d in a secluded place and expresses in
detail his anguish before G-d, confessing and regretting the great blemishes
that he caused, then the Shechinah, correspondingly, expresses to him its
suffering. For every single blemish that he caused to his soul, blemished the
Shechinah also, so to speak. She comforts him by saying that she will seek
strategies to rectify all the blemishes.
260.
The
main Unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah is by those holy Jews who
sacrificed their souls to sanctify G-d's Name as is known from the case of the
Ten Martyrs. The name of a person is his soul (nefesh) as it says,
"…living soul, that was its name" (Gen.2:19). Therefore there are
tzaddikim who sacrifice their name and fame to sanctify G-d's Name. In other
words, they deliberately cause their name and fame to be lost (hidden), for everyone talks about them
and fabricate lies against them. He feels that his blood is being spilt by
this. This is a form of real self-sacrifice, for the name is the soul, as
mentioned above. His blood is also spilt by this. Through this he saves the
People of Israel from what they deserved to have happened to them, Heaven
forbid, for the sake of the Unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah.
(Prayer 260)
Master of the Universe; Master of the entire
world, G-d all the tzaddikim and of all the Jewish People, teach us and
instruct us about what we should do now. How can we shout out to You, pray and
plead? Who will stand up for us?
I still do not manage to return to You in
repentance as I should. It seems to me that I still lack self control, Heaven
forbid. When I feel in my heart a little of the bitterness of this trouble, O,
how bitter it is. When I feel in my heart the general distress of the Jewish
People, I see how far away from You I am. My heart is so hard and my mind so
confused that I do not even feel properly in my heart the tremendous, bitter
and difficult troubles of the Jewish People, all the distress that occurs
generally and to every individual, bodily, spiritually and financially. It
would only be fitting that all the physical cravings melt away, together with
all worldly affairs if we would really feel the troubles in our hearts. Oi,
v’voi; where am I in the world? How can we focus our speech and voice in order
to roar and shout out to You pleading about troubles such as these. O, what can
we say? How can we justify ourselves?
Master of the World, Merciful One, You we
full of compassion, so have mercy on this poor generation. Behold our poverty
and strife. We have no-one to rely upon other than on our Father in Heaven and
upon the strength and merit of our fathers and holy tzaddikim who are no longer
with us. Please help us for their sake and for the sake of all those who were
killed in the sanctification of Your Name.
Especially do it for the sake of the ten
martyrs, Rabbi Akiva and his fellows, who tortured and killed the Romans with
tremendous suffering. Their souls departed in great holiness and purity while
sanctifying You Name. Remember all the holy martyrs who have died to sanctify
You Name while suffering extreme torture, since the time of the Destruction of
the Temple until today. Remember the self-sacrifice at all times, every day, of
the true tzakkikim who sacrificed their souls for Your Name’s sake.
They sacrificed their names and soul s to
sanctify Your Name. They nullified their honour and fame and took upon
themselves willingly all types of insult, embarrassment and disgrace, having
their blood spilt, all for Your Name’s sake and for the sake of the Jewish
People in order to atone for them and save them from the harsh decrees and
troubles.
Only You really know what befalls us,
generally and individually, during these recent generations. You know all the
deeds of the true tzaddikim who are engaged in our rectification. They perform
great and awesome deeds for our sake to sweeten all the harsh decrees fro upon
us and to save us from the hands of our enemies and thus redeeming us from all
our troubles. Please, have mercy on us and save us through their power and
merit, from this time of great distress. Teach us how to arrange our prayers so
that we can plead and shout out to You about the harsh decrees which befall us.
Nullify all the harsh decrees our enemies plan against us. Oi, where can we run
to escape. Master of the World, for Your sake, help us. Have compassion on the
honour of Your Name. See how we have become a mockery amongst the nations. G-d,
do it for Your Name’s sake. Rescue us and grant atonement for our sins for the
sake of Your Name. Be gracious with us and answer us; hear our prayers for You
hear theprayer of every mouth of Your People, Israel, with compassion.
Blessed are You, who hears prayer.
261.
When a person
falls from his spiritual level he should know that this is from Heaven; since
being distanced is for the purpose of coming closer. Therefore, his fall was in
order to arouse him more to come closer to G-d. The advice fir him is to start
from anew to enter into the service of G-d, as if he had never started. This is
a fundamental rule in the service of G-d that one has to really start anew
every day.
262
Someone
who merits to innovate Torah ideas which have some substance (truth) to them
needs to cry beforehand. By this he is saved from the Other Side and husks from
drawing strength from these innovations.
(Prayer 262)
Master of the Universe, merit us to study a
lot of Torah every day. And help us to make true Torah innovations which will
find favour before You. Let them be innovations that bring people to good deeds
and cause them to the keep the Torah. Grant us, from You, wisdom, understanding
and knowledge. Please help us so that our minds will flow with genuine Torah
innovations at all times and may this flow spread and grow like a stream, move
and move until it turns into rivers. Let our springs of Torah innovations
spread outwards so that everyone can come and drink from these waters of wisdom
and holy knowledge, from these spiritual rivers. Help us to cry a great deal
before we create Torah innovations which are really genuine and of worth. By
this crying merit us to rectify all these rivers created through our Torah
innovations and to draw them only to places that are appropriate so that the
wrong people will not drink from them.
Master of the Universe, You know how far away
we are from all this at the moment, for,
because of our many sins. Our brains and minds have become blocked so that it
is hard for us to understand even when we study the Torah innovations made
already by Your holy tzaddikim. So, how can we open our mouths to ask and
request from You that we ourselves create genuine Torah innovations such as
these. Even so, You have already informed us through the Sages: : “Open wide
your mouth and I will fit it”. We are able and have permission to ask and
request from You even the greatest spiritual level in studying Torah in the
service of G-d. Nothing is beyond You. So have mercy on us and merit us to reach
complete perfection in all that we are asking and pleading from You.
Amen. So may it be.
263.
a)
If a person eats too much he is
like an animal for man is defined as one who eats only what he needs. When he
eats more than that it is really like the act of an animal. As a result of
eating too much one can get a fever, Heaven save us. In addition, if a person
gets in his food something which has not yet been clarified and elevated to the
level of human (kosher) food, this can also lead to a fever, Heaven forbid.
b)
Perspiration is a cure for a
fever, Heaven preserve us.
(Prayer 263)
Guardian of Israel, guard the remnant of
Israel, let no illness or pain or ailment come upon Your People, Israel. You,
who are full of mercy, have mercy upon us and all Israel. Guard us and save us
at all times that we should eat no more than what is absolutely necessary. Just
merit us that our eating and drinking be exactly measured, so that we eat no
unnecessary food, which is the aspect of animal food. So also, save us and guard
us so that no food pass our lips which still has not been raised from the level
of animal food to that of human food.
As You mercy is great, have pity upon us;
assist us and guard us at all times so that our eating be only from human food
and not from animal food at all. And by this, grant us merit to be guarded and
saved from all sorts of illnesses, especially from fever. Heaven forbid, this
comes about by eating excessive food, which is an aspect of animal food or by
eating food which has not yet been clarified and raised to the level of human
consumption, which is also an aspect of animal food.
You, who are full of compassion, have mercy,
for You know how many blemishes and failings come about by excessive eating or
drinking and how many illnesses also come through this, Heaven forbid;
particularly fever, which has now become very common. Lord, save us from now
onwards. Have mercy on all Israel and on me. Always protect me so that I will
be careful from now on and guard my soul, such that I will not eat any
excessive food at all. In Your mercy, defend us and protect us so that food
which has not been separated for human consumption will never enter our mouths.
Protect me in such a way that You save me and all Your Nation, Israel, from all
sorts of illnesses, afflictions, pains and ailments and especially from fever.
264.
Charity
is a rectification for a blemish of the brit, but one has to be careful not to
give to a an undeserving poor person for, by this, one blemishes even further.
Therefore one has to ask from the Holy One to merit to meet only deserving poor
people in order to provide for them. This is a very great rectification for
blemishes to the brit.
(Prayer 264)
You are exulted and holy; You perform mighty
deeds, make new things; Master of wars who sows kindnesses, bringing about
salvations, performing kindnesses with all flesh and spirit, do me a kindness
and merit me to give lots of charity to worthy poor people in such a way that I
will have a great rectification to all the innumerous blemishes to the brit
that I have committed contrary to Your desire.
Master of the World, You know how far I have
distanced the bounty from the realm of holiness through blemishes of the brit
by drawing the bounty to improper places, Heaven forbid, places that are not to
be mentioned. How much I have blemished is impossible to estimate. The
rectification for this is to give charity to worthy people. By this, the bounty
is brought back and drawn into the realm of holiness. However, how do we merit
to this, for there are many obstacles to the mitzvah of giving charity, whether
because of the harshness of our hearts or from our lack of faith and trust in
G-d. But even when we break the cruelty in our hearts, we still do not know if
the poor person is really worthy in which case we rectify the blemish of the
brit and draw the bounty in the realm of holiness.
Therefore I have come before You, merciful
One, Master of Charity and kindness, who works to rectify me at all times, have
mercy on me and merit me to give plenty of charity to worthy, deserving, poor
people who really study Torah and serve G-d. Protect me and guard me from
giving charity to poor people who are not worthy. Save me from stumbling upon
them for You know that we haven’t the understanding to guard ourselves from
them. Only You know the heart of each individual and understand their deeds,
for You know the secrets of the world and the hidden mysteries of each living
being.
Have mercy on me and perform Your great
wonders and immense kindnesses by arranging events so that I meet genuine,
worthy poor people. Help and strengthen my heart so that I will give them lots
of charity with a good heart and a pleasant countenance, for You know how very
many rectifications I need in order to rectify my blemishes of the brit which
are very numerous. I rely only on Your plentiful mercy and loving-kindness that
You will rectify and save me by meriting me to give plenty of charity to many
worthy poor people. May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour
before You, G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.
265.
The
reason for breaking a china plate when finalizing an engagement for marriage is
because the souls of this couple, in the world above, are really one. In the
world below this isn't known until the engagement. Only then does their
attachment become known. However, this revelation at the time of the engagement
is in the aspect of the Chiot, which run and return, for this revelation of
their attachment immediately disappears because she is still forbidden to him
until the wedding ceremony. It says, "And the living creatures (chiot) ran
and returned like the appearance of a flash of lightening" (Ezekiel,
1:14). The meaning is that it is like a light that comes out of pieces of
chinaware. That's to say, it is a spark that comes out, only momentarily, when
the chinaware is broken at the moment of the engagement. Therefore, at their
engagement, the light of their unity becomes revealed, in the aspect of running
and returning. Breaking the china plate is an allusion to the secret of the
chiot who run and return like a flash of lightening, as explained.
266. THE VIRTUE OF THE COMMANDMENT OF CHARITY
a)
When a person is not careful
enough about and blemishes the mitzvah of Succah, he falls from the level of
acquiring sustenance as a man to that of drawing sustenance from the bounty
belonging to animals. As a result, animals and other beasts die before their
time, Heaven forbid.
b)
By performing the mitzvah of
Succah properly, one can engage in building and yet not be hurt, for those who
engage in building are often hurt by it. Through the mitzvah of Succah one is
saved from this.
c)
Through entering the Succah we
ourselves become an aspect of Torah, for Torah comes out of the aspect of
Succah.
(Prayer 266)
“One thing I have asked of the Lord that I
will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to visit His temple. For in time of
trouble He will hide me in His succah; in the secret of His tabernacle He will
hide me; He will set me up upon a rock”. Master of the World in Your bountiful
mercy and immense loving-kindness, have mercy upon me. Let me merit to fulfill
the commandment of sitting in a succah in its proper time, as is fitting, in
all its details and exactitudes and intentions and the 613 commandments that
are dependent upon it and may I do so good-heartedly and with great happiness..
May I merit to have drawn upon me the holy brains and the great, wonderful
loving-kindness which is drawn upon Your Nation, Israel by our performing the
very holy and awesome commandment of sitting in the succah during the days of
the holy Festival of Succot. This is when the Supernal Mother gives shelter to
her children and You spread out Your succah of mercy, life and peace over us.
You, who are full of compassion, be full of mercy; have pity upon us for Your
Name’s sake. You know my heart, how very far I am from performing the
commandment of sitting in the succah properly. I need to pray and plead before You
with many entreaties, requests and supplications that You grant me the merit to
such holy brains and loving-kindness in such a way that I merit to real
perception, to perception worthy of a man.
May I very quickly leave the level of animal
and reach the level of man. Let me have pity on myself from now and such that I
now longer behave like an animal. Just let me merit very quickly to real
perception which is what makes one a man. Let me draw from the bounty of man
and no more from the bounty of animals. May I rise very quickly from the level
of animal to the level of man! Master of the World, Master of the World who is
good and does good to all, whose mercy is upon all His creatures. Take pity and
have mercy upon the beasts and animals. Let me and all Your Nation, the House
of Israel, merit not to blemish any commandments at all such that our drawing
of bounty always be from the bounty of man which is drawn from the aspect of
succah.
May we merit, by this holy commandment, to
rejoice with great happiness on Simchat Torah, to finish reading the Torah and
start it again with great happiness and joy. We will rejoice and be glad with
this Torah for it is our might and light. Help us every year to perform the
commandment of sitting in a Succah with such great perfection that we merit to
receive the Torah anew very year, for Torah comes out from the succah.
By our entering the succah may we merit that
Torah be made through us and through every Jew. Torah, Israel and the Holy One are all one. By the holy commandment
of succah may there be drawn the holiness of the Festival of Shavuot, the
holiness of the month of Sivan and the holiness of receiving the Torah.
Master of the World, our needs are very great
indeed, beyond estimation and our minds are not able to clarify or express even
one thousandth or tenth of a thousandth of them. Have mercy upon us for Your
Name’s sake. Fulfill our wishes for the good through Your mercy. Let us merit
to perform perfectly the commandment of sitting in a succah at the appointed
time, in such a way that we merit to receive all that we have asked from You.
May we not cause the premature death of beasts and animals. Heaven forbid.
Rather let us always draw and be sustained from the bounty of man which stems
from the aspect of a succah.
Spread over us at all times the succah of
Your peace. Spread over us at all times the succah of Your peace; shelter us in
the shade of Your protection. Grant us merit that every one who has to engage
in building not be hurt by the building; just guard us and protect us in the
strength of the holiness of the commandment of the succah which Your people
Israel perform. May we build our house with real wisdom for the sake of Your
Name alone. Let our house be one in which we learn and pray very much. Let us
merit speak a lot of words of Torah and prayer in our house as we learnt from
our holy rabbis and may we attract into our house good bounty, blessings,
mercy, life and everything that is really eternally good, both materially and
spiritually, now and in the future.
267.
On
Shavuot we receive the Torah; then we can receive new vitality and to draw down
a cure for the lungs.
268
a)
When a person doesn't contemplate
the purpose of life, what is his life for?
b)
The soul always longs to perform the will of
its Creator and when it sees that a person isn't doing it, the soul begins to
draw itself (to its source) and to leave the body and this causes the person to
become sick. The fact that he returns to his health through medicines is
because the soul sees that the person can subdue his physical cravings and
accept bitter medicines for a given purpose. Therefore, the soul returns to him
for it now expects that he will also subdue his cravings for the true purpose
of performing the will of his Creator, may He be blessed.
(Prayer
268)
Master
of the Universe, merit us to always look at the real purpose of existence which
is to perform Your will. For this alone the world was created; this is the
purpose of all our life-force. If a person does not look at this ultimate purpose
why does he need life? Save us from all illnesses, Heaven preserve us, which
are caused when a person does not have this ultimate purpose in mind of
performing Your will. Then the soul begins to be drawn out of the body and to
return to its source, for why should it live in the body. Please send speedily a complete cure to all
sick Jewish people, not by physical, medicinal means, but rather, just by the
word of G-d. You have already informed us that when a person returns to full
health by means of physical cures (medicines) that is because the soul sees the
person can subdue his physical cravings and habits by taking treatments and
bitter medicines in order to return to health. Therefore, the soul returns to
him in the expectation that from now on he can subdue his cravings for the sake
of the true ultimate purpose which is to fulfill the desire of his Maker. So
have mercy on all the Jewish sick people. Instil in their hearts the absolute
acceptance of negating their desires to Your will. Let them subdue and break
all the cravings of their bodies by looking only at the ultimate purpose which
is to perform Your will with perfection. By this, may all the sick return to
complete health.
Amen.
So may it be.
269.
From
the appearance of the dwelling of the tzaddik one can perceive the deeds of the
generation.
270.
Like
when a person recites supplications and penitential prayers with spiritual
arousal and a broken heart his fellow also becomes aroused from him such that
he also recites supplications with an enthused heart, so also, a person also
becomes inspired from himself and within himself. When he recites supplications
and other prayers with enthusiasm, shouting, 'Oh, woe am I!', he also sometimes
becomes aroused and begins to look at himself, thinking, 'Who is shouting like
that? Oh, woe am I really'. Then he shouts a second time 'Woe am I', this time
with greater feeling.
(Prayer 270)
Master of the Universe, merit us to complete
repentance. Enable me to receive spiritual arousal from other people, whether
from my rabbis, through their words of ethical encouragement which I hope will
be engraved in my heart, or from my friends, whenever I see them performing a
mitzvah or praying with a broken heart. By this, may my heart also be inspired
so that I begin to look at myself and ask myself where I am in the world; what
am I and what is my life? What will be my end? What will be with my ultimate
purpose? Arouse me so that as a result I will achieve full repentance. Let me
accustom myself to pray and plead before You a great deal with a heart full of
enthusiasm.
So also, merit me to receive holy spiritual
arousal from myself. I am used to reciting many supplications, requests and
confessions but somehow I do not really hear properly my own words. My words
are in my mouth but far from my heart. Therefore, merit me to hear my heart and
the words of my mouth and thus receive inspiration. Merit me to really become
aroused and shout out ‘Oh, woe am I’ and other expressions like this, from the
depths of my heart, as I should, until You hear my cries, accept my prayers and
return me in truly perfect repentance before You.
271.
By
means of doing and serving G-d a lot, one merits to holy audacity and to talk
to the rabbi and the tzaddik. Then, as a result, he becomes more enthused to
serve G-d. Thus it is that one thing depends on the other. So also, there are
several factors in the matter of the service of G-d which are dependent on each
other and we don't know where to begin, for each one starts from the other.
(Prayer 271)
Help
me and merit me to come close to genuine tzaddikim whilst having holy boldness
before thme so that I will not be ashamed to talk to them about anything I need
to talk about. As a result my I succeed to serve G-d even more and then come
even closer to the true tzaddikim and talk to them with greater holy boldness.
Through this may I come to save G-d with greater perfection. I do not know
where to start, whether to begin by approaching tzaddikim and talking to them,
and thereby meriting to serve G-d, or whether to first increase my service of
G-d and then approach and talk to them.
One thing is dependent on the other and I
do not know where the beginning is. Similarly there are many things in
the service of G-d that depend on each other and we do not know where the
beginning is. Therefore, have mercy on us and teach us the proper path and the
truth about where to begin the service of G-d. Help us to be strong with
yearning and desire for all the things in the realm of holiness. Let us pray
and plead a lot before You about each thing in the service of G-d until we
merit to begin and finish all the things we need to do in the servic eo G-d.
Merit us to fulfill Your will and to serve You with all our hearts.
Amen.
So may it be.
272.
There
is a fundamental rule in the service of G-d not to take into consideration
anything other than today. So also regarding making a living and one's needs,
don't think from one day to another, as explained in holy books. This is true
also in the service of G-d; don't take into account other than the present day
and the present hour. For when a person wants to enter the service of G-d, it
seems to him that it is a heavy load and it is impossible to deal with such a
load, but when he thinks that he only has that particular day, then it won't be
a load at all. Furthermore, one shouldn't push off things from one day to
another, saying tomorrow I will start and tomorrow I will pray with all my
strength and concentration as is fitting, etc. for a person's only world
consists of the present day and hour; tomorrow is another world altogether.
"Today if His call we hear" (Psalms, 95:7), specifically today.
(Prayer 272)
Merciful One, Master of wonders, Who, in this
goodness renews creation every day, Who, in this wisdom changes the times, help
me and save me with Your great and wonderful salvation. Enable me to renew myself every day with additional holiness and purity. Merit me
every day to begin again from anew to serve You as if I were born today. Help
me not to think from one day to another at all so that my mind cannot become
confused from one day to another, whether form the past or the future. May my
service of G-d not become too burdensome because of thinking about the hours or
days to come. Let me not look back or think about anything other than this
specific day, hour and moment that I am at. In this way allow me to involve
myself in really serving You in simplicity and purity without any confusions,
fears, laziness or a sense of being over-burdened. Rather, let me hasten myself
in Your service every day from anew. So also prevent my mind from becoming
confused from thinking today about my income and many needs in the days to
come. Just merit me to really have trust in G-d, who grants us all our needs
each day. May I accustom myself to say regularly, “Thankyou G-d.day by day”.
Please, Merciful One, have compassion upon
me. Merit me to achieve all this, so that the thought of one day to another
will not confuse me at all. By this, may I truly enter into Your realm of
holiness and com close to You. Then, let me renew myself for the good, adding
every hour and every day more holiness, purity and fear of G-d in Your service.
Prevent me from is leading myself and from pushing off the service of G-d from
one day to another. Rather, help me to
think only of the present moment, as if only that exists in my world.
Help me for Your Name’s sake. Bring me every
day a new and wonderful salvation in such a way that I merit to come closer to
You every day, with more perfection, as You desire. Merit me to live my days,
from now on with truth. Have pity on the few remaining days I have to tarry in
this ephemeral world. “Return us to You,
G-d and we will return; renew our days of old”.
273.
There
are very great tzaddikim who draw souls to their sons from an aspect of above
the six hundred thousand souls of the People of Israel.
274.
There
are wicked people who work and strive all their lives in order to uproot
themselves from the Holy One for they have no pleasure from their sins and
cravings. This is because there still remains within them a holy point of the
holiness of the People of Israel. Therefore, they strive to reach complete
denunciation of faith. However, the Judaism within them doesn't let them. Know,
there are Jews who, when they reach total atheism, without any doubt that might
point toward the truth, they immediately die; then they see the truth.
275.
a)
Every single mitzvah that a Jew
performs in This World, creates a candle which will be used after his death to
search in the Treasury of the King. Happy is he who merits to this for this is
the ultimate pleasure in the World to Come.
b)
The tzaddik who sacrifices himself
during his lifetime, merits also during his life to search in the Treasury of
the King which is the entire pleasure of the World to Come, as mentioned.
(Prayer 275)
I am still on watch; I will plead before You
with outstretched hands until You pardon me; have mercy upon me and deliver me
by means of a really perfect solution. Send into my heart really perfect advice
every day, every hour, every moment so that I merit from not on to really
perfect repentance, to turn away from evil and always do that which is good in
Your eyes. In Your compassion, may I be among those who fear You and those who are
pure, who merit to the great good which is stored away and hidden. Let me be
among those to whom You give permission to look and search in the ‘treasure of
the King’. How wonderful is their portion in life. From each commandment that
You let me merit to perform in my lifetime may holy candles be made and with
these holy candles of the commandments may I merit to look and search in the
‘treasure of the King’ at the time of my death.
You, who are full of compassion, I have asked
difficult things but nothing is difficult or beyond You. In Your immense
wonders, Your awesome favours, Your bountiful loving kindness and Your great
mercy, I believe that I still have hope to merit all this in the strength and
merit of the holy, true tzaddikim who are so awesome and sublime. Upon them we
rely and without them we have no ability to open our mouths to ask anything
from You, even the smallest things.
However, upon their great strength we depend,
in order to hope and ask all the great favours in all the worlds, for their
strength and merit is enough for me and for all the Community of Israel to help
us merit to all that is good, all that is true and eternal. Full of compassion,
have mercy upon me, help me and save me so I can jump and leap over all the
vanities of This World, so that I can really and simply come closer to You, for
ever and ever, for all eternities. Fulfill in me the verse which says: “You
have delivered my soul from death and my eyes from tears and my feet from
falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living”.
May I merit, in Your mercy, to confess every
single day, especially close to my death. Let me confess sincerely by all sorts
of true, wholehearted confessions, with a broken, depressed heart, with immense
crying, such that I merit to arouse Your truly bountiful mercy upon me so that
You pardon, forgive and grant me atonement with regard to all my sins,
iniquities and willful transgression that I have committed before You up until
now, in this incarnation and in previous reincarnations. Let no impressions or
memory of them remain at all. Let my death be an atonement for all my
transgressions… You know everything that has happened to me and all that I have
transgressed and blemished against You up until now. However, You still act
with loving-kindness towards me. In Your compassion You still strengthen me…
Have mercy upon me and for Your Name’s sake,
speedily redeem me completely from all the evil cravings, evil thoughts and all
the sins and blemishes which I have become accustomed to doing. Oh! Oh! Oh! Woe
is me! Oh! Oh! Oh! Woe! Oh! Oh! I do not know what to say at all, how to ask
for advice and strategies in such depths of the sea as these, without foothold,
in such confusion and bad habits as these, with such slackness and stubbornness
as this. Even so, I still see Your endless, great mercy and loving-kindness
every single day… Have mercy upon me and save me truly and completely. Grant my
heart perfect counsel every day, at all times, at every hour, in such a way
that at least from now on, I can merit to return in complete repentance, to
turn away from evil and to always do that which is good in Your eyes.
276.
Eating
on Shabbat is not for the sake of satiation at all; it is only because all the
six days of the week are blessed from it.
277. "A TZADDIK WILL FLOURISH LIKE A DATE PALM"
(Psalms,92:13)
a)
When there is a controversy
against a person he shouldn’t stand up against his opponents and say that he
will do to them what they do to him for this will cause the opponents to
acquire what they want, to see inn him what they want to see in him. Rather, on
the contrary, it is fitting to judge them on the side of merit and to do them
favours. By this he will annul the thoughts of the opponent. Then, on the
contrary, the thoughts of the person who hates him will return on his own head.
b)
All this is when the haters are
wicked people, but when they are tzaddikim their intentions are certainly only
for the good for they raise and elevate him through this; they alleviate the
harsh decrees from upon him by their controversy against him. This a person has
to know when tzaddikim oppose him; it is only for the good. He has to ask from
the Holy One not to be misled into thinking it is really an actual controversy,
Heaven forbid, so that complete controversy from the Other Side won't overcome
him, Heaven forbid, as a result.
c)
Controversy leads to poverty and
one doesn't merit to a cure. However, by peace one acquires a cure and a
living.
d)
The main honour of Shabbat is
through eating for the eating on Shabbat is very precious indeed; it is
entirely godliness; all holiness. Therefore it is a very big mitzvah to eat
plenty on Shabbat. This is a rectification of any desecration of Shabbat that
one caused.
e)
Desecration of Shabbat is an
aspect of the death of one's first wife, Heaven preserve us. Eating on Shabbat
is a rectification of this.
f)
All the mitzvoth that person
performs during the week don't have the strength to come before the Holy One;
only on Shabbat they rise and come before Him. He takes delight in them even if
they are performed by the most insignificant of Jews without any proper
intention or perfection as befits a mitzvah. They create a wide, well-used
pathway to come close to the Holy One. All this is achieved by eating on
Shabbat for it is the main honour of Shabbat, as mentioned previously.
g)
"Woe unto me for my sojourn
is drawn out"(Psalms,120:5). It was the custom of King David, when
praying, to have in mind that he regrets having feared something physical, a
fear stemming from the three hundred and twenty (which in Hebrew is numerically
'shach') harsh decrees. That is,
"my sojourn" ("garti m'shach") which, in Hebrew, can also
be read as 'my fear' ("garti"); "is drawn
out"("m'shach") can also be read as 'from ("m") three
hundred and twenty' ("shach").
(Prayer 277)
“My G-d, guard my tongue from evil and my
lips from speaking falsehood. Let my soul be silent to those who curse me and
let my soul be as the dust to all things”. Master of the World, Lord of Peace,
let me be worthy of being a person of real peace, to love peace and chase after
peace at all times, truthfully and wholeheartedly. Let me never ever engage in
controversy, even against those who oppose me, who rise against me and
undermine me, Heaven forbid, no matter what they do to me! May the Merciful One
protect me and help me and grant me merit so that I do not stand up against
them or do to them what they do to me. Rather, the reverse, let merit to judge
them on the side of merit and to do them lots of favours. May I really fulfill,
“Let my soul be as dust to all…”. Grant me merit to be actually like the dust
upon which everyone treads and yet it does them favours. By this, may I merit
to nullify and thwart the thoughts of my enemies and those who hat them. As for
those who plot evil against me, thwart their counsel and frustrate their
intentions.
Open my eyes, heart and mind so that I merit
to perceive and distinguish between the controversy of the wicked and the
controversy of the tzaddikim. May I merit to really believe that the
controversy against tzaddikim – meaning that people oppose them – is a very
good thing, for, by that they raise him and lift him up and sweeten the harsh
judgments upon him. Don’t let me make a mistake, Heaven forbid by thinking that
the controversy against tzaddikim is a real controversy, Heaven forbid. By
this, let us not give a place for the controversy from the Other Side to take
hold in this controversy against tzaddikim…
Our Father in Heaven, King to whom peace
belongs, You know how very much controversy has spread in our generations, in
several aspects, such as between tzaddikim and between ordinary people and the
wicked, The controversy of the Other Side wants to become stronger and spread
more every day, whether openly or discreetly, such that many have stumbled and
fallen because of the overabundance of controversy, difference of opinions and
distancing of hearts which has increased a great deal in our generations
because of our many iniquities. Dissension has been caused between the
Torah-scholars and those who accompany them, such that it is difficult to
distinguish and separate between the controversy of tzaddikim and the
controversy of the Other Side.
Many people have fallen completely from
belief in Torah-scholars because of this. Belief in Torah-scholars is a
foundation, a pillar of all the Torah, for they are our lives and the lengths
of our days. Without them we could not find our hands or feet in anything to do
with holiness…. Our exile has been long, our servitude stretched out and our minds
are not clear. I do not know how to behave in this regard and how to direct my
mind in the matter. I do not know “from where will my help come” for I am an
ignoramus; I do not have human perception to distinguish and know who are the
real tzaddikim and Torah-scholars who have the power to give me true advice, to
guide me on the straight and true path and to bring me closer to You, my Father
in Heaven. Because of my many transgressions, my mind is so limited that I do
not even know how to speak in a fitting way before You about this. In addition
to this, controversy and distancing of hearts has increased in the world in
several aspects and ways, in several different matters.
Now, I do not know what to do at all – how to
behave; how to talk; how to disregard it; how to allude to it; how to pray
about it. I am as confused as a drunkard. I do not know where I am in the world
at all or what my end purpose will be…..
Teach me how to express myself before You now
and how to arouse Your real compassion upon me. Save me from argument and
controversy in all its aspects. Help me and save me so that others will not
oppose me or argue with me, whether physically or spiritually, whether above or
below. Protect me and save me so that I will not oppose any kosher person in
the world. Even more so let there be no element of controversy in my heart
against true tzaddikim, especially against those holy tazddikim who dwell in
the dust. Let me not start to love all of Israel and be at peace with all of
them. May I truly fulfill the verse which says; “Depart from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it”.
In Your bountiful mercy, merit me to receive
Shabbat as is fitting, with great joy, respect and a sense of wealth, with a
minimum of sins (from the weekdays). May I eat a lot on Shabbat without any
worry about the expense. Rather let me encourage myself and strive to have many
foods, delicacies and good drinks for the sake of the holy Shabbat.
Let me
eat plenty on Shabbat as the Sages warned us to make Shabbat a delight with all
one’s strength. For the eating on Shabbat is all G-dliness, all holiness and
rises to a completely different place in the World Above from that of the
weekdays. Merit me, through the eating on the holy Shabbat to return any
desecration of Shabbat that I might have
caused. You know that it is very hard for a human being to be careful and
prevent completely desecration of Shabbat. So I ask that You alone protect and
save me from all kinds of desecration of Shabbat that exist.
Have mercy on us and protect every Jewish man
from the punishment of being a widower, Heaven forbid. Let our first wife live
a long life and not die before us. Just merit us and all Jews to live long
lives with our first wives in real holiness and purity, for You know the
bitterness of the distress and sorrow of one who loses his first wife,
Heaven forbid, his footsteps become
shortened and the world turns into darkness
for him. It is as if the Holy Temple was destroyed in his lifetime,
Heaven preserve us.
Through the holiness of Shabbat may we raise
the ‘legs’ into the realm of holiness; that is to say, all the mitzvoth that we
perform throughout the week, let their feet
rise above the husks of the Other Side, which draws sustenance from them
during the weekdays; then they can walk and rise before You. You, Who love the
Jewish People tremendously. In Your bountiful mercy, accept all our mitzvoth
and good deeds, even from those of lowly value like me who perform the mitzvot
with a minimum of understanding and a lack of any semblance of perfection. Out
of Your compassion and love, please accept all our mitzvot with great love.
Cherish them; take splendour and delight from them.
Master of Salvations, save me from everything
I need to be saved from for my needs are beyond count. Nevertheless, my mind is too limited to express or explain
even a fraction of them. Save me from arguments and controversy. Merit me to
real peace in all its aspects so that I really and truly feel love for my
fellow Jews. Merit me to follow the paths of the true tzaddikim until I manage
to be as You desire from me. May I have a real fear of You from on and forever.
Let the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour before You,
G-d, my Rock and Redeemer. He Who makes peace in the Heavens, in mercy create
peace upon us and upon all the Jewish People.
Amen
.
278.
a) On a ritual slaughterer's knife which is
good, one can see all the vessels of the Holy Temple and what sort of
appearance they have now.
b) There exists a tzaddik who is so great that
he doesn't envy any other tzaddik, not in This World and not in the World to
Come; he envies only the Holy One, may He be blessed, like it says, "He
was zealous for My sake" (Numbers, 25:11).
279.
"MY MOUTH HAS SPOKEN IN MY DISTRESS" (Psalms, 66:14)
a) There are those who say over Torah which is very expansive in
the world below; they expand and increase the Torah a lot, but in the World
Above it is very narrow. This is because in the realm of holiness in the World
Above, nothing is left other than a small spark. However, the opposite also
exists, for there are true tzaddikim who say over Torah which appears to be
very narrow, but in the World Above it is very, very great and expansive
indeed. Happy are they.
b) Even though a person cannot speak at all before G-d and it
appears to him that he cannot open his mouth in prayer and individual requests,
because of his great materiality and because of the weight of his bodily and
spiritual troubles, even so, he has to strengthen himself specifically at such
a time and force himself to call to G-d from the situation of distress and
pressure. This is because the main arousal of a person is when he arouses
himself from the distress and pressure. By this, afterwards, he will usually
merit to a great relief such that he will be able to pray and explain himself
properly until he can eventually reach an aspect of a spirit of holiness,
divine inspiration. This comes about specifically by arousal to serve G-d from
the situation of distress and bitterness like this.
(Prayer 279)
I have called to G-d from the straits; G-d
answer me with expansiveness. From distress I call to G-d. I will plead with
G-d. Help me, merciful One so that no distress will confuse my thoughts and
prevent me from praying and shouting out to You at any time. Please do not let
any distress or anguish, whether in body, soul or money matters bother me,
Heaven forbid, from calling out to You. Rather, merit me to call and cry out to
You at all times, no matter what, for You know how very hard it is for me
everyday to open my mouth before You in prayer, especially when I want to
explain myself to You. On most occasions I cannot open my mouth to speak to You
because of my great distress and burdens.
As a result of my many problems, in soul and
body, my mouth has become sealed and dumb. It is very hard and a great burden
for me to open my mouth before You. The main problem is the weakness of my mind
for I know that I myself am responsible for everything that befalls me.
However, You are full of compassion. You have
already informed us that, despite everything, You crave for our prayers; You
hear and listen attentively to the voice of our prayers and supplications.
Therefore, behold, I cast my supplications before You. I pray that You will be
with me every hour and every moment of each day. Help me always to ignore all
these confusions. Merit me to strengthen myself at all times, to start again to
express myself before You even within my distress. Let me fulfill the verse:
‘And my mouth spoke when I suffered distress’.
Merit me to come close to true tzaddikim
whose Torah innovations are drawn down from above into the world below. In the
World Above their Torah is very broad and lofty while in the world below it
becomes shortened in order that it can enter thehearts and minds of each
individual, as is appropriate for him. Distance
me from those rabbis who invert the proper pathways and reveal Torah
that rises from below; they broaden it a great deal below, but in the World
Above it is very narrow indeed. Have mercy upon me and merit me to Torah
innovations in the way that the true tzaddikim draw them down from above to
below.
So also, in all my Prayers and supplications,
merit me to start from the narrow confines and difficulty until You, out of
mercy, open my mouth. Grant me a holy spirit from Heave so that I can really
express myself before You, as You desire. Have mercy upon me. Give me strength
at all times to rely upon Your bountiful loving-kindness such that I can
callout to You on all occasions, whatever happens.
You, G-d, are my help and comfort. Thankyou
G-d forever.
Amen and Amen.
280
a)
All business affairs are entirely
Torah. Therefore, when doing business, a person has to connect his mind only to
the Torah and the Torah laws which are clothed in the business. If a person
doesn’t connect his thoughts to the Torah when he does business, his punishment
afterwards will be to have to appear in a religious court in the presence of judges to seek a Torah ruling,
all according to his blemish. One person's punishment is only to be judged but
is found innocent, whereas another person uprooted his business affairs more
from the Torah so he is not found innocent.
b)
The time of conducting business is
a time of war, since one has to battle then with the Other Side to separate and
elevate from there the holy sparks; for the main purpose of business is to
separate the holy sparks. By performing business with simple faith such that
one keeps to one's word, yes being yes and no being no and also connecting one's
thoughts to the Torah, for one only needs superficial thoughts about the
business, keeping the essence of one's thoughts only on the Torah, by this one
merits to separate and elevate several sparks and fallen elements of holiness
through the business transactions. Then worlds are elevated and great
rectifications are created through the money, just like prayer brings about.
(Prayer 280)
Merit me to always cleave to Your Torah and
to serve You forever. May Your Torah be our occupation in This World and
accompany us in the World to Come; let me engage in studying Your Torah day and
night. Even when, according to Your desire I have to engage in some business
for the sake of making a living and to travel etc., have mercy on me and save
me so that even at the time of business my mind in essence will be connected to
the Torah and cleave to Your for Your holy Torah is clothed within the business
transaction. Let me now put all my mind into the business or other mundane
affairs but rather only my outer, superficial mind, my inner mind will then be
connected and cleave to Your holy Torah. So merit me to conduct all my business
with great faith and let me always be true to my word, never changing it for
all the money in the world. May my intention in the business always be for Your
Name’s sake and for Your Torah, meaning that I have in mind to earn money in
order to be able to study the Torah, serve You and donate plenty of charity.
Please help me to minimize the time spent in business while maximizing the time
spent on studying Torah for Your Name’s sake. Let my Torah studying be
permanent and of prime importance while my business affairs are temporary and
secondary.
Your desire is that we engage in business
affairs for a living, to separate and elevate all the holiness and sparks that
have fallen into the depth of the husks. We are meant to raise them and return
them to their proper place. So, have mercy upon us and grant us the strength
and power to triumph in this war of dealing with external mundane things. Let all
our business affairs be conducted with great faith, with holiness, purity, awe
and fear of G-d; with a great cleaving to Your Torah and service in the depths
of my thoughts. By this may we have the strength to separate, through our holy
faith, all the sparks that have fallen in to the depths of the husks because of
our many sins. Have mercy one us for Your Name’s sake. You know that we have no
strength to separate and extract the holy sparks from the hands of the husks.
Because of this the exile is unending. Who can we rely upon other that our
Father in Heaven. Especially when I leave the study-hall for the sake of
business, enabler me to strengthen my faith a very great deal.
In Your mercy and power, give strength to our
holy faith so that we can clarify, gather raise and elevate all the holiness
and fallen holy sparks that have existed within all things since the world was
created. Please raise and elevate them; return them to their proper place. By
this, guard us so that whenever need to come before judges in a Torah court of
law. Rather, may all our business affairs be with faith and may and may those
dealing with us do so with faith and honesty. Let us know and behave that all
our business has Torah clothed within it. May our business affairs always be
attached to the Torah and its laws in such a way that we never need to rectify
it by a court case. Master of the World help and save those Jews like myself
who are weak and lack Torah knowledge or advice; help them to win the war in
all its aspects. Our hearts trust and rely upon the strength of the true
tzaddikim. Upon them we cast our supplications. Let them fight on our behalf.
We will follow their holy advice without swerving from their words to the right
of left.
“Please G-d save us. Please G-d, bring
success”. “G-d Save! May the King answer us on the day we call”.
281.
Even
a simple person who sits over a holy book and looks at the letters of the Torah
well can see innovations and wonders; nevertheless he just shouldn't put it to
the test (see inside).
(Prayer 281)
Master of the Universe, merit us to engage in
studying Your holy Torah every single day. Let me study many books written by
Your holy sages. Grant me wisdom, understanding and knowledge such that
whatever book I study I will merit to understand it well and really understand
the intention of the author without mistaking his intention. Help me not to
give a false interpretation, Heaven forbid. After I manage to really understand
the author’s intention, merit me to delve further and look at the letters of
the Torah with the book until the letters begin to radiate and combine in such
a way that they stand out. Then, enable me to see in the book innovations,
wonders and new combinations of letters that even the author of the book never
had in mind. Fulfill in me the verse: “ Open my eyes and let me contemplate the
wonders of Your Torah.”
Amen. So may it be.
282.
I WILL SING TO MY G-D WHILE I EXIST
a)
When a person begins to look at
himself and sees that he is far from good and he is full of sins then he can
fall through this and he won't be able to pray at all. Therefore he has to
search for, seek and find a little more good in himself, for how is it possible
that he hasn't done a mitzvah or something good during his life. And even when
he begins to look at that good that he did and sees that the good itself is
full of flaws and nothing is complete about it, for the good is mixed with
ulterior motives and a lot of dross, nevertheless how is it possible that there
isn't in that little bit of good some good point. So he has to search and seek until he finds
in himself a little more good in something, and even if this good is also mixed
with a lot of dross, nevertheless there is in it at least some good point. Then
he should search and seek for more until he finds some more good points; by
this he will find in himself some merit and good which will really move him
from the side of guilt to the side of merit enabling him to repent. Through
this he will be able to revive himself and make himself happy however he is.
Then he will be able to pray, singing and giving praise to G-d for usually when
a person is about to pray to the Holy One, his bad deeds come into his mind.
Because of this his spirit falls and he can't pray with enthusiasm and vitality
as he should. Therefore a person has to enthuse himself before the prayers by
searching for, seeking and finding within himself good points, as explained,
then he can pray properly.
b)
A person has to be very careful to go in this
path because it is a major rule and foundation for whoever wants to come close
to the Holy One and not lose his world altogether, Heaven forbid. For the main
thing is to distance oneself from sadness and depression in any way possible.
Most people are far from G-d primarily because of sadness and depression. Their
spirit falls when they see in themselves that they are full of blemishes and
most of their deeds are blemished, as each person knows in his soul the
afflictions of his heart and his pains. Because of this people's spirits fall
and give up in despair completely, Heaven forbid. They don't pray with
concentration at all; they don't serve G-d even as they are still capable of
doing. Therefore, a person has to be very clever about this for many people
have fallen because of this. Despair, Heaven forbid, is worse than anything so
one has to strengthen oneself very much to follow this path of searching for
good points within oneself each time in order to revitalize and strengthen
oneself continually. Through this one can pray with desire, vitality and joy at
all times until one really returns to G-d.
c)
The prayer leader who prays by the
reader's stand in the synagogue has to have a higher aspect of being able to
collect together all the good points of each person praying such that al the
good points are included within him. Then he will stand and pray with all this
good. Happy is the congregation who merit to such a prayer leader.
d)
In every generation there is a
shepherd of the Jewish People who is an aspect of Moshe, a faithful shepherd.
This shepherd builds a tabernacle and the children who learn Torah and whose
voices are without sin receive from this tabernacle. From there they begin to
read and enter the Torah. Therefore they begin by learning Leviticus which
talks about the completion of the erection of the tabernacle. Know that all the
tzaddikim of the generation have within themselves an aspect of Moshe; every
one of them is an aspect of the shepherd and builds an aspect of the
tabernacle. And every one, according to the aspect of the tabernacle that he
builds, has young children who receive the voice of their mouths from there.
But to know all this, to know each tzaddik and which young children belong to
him, how much they receive from him, to know all the aspects in this and the
generations that will come from them until the end of days, know that whoever
can judge each person to the side of merit and search and find good points that
exist in each Jew, even the sinners among the Jewish People, through this he
has that higher aspect of the prayer leader and cantor so he can know all the
above perfectly. This is the secret of what the Sages said, "The cantor
sees where the young children are reading" (Shabbat, 11).
e)
One has to judge each person to
the side of merit, even if he is completely wicked, Heaven forbid. One has to
search and find in him a little bit of good within which he is not a sinner. By
finding in him a little good in which he is not a sinner through which one can
judge him favourably, in this way one raises him really to the side of good and
through this one can bring him to repent. This is the aspect of "a little
more and there will be no wicked one" (Psalms,37:10); that's to say, by
finding in him a little more good in which he is not wicked, by this "you
will look carefully at his place and he will not be there" (ibid). In
other words, by this (judging him to the side of merit) he will not be in his
previous place for he has risen really to the side of merit. So also a person
with himself has to also follow this path. Even if he sees in himself that he
is very far from the Holy One, he has to find in himself also that little bit
more good in which he is not a sinner, as explained above. By this he will
really move onto the side of merit.
{ Editor's note: See Lekutei Halachot, Eruvie
Techumin, Halacha 6. It is explained there that the redemption from Egypt was
through the aspect of "I have seen the affliction of My People" which
the Sages explain as referring to two visions; G-d saw that they would
eventually sin but also saw their affliction. That's to say, He looks at the
good within them and not the bad caused by the affliction of exile. It is
through this that they were deserving of redemption.
This topic of constantly searching for the good in Jewish people and
finding them meritorious is a very, very great and deep matter. At first Moshe
didn't know how far-reaching G-d's compassion is and so he refused the errand
of redeeming Israel but then G-d showed him the sign of the staff that turned into
a snake, alluding to that fact that one shouldn't speak out about the bad in
Jews. Then G-d said: "Take hold of it by its tail…and it shall be a staff
in your hand." G-d taught him that even within the very midst of the
poisonous effects of the snake, it is still possible to hold onto some good
point. Even the snake turns back into a staff.
The final redemption by Meshiach will
also be through this aspect for Meshiach
will find some good point and merit within every simple Jew. By this he
will lift them up to the side
of merit. Through this the redemption will come; may it come speedily within our days. Amen.}
(Prayer 282)
Master of the World, who desires mercy, who
is full of compassion, who looks at the wicked person and desires his
righteousness, who always judges every person on the side of merit. You, who
are great in loving-kindness and do much good, who rules His world in
loving-kindness and His creatures in mercy, help me and grant me worthiness to
go on the true path in such a way that I merit even now to search and find in
myself some merit or good points, to always judge myself on the side of merit.
Let this be in such a way that I merit to gladden myself at all times and
really place myself onto the side of merit and thereby merit to really perfect
repentance. By this, let me pray with great concentration, with liveliness and
great happiness and immense joy. Let me merit to really fulfill the verse which
says “I will sing the praises of G-d as long as I live”, * with the little bit
extra good I find in myself. **
In the little bit extra good I find in
myself. **
In our bountiful mercy, let me merit to
always judge every person on the side of merit even when I see a totally wicket
person. Even so, let me search and search until I find some good points in him,
until I merit to judge him on the side of merit and really place him in the
scale of merit and by this, really and truly bring him to perfect repentance.
Master of the World, in the merit and strength of the true tzaddikim, who
always speak well of Israel, who busy
themselves and strive to search for and uncover and find some merit and good in
every one of us, even the worst of the worst, in their merit and strength let
us also merit to really reach this level.
May we merit to come close to these true
tzaddikim who are always engaged in this, to search and find good points in
every Jewish individual, even in the sinners of Israel. Through their wisdom
they search and find good points in everyone. They collect these points and
join them together one by one to make an account and so place these people in
the scale of merit. The tzaddikim build from these sinners wonderful and
awesome structures of holiness and raise great pleasure before You, such pleasure as has never been raised. They
merit to make holy songs and tunes by gathering all this good from these
places.
Master of the World, full of mercy, grant us
merit to come close to these tzaddikim. Let us merit to be included in them and
to hear the holy prayer of these awesome tzaddikim, who alone know how to pray
for all of Israel; who alone know how to pray in front of the congregation and
fulfill their obligation, collecting all the good and all the good points from
each one of the worshippers. Merciful One, only they know how to pray before
You with all this good, to turn the attribute of strict justice into that of mercy. In Your
great loving-kindness and immense mercy, let us merit to be included in the
prayers of these tzaddikim and let them always pray on our behalf. Don’t rest
until You have mercy upon us, upon every individual. Gather us to You,
homewards and really enter us into the scale of the just. Always gladden our
souls and return us in complete repentance before You, from now and forever.
Master of the World, let us merit to really
enter into the scale of merit in such a way that from now on I may merit to
return in really perfect repentance before You. Through the merit of all the
true tzaddikim who existed in each generation and in the merit of the true
tzaddikim in this generation, let me merit to Your help; save me, teach me and
show me true advice at all times so that I merit to gladden my soul at all
times by this teaching (of finding merit in everyone) Don’t let sadness or
depression enter me or touch me at all. Rather, let me merit to always be happy
because of each and every good point to which I have merited during the years
and because of having caused You some pleasure. Show me and teach me perception
and understanding in such a way that I merit to gladden the souls of Your
People, Israel and to judge them on the side of merit until everyone merits to
really return to You in happiness. Fulfill the verse which says: “ Let the
sinners (sins) be destroyed from the earth and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord”.
*Psalms 146.2.
** Rav Nachman’s explanation of the verse.
See Lesson 282 in Lekutey Moharan.
283.
Sometimes
there is a controversy between two tzaddikim even though both of them are from
the same source and both of them are very great indeed. It is just that one is
an aspect of loving kindness, which characteristically spreads out, so he
reveals his Torah to others, whereas the other tzaddik is an aspect of good
which is hidden within him. (See inside). It turns out that the controversy
between tzaddikim stems from the Torah. However, there is controversy between
the wicked which doesn't stem from the Torah at all. Therefore, a person really
needs to pray to G-d that if it is G-d's will that he be persecuted and suffer
controversy, that at least it will be an aspect of the controversy of the
tzaddikim, as it says, "May only goodness and kindness pursue me"
(Psalms,23:6).
284.
A
Jew has to grab and steal some time each day to engage in studying Torah.
285.
When
one tastes the pleasant taste of the true tzaddik, then even at the time of
being distant, which an aspect of night and darkness, when one is prevented
afterwards and doesn't come close to the tzaddik, even so the light of the
Torah that he tasted from the true tzaddik will continually shine for him.
286.
Through
studying halachic decisions and the Shulchan Aruch one merits to be in charge
and to have control over the land. By this, one merits to raise the Gateways of
Gan Eden and through this to ascertain the higher wisdom and lower wisdom which
is the main delight of Gan Eden. See Sichot Haran (Rav Nachman's Wisdom) where
it says that it is a great duty for each Jew to study halachic decisions every
single day, without fail, even at difficult times when he has no time or when
traveling. Even so, at least he should study one paragraph from the Shulchan
Aruch on whatever page despite it not being the page where he would have
studied according to his normal learning schedule. No day of his life should
pass without studying the Shulchan Aruch. Other days, when he has is not
pressed for time, he should study all the four volumes of the Shulchan Aruch in
the order they are written until he finishes them all. Then he should start
again and study according to the same order. This is a very big rectification
in order to clarify and rectify all that he blemished through his sins, for by
studying the halachic decisions we separate the good from the bad which is the
basis of all rectifications.
(Prayer 286)
You grant man knowledge; bestow upon us from
You, wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Master of the Universe, You informed
us that the main delight of Gan Eden is to achieve divine wisdom, meaning the
Upper Wisdom and Lower Wisdom. This
itself is an aspect of Gan Eden. However, there are gateways to Gan Eden
through which it is impossible to enter because these gateways are hidden and
buried in the earth. By studying law codes one can merit to rule over the earth
thus raising the gateways that have sunk into the earth. Therefore, please,
have mercy, upon us and merit us to study Your holy Torah a great deal, for
Your sake, learning always in order to understand and implement the halacha. Enable
me to study carefully many books of law codes together with the earlier and
later commentators until I merit to clarify the laws of the Torah and hereby
reach the truth. As a result, may I merit to become and aspect of a king and
ruler over the earth.
After I merit to know the laws of the holy
Torah, how to behave with regard to all things done one earth, merit me to also
guide others according to the laws of the Torah. Let me teach them about the
proper path to follow in each situation. Fulfill in me the verse: “Through
justice (laws) a king establishes (raises) the earth.
Through this merit me to establish, raise and
reveal all the holy gateways that have sunk, disappeared and become hidden in
the earth. Then by these gateways, which are The entrance to Gan Eden, may I
enter Gan Eden itself. Merit me to ascertain the Lower Wisdom and the Upper
Wisdom so that I really reveal godliness, as is fitting for a Jew. Only for
this purpose we were created, in order to come to know You. Help me to instill
perceptions of godliness in other Jews. Fulfill the verse which says: “Raise
up, O gates, your heads and be uplifted you everlasting gates”. And, as it
says: “Open for me G-d the gates of righteousness and I will enter them.. This
is the gate of G-d; the righteous shall enter through it”. (Psalms 118,19:20)
FINISHED AND
COMPLETED PART ONE
Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman
End of Volume 1
Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman
No comments:
Post a Comment