The Writings of Rabbi Nachman 51-100

HH

The Writings of Rabbi Nachman

51.    RABBI  AKIVA  SAID

a)      Lying damages the eyes, both physically and spiritually.

b)      When a person lies this causes a strengthening of the impurities in the blood which leads to melancholy and tears; this, in turn, spoils the eyes.  It is impossible to lie until ones blood has become unclean. Truth, on the other hand, cannot be spoken before one has purified ones blood.

c)      Lying is evil and reflects impurity. As a result, a person removes the Divine Providence from upon himself. However, by telling the truth, a person draws

a complete Divine Providence upon himself.

d)   Truth is one, whereas falsehood is many. It is impossible to speak the truth about something other than by oneness, meaning the way it is; for example, silver is silver alone and gold is gold alone etc. Falsehood, however, means multiplicity, for one can say lies without end such as silver is copper, or tin or lead and so on, and endless other names. Therefore, eventually the truth will certainly be revealed and all its opposition will be nullified, for the latter stems from the endless number of lies.  In oneness there

      is no controversy. The truth is oneness and will certainly remain in existence forever for it reflects the Unity of G-d.  All forms of falsehood, which is opposition, will be eliminated. Truth will stand for ever, for "the Truth of G-d exists for ever." 

    

e)   When you want to be included in oneness, such that after Creation becomes encompassed within the aspect of 'before the Creation' and everything is one, that everything is goodness and holiness like it was prior to Creation, then guard yourself from lying; speak only truth and really be a person of truth. By this, you will be encompassed in the Oneness, for Truth is one. 

(Prayer 51)

G-d You are the G-d of truth. In Your bountiful compassion, save me from falsehood at all times. Protect me so that no word of falsehood ever leaves my mouth, whether by accident or intentionally, by force or circumstance or by desire. Guard me so that I never stumble into saying something false, even by mistake. Grant me truth. Raise me from impurity to purity, from the profane to the holy. Through Your sublime holiness sanctify me with truth. Bestow on me an undeserved gift of truth and love. Return me to You in perfect repentance. From now on, let me go from evil to good, from impurity to purity, from falsehood to truth. Merit me to the absolute truth.

Draw Your Divine Providence upon us. Look down on us with Your graceful eye until we become truly absorbed with You. Let after the creation become united with before creation through Your Divine Providence. Then, everything will be completely one, totally good and holy, entirely true.

Save me from all sorts of opposition and let there not be found within me any element of resistance to anything holy or to any righteous person. Rather enable me to unite with all that is holy and good. By this, may I feel true love and unity with all pious people and true tzaddikim so that I become included in them and united with You my G-d and G-d of of our Fathers. Then merit me to cleave to You with truth and to become included in Your Oneness from now on and forever and ever.

Please, Lord, protect me from any blemish to the power of sight. Always sanctify my eyes. Let me never again look at anything that spoils the eyes. Father, let me just use my eyes to study Your Torah and look at Your true tzaddikim until my eyes become really holy and pure. Help me to rectify all the blemishes to my eyes and may I never lose the light of my eyes even in old age. This will enable me to drive sleep from my eyes and study Torah day and night without any harm coming to my eyes. May my eyes shine like the sun and moon.

Unique One, draw me really close to You. Drive out and nullify falsehood, evil and impurity from the world. Fulfill in us the verse which says “Then I will sprinkle pure water upon you, that you may become cleansed: I will cleanse you from all your impurity and from all your idols.”

Amen. Amen.

52.    HE  WHO  AWAKES  IN  THE  NIGHT

              

a)      Each person has to see to it that he becomes encompassed in his source. To achieve this, one has to nullify oneself. It is impossible to come to self-nullification other than by secluded private prayers and meditation in a secluded place. By these prayers between oneself and one's Maker one can nullify everything and cleave to the Holy One, thus becoming encompassed in one's Source.

b)      The main time for these meditative, private prayers is at night (after midnight) when everyone is sleeping. Furthermore they should be in a place outside the

city or town, a secluded place that is not frequented by people even during the day. By this he can empty his heart and mind of all worldly affairs and nullify everything until he eventually nullifies himself completely. That's to say, first he should pray a great deal until he cancels one bad attribute and then another until he negates himself completely, such that no impression of pride or materiality remains. In his own eyes he should consider himself to be absolutely nothing.

He has to work at this until he merits to real self-nullification, then, by this, all the world will be encompassed together with him in his Source. In other words, everything, together with him, becomes included in the Unity of the Holy One.

(Prayer 52)

“With my soul I have desired You in the night; with my spirit within me I will seek You early.” I have remembered Your Name, O Lord, in the night and have kept Your Torah law.” By night, on my bed I sought Him who my soul loves; I sought him but I did not find him.” “I remember my song in the night: I commune with my own heart and my spirit has diligently searched.” Master of the World, Master of all the World, Lord of all, One and Unique, who was, is and will be. You created Your world with Your good will for the sake of Your holy Nation, Israel. For them Your created all the worlds in order to draw the souls of Israel into the world so that they would really do Your will and rule over the world, and so that by their good deeds, they would be able to rise and thus raise all the worlds from the very midst

of the World of Asiyah (Making) to the beginning of the World of Atzilut (Nearness) – to raise and lift them up to their sublime root, so that all the worlds be included in Your Simple Oneness, may it be blessed and extolled forever, for all eternities. For You are He who was before You created the world and You are He who is after You created the world. 

O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, may it therefore be Your will that You have mercy upon me and come to my aid. Let me merit to always meditate a great deal until, by the meditation, I can nullify myself completely such that all my being be nullified entirely and I become really included in Your Oneness. Grant me merit, in Your bountiful mercy and arrange for me a special place and special time for meditating. May I choose for myself the best place and the best time for meditation.

The best place is a lonely pathway and the best time is at night when people are sleeping. May I merit every single night to meditate in a special place, to go on a lonely pathway where people do not even go during the daytime. There may I meditate at night and speak freely before You about everything that is in my heart. May I merit to clarify and explain myself before You wholeheartedly and explicitly such that my heart really be aroused towards You with great longing, with great, immense crying, with bitter weeping;  crying over my sins and confessing my many iniquities and willful transgressions, while really regretting them wholeheartedly. Let me make a wholehearted, sincere and firm resolution not to return again to foolishness. May there be no deceit  in my spirit at all. If I have committed evil may I  not add to it. Let me merit to arouse Your bountiful mercy upon me so that You graciously grant me an undeserved gift and from now on always come to my aid. In Your compassion, guard me and save me from sins, iniquities and willful transgressions and from all evil desires. In Your bountiful mercy, great mercy, immense mercy, save me and guard me at all times, especially from the blemishing of the brit – which is the entire Torah – such that I merit by meditation at night to nullify myself completely, to nullify every single bad attribute and every single evil desire until I become completely clean of all these desires and bad attributes. May I merit to really and truly nullify all sorts of pride and haughtiness until I achieve the ultimate nullification, as I Your good desire, such that I be really included in Your single Oneness, and let  the existence of ‘after the Creation’ be unified with and included in ‘before the Creation’. In other words, let that which has potential existence unite with that which has actual existence.

May we be always be really attached, united and included in You. Let us not separate from You, even for the slightest moment. Reveal Your Single Oneness in the world; let every created thing know that You are its Creator; let every formed thing know that You are its Maker. Let everything that has breath say, ‘Lord, G-d of Israel, is King and his Kingdom is over everything’. Help me! Help me! Please, please grant me the ability to meditate a lot and talk a lot with my Creator at night on a lonely pathway, until I really merit to the ultimate nullification, until I really become included in You, together with all the worlds. May we all return to You sincerely and wholeheartedly. By day we will not rest and by night we will not be quiet, until we merit to find You at all times.  

May we merit to fulfill sincerely and perfectly the commandment “in Him shall You cleave” as is Your good desire. Take pity and pardon us; take pity and have mercy upon us; take pity and grant us all that we have asked for before You. Let us merit to nullify ourselves sincerely until we all become included in You, O Lord, our G-dand G-d of our fathers; for this alone You created all the worlds, as You revealed to us by Your true tzaddikim…..May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart by pleasing before Your Countenance, O G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer.

53.    'HEH'  THE  KNOWLEDGE

a)      Through actively trying to bring people closer to the Holy One and to the true tzaddikim, one can merit to have children.

b)      A person has to attempt to achieve perfection of Knowledge, meaning he has to acquire holy knowledge, as much as is possible for a human being to know and perceive until it is impossible to know more. This is impossible to attain other than by involving himself with people, to bring them closer to the service of G-d. This brings his knowledge to completion and through this he will merit to have children. He can even grant barren women the merit to actually have children.

c)      This is the reason why tzaddikim work so hard and pursue people  to bring them close to the service of G-d; it is not to increase their own honour, Heaven forbid, but, rather, in order to perfect their own Knowledge. 

(Prayer 53)

In Your bountiful mercy and immense loving-kindness, let us merit to raise many worthy students and may we radiate into them true, holy knowledge, to guide them on the straight pat (the path upon which our fathers have always gone) and let us inform them the way they should go (in life) and what they should do, according to what we received from our holy sages, may their memory be blessed. May I shine into them  true and just advice, in order to awaken them and raise them from their sleep and introduce into them knowledge and fear of Heaven, in such a way that they merit to truly return to You in repentance, with all their hearts, all their souls and all their money. “I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners shall return to You”. Save me and guard me, in Your bountiful mercy, so that with regard to bringing people closer to You, no ulterior motive or extraneous thought entire mind, Heaven forbid, such as the desire to increase my own honor, Heaven forbid. Rather may all my intent be really for Your honor, in order to fulfill Your Will. Give strength to those who are tired, such as myself, to suffer and accept willingly (with love) all the bother and effort that is needed in order to bring people closer to serving You. May I merit to chase after those distant from You with all my strength and bring them closer to serving You, and let all my intent be really only for Your Name’s sake in order to perfect my mind to the ultimate degree. By this, enable us to give birth to children, living and enduring in holiness and purity, for Your Name’s sake and for the sake of Your service. Multiply our seed as the sand of the sea and as the great many stars of the sky.

Have mercy upon us and give us strength so that we merit to remember sympathetically in our prayers those who are sterile. In Your great compassion, teach us how to pray for those who are barren, to remember them for the good with regard to salvation and mercy. Listen to our prayers and harken to our cries, so that all those who are sterile be remembered for the good very soon indeed. May they give birth , in Your mercy, to live, to strong children; multiply Your nation, “the sons of Israel like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered.” Just as Your compassion was great upon our first Patriarch, Abraham and his wife, the Matriarch Sarah, who You remembered for the good and visited them in their old age and gave them Isaac and promised them to multiply his seed as the stars of the sky, so also have compassion on all the barren women among Your nation, the House of Israel, whose eyes are turned only towards You, and grant them seed which will endure, to serve You and fear You.

Remember them for good and in Your mercy, fulfill their wishes. Fulfill their requests and listen to their prayers; may they conceive very, very soon and merit to give birth to strong babies in whom their fathers and mothers can be happy. May they merit to raise them to Torah, marriage and good deeds for many, good years.

Master of the World, take pity and have compassion upon us; be tempted, pleased and appeased by our prayers. Listen to the voice of our entreaties. In Your bountiful mercy, perfect our minds so that we merit to know You in This World also, in a completely perfect way, to publicise Your greatness and might to all the people of the world. Let us inform the coming generations of all the works of the great, awesome Lord which we heard from our fathers and holy sages. “Generation after generation praises Your works and proclaims Your Almighty acts.”…. the father to the children shall make known Your truth.” May we merit to really fulfill the verse which says, “Teach your sons and your sons’s sons” that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is G-d and there is none else.”

54.    IT  WAS  AFTER  TWO  YEARS

a)      A person has to guard his memory very well so as not to fall into forgetfulness. That's to say, one has to constantly recall the World to Come. (Obviously those things that cause forgetfulness generally apply here, all the more so that which the Sages said require the hands to be washed to prevent a person from going out of his mind, meaning that it becomes impossible for him to understand and expand his mind in a measure that it would not go out of the boundaries of holiness). A G-d fearing Jew should habitually remind himself of the World to Come immediately upon rising in the morning, when he opens his eyes, before doing anything else. This is in general. Afterwards he should do this in particular, meaning that he should expand his understanding of every thought, word and action. He should carefully look at and contemplate all the causes and things that the Holy One arranges for him and brings upon him each day, for each and every day is different in thought, word and deed. One has to know that the Holy One endlessly constricts His G-dliness from Infinity until the central point of the physical world where man stands. G-d arranges for each individual person, thoughts, words and deeds, according to the particular day, place and person and enclothes within them hints in order to bring him closer to serving Him.  Therefore, one has to look at all this and expand one's understanding and intellect such that one recognizes and comprehends the hints that the Holy One sends in order to come closer to Him each time, wherever one is. For in all matters, work and business affairs, the Holy One arranges every day detailed hints. Consequently, a person has to expand his understanding and look carefully at all this, to understand G-d's hints.

b)      However, one has to be careful to limit one's mind so as not to deepen one's thoughts in this too much. This is in order not to go beyond the limit of holiness. In other words, a person mustn't let his mind drift into philosophical queries and other confusions, but rather, he must limit his mind's expansion in accordance with the level of his human intellect. So also, he mustn't look into this beyond his spiritual level. ('For example, when something bad is heard or seen, for simple people this is a hint that they have blemished in this matter. For those at a higher level, it may imply that they have blemished in a related issue. Those on a very high spiritual level should take this as a hint that they must sweeten the harsh judgements from which this bad thing stemmed. And so on…each person receives hints according to his standing, his particular aspect (task) and spiritual level.' B'ibey HaNachal.)

c)      Someone who knows and understands the hints from all things, even from mundane things, nevertheless, he mustn't occupy himself only with worldly matters, rather, he too has to have the characteristic of contentment, contenting himself only  with those things that are absolutely necessary. Those who lack this quality of being content with little, and deliberately accustom their household to luxuries, as is the custom nowadays, among many people, because of our sins; about them it says, "The curse of G-d is on the house of the wicked" (Proverbs, 13:33) for they are always lacking a lot, as it says, (ibid) "the belly of the wicked always lacks". The tzaddikim, however, who possess this contentment with whatever G-d grants them, as the verse says, "A tzaddik eats to satisfy his soul" (ibid), for them the light is full and by them all the good bounty is bestowed to the world.

d)      Also from this contentment itself one has to set aside some charity. By this, one creates a unification between the tzaddik and the Community of Israel, as  explained.

      

e)      For the common people who do not have the intellect to understand these hints, all this takes place automatically through sleep, tzitzit, tefillin and learning Torah (or reciting Shma for an unlearned person), prayer and doing business. Sleep is an aspect of attaching one's thoughts to the World to Come for, when asleep, the soul ascends (to the World Above). Tefillin alludes to the expansion of the intellect, to understand the hints. Tzitzit represent constriction, for by the mitzvah of tzitzit, we draw upon ourselves this rectification of not letting the mind go beyond its limit when it is involved in expanding itself to understand the hints. Therefore, tzitzit we wear before tefillin for, firstly, we have to rectify the mind so that it doesn't go beyond its limit. Afterwards we can expand the mind to understand the hints from the Holy One; this is the aspect of the tefillin. Torah represents the quality of contentment, for Torah is the Tree of Life, containing sustenance for everyone. Learning Torah itself also requires the quality of contentment for sometimes a person gets confused by wanting to learn too much; he sees there is a lot to learn and wants to learn everything on one leg (immediately). That is why he becomes confused and, occasionally, this leads him to stop learning completely. Consequently, also in the Torah a person needs this contentment. (Editor's note: From this a person can understand how much so this applies to physical needs. Because if with spiritual acquisitions he needs contentment, how much more so with worldly needs. The Sages give an example of this regarding blessings over the Torah-B'rachot,35- and this is included in what the Sages say in Perkei Avot,1: "And Make a fence around the Torah")   So the Sages said, "It is not incumbent upon you to finish all the work" (Perkei Avot,2:6). Prayer is an aspect of the legs of holiness, clothed in this world, as explained.

  

c)      Doing business is an aspect of the Unification of the tzaddik and the Community of Israel who, together, are called 'business' ('give and take'). This unification is created by conducting business with faith (and honesty), for in all business affairs merchandise and items pass from one person to another, all according to the holy sparks within these objects. Sometimes an object has to leave the possession of one person and enter the ownership of another only then to return to the former; it is all according to the holy sparks in that object and according to the portion of  nefesh, ruach and neshamah that each person has at a given time. For this reason one must never try to force things before their time in any matter, especially in selling or buying at a certain time that one wants, for each object has its own time, in accordance with the clarification of holy sparks within it and in accordance with the parts of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah in the purchaser (which cause him to be attracted to that object which has sparks connected to his soul).

By business transactions with honesty and faith, he raises and rectifies those holy sparks while completing and giving radiance to his nefesh, ruach and neshamah. Then the tzaddik is united with the Community of Israel (which is the Unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah) and they are called 'giving and taking'.

d)      In order to guard the memory one has to protect oneself so as not to fall into having an evil eye which parallels the death of the heart. This, in turn, causes forgetfulness; the memory is blemished and the heart dies within him such that he can't remember his ultimate, eternal purpose. One has to remember this every day and attach one's mind to the World to Come. However, because of the evil eye, he doesn’t notice this.

e)      There are several aspects to the evil eye. A person can look evilly at the success of his fellow and this can have several aspects to it. So you have to guard yourself very much so as not to look with negativity at all at someone else. So also, you have to pray a lot to the Holy One to be saved from the evil eye of others. Someone who doesn't feel that he can stand up against the evil eye and subdue it needs to flee from it. On the other hand, someone who can rectify it should do so. (Editor's note: In the way that Ya'acov did to subdue the evil eye of Esau with words. He told him that it is not fitting to hate him because of the blessings and so on; and he sent Esau a present in order to satisfy his evil eye.)

f)       Similarly, a person needs to guard his eye from the power of imagination. Even a person who has a good eye has to guard himself against this. Like we see, even someone who has good vision can make a mistake when he sees something from a distance; what he appears to see is the opposite of the truth etc. So it is with the mind's eye in several aspects. For example, occasionally it seems that his fellow tends not to tell the truth (as the Sages said about Korach: "He was wise so what make him act so foolishly, his eye caused him to err." Similarly with the mistakes of N'vat and many other great people.), or is acting against him unfairly etc. and because of this he holds something against him in his heart. This can arouse controversy. Then it seems to him that when he argues back it is with good cause (for the sake of Heaven). But the truth is, it all stems from a mistake from the power of imagination, that he imagines and makes up lies about his fellow. So also, there are several aspects to the mind's eye straying from the truth through mistakes from the power of imagination. Imagination can even mislead even a person with a good eye. Therefore, one has to guard oneself with special care from the mistake of the power of imagination.

   

g)      To this one merits by being very careful not to speak or listen to slander, for slander intensifies the imagination and blemishes the memory which is dependent on the rectification of the eyes. The power of imagination is on the animal level because animals as well have the power of imagination. Furthermore, when a person's knowledge leaves him, he falls from the love of G-d to the love of animality, that's to say, to all of the physical cravings that stem from the power of imagination which overcomes him by way of slander.

      

h)      As a result of the evil eye and slander, a person doesn't merit to leave after him a male son to inherit him.

i)       The power of the imagination attempts purposely to reside in the mouth of those who study Jewish law, as explained. If they innovate a good Torah insight it is by likening one word or idea to another (by using the power of imagination).     However, these innovations make earning a living more difficult, for just as all bounty and blessings come to the world through true Torah innovations, as the Rebbe explains, so too when these innovations come from the power of imagination, this leads to famine in the world, Heaven forbid.

j)       The power of imagination overcomes a person when he is sad, for it is a spirit of gloom, a spirit of evil, and, by this, forgetfulness envelops him. Therefore, one has to be happy and this is the main way to subdue the imagination and to remember the World to Come.

k)      Listening to music from someone holy playing an instrument for the sake of Heaven has a special power to bring a person to joy and to subdue his imagination, thus meriting him to remember the World to Come. He can also acquire The spirit of prophecy and a divine spirit; then he can pour out his heart in prayers like water in the presence of G-d. Therefore, a person has to always be happy.

l)       When a person prays privately at night (after midnight) which is its main time, and rises at midnight, he merits to all of the above. He can then think all the time about his ultimate purpose and his final end in the World to Come. Eventually he can return in perfect repentance and merit to look carefully at all the things that G-d arranges for him and thus understand that all events contain hints meant to bring him closer to G-d. This is the main essence of true calmness of mind. The essence of a person's existence in this world all the days of his life, and whatever happens to him every day, everything is for this purpose alone.    

              

m)   By performing the mitzvah of lighting Channukah candles one draws upon oneself holy knowledge, which is an aspect of holy oil, which is an aspect of memory, meaning to recall the World to Come, generally and specifically.

      q)   Whoever has a good eye merits to truth and through this is enabled to really cleave to the Holy One.

(Prayer 54)

Our Father in Heaven, in Your compassion, fulfill our wishes. Save us from the power of illusion, from ‘death of the heart’ (a lack of sensitivity), from forgetfulness and the evil eye in all its aspects. May we merit to a holy power of memory so that we always attach our minds to the World to Come, both generally and specifically, every single day, in every single place we may be. Let us not lose our world, Heaven forbid, for no reason. Let us remember our Creator while we are still young. Let us merit to remember all the words of the Torah; let us not forget anything from what we have learnt, nor anything we saw or heard from Your true sages. May we always remember the World to Come until we merit to truly return in repentance to You, to be always as You desire.

In Your great mercy, let me merit to holy happiness so that I will always be happy. Give me strength in my hands so as to collect and separate the good spirit from the spirit of dejection, the evil spirit, the spirit of sadness. Grant me merit to have the ten types of holy song, until I merit to purify and separate the power of illusion and merit to subdue and nullify the evil within illusion and to separate and raise the good in it to the realm of holiness. May I merit to subdue, break, drive out and remove from myself the evil spirit, the spirit of folly, of sadness and depression. Let me merit very speedily to a good spirit of holiness. “For You are my G-d; Your spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” “Create in me a pure heart, G-d and renew a right spirit within me. Don’t cast me away from Your Presence and don’t take away Your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with Your generous spirit.” G-d, G-d of the Spirits, Ruler in the Heavens and Below, grant me a good spirit. ‘Lord, G-d of the spirits of all flesh’, bestow upon me a good spirit, a spirit of holiness, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, “ a spirit of holiness and purity, a spirit of holiness and joy.

Be gracious to me; redeem and let me merit very speedily so that I will be worthy to really purify and sanctify myself and so that I merit to break the  power of illusion, to remove and drive it out from myself. Grant me strength, counsel and might to break and cancel from myself all the illusory desires and animal cravings.

Let me merit to always be happy; let us rejoice and be happy in Your salvation. I will sing many songs all my life about the House of the Lord. May I really merit to raise my voice, sing and play music to Your Name and Your serviced, as is Your good desire. May I always merit to awaken and reveal all the ten types of tune. Give me merit to hear music, song and a voice stemming from happiness of a commandment, coming from a good, pious musician who knows how to play on the harp and other musical instruments, tunes of holiness drawn from the harp of David. Let him have a beautiful voice and know how to play well in such a way that, by his playing an instrument, the good spirit- the spirit of prophesy, the spirit of divine inspiration, the  spirit of happiness and joy – be separated from the spirit of sadness – the spirit of  depression and the spirit of evil – until we merit to a really good spirit and to always be happy.

May we merit to repent completely with a truly broken heart which stems from happiness and tunes of holiness until I merit to “pour out my heart like water before the face of the Lord”  in my entreaties  and requests. May I merit to  explain all that I have to say before You, with all my heart and soul, with great crying stemming from happiness.

Master of the World, let us merit to perform the commandment of lighting the Chanukah light perfectly, at the proper time and may it be considered before You as if we had fulfilled this commandment in all its details and exactitudes, as if we had in mind all the holy intentions included in the commandment of lighting the Chanukah light. Let us merit, by this, to draw upon ourselves the radiance of the sanctity of the holy brains from their holly, sublime source, in the aspect of “drawing much holy oil to light a candle”; such that we merit by this to expand our perception and understanding and to deepen our thoughts, to understand all the holy allusions that You indicate to us in every thought, work and deed that You arrange for us at all times, according to the person, the place and the time. In all of them You suggest to us by holy allusions how to come closer to Your service and specifically, how to attach our thoughts to the World to Come, until by this we merit to raise and establish the aspect of the ‘legs of holiness’ that are clothed in this world in all the things in the world.

Say to my soul, remember that there is a World to Come. There is no permanence to This World. This World passes in the blink of an eyelid, like dust in the wind, like a dream that flies away. The only permanent life that a person has is in the World to Come. So, have compassion on me and guard my memory very well so that I will remember for certain every day, the World to Come.

Help me to attach my thoughts only to the World to Come, generally and specifically. Every day as soon as I open my eyes, let me remember immediately the world to Come, the world of permanence, for all eternity. This world is nothing only vanities

His only purpose is to enable us to pursue and gain the World to Come. Then let me remember this in detail by coming to understand all the signs that You send me in every place and at all times, to bring me close to You. In Your great loving-kindness, You constrict Your godliness from the world of Atzilut, the upper point of creation, to the central point of this physical world of Asiah, in order to send me signs and indications how to come close to Your service.

Master of the Universe, G-d, my G-d, You know how limited my mind is and how little I understand of all this, therefore I pray to You that I will have to rectify through mundane affairs or mitzvoth, will come about automatically. Help me to draw upon myself great holiness before I sleep. By this merit me to sleep with great holiness and purity.  Then, while asleep, let my soul rise up and cleave to the World to Come.

Merit me to perform the mitzvot of wearing tzitzit and tefillin while reciting Shema and praying with the utmost perfection, with all my heart, in joy and purity. Help me to study Torah ever day in great holiness and joy. After this, let me carry out my business affairs with perfect faith such that I clarify and rectify the holy sparks that exist in all things that I buy or sell. By this, let me rectify my nefesh, ruach and neshama and bring them to completion. Grant me the ability to cause a unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah through the business that I conduct with true faith. As a result of this  bestow upon me a holy memory, so I  attach my mind to the World to Come.

May it find favor before You, G-d, our G-d and G-d of our Fathers, that You guide us in Your Divine Providence. Behold us with Your merciful eye. Guard us from the evil eye so that it will have no control over any person in the world. Rather, let us always look favorably at other people. Merit us, in Your bountiful mercy, to always cleave to Your holy attributes so that we will always have a good eye. Protect us from any other person’s evil eye in such a way that we will suffer no harm, materially or spiritually.

Save me and protect me from the evil eye for it leads to forgetfulness which is a result of the death of the heart, the ‘breaking’ of the heart. Help me never to forget the eternal world even when I am in this world, before it is too late. May the merit and strength of the true tzaddikim guard us against the evil eye for their lives they fought, subdued, broke and nullified all the evil eye at its source. Draw upon us the light of Meshiach speedily in our lifetime and save us from all our troubles. 

Please G-d, our G-d, G-d of our Fathers, save me from speaking evil about any Jew in the world. Protect me so that I will not damage my mind. Grant me holy, spiritual, love instead of fallen worldly love. Give me the strength to break the power of imagination which is the power of animalism. Then enable me break all my animal cravings. Let me never be misled into mistakes by the power of imagination. 

In Your great mercy, let me merit to holy happiness so that I will always be happy. Give me strength in my hands so as to collect and separate the good spirit from the spirit of dejection, the evil spirit, the spirit of sadness. Grant me merit to have ten types of holy song, until I merit to purify and separate the power of illusion and merit to subdue and nullify the evil  within illusion and to separate and raise the good in it to the realm of holiness. May I merit to subdue, break, drive out and remove from myself the evil spirit, the spirit of folly, of sadness and depression. Let me merit very speedily to a good spirit of holiness. “For You are my G-d; Your spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” “Create in me a pure heart, G-d and renew a right spirit within me. Don’t cast me away from Your Presence and don’t take away Your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with Your generous spirit.” G-d, G-d of the Spirits, Ruler in the Heavens and Below, grant me a good spirit. ‘Lord, G-d of the spirits of all flesh’, bestow upon me a good spirit, a sprit of holiness, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,” a spirit of holiness and purity, a spirit of holiness and joy.

Be gracious to me; redeem and let me merit very speedily so that I will be worthy to really purify and sanctify myself and so that I merit to break the power of illusion, to remove and drive it out from myself. Grant me strength, counsel and might to break and counsel and might to break and cancel from myself all the illusory desires and animal cravings.

Let me merit to always be happy; let us rejoice and be happy in Your salvation. I will sing many songs all my life about the House of the Lord. May I really merit to raise my voice, sing and play music to Your Name and Your service, as is Your good desire. May I always merit to awaken and reveal all the ten types of tune. Give me merit to hear music, song and a voice stemming from the happiness of a commandment, coming from a good, pious musician who knows how to play on the harp and other musical instruments, tunes of holiness drawn from the harp of David. Let him have a beautiful voice and know how to play well in such a way that, by his playing an instrument, the good spirit – the spirit of  prophesy, the spirit of divine inspiration, the spirit of happiness and joy – be separated from the spirit of sadness – the spirit of depression and the spirit of evil – until we merit to  a really good spirit and to always be happy.

May we merit to repent completely with a truly broken heart which stems from happiness and tunes of holiness until I merit to “pour out my heart like water before the face of the Lord” in my entreaties and requests. May I merit to explain all that I  have to say before You, will all my heart and soul, with great crying stemming from happiness.

Master of the World, let us merit to perform the commandment of lighting the Chanukah light perfectly, at the proper time and may it be considered before You as if we had fulfilled this commandment in all its details and exactitudes, as if we had in mind all the holy intentions included in the commandment of lighting the Chanukah light. Let us merit, by this to draw upon ourselves the radiance of the sanctity of the holy brains from their holy, sublime source, in the aspect of “drawing much holy oil to light a candle”; such that  we merit by this to expand our perception and understanding and to deepen our thoughts, to understand the holy allusions that You indicate to us in every thought, word and deed that You arrange for us at all times, according to the person, the place and the time. In all of them You suggest to us by the holy allusions how to come closer to Your service and specifically, how to attach our thoughts to the World to Come, until by this, we merit to raise and establish the aspect of the legs of holiness’ that are clothed in this world in all the things in the world.

Return us to You, G-d and we will return. Renew our days as formerly. May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favor before You, G-d, my rock and Redeemer.

55. ABBA SHAUL SAYS

a)      To see the downfall of the wicked is impossible other than through the aspect of the Land of Israel, as it says, "Sit at my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool" (Psalms, 110:1). The Land of Israel is called "right hand", as the Sages said. (See Rashi, Parshat V'Yishlach on the verse "And his father called him Binyamin"

b)      Even nowadays in exile when the Land of Israel is under the control of the Other Side such that its holiness cannot be revealed, nevertheless, it is possible to reveal and draw this holiness by the sparkling of the merit of the Patriarchs, as it is written, "I will remember My covenant with Ya'acov…and I will remember the Land" (Levit.26:42). By this radiance of the merit of the Patriarchs, the holiness of the Land of Israel is revealed and, by this, we can merit to see the downfall of the wicked. Not only is a person saved from the wicked, he also sees in the wicked person what he wanted to see in him. 

c)      For the wicked draw the evil eye upon their enemies, as the Sages said, (B'rachot,7B) "Not only this, but he sees in his enemies, like it says, 'Your judgements are far removed from him' (Psalms,10:5)." By finding merit in the wicked person, he is saved from the evil eye of that wicked person.  The fact that the wicked are exonerated in judgement, as it says there "Your judgements are far removed" and G-d's judgement is withdrawn from them, this is all for the benefit of the tzaddik. The Holy One also finds merit in the wicked person in order to save the tzaddik from from the evil eye. The Holy One holds onto the attribute of Judgement and when He removes it from ruling over the wicked person, by this, G-d's hand becomes revealed and this creates a shadow in which the tzaddik is hidden, as the verse says, "I have sheltered you with the shade of My Hand" (Isiaiah,51:16). Then the eyes of the wicked in this bitter exile are dimmed a lot, like a filmy mirror, and through the shadow, the light of their eyes is dimmed so that their poison (in the eyes) cannot cause harm (to those whom they see). However, the light of the eyes of the tzaddikim, which is weak nowadays, as is written, "Who is blind like the perfect one?" (Isaiah,42:19), by means of the shade becomes stronger, just like those with weak vision who cannot see well in bright light and need shade in order to see. By the shade, the light of the eyes of the tzaddik is strengthened and he can see long distances; he can see and understand the righteousness of the Holy One even when He exonerates the wicked in judgement; this is the justness of G-d, like it says, "I will not let a wicked person escape judgement" (Exodus,23:7).

              d)   By seeing the justness of G-d, his faith is strengthened and any crookedness which was formerly in his heart becomes straightened such that he is able to pray, for the essence of prayer is through faith, that one believes that G-d's control is over everything, even to change the laws of nature;  furthermore "G-d    never fails to pay the reward that is due to any of His creatures" (Psalms,118). He can then strengthen himself and pray for his needs. This is an aspect of the red heifer, for the heifer/ cow represents prayer, as it says, "our lips (prayers) will replace the cows" (Hoshea,14:3). This alludes to "the red cow without blemish…upon which no yoke has been placed" (Numbers, 19:2). All this is an aspect of seeing and understanding the justness of G-d which weakens the power of harsh judgement and removes it from the wicked person for the benefit of the tzaddik for, by this, his faith is strengthened and he can pray, as explained.

e)    This is an aspect of dust and ashes, mentioned in relation to the red heifer, for prayer needs the aspects of dust and ashes. At the time of prayer a person has to subdue the evil, both specifically and generally, to the power of good, like it says, "You will crush the wicked for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet " (Malachi,3:21). The evil in particular alludes to the physical body and its coarse materiality which should be nullified when praying, like the pious men of long ago who used to prepare themselves for prayer by divesting themselves of all corporeality. The evil in general refers to the prayers of the Jewish sinners who pray with him. He has to nullify their evil and turn it into a basis for holiness. This is the aspect of ashes in prayer.

        Dust in prayer means attaching yourself to the souls, spirits and neshamot of those who dwell in the dust, arousing them through your prayers, as it

says, "Awake and sing out, you who dwell in the dust" (Isaiah,26:19). This is in general. In particular it means also arousing the parts of one's own soul, spirit and neshamah which have already been reincarnated and rectified. This is called prayer in public ('tzibur') for the letters 'tzibur' are the initial letters of tzaddikim, benonim (intermediate) and r'shaim (the wicked). The intermediate refers to the person praying; tzaddikim are an aspect of dust and the wicked are an aspect of ashes, as explained previously.

  f)   Each person has to rectify in his prayer three things; firstly, the one praying has to have his prayers rectify and elevate all those who have fallen into false beliefs, raising them to true faith, which is prayer, and thus establishing in their hearts complete faith. Secondly, he has to concentrate very well in his prayer so that by the intentions of his heart in prayer he can rectify the hearts of those whose intellect outweighs their deeds and who haven't the strength in their hearts to contain their intellect such that it leads them so sin even more. These are the philosophers who lack a pure heart and therefore cannot receive a really holy intellect, as is fitting. The main way of strengthening the heart is by good deeds but when their intellect is greater than their deeds, then their hearts become weak and are lacking. This is especially true of those who are adulterous and engage themselves in learning philosophy, for this causes them great damage; because of their sexual immorality their hearts are blemished, as it says, "The adulterous sinner lacks a heart" (Proverbs, 6:32).  Their heart is unable to contain their intellect and to distance them from sins and they cannot cleave to G-d which is the true intellect. (This does more damage to them and to the rest of the world than snakes and scorpions and all sorts of other destructive forces in the world for, by their philosophizing, they vilify and blaspheme against G-d and against the holy Torah, especially the Sages of the Gemmora as well as the tzaddikim of later generations, as is well known. May the Merciful One protect the remnants of the People of Israel from them and their followers. One just has to nullify one's intellect to the men of truth who follow the path of truth as they received from our Sages, may their memory be blessed.)      

          

            g)   A person must also turn all the humiliations he suffers into glory, as it says, "In His chamber, all declare 'glory'" (Psalms, 29:9). When a person stands in the chamber of the king and nullifies himself completely, he sees only the King. Then it is surely obvious that if he hears any humiliation or insult, he will interpret this as coming to glorify the King; for how can someone come into the midst of the chamber of the King and insult the King! He wouldn't think these vilifications are intended against him, for who is he, for hasn't all his material being been nullified such that only the King Himself is present. These words are certainly meant to express the glory of the King. Then he reflects on these words in order to interpret and combine them, turning them into glorification of the King. The metaphor is clear, for when a person prays he is standing in the chamber of the King. All this a person has to rectify in his prayer. These three things, mentioned previously, correspond to the three things connected to the red heifer, namely, cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool, as explained.

   h)   By proper prayer the light of the merit of the Patriarchs shines and by this we draw upon ourselves the holiness of the Land of Israel even during the present exile. This enables us to see the downfall of the wicked. Not only is a person saved from their evil eye, but he sees in them what they wanted to see happen to him. All this is activated by finding merit in the wicked; then we can pray. This also merits the tzaddikim, who do good, to the Countenance of G-d. Previously, before the destruction of the wicked, this Countenance of G-d was hidden in order to destroy the evil doers, but now G-d's Countenance becomes revealed to those who do good.      

  

   i)   Not every person can rectify these things in his prayer and thus subdue the wicked, only the very great tzaddikim, who are an aspect of Moshe. Even he has to strengthen himself a great deal to stand up against the major evil doers and to nullify and destroy them.

    j)   The mitzva of challah (putting aside a tithe from the dough) is an aspect of the inheritance of the Land of Israel, as explained, for this mitzvah has us merit to draw upon us the light of the merit of the Patriarchs which allows us to reveal the holiness of the Land of Israel even nowadays.

k)      In general, tall people are foolish, whereas short people are intelligent. This is understandable. (See the Rebbe's explanation in detail)

(Prayer 55)

Lord of Israel “I will lift my eyes unto the hills, from where will my hope come. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Master of the World, G-d of Abraham, G-d of Isaac, G-d of Jacob, for the sake of the merit of our fathers, let me merit to comer very, very quickly to the Land of Israel. Help us, deliver us and grant us that the holiness of the Land of Israel be revealed now also in this bitter exile ….Even so, in the merit of our Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, reveal its immense holiness at this time also. By this let us merit to subdue our enemies … and remember the convenant of our Patriarchs for our sake.

Therefore, help me and teach me the right path in such a way that I will be rescued from the evil prison in the eyes of my enemies. Let me cleave to Your holy attributes and judge all the enemies on the side of merit at all times. Then, spread out Your great, holy hand to cover and shelter us from the prison of their evil eyes so that they will have no power in their eyes to harm us at all.

Save us, in Your bountiful mercy, so that we merit in our prayers to attach ourselves, both specifically and generally, to the souls, spirits and higher souls of those who dwell in the dust. May we merit to arouse and awaken them in our prayers so that they all pray together with us. May we attach our words of prayer to those in general who dwell in the dust and to specific tzaddikim. Let us merit to arouse and awaken in our prayers all the parts of our soul, spirit and higher soul that  have already been reincarnated and rectified. May we also arouse and awaken all the holy souls, spirits and higher souls of all the tzaddikim in the earth, who are holy dwellers in the dust. Let us awaken them all so that they pray with us and in their merit, hearken to our prayers at all times and listen to our voices and take heed of our cries. Have mercy upon us for their sake, not for our sake, as it is written: “To the holy ones that are in the earth and to the glorious in whom is all my delight.”

So, have mercy upon us and come to our assistance. In Your immense loving-kindness and great power and by the strength and the merit of the true tzaddikim, let us merit to rectify in our prayers all the three evil voices of the wicked: first, the voice of foolishness and the stupidity of those who fall into false beliefs; secondly, the voice of blasphemy and the insults of the philosophers and ‘apirkosim’ (those who deny the existence of G-d); thirdly, the voice of contempt of those who insult and disgrace the people who really fear G.d. By our prayers, may we merit to subdue, break and nullify all sorts of false, foolish and vain beliefs and all superstitions. May we break and nullify them all by our prayers and may we raise to a true and holy faith all those who have fallen to false beliefs.

And, by the way of our prayers, let them fix in their hearts perfect faith. May we merit to put all our hearts into our prayers and to pray before Your with incredibly great devotion, with a sincere intent of heart, until we merit by this sincerity to rectify the heart of the theorists and philosophers so that their hears can contain their minds, so that their minds should not lead them astray to sin. May we turn their hearts to the truth so that they all return to Your holy pure and simple faith.

Grant us merit and help us to eliminate all the insults and disgrace that we have from our enemies and those who hate us, materially and spiritually. By our prayers, may we turn all the insults into honour. During prayer may we nullify ourselves completely and utterly so that we can enter and stand in the hallway of the King. May we nullify our being completely so that we then see nothing other than the Blessed Kind; by this, let us merit to a holy intelligence, to turn all the insults into honour. May we consider carefully all the words of the insulters and abusers so that we can refine them and explain them in such a way that words of honour for the Holy One come out of them. May we pray with great perfection to the ultimate degree, such that we achieve by our prayers all the rectifications that were performed by the red heifer which Moses, our teacher, burnt in the wilderness and such that You remember the covenant with our fathers.

Please help us to really repent completely and very speedily until we become included in the tzaddikim who always do good. Let the countenance of G-d be revealed to us, so to speak, through the holiness of the Land of Israel.

Save and guard us, together with our offspring, so that no evil eye can overcome us from any source. Rather, merit us to always praise and give thanks to You. I will thank You G-d, our G-d, for every single breath. All my limbs will praise You. Let all souls praise G-d.

Halleluyah!    

56.   ON THE DAY OF FIRST FRUITS

a)      Every individual Jew has an aspect of kingship and rulership, according to his aspect. One person rules over his household while another rules to a greater extent; and there is one who rules over the entire world. This aspect of kingship exists in each person, openly or in a revealed manner. So each person has to be very careful not to use this kingship and rulership for his own needs and enjoyment, but rather, only for the service of G-d, that's to say, to caution and reproach all those who are under his control in order to return them to G-d. If he rules only in his house, he has to warn and reprimand them with regard to serving G-d; and if he has more extensive control, he has the duty to caution and reprimand more and more people, according to the power of his rulership that he has.

b)      Each person, according to his rulership over others, is punished for their sins when he isn't careful to reprimand and caution them properly; his days

are shortened, Heaven forbid. About him it says, 'Woe to authority which buries its possessor' (Pesachim,87). However, when he warns and reproaches them in the service of G-d, he draws upon himself vitality and longevity.

c)      However, it is impossible to reprimand and warn them properly other than by learning Torah. By this, one can reprimand any

Person, even those very far away, even if one doesn't know what reprimand they need, for, through learning the Torah, we merit that even those far away from us will hear the voice of Torah which announces and cries out at all times – "Until when will the foolish love foolishness" (Proverbs,1:22). As a result of this they will repent and return to G-d.

             

d)      Also by engaging in the learning of Torah we merit to longevity, for, by learning Torah we call, so to speak, to the Source of Life, may He be blessed and draw vitality and longevity from Him. Therefore, we must learn Torah out loud, specifically.  Speaking out the words of Torah, for, by this, we merit to call to G-d and attract longevity and vitality from Him.

e)      There are two kinds of concealment, for there is concealment and there is concealment within concealment. When the Holy One is hidden within one concealment it is also hard to find Him, but it is possible to struggle and carve a path until one finds Him; this is because at least one knows that the Holy One is concealed. However, when the Holy One is concealed within a concealment, meaning that the concealment itself is hidden from a person, then he doesn't know at all that the Holy One is concealed from him and then it is impossible to find Him since the person doesn't know anything about G-d. Know, someone who repeatedly sins, Heaven forbid, falls into one concealment and then, even though it is hard to escape and return to G-d, who is concealed from him after his sins have become like something permitted, even so, he, at least, knows about the concealment and recognizes that the sin has become for him like something permissible. Therefore he can instill this knowledge in his heart that he has fallen into concealment such that G-d and the Torah have become hidden from him and he relates to a sin as being permissible. By this, he can search for G-d and carve a way out. However, if he continues to perform more sins, Heaven forbid, then he will fall into a concealment within concealment until the Holy One and the Torah become so hidden from him that he doesn't know anything about the prohibition. He then doesn't realize that the sin has become permitted in his eyes. All the evil things are like a perfectly straight path, as if there is no prohibition at all. Even so, there is no despair in the world at all, despite having fallen into this double concealment, for there also the life force from G-d exists, clothed within the surface reality.  Without this life force, nothing could exist. Even within the power of the husks and sins, within the double concealment, life force comes from the Holy One. When someone merits to Knowledge, all the concealments are nullified and he merits to hear the great voice of the Torah which declares and admonishes constantly, "How long will you fools go on loving foolishness." Then he will merit to return to G-d. To gain this Knowledge is by engaging in learning Torah, for, by this, we can also arouse him from within this double concealment and make him aware of the presence of G-d, teaching him that he also has hope, until he finally returns to the truth and comes close to the Holy One. Through the power of the true tzaddikim we can come close to G-d at all times, whatever the situation, wherever we are. Even if has done what he has and has fallen to where he has fallen, Heaven forbid, G-d's life force is certainly enclothed there as well, for He gives life to all things. Thus, a person can return to G-d from any place and merit to hear the voice of the Torah, as mentioned above. For the reason we don't hear the mighty voice of the Torah is because of the many concealments created by our many sins; then G-d becomes concealed from us doubly as a result of our iniquities, in an aspect of "On that day I will doubly conceal my Face…" (Deut.31:18). However, by learning Torah we can uncover the concealments such that cause even those who are very far away from holiness to hear the Torah admonishing, until, eventually everyone will return to G-d.

f)       There are some people who have become distant from the Holy One, as if they had fallen away and jumped away from the Place of the World(G-d). Others have been close to G-d for a while but have already forgotten about this. Still others continue to remember the Holy One even now, but they have lost their heroism and they haven't the strength to overcome their evil urge; however, by learning Torah, everyone will return to G-d.

g)      In very lowly and distant places from G-d, there, specifically is enclothed a very sublime life force, the hidden Torah. Therefore, anyone who falls very far has to know that even where he is, and especially from there, he can come very close to G-d, for there is a very sublime Torah hidden in that place. So, when one merits to return to G-d, this sublime, hidden Torah will become revealed.

h)       Through the craving for money, the Kingdom of Evil grows stronger, Heaven forbid. This Kingdom of Evil constantly pursues the Kingdom of Holiness whose life force is from Knowledge (Da'at), which is the Torah. The Kingdom of Evil is the opposite of this, for it always craves to collect money and to devour holy sparks which are concealed within the money and which, in their source, are Supernal Colours. So, each person, according to the degree that he breaks the craving for money, draws himself closer to the Torah and to holy Knowledge; he also extracts the holy sparks from the realm of the Kingdom of Evil. All this is through the power of the true tzaddikim who really engage in learning Torah. They have the strength to subdue the Kingdom of Evil and to extract the holy sparks and all the money from there, making Torah insights from them. Therefore, one must strengthen oneself very much in order to break the craving for money.

i)       According to the craving for money a person has, so his Knowledge, life force and longevity become lessened. The result is that he doesn't hear the voice of the Torah admonishing him and constantly calling to return to G-d. Because of this he is forced to struggle to make a living and acquires his income with much effort and difficulty. However, when he is strong and increases his Knowledge, thinking only of Torah and breaking the craving for money, then his income will come easily. He will merit to hear the clues and proclamations of the Torah, which are the good thoughts aroused in a person's heart at all times to return to G-d, until he merits to really come close to G-d.

j)       The spirit of depression comes from struggling and chasing after money; this is the venom of the Serpent. This causes all one's limbs to be heavy and the pulse becomes weakened. However much his pulse is weakened, his limbs become heavier and then his pulse becomes weaker still, and so on, back and forth, until his soul departs, all as a result of the bother of craving for money, for this is the main reason for worries and depression.

k)      By holy sighing, when one sighs out of longing to return to G-d, the pulse is cured and life force returns. Thus one is saved from the spirit of depression, which is caused by the effort and bother of making a living, and merits to Knowledge and to receive words from Heaven.

l)       The ease of making a living is in direct relation to the increasing level of Knowledge of a person. However much he lacks Knowledge, so he will have to make a greater effort to make a living.

m)    According to the growth of a person's Knowledge, so peace multiplies, for controversy, anger and cruelty stem from the lack of Knowledge. Therefore, however much one increases one's Knowledge, anger will be nullified and mercy, loving-kindness and peace will grow. So when one learns Torah, one attracts Knowledge and cancels anger, drawing to oneself also mercy, peace and healing.

n)       Immersing in the mikve redeems from all troubles, purifies from all forms of impurity and from sins, for the mikve draws Knowledge and very sublime loving-kindness. Then one merits to earn a living easily, to healing, life force and longevity. This arouses people to serve G-d. Controversy and anger are nullified and one merits to peace, mercy and expanded Knowledge.

o)       Immersing in the mikve on Shavuot is a very sublime loving-kindness and a great compassion; it is wonderful Knowledge, for Shavuot is a very fine and supernal Intellect which represents very immense loving-kindness and compassion, for compassion is dependent on Knowledge. Happy is he who merits to receive the holiness of Shavuot, in particular the mikve of Shavuot, which is the Fiftieth Gate (of Understanding) from which holiness and purity are drawn down upon the People of Israel.

p)       Peace depends on Knowledge, whereas controversy is the opposite of Knowledge. However, there is controversy which exists for the sake of Heaven which is really very great Understanding, a greater Knowledge than peace, for really this controversy is great love and peace. In Egypt, when Knowledge was in exile, there was certainly no controversy fro the sake of Heaven, for this depends on Knowledge. But afterwards, when they were redeemed from Egypt by Moshe, who personifies Da'at (Knowledge), then they merited to the Knowledge of controversy for the sake of Heaven which is really the ultimate form of peace.

(Prayer 56)

Master of the Universe, King of all Worlds, who rules over everything., The hidden

G-d, Compassionate One. You alone know the immense power of the concealment of godliness which has become dominant in these days before the coming of Meshiach. You have hidden Your countenance from us. You have hidden Yourself from us very much by one concealment within another, so much so that we do not even realize that You are hidden. We don not recognize You at all. Sins, in our eyes appear to proper behaviour. 

Now, our Father in Heaven, what can we do and what can we rectify?  This is especially true of me for I am impoverished. I ask that You help me to reveal the immense concealment within concealment. You have hidden Yourself a great deal from me to such a degree that I have forgotten my goodness and holiness. My Father in Heaven – have compassion on me. See my weakness in the face of my enemies and raise me from the gates of death. Master of the Universe, Master, I have no mouth with which to speak and no forehead to raise my head.  I have no word in my language. G-d, You know everything.  help me to reveal the immense concealment within concealment. You have hidden Yourself a great deal from me to such a degree that I have forgotten my goodness and holiness. My Father in Heaven – have compassion on me. See my weakness in the face of my enemies and raise me from the gates of death. Master of the Universe, Master, I have no mouth with which to speak and no forehead to raise my head.  I have no word in my language. G-d, You know everything. You had Your countenance and I was confused. Please don’t hide Your face from Your servant for I am in great distress. Answer me speedily. I call out to You and plead with You. Help me. I know no way how I can reveal this immense concealment within concealment which includes thousands and tens of thousands of concealments. I know no way to escape from them and how to save my soul from the trap.

In Your bountiful mercy You thought from afar to better our final end. You promised that by learning the holy Torah we will merit to find You at all times, even in these, the End of Days, in the midst of one concealment within another, as is written: “I will surely hide my face on that day…….. this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed.” Therefore I have come before You, Lord, my G-d and G-d of my fathers, You who are full of compassion, full of pardon, who is good and does good for all, who has mercy on all creatures., for Your mercy is upon all Your works. In Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to engage in Your holy Torah for its own sake, day and night, with great holiness and purity, in such a way that I merit by learning Torah to reveal the concealment which is in the concealment to always find Your Divinity, at all times and in every place. Let absolutely nothing have the strength to conceal You Divinity, Providence and Majesty from me. Help me and save me so that I can engage in the holy Torah and speak out the words of the Torah perfectly. Give us strength to call You, the Life of lives, by the holy Torah, which is Your Name. By this, grant us merit to receive and draw upon ourselves from You a good long life, for You are the Life of lives. You give life to all the worlds, from beginning to end, through the holy Torah, which is Your Name. 

The Torah is our life and the length of our days. Make us worthy to receive this life gradually and in the right quantity by the holy measures and vessels made by the chapters, verses, weekly portions, words, intonations, vowel points, ornamental crowns on the letters and the letters of the holy Torah. By them, let us merit to good, long lives, mercy, peace and holy perception.

Master of the World, who is close to all who call Him truthfully, let us merit to call You truthfully, in such a way that You answer us very soon. We will call You and You will answer us; we will pray to You and You will grant our request. Grant us perception, understanding and wisdom from You and let us be worthy, by engaging in holy Torah, to draw from You a good life, lengthy days and years. Let it be in such a way that we merit to know that You are always present, at all times, in every person and every place, even in the very midst of one concealment within another, there also You are present. For You Yourself are hidden within all the concealments in the world, even the concealment within a concealment, even in the thousands of thousands and tens of thousands of tens of thousands of concealments without end. There also You are present, for there is no place voice of Your presence!. You give life to all. Without You there is no life-force at all to anything in the world. Even all the husks and impurities in the world, all the (evils of the) Other Side and all the concealments in the world which hide Your Divinity, none of them have any life-force or strength other than what they receive from You Yourself, may You be blessed for Eternity. You rule everything and Your Kingdom reigns over all. Apart from You nothing has strength. No concealment in the world can conceal or hide You, may You be blessed.

In Your bountiful, allow us the merit to know all this with perfect perception, with truth and faith, until, by this I reveal the concealment which is within the concealment and turn it into knowledge, such that holy Torah be made out of all the concealments. May the holy Torah that is hidden there in the midst of a concealment within concealment be revealed. Grant us the merit to have revealed the secrets of the Torah, to understand and ascertain the secrets of the Torah such that we merit to hear roars and calls in a very, very great and tremendous voice! “She cries in the chief place of concourse…… How long, you foolish ones, will you love foolishness?” Because of our many iniquities we do not hear this voice of proclamation. Therefore, have mercy upon us, for Your Name’s sake. Let us merit to engage wholeheartedly in the holy Torah with great holiness until we merit to hear the great voice of proclamation of the holy Torah, the voice of the words of “the living G-d and everlasting King,” “a great voice that goes on continually….”. The Torah itself reproaches us in a revealed way from a concealed love, as is written: “She opened her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of loving-kindness.” May we merit by this to return to You sincerely, very quickly and soon.

Bring us close to Your service and return us in complete repentance before You. Help us and save us and let us merit to reveal and raise combinations of letters of the holy Torah from amidst the concealments and turn them into the realm of holiness, to return them to their original dwelling place and combine them into words of holiness, until, by them, new, truly wonderful and awesome interpretations of the Torah be revealed.

Reveal to us the secrets of the Torah, the wonders and hidden things in Your holy Torah which You stored away and hid for those who fear You. Grant us the merit to know and distinguish between that which is forbidden and that which is permitted, between the holy and the secular, between the impure and the pure, between the kosher and non-kosher. Help us to cut ourselves off completely from evil and anything forbidden and may we really attach ourselves to the realm of holiness with perfect faith. Let us turn aside from evil and always do that which is good in Your eyes, as is truly Your good desire. Let us merit to perfect, holy knowledge until we clothe ourselves and others in perfect, sincere repentance before You. By our engaging in the holy Torah, let us arouse others to perfect repentance, even those who are very far away from us. May we bring them out of darkness to light, from the secular to the holy.

In Your bountiful mercy, save us from the craving for money. Help us to break the desire for wealth and its power. Let me never covet money nor crave to collect it, for it is not ours. Father may we put all our desire into studying Torah so that we acquire holy wisdom and understanding while cleaving to Your holy mitzvoth. During our lifetime, let us rectify everything that we blemished because of the craving for money. Merit us to elevate all the holy sparks which the husks swallowed as a result of our sins. Then the husks will spit out all they have swallowed until all the holy sparks and all their life-force are returned to their holy sublime source. Help us to reveal all the supernal colors within the silver, gold and copper, with holiness and great purity, until they shine, as You desire.

Bestow upon us the attribute of compassion so that we will really have compassion on the needy and give them a lot of charity. Then,You will have mercy on us from Heaven. Draw down a good income, blessing, compassion, life, peace and holy understanding. Cancel all controversy from the world. Spread compassion and peace throughout the world so that there will be a great peace between Jews and between all the Peoples of the world.

Help us and save us that we merit to purify and sanctify ourselves at all times by immersion in the mikve. Let us draw upon ourselves great purity and holiness by immersing in the mikve, so that we purify ourselves from all impurities, from all the sins, iniquities and wilfull transgressions that we have perpetrated and committed before You every since our youth until today. Draw upon us great holiness by the holy mikve. By this, grant us great perception and bountiful mercy.

Help us and give us strength by immersing in the mikve to sweeten all the harsh judgments in the world from upon us, from our offspring and from all Your Nation, the House of Israel. May we nullify all the troubles and all the evil decrees by this. Always save us by our immersing in the very holy and awesome mikve. Fulfill in us the verse which says:”O the Hope (mikve) of Israel (Lord,) Saviour in the time of trouble”. Let us merit to draw upon ourselves the holiness of the mikve of the holy Festival of Shavuot, the time of the giving of our Torah, when Israel came close to You and merited to receive the holy Torah by immersing in the mikve.

May we all merit on the Festival of Shavuot to immerse ourselves in the sublime mikve, the mikve of the Fiftieth Gate of Holiness which is very great mercy, sublime loving-kindness and very great understanding. Help us so that we merit to draw upon ourselves the holiness of the mikve throughout the year. Grant us merit to purify and sanctify ourselves at all times to leave very quickly the Fifty Gates of Impurity and to enter into the Fifty Gates of Holiness.

Fulfill in us very quickly the verse which says: “Then I will throw pure water upon you and you will be pure from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you.”

57.  THEY ASKED REBBI YOSI SON OF KISMA

a) The rule and the main thing is that a person has faith in Torah scholars and is careful to honour them and hold them in awe. And even if it seems to him that they are acting against the Torah, Heaven forbid, a person has to believe that they are certainly doing what is right in accordance with the Torah, for the Torah was given over to the Sages to explain as they see fit. So a person has to put aside his intellect and knowledge and just depend on the Sages.

 b)  All cures are dependent on the Torah, as it says, "a healing for all his flesh" (Proverbs,4,22). The Torah was given over to the Sages and we are commanded to listen to them and not to stray from what they say, whether to the right or the left. Anyone who ridicules them and doesn't believe in their words, because it seems to him that this is not according to the Torah, as a result is inflicted with an illness that has no cure and dies from it, like the Sages said, "Maybe a snake of the sage has bitten him for which there is no cure" (Shabbat, 110B).

c)  When we fall from faith in the Sages, the rectification for this is by a vow - one should make a vow and carry it out immediately. By this you will return to faith in the Sages and merit to a complete cure. Then the light of the Patriarchs shines in you and you merit to the delight of Shabbat which is an aspect of eating in holiness. Through this, one merits to nullify anger and to subdue one's enemies, causing them to fall. As a result, the Gateway of the Other Side (the Forces of Evil) will fall; the Meshiach will come and build the Gateways of Holiness.

d)  By anger, the great accuser, Esau/Edom, is aroused and from this sublime accuser, accusers in the world below are activated. They oppress a person who gets angry and take control over him for, by his anger, a person's wisdom departs from him and the image of G–d is removed from upon his face; his face then falls, like it says, "Why are you angry? Why is your face fallen?" (Gen.4: 6). He ceases to have the face of a human being. (See Jerushalmi, Niddah, brought down in the Pri M'gadim, Yoreh Deah, Ch.13, par.18: "He's totally a human yet his face is like an animal. He stands and reads in the Torah . They tell him; come and be slaughtered etc.)  Then he goes from the level of being a human to that of an animal. Consequently, his enemies take control over him and his adversaries oppress him, for in their eyes he seems to be an animal and therefore they have no fear of him.

e)  The rectification of anger is to fast, for, by fasting a person subdues the anger and this is the main virtue of a fast. Therefore, on a fast day, the Evil One entices a person more than usual and arranges for him to get angry and thus spoil the fast, Heaven forbid. One has to guard against this, to guard oneself very carefully against the fire of anger on a fast day, for the main thing of a fast is to subdue one's anger. By the fast a person rectifies his face and restores to himself his wisdom which is the image of G-d that shines in his face; then all will fear him and his enemies will fall in front of him.

f)   Someone who merits to the delight of Shabbat, in other words, to eating in holiness, doesn't  need to fast for he accomplishes through his eating that which is achieved by fasting (to subdue one's enemies). This is the merit of enjoying Shabbat.

g)  Eating on Shabbat is very precious and holy for it becomes holiness and complete godliness without any impure elements of waste at all. The Other Side has no part whatsoever in Shabbat eating, for Shabbat eating is entirely holy. By Shabbat eating, anger is nullified and all powers of wrath and all adversaries flee from her (Shabbat) and vanish; then everything is love and peace.

h)  To nullify or subdue one's enemies it is enough only to fast, or eat on Shabbat, but to achieve real peace one has to also give a lot of charity, especially on a fast day, as the Sages said, "The reward for fasting is charity" (B'rachot,6b). One also has to give charity to poor people for Shabbat or to invite them to eat at your table on Shabbat, then you will merit to bountiful peace, peace that has a mouth. For sometimes there is peace but without a mouth, that's to say, there is peace between people but they can't speak to each other, like it says, "They couldn't speak peacefully to him" (Gen.37:4).  However, by Shabbat eating with charity one merits to a vocalized peace, meaning that the peace is perfect and people speak to each other, in the aspect of "For the sake of my kin and my companions, I will now speak peace" (Psalms,122:8), for the mouth is perfected through the great light (that shines) at the time of eating on Shabbat.         

In Your bountiful mercy You chose us from all the Nations and raised us above all the languages; You sanctified us in Your commandments our King, and You brought us closer to your service. O Lord our G-d, You gave us Your holy Torah, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. You commanded us to have faith in Your tzaddikim and true Torah scholars such that we should come close to them and cleave to them in order to fulfill anything they say, as it says, “Do not swerve from that which they tell you, neither to the right or the left.”

Therefore, may if be Your will G-d our G-d and G-d of our Fathers, that You fix You holy belief in our hearts and in the hearts of all Your People, the House of Israel. Merit us really and truly to the utmost complete faith in the Sages. May we come close to them and ……. the dust of their feet, drinking their words thirstily.

By flawed belief in the Sages, which I have had from my youth until today, by slighting their honour, I have generally blemished Your holy Torah which was entirely given over into thehands of the true Sages to expound as they please. By this, I blemished the holy angels who were created through the Word of the Lord by the letters of the Holy Torah. I transgressedthe prohibition of ‘do not turn “ (to the right or theleft of what the wishe men of your generation instruct youto do)”. I removed the power of my hands from the holy angels, the right and left hand, through which the angels receive abundanc from above and bestow abundance to all the grasses and all  things in the world. By the flaw in our belief in wise men, the hands of angels have been removed until they have no power to receive or bestow. Because of this it is impossible to receive a cure. We have caused affliction, Heaven forbid, which is not written in the Torah, an affliction without a cure!

I plead with You Lord, in Your great loving-kindness, pardon, forgive and grant atonement for me and for all Your Nation, Israel, with respect to all these blemishes that we have caused to belief in holy wise men, for You know the secrets ofour hearts. It is not in rebellion or treachery that we blemished this belief, but rather from the fouling of our wisdom and belief, but rather fromt eh fouling of our wisdom and minuteness ofour knowledge. I plead with You, Lord, give us merit from now on in Your mercy to rectify all this in such a way that we merit from now on to total, true belief in wise men as You desire.

For You know, Lord our G-d, the greatness of our weakness at this time. We have no supprt except to depend on the truly wise and righteous Sages. Therefore, let us merit to believe in all the wise and righteous men who are truly worthy and not to say anything against their honour, Heaven forbid. Let us not degrade any Jew in the world. Spare us! Favour us! Please pardon us! Hold our tongues from evil and our lips from deceit. Help us and save us so that we merit to raise the fallen belief and merit to completely and truly rectify belief in the sages. By this, give power again to the hands of the holly angels to receive and then bestow to all the grasses and all the things in the world. Send speedily a complete cure to all our afflictions of the body and soul. Heal us and we will e healed. Save us and we will be saved, for You are our song of praise.

By the holiness of Shabbat may the healing of  the soul and the healing of the body be drawn to us and to all Israel. Cure us of all our pains and of all our illnesses and bring a successful and complete cure to all our afflictions (in particular to the sick person so and so……son/daughter of…….) G-d, please, please cure us, for You know the pains of our body and soul. Cure us, Lord, and we will be cured. Save us and we will be saved, for  You are  our song of praise. Draw upon us, through the holiness of Shabbat, the radiance of the highest form of repentance. May we merit very speedily to truly return in complete repentance before You. Give us merit to repent with love for You, as is Your good desire.

O G-d, G-d and G-d of my Fathers, please save me and merit me to the real perfect delight on Shabbat. Merit me to receive every Shabbat with great holiness and great joy and  happiness, delighting in the holy Shabbat with all kinds of pleasure such as eating plenty of delicious foods at Shabbat meals. Let me not worry at all about the costs of Shabbat and Festivals. Just merit me very soon to eat with holiness, delighting in Shabbat. By this, may we merit in Your mercy, to subdue, break and nullify all our  enemies.

My Father, merciful Father, have compassion upon me for You are good and do good to all. Help me and save me sot that I merit very soon to break and nullify the attribute of anger from myself. Save me from anger, from cruely and from strictness. Let me never be angry or irritated by anything or strict with anybody in the world

In Your bountiful compassion, merit me to give lots of charity, giving generously to desrvering poor people. By this may peace spread throughout  the world until we achieve really perfect peace.  Grant us a peace which is expressed in our speech so that there will be peace between one person and another and they will speak together with love and peace, words of truth and righteousness, thereby arousing each other to the service and fear of G-d. Please redeem us speedily and bring us Meshiach. May G-d, bless His nation with peace.

58.   THREE  CAME  FROM  ONE

a)  The true tzaddik, who has the perfection of Knowledge, is an aspect of Moshe and is comprised of the three Patriarchs. He attracts three forms of bounty – food, drink and clothing, which correspond to the aspect of manna, a water-well and holy clouds (which miraculously appeared for the People of Israel in the Wilderness). The tzaddik always fights the war of G-d, for he fights against the husk of Haman/ Amalek which causes Jews to blemish the brit. The tzaddik subdues this husk and all those who oppress and pursue the weakest Jewish souls; the tzaddik strengthens these Jews and teaches them how to enter the service of G-d; he leads them to the aspect of rectifying the brit. By this he merits to a double bounty, like the two loaves of Shabbat and like the Mishneh Torah (The Book of Deuteronomy, in which Torah laws are repeated a second time); he merits to new Torah innovations on Shabbat – from one comes two. He also merits to a cure of the soul and the body. Through this, the world is aroused to repentance with love (of G-d). Then all the kosher Jews of the generation are cured of their suffering which they experienced previously. They become honoured in the eyes of the public. Each one, according to his spiritual level, receives beauty and splendour and grows in stature in the eyes of the public. And according to the esteem and honour he has relative to his spiritual level, so he can receive the power of renewal in Torah, which is the hidden Torah which the tzaddik bestows on Shabbat.

b)  The main way to maintain Knowledge (through which the three forms of bounty are drawn, as mentioned previously) is by three aspects. First, one has to teach one's wisdom to others, and to bring them under the wings of the Shechinah. Second, one's fear of sin must precede one's wisdom. Thirdly, one must be careful how one makes known one's wisdom so it won't be belittled, but rather, "the words of the wise man's mouth are gracious" (Ecclesiastes,10:12). Then he will merit, through Knowledge, to all the above-mentioned things.

c)  The fact that the wise man bestows a double portion of bread, that's to say, Mishneh Torah, and everything else previously mentioned, is through Shabbat, because the tzaddik is an aspect of  'Shabbat the entire week', for Shabbat bestows bounty to all levels and sends its radiance, thus curing the soul and the body.

d)  By subduing the husk of Amalek, which is the blemish of the brit, one merits to rectify the brit and to receive Shabbat. Then Shabbat bestows bounty to all the other worlds and, by the radiance of Shabbat, the world is aroused to repentance from love and all the above.

When the people of the generation don't guard their mouths, then they can't receive the aspect of Shabbat, as above, for Shabbat depends on guarding the mouth in the aspect of "nor speaking of vain matters" (Isaiah,58:13) which is said about Shabbat. Then this radiance of repentance becomes spoiled so when greatness and honour comes to the kosher people of the generation, they stumble into pride which is an aspect of the exile of the Shechinah. Therefore, the kosher people need to contemplate a lot about the majesty and greatness which come to them, so that they won't stumble in pride and self-importance, Heaven forbid.

Prayer 58

May it be Your will G-d, our G-d of our Fathers, who graciously grants knowledge to man, in your bountiful compassion, have mercy on me and bestow upon me wisdom, understanding and knowledge from You. Merit me to complete holy knowledge such that I will have strength through this to draw down the three types of  bounty which are food, drink and clothing; they are included in the knowledge of Torah. Help me and merit me to have knowledge included in the three Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’acov. And may I merit to the Torah of chessed, learning Torah in order to teach it, instilling holy knowledge in friends and students so that I can ‘make many souls’, bringing them under the wings of the Shechinah; let me bring them really close to serving You. Bestow upon me fear of Heaven and fear of sinning. May my fear of Heaven be prior to my wisdom. Give me inspiration in my words when I speak with people to bring them close to You.

And  the merit of the three Patriarchs and in the strength of the merit of Moshe and all the true tzaddikim, bestow upon me Your help and salvation. From now on merit me to guard the brit truthfully with great holiness and purity. Arouse the compassion of the true tzaddikim so that they will have mercy upon us and those who are weak like us; let them fight for us, subduing, breaking and nullifying all the persecutors and pursuers who fight us at all times. May they subdue, finish and nullify from us all the husk of Amalek who is the source of the blemish of the brit.

In Your bountiful mercy let us merit in Shabbat to reveal new, true and holy interpretations of the Torah, this being an aspect of a double portion stemming from one source. May the new interpretations give You pleasure and find favour before You. May we merit to bestow a double portion of bread (lechem mishne) on Shabbat which represents Mishne Torah (an extra copy of the Torah, as in Deuteronomy 17, 18). Grant us a double portion and let us merit to draw a double bounty, a mishne Torah on Shabbat. By the holiness of Shabbat may the bounty be drawn to all the worlds. Help us and save us so as to welcome the holy Shabbat with great happiness, with fear and love and with great holiness and purity; let us give delight in Shabbat by all sorts of pleasures. By the holiness of Shabbat may a cure of soul and body  be drawn upon us and upon all of Israel. Cure us from all our pains and ailments. Let a perfect healing come to all who are afflicted (in particular to……….son/daughter of……..etc). Please, please cure us for You know our physical and spiritual pain. Heal us Lord and we will be healed, save us and we will be saved because You are our praise. Through the holiness of Shabbat, draw upon us the radiance of sublime repentance, repentance through love and may we, very soon return in complete and sincere repentance before You. Let us merit to repent out of love, as is Your good desire.

Draw grace, loving-kindness, splendour and beauty and glory to all the really pious people of the generation. Grant them grace, loving-kindness and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see them. Heal them from all their ailments and pains. May they be honoured in the eyes of the public and by all this, may a vessel and sign be made in them to accept the Mishne Torah, the double portion of new interpretations of the Torah on Shabbat.

May we all merit to sanctify our mouths at all times with great holiness. Save us from pride and arrogance. Raise the Divine Presence from Her exile into which She descended because of the blemish of pride which comes as a result of the iniquity of speaking evil, Heaven forbid. Have mercy upon us for Your Name’s sake and help us from now on to rectify all this. Guard us and save us from now on from the very severe inquity of speaking evil and from all sorts of blemishes of speech. May we merit to sanctify our speech with every sort of holiness. By this, may we merit to receive the radiance of the holy Shabbat, in perfection, from the really wise ones of the generation.

Save us from all sorts of pride, arrogance and haughtiness and let us merit to really perfect humility. Let us merit to real life, a life of holiness, and to a complete healing in body and soul and to complete repentance stemming from love, which is drawn from the holiness of the holy Shabbat. Satisfy us from Your bounty and grant us merit to taste the holiness of Shabbat which gives life to all the worlds, as is said, “Those who taste its happiness merit to eternal life.” Grant us a long and good life, a life of fear of Heaven, a life in which we merit to turn away completely from evil, to return in really complete repentance. Let us serve You sincerely and whole-heartedly, with real humility all the days of our lives, from now on, forever, until we and our offspring merit to eternal life, to that day which is completely Shabbat and eternal tranquility.

Amen. Forever. Selah.

59. THE HOLY PALACE

a)  Someone who always endeavors to bring people closer to the service of G-d has to guard himself so that the husks won't take hold of him, nor the evil of those people he deals with. The way to achieve this is by the aspect of judgement, meaning that he has to see to it that he continually judge himself about everything he does whether it is worthy or not; he has to reprove and criticize himself about everything he does, whether it is proper or not. By this aspect of judgement the heart is enthused and this flame of enthusiasm burns the husks, preventing them from attaching themselves to him. Then it subdues them also from taking hold of those souls whom he brought close to the service of G-d.

b)  This person who tries to make souls and bring them closer, he builds an aspect of a holy palace. Even though there are very many souls who have fallen from their holiness and who no longer exist, even so, from those who remain attached to fear of G-d through him, by this alone he will be referred to as holy. The Holy One is honoured very much by bringing these people, who were distant from holiness, into the service of G-d. This is the main honour of G-d, when those who were very far away now come close to Him.      

c)  By means of bringing souls closer to G-d and through secluded individualized prayers, conversing between himself and his Maker, while judging himself on everything he does, he merits to keep Shabbat which means nullifying the evil and the husks. About him the prophet says, "And I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a good name better than sons and daughters" (Isaiah,56:5). "Memorial" means that he will have the strength to create disciples and to draw within them the spirit of wisdom. "Name" means he will merit to a good name such that all the souls  (he brought closer to G-d) will desire to become included within his soul and name, in the aspect of  "the desire of our soul is to Your Name and to Your rememberance" (Isaiah,26:8). This is certainly better than sons and daughters, for sons and daughters are only a few, whereas he who merits  to establish Torah scholars merits to have many souls included in his soul; it is as if he gave birth to them – they are many and receive life-force from him. (Editor's note: This is like Elkana said to Chana: "Aren't I better for you than ten sons" (Shmuel 1, 1:8). This is because Elkana brought merit to the public, as the Sages taught. And through their love they both became as one soul. And those souls that he brought close to G-d were also included in Chana's soul.)

d)  The main way of guarding the name, which means protecting the soul, is by preventing himself from anger, for anger blemishes the soul. When he guards himself from anger even when he has an anger-provoking experience, he overcomes his evil urge, shows patience and conquers his anger, then he merits to great wealth. As a result his name and soul grow in importance and he merits to a good name and to have all the souls crave to be included in his soul. He also merits to bring many souls closer to G-d which is the main form of honouring Him.

e)  Anger damages wealth. When the evil urge entices a person to be angry, he should know that at that moment Heaven is about to bestow upon him a sum of money but the evil urge wants to spoil the this flow of wealth. By spoiling the flow of wealth, because of anger, a person damages his name and soul, as explained. However, when he guards himself from anger, he will merit to wealth; his name and soul will be made great and he will establish many disciples, bringing many souls closer to the Holy One, as above.

f)  Know, there are some wicked people whom it is forbidden to bring under the wings of the service of G-d, for they cause the people who try to bring them closer, to fall from their level.  There isn't enough power in the judgement (mentioned above) to subdue their evil; this leads to great damage in several aspects, as explained. Therefore, the person who wants to bring souls closer to G-d, needs to pray a lot to

G-d to merit to know whom to reject and whom to bring close. 

Prayer 59

The holy Sages decreed that every individual Jew is duty-bound to endeavour to bring others close to serving You, for every Jew is responsible for his fellow. However, You know the many obstacles to this and the strength of the evil that causes strife to any person who is engaged in bringing people who are far away from holiness to come to serve You;   the evil in these people wants to take hold of those who bring them close, Heaven forbid. Therefore I have come before You to plead such that You have mercy upon us.

Merit us to a good name. Guard us always from the sin of anger. Let me never be angry at anything or with any person. Save me from tearing my soul to pieces in my rage. May I never bow down to a false G-d, for it says that one who becomes angry is like an idol worshipper. Guard me from all kinds of anger with the utmost protection and pardon, atone and forgive me for all that I have blemished against You through the iniquity of anger from my youth until now. As a result bestow upon me bountiful, holy wealth;  may our names and souls be enhanced by this until many souls will want to merge into ours and through this really come close to You. By this, may the name and soul of holiness be made greater forever.

Out of Your mercy protect us from evil-doers who must not be brought under the wings of Your service for they can bring us down from our spiritual level. Let us not deal with them at all.

Master of the World, full of compassion and lover of justice in Your bountiful mercy let me merit to holy justice, so that I merit to judge myself at all times with regard to everything I do. Let me think about my ways and to calm my mind very well every single day in order to judge myself, whether about the past or about the future, until I merit to bring judgment into the light and choose for myself a straight path upon which to progress. May all this be in such a way that I merit to perform Your will and really preserve Your statutes and judgments. Let me not diverge from true, straight judgment and let me not lead myself astray. Heaven forbid. But rather, let me consider and judge all my deeds with absolute truth in order that I merit to really return to You, as is Your good desire. In Your immense loving-kindness, take pity and have mercy upon me and let the good urge be my judge. May I meditate every day and look at myself very, very well; let me be compassionate and judge myself about everything I have done since my youth until today. Let me think of advice and strategies how to save my soul from the Pit. And let me make a really wholehearted and firm decision to always keep and fulfill Your commandments, statutes and judgments until my heart becomes really, greatly enthused towards You as is Your good desire, and until I merit to such fervour of the heart that all the evil that has a hold of me be destroyed, burnt and eradicated, whether it is evil within me because of my evil deeds or whether it is the evil of others that has become attached to me through my engaging in talking to them about fear of Heaven in order to bring them closer to Your worship….

Behold I stand before You full of shame and disgrace. Do whatever You will with me out of Your bountiful compassion and great charity. Return me before You in truly great repentance. Save me from any blemish of the brit. May no bad thought at all come to me. Sanctify me always with Your sublime holiness. Guard me and save me from the falsehood of charm and the vanity of beauty so that I will not act with false charm when sitting, walking and eating or when I speak to people. Merit me me to guard the oils in the body and thus save me from impatience and shortness of breath. Rather, let me have deep breaths and draw upon myself a holy spirit of life at all times, at every moment. Guard our mind always with the holy oils so that our minds will burn with great and holy contemplation. May our brains and minds progressively grow in great holiness. Then merit us to great and holy wealth to such a degree that we merit to sublime contemplation which is very great, holy and awesome and is drawn by means of the great, holy wealth.

60.    REBBE SHIMON OPENED

a)      Know, there are pathways of Torah which require very great contemplation, but to reach such contemplation it is impossible other than by tremendous wealth. The Tribe of Yissachar had this power of contemplation, as it says, "The sons of Yissachar had understanding of the times" (Chronicles,1,12:33). They did not merit to this other than by wealth, in the aspect of "Yissachar is a strong ass" (Gen.49:14) which the Targum translates as "rich in property". Therefore, all the prophets were wealthy, as the Sages said. So also, there have been very great and awesome tzaddikim who were very wealthy. This is especially true of those through whom the Torah passed, like Moshe our teacher who gave over the (Written) Torah to the People of Israel, and Rebbi, who arranged and sealed the Mishniyot and Rav Ashi who arranged and sealed the Talmud – they were all very wealthy, as the Sages tell us, for great wealth is needed for this contemplation.  

b)      To achieve such holy wealth is by longevity, that's to say, by seeing to it that every day and every hour will be longer and broader than what came before, with extra holiness and purity. Every single day begins for each person very narrowly, meaning that the day is very hard for him because of all the service of G-d that he has to do on that day. So a person has to be very strong each day in order not to fall when he sees the burden of the service of G-d needed each day. He has to start again each day, starting from the narrow, cramped and very difficult point, according to how he can overcome. Afterwards he can broaden and progress in his service of G-d. Every hour that then passes he can increase and broaden with additional holiness. So too each day of his life he should be sure to add more holiness than the day before, and similarly for always. This is the main form of longevity through which a person  merits to holy wealth. That is what it says, "Avraham was old, advanced in days" (Gen.24:1), that's to say he had longevity. As a result, "G-d blessed Avraham with everything" meaning with holy wealth, as explained above.

c)      By means of fear of G-d we merit to longevity, an aspect of "Fear of G-d prolongs days" (Proverbs,10:27). That's to say, fear leads to additional holiness every day through which the days become longer and broader, as explained.

d)      There are several kinds of false charm which people show when standing, eating and talking with people, as well as other things; each thing has its own special charm. A person is trapped in this when he is not careful about the craving for the vanity of the beauty of women, for one depends on the other, as it says, "Charm is deceitful and  beauty is vain" (Proverbs,31: 30). In consequence, a person comes to poverty, as it says, "Lust not after her beauty in your heart…for by means of a harlot a man is brought to a morsel of bread" (Proverbs, 6: 26). This is an aspect of "Wealth gotten from vanity will be reduced" (Proverbs,13:11). Fear is the opposite of this as it says, "False is charm and beauty is vain, a woman who fears G-d is praiseworthy" (Proverbs, 30:31).  It turns out that by fear one is saved from the craving for false charm and the vanity of beauty which leads to poverty. By this (fear) one merits to holy wealth through which one merits to this contemplation.

e)      The main contemplation of the intellect, when rectified, that allows one to contemplate, depends on the moisture and oils in the body. By the craving for sex and the vanity of beauty, one's breathing is halted. Breathing is the main life force of a man. By craving for sex, the moisture of the body dries up and this spoils the power of contemplation of the brain and the intellect. Therefore, all the madmen become so through the craving for sex, as is known. So also other men who are not really mad but suffer from a great  lack and confusion in their knowledge, everything stems from the craving for sex which dries up the moisture and oils of the body which in turn spoils the intellect.

f)       Perfection of fear has three aspects and each aspect includes all three. The first aspect is fear of Heaven; this is by contemplating the greatness of the Creator in one's Wisdom, Understanding and Knowledge; all these three brains need to be full of fear of G-d. The second aspect is awe of one's rabbi. This is achieved by learning from him. One has to draw this fear into all the three portions of learning, an aspect of "The Torah of three parts" (Shabbat, 88). The third aspect is awe of one's father and mother which needs to be drawn into the aspect of "House and riches are the inheritance of fathers" (Proverbs, 19:14). This fear should be applied to the three pats of wealth that are an inheritance of the fathers. This is an aspect of what the Sages said, "A person should always divide his money by putting one third into ground property, one third into business and one third at hand" (Baba Metzia,42).

g)      In all the Torah the word 'wealth' is mentioned only three times – regarding Sodom it says, "Don’t say I have made Avraham wealthy" (Gen.14:23) ; about Rachel and Leah it says, "For all the wealth which G-d has saved" (Gen.31:16); and thirdly, about the mitzvah of shekalim, it says, "The rich shall not give more" (Ex.30:15). These correspond to the three portions of wealth mentioned above. The third in business parallels what it says about Sodom, for in Sodom it says, "Forgotten by foot-travellers" (Job,28: 4) meaning that they wanted to cancel  all trading there, for "foot" alludes to business, as it says, "Zevulun, rejoice in your going out" (Deut.33:18). Therefore one specifically needs one third in business and trading; one third in ground property parallels the wealth mentioned with regard to Rachel and Leah, for the truth is that the main reason for wealth is only in order to contemplate in the Torah; without this contemplation, wealth is just a waste product – it is then just for women and those with childish minds like them. This is what Rachel and Leah said, "All the wealth" etc. that is not for our contemplation or that of our sons, meaning just for women and those with childish minds, rather, it is for you, "and everything that G-d tells you to do, do it"; that's to say, 'you need the wealth for contemplation of the greatness of G-d'. Corresponding to this, one needs one third in ground property, an aspect of a woman being referred to as 'the ground of the world' (Sanhedrin, 74). One third at hand, parallels to what is mentioned regarding the shekalim where it says "to atone for your souls", an aspect of "in whose hand is the soul of all living things and the spirit of all flesh of man" (Job, 12:10). (Editor's note: Previously he wrote that the fear of G-d has to spread through all the portions of wealth…therefore the fear has to spread through the third of business affairs so that he will conduct them with proper faith; by fear in the third of ground property a person has to remind himself that if he doesn't use the wealth to contemplate in the Torah, he will be like a woman or those with a childish mind. The third at hand, in cash, is in order to give a lot of charity; then he has to remember that the evil urge wants to overcome him to make him not have mercy on the poor person. But his soul is in the hand of the Holy One so he has to donate a lot of charity to atone for his soul.)  

        h)   Revelaton of fear is by causing barren women to give birth. However many 

 more barren women are caused to give birth, so fear is revealed that much more. Therefore, on Rosh Hashana Yitzchak was born (from Sarah who was barren) for he represents the power of the revelation of immense fear, an aspect of the fear of Yitzchak. When Sarah gave birth, many other barren women also gave birth together with her, as the Sages tell us. By this fear, one merits to longevity, an aspect of "old age" (said of Avraham). Therefore Sarah said, "I have born him a son in his old age" (Gen.21:7).  Through the birth of Yitzchak, which is the revelation of fear, longevity was drawn into the world, an aspect of "old age", as mentioned above. (Editor's note: It says "Avraham was old and G-d blessed him with everything". "Everything", the Sages tell us, has the numerical value of 'son'. By the blessing of a son, representing the power of revelation of fear of G-d, he merited to longevity. And the above text already explained, according to the simple meaning, that he was blessed with holy wealth.) 

i)  Causing barren women to give birth is achieved by awakening people from their sleep. There are people who sleep their days away even though it seems to others that they are serving G-d, learning Torah and praying; nevertheless, they are in an aspect of sleep and all their service of G-d remains in the world below for it is without vitality or intelligence. The Holy One does not have pleasure from their service and it cannot elevate itself into the world above. Some people fall into an aspect of sleep through physical cravings and bad deeds. Others are good, kosher Jews but their fall is through eating. Occasionally when a person eats a food which hasn't yet been clarified (elevated) to the level of human food, by eating it a person loses his face, meaning that he loses his wisdom and intellect, like it says, "A man's wisdom shines in his face" (Eccl.8:1). (See original text.) Then he falls into an aspect of sleep and has to be aroused from his sleep. However, it is impossible to arouse him unless he first wakes up a little by himself – one needs arousal from below meaning that he has to arouse himself. It is just that when he does arouse himself, if others didn't continue to awaken him, he would remain even longer in sleep, so, as soon as he wakes himself up one has to show him his face and clothe the face (of Torah) in stories. There are seventy faces to the Torah and they are an aspect of seventy years (of a person's life). One has to deliberately clothe the faces (of Torah) like a blind man is cured – first they need to close him (in a dark room) and severely limit the light so that it won't hurt him from seeing it suddenly. So also with a person who was in sleep and darkness a long time, when they want to show him his face and arouse him from his sleep, they have to clothe for him the faces in stories so that the sudden light won't hurt him. (See the original text for two more reasons for this.) There are several aspects to this when clothing the faces. Some people cannot be awakened by seeing their own face, so they need to be shown a face spiritually higher than the level of their own face which departed from them when they fell asleep. Some people have fallen from all the seventy faces of the Torah; their fall is so great, Heaven forbid, that it is impossible to awaken them through any of the seventy faces which represent seventy years; only stories from ancient times can awaken them for all the seventy faces receive life-force from these stories; by these stories of ancient times, even someone who has fallen from all the seventy faces, Heaven forbid, can be awoken. Happy is he who merits to come to such a tzaddik who can awaken him from his sleep through wonderful rectifications like these so that he won't waste away his life in sleep, Heaven forbid. By this, barren women are caused to give birth for, previously, when people were in an aspect of sleep, they were deaf; they didn't hear the wise man's (tzaddik's) words of arousal and, as a result, they could not speak even one word to G-d; 'a regular deaf person can neither hear nor speak' (Chaggiga,2). Now that the wise man arouses him and he hears his words, he can then speak out holy words before the Holy One. Because their speech was very limited by them for such a long time while they were deaf and dumb, now, when the words come out it is with great power, in an aspect of "Mighty ones who perform his word" (Psalms, 103:20); this strength enters the limbs that are the vessels of birth, an aspect of "my might and the beginning of my strength" (Gen.49:3). Then one has to see to it that the means of speech be close to the tools of birth, which are the kidneys, in order that they be able to receive the power of speech, meaning that the words be uttered with truth, so as not to be in the aspect of "You are near in their mouth and far from their inner limbs/kidneys" (Jeremiah, 12:2). This leads to barren women giving birth. It turns out that through the true tzaddik, who arouses the world from their sleep by means of stories from ancient times, barren women are caused to give birth. As a result, great fear is drawn into the world and we merit to all the rectifications mentioned previously.                                                 

  

            j)  When a person is engaged in awakening people from their sleep, he has to guard himself from

unworthy students in order that their evil won't harm him. However, it is impossible for someone of flesh and blood to guard himself against unworthy students hearing him, therefore he has to teach his students as if he made them his friends and as if he made them words of Torah, as the Sages said (Sanhedrin, 99). Then the Holy One will guard him so that his words will not be written in the memory of the unworthy student, but, rather, be forgotten.

k)  Those in the generation with trust in G-d are an aspect of the tools of birth, therefore the kidneys, which are the means of birth, are called "b'tuchot" (Psalms, 51:8), for all the births and all the bounty is drawn through trust. So, by hearing and learning holy stories of great tzaddikim, which arouse people from their sleep, by this they begin to speak to the Holy One with great strength and truth until this power reaches the limbs of birth, as above. By this, holy trust becomes stronger, barren women give birth and we merit to all the rectifications mentioned previously.

 l)  There is trust of the Other Side, an aspect of "Trust in an unfaithful man” (Proverbs, 25:19). Through the holy connecting of couples for the sake of giving birth, which is an aspect of trust, an aspect of kidneys, which are the tools of birth, as explained above, an aspect of "The heart of her husband safely trusts in her" (Proverbs, 31:11), through this the trust of the Other Side is broken like broken pottery. This is alluded to by breaking a china plate at the time of the engagement celebration, an aspect of "trust in oppression and perverseness…he shall break it as the breaking of a potter's vessel…there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shred" (Isaiah, 30:12-14). Let us explain it a bit further. The main virtue of trust is to trust in G-d and do good deeds, as it says, "Trust in G-d and do good" (Psalms, 37:3). (Thus the trust of the Other Side is broken like a broken china vessel.) That's to say, one shouldn't become confused in one's learning and service of G-d because of worries and the bother of making a living, rather, one should just engage in Torah and the service of G-d and put trust in the Holy One that He will provide an income all your life. If you are not holding by such trust of removing yourself completely from dealings regarding This World, but, rather, you want to engage in business affairs or a craft as well, then at least fix regular times to learn Torah and pray on time etc. Don't worry and don't get confused because of the worry of making a living; just trust in G-d. Also regarding giving charity, performing deeds of loving-kindness and spending money on performing mitzvot, have trust in G-d that He will replenish you with whatever you lack. Because of this thing, G-d will bless you! And even if you know that your deeds are not as proper as they should be, you shouldn’t fall from your trust because of this, saying 'who am I to put trust in G-d and depend on Him after I have spoilt my deeds so much.'  Just have trust in the loving-kindness of G-d which never ceases and Whose mercy remains forever, that He will have mercy on you and provide a livelihood for you also, as it says, "For G-d is good for all." Don't bother yourself with the worries and efforts of making a living because of seeing your own worthlessness, rather, strengthen your trust nevertheless, knowing that your intentions are for the sake of Heaven. All this is holy trust. But, Heaven forbid, should you perform some injustice, or even more so, some theft or deceit, forgery or lie, like trading outside the country which the government doesn't allow, and then put trust in G-d that He will save you and help you to complete the deal without it becoming known. This is trust of the Other Side, an aspect of "trust in the unfaithful man", as mentioned before, an aspect of "trust in oppression and perverseness". Such trust is as broken pottery which has no hope (of repair). Even a person who engages in business way above his means and takes many loans from various people, trusting in G-d that He will help to complete the deal, this is also trust of the Other Side. On the contrary, he has to have strong trust that even if he doesn't engage in such big business deals, even so, the Holy One will provide for him fittingly. The wise person will understand a lot from our words about how to escape from trust of the Other Side which is against the Torah; rather, he should strengthen himself with holy trust even if he is however he is.

m)   Blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashana is an aspect of awakening from sleep for thus we arouse the people of the word from their sleep so that they will not spend their lives in sleep, Heaven forbid. By this they speak out words with great strength, thus drawing trust and causing barren women to give birth; great fear is attracted and, by this, people are saved from the craving for sex and from the vanity of beauty and the charm of falsehood. Then one merits to holy longevity, as above. Through this one merits to immense holy wealth which enables a person to contemplate deeply in the Torah. All this one merits to by the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashana by true tzaddikim who know how to bring about all these rectifications.   

Prayer 60

Behold I stand before You full of shame and disgrace. Do Whatever You will with me with bountiful compassion and great charity. Return me before You in truly perfect repentance. Save me from any blemish of the brit. May no bad thougth at all come to me. Sanctify me always with Your sublime holinss. Guard me and save me from the falsehoold of charm and the vanity of beauty so that I will not act with false charm when sitting, walking and eating or when I speak to people. Merit me to guard the oils in the body and thus save me from impatience and shortness of breath. Rather let me have deep breaths and draw upon myself the holy spirit of life at all times, at every moment. Guard our minds always with the holy oils so that our minds will burn with great and holy contemplation. May our brains and minds progressively grow in truly great holiness. Then merit us to great and holy wealth to such a degree that we merit to sublime contemplation which si very great, holy and awesome.  It is drawm down by means of the great, holy wealth.

May we merit to perfect fear in all its aspects, in all its facets and details and stringencies. Let the three columns of fear, which are included in each other, be drawn upon us  in all their parts and aspects the are fear of Heaven, fear of teacher and the fear of father and mother.

Please wake me! Arouse me in Your bountiful compassion. Help me from now on to awaken from my great sleep which overcame me because of my bad deeds and because of the craving for food and drink. Help me to achieve great arousal, to truly return to You with great haste.

May I merit to always eat with great holiness and purity without any bodily cravings at all; let my food and drink always be from food that has been clarified and elevated to the level of human food. Protect me, guard me and save me so that no food or drink will enter my mouth if it has not been separated and elevated to the level of human consumption. By such foods a person can loose, Heaven forbid, his face of holiness and end up falling into sleep, Heaven forbid. Rather merit me to eat with great holiness foods that have the holiness of Shew Bread. Merit me by this to a good heart, a happy heart and a face of holiness. Save me from foods which bring wickedness to the heart. Master of the World save me from crookedness of the heart. Draw upon me the face of holiness whose source is the seventy faces of the Torah.

Have mercy upon me, save me and merit me to be among the decent and pious students so that I will merit to hear and remember well the voice of the words of the true tzaddikim. Let their Holy words enter my ears and heart in such a way that I awake truly from my deep sleep. And so in Your bountiful mercy, merit me by awakening from sleep to a strong, holy power of speech so that I may always speak words of holiness, wholeheartedly with genuine self-sacrifice. In addition merit me to put all my strength into the words of prayer.

We have no hope or support other than You. Our eyes are turned only to You, therefore we have come to ask from You that in Your great mercy You bestow upon us the attribute of entire trust in You. Merit us to really trust You with complete faith and very strong trust that You will provide anything we lack. Arrange for us our livelihood before we need it, in a permitted manner with honour and plentifully so that we will merit to fulfill Your will all the days of our life and forever.

In the strengths of our holy words may we have the power through our words to enable barren women to give birth. May all childless women merit to children who will grow to server and fear You. By this may perfect great fear be revealed in the world. Bestow Your fear and awe over all the people of the world and may every created being know that You are its Maker.

61.    REBBE SHIMON REJOICED

a)            Through belief in Torah sages, a person's brain becomes purified and he merits to clear intellect. As a result of this he merits to ascertain and apply true judgements from whatever he learns; true judgements, that's to say, correct behaviour in the service of G-d. He will know how to behave in each thing, whether for himself or for others who conduct themselves according to his opinion. However, when he blemishes his belief in Torah sages, a person is sentenced to weariness of the flesh, that's to say, bodily wastes, as the Sages said, "Someone who mocks the words of the Torah sages is sentenced to boiling excrement, as it says, (Eccl.12:12) 'much study is a weariness of the flesh'" (Eruvin,21).  Then the putrid vapours rise to the brain, mixing and confusing his mind such that he can't get any true judgement or true proper behaviour from his learning. On the contrary, he concludes things that are the opposite of the truth, like Do'eg the Edomite who learned a crooked judgement saying that David was not fit to be (considered) part of the community of Israel. This was because his learning was an aspect of bodily wastes. (See the original text for a full explanation.)

b)  There are leaders who, are called by the name of Rabbi, but their learning is from bodily wastes and refuse. They cannot even guide themselves and even more so others. Nevertheless they take greatness to themselves and chase after leadership in order to guide the world. Each person has to see to it that he doesn't give support to them and not to give them any strength or stature, so that they will not be called rabbis. For they themselves are not so much to blame; they have a big evil urge to guide the world. However, those who give them strength and status and cause them to be designated as rabbis through their support, these people will be held accountable for this in the future.  

c)  By giving status to a rabbi who is not worthy, the power of the written word of the Jews is weakened and this gives power to writing of the hand of the nations. Because of this they decree that there will be no power to our writings, rather, only their writings have power and so Jews will have to learn their writing. As a result of this, they decree that Jews will be exiled from the places where they have already settled to places where no Jews have ever been. This is an aspect of exile from the Land of Israel. By this, our knowledge of the movement of the constellations in the heavens has been taken from us; that's to say, the knowledge of all the changes and future events that occur to us through the constellations. This is the secret of the method of intercalation which is passed over to the nations. For the neshama controls the movement of the constellations (see the original text). Who knows their workings like the leader, but this neshama needs to have a body which is pure and clean. In a place where Jews have settled, the air has been sanctified in the aspect of the air of the Land of Israel (see full text). Then all the fruits and grains that grow there and which sustain man, they are the source of his sperm from which the body is woven. It is all an aspect of "the fruit of the Land" (Isaiah, 4:2). Then it is fitting to receive a great neshama which controls all the motions of the constellations. As a result he will know the movements of the constellations which is the aspect of the secret of the intercalation, as above. But when the Jews are driven out of the aspect of the Land of Israel, then they cannot form holy bodies and cannot receive a great neshama. Therefore, through this, the secret of the method of the intercalation is taken from us. All this occurs because we give authority to rabbis who are not worthy. However, when the Torah sage, who is worthy to be given authority and is ordained as a rabbi, by this we bring a radiance and strength to our writing. Then all the judgements of all their behaviour are all determined by our writings. Then, through Jewish writing, the air becomes sanctified in an aspect of the air of the Land of Israel and, in turn, this rectifies everything, as mentioned.

d)  Also by blemishing one's faith in Torah sages, a person never has perfect advice; he is always in doubt and his mind is torn between two directions. By this blemish he is sentenced to boiling excrement, as mentioned, and his heart becomes filthy like a toilet which is a place for the advice of women, as Rav Ilish said (Gittin, 45). Then all his ideas are foolish and he doesn't know how to complete any idea in his heart about how to behave with regard to anything.

e)  Whoever mocks holy books based on our holy Torah, he will also be sentenced to boiling excrement. He will not merit to derive correct behaviour from his learning. His advice will always be split until he returns in perfect repentance; then everything will be rectified.

 f)  For anyone who has already sunk into these bodily wastes, there exists water which purifies from this filth; in the aspect of "I will sprinkle pure water upon you, and you will be pure…from all your idols I will cleanse you" (Ezekiel,36:25).These waters are an aspect of controversy, called (in Aramaic) 'plugta', as alluded to in the verse "peleg Elohim" (a river of G-d), "full of water" (Psalms,65:10). For by the controversy which comes upon a person, he returns in repentance and rectifies any blemish in the faith of Torah scholars. The main reason that a person suffers controversy is because of his lack of faith in Torah scholars. According to the degree of the blemish, so is the amount of controversy that he experiences. Therefore, through the controversy, a person can contemplate how he has blemished his faith in Torah sages and then repent by increasing faith in Torah sages. In so doing, everything mentioned above will be rectified. There are tzaddikim of the generation whose faith is certainly perfect, nevertheless there is controversy on them. This is an aspect of "he bore the sin of the many" (Isaiah, 53:12); they suffer the anguish of controversy because of the blemish in the faith of Torah scholars of the general public. Through the controversy which comes upon them, they rectify the people's lack of faith in Torah scholars.

   g)  When a person is aroused from the controversy that comes to him and repents on any blemish in his faith towards Torah scholars, this leads to the sweetening of any harsh judgement in any place where there is some kind of constriction and severe judgement. There are several holy books now that are according to the holy Torah, both the Written and Oral Torah, and so there will be more books in the future, and the world needs them all; it is forbidden to mock any of them, as mentioned. In the beginning, when he didn't have faith in Torah scholars, all these books were like nothing to him, because he mocked them. But when he returns in repentance, having been aroused by the controversy that came upon him, because of a blemish in his faith towards Torah sages, then these books once again become important in his eyes. This is an aspect of "and my adversary would write a book" (Job, 31:35). By the controversy and argument that he experienced, a book was created. There are tzaddikim of the generation whose faith is certainly perfect, even so, there is controversy on them, because they do not believe in themselves. They don't believe that G-d takes delight from the Torah innovations that they innovate. As a result of this they weaken in their efforts to write their innovations in a book. Someone who merits to create Torah innovations by himself and his intention is for the sake of Heaven, has to have faith also in himself, to believe that the Holy One has great pleasure from his innovations, as mentioned. If he doesn't believe in his own innovations, then this is also a form of blemish in faith towards Torah scholars and then he will also suffer controversy; he will, as a result, repent and his innovations will regain their importance in his eyes, leading him to return to innovate Torah ideas and write them down; from this a book is created.  Behold, all the sweetening of harsh decrees is through the intellect, which is called 'kodesh' (holy), as is known. Every harsh judgement and constriction has a particular intelligence which can be sweetened by it. However, there is a Supernal Wisdom in which all the constrictions and harsh judgements are sweetened. The Torah stems from this Supernal Wisdom (as it says in the holy Zohar,Pt.2,62). But the Torah cannot receive from this Supernal Wisdom other than when it has perfection. Perfection of the Torah is by the Oral Torah, therefore, through the new books written when a person suffers controversy, the Torah becomes perfected. Then it can receive from the Supernal Wisdom, which is an an aspect of an all-encompassing intelligence, an aspect of "the Holy of Holies", an aspect of the Foundation Stone, which bestows all the wisdoms and intelligences. Through this, all the harsh judgements are sweetened.

g)  By means of traveling to true tzaddikim on Rosh Hashana, we sweeten all the harsh decrees in the world. This we need on Rosh Hashana, so we travel specifically for Rosh Hashana.

h)  In addition, by many Jewish souls coming to the real tzaddik and uniting together, in great love, great joy and immense happiness come about.

(Prayer 61)

Let us merit to have children, living and enduring for Your service, for fear of You and for the Torah. Help us so that our eating and marital relations be in great holiness until we merit to give birth to very pure, holy bodies that will be fitting to receive very great higher souls, holy souls which will have great perception; such that they will merit to ascertain in This World the secret of intercalation (harmonizing of lunar and solar calendars by inserting a day or month) and to know the secret of the cycle of the heavenly spheres and all the matters and changes brought about by them, as is Your good will. Lord, full of compassion, have mercy upon us, help us and  save us, Your Nation, the House of Israel, so that we all merit to have children and raise the holy souls drawn to us at all times by holy honour. May our wives give birth very easily, without any difficulties in childbirth at all. Let us merit to raise our children in contentment and peace without any anguish of parenthood at all. In Your bountiful mercy, grant us fear and love so that we truly fear and love Your Name and by this, bestow upon us power of the Holy Heavenly Hands – Mighty Hand and the Great Hand. By this, may we merit to give birth to and raise the soul in contentment and tranquility without any difficulty in childbirth and without any parental anguish at all.

Great in advice and mighty in deed. Your eyes behold all the ways of mankind,” who knows and understands their thoughts and secrets. You save and redeem them from all their thoughts and secrets. You save and redeem from all their oppressors. Have mercy upon me, for Your Name’s sake; help me and save me very speedily so that I can perform Your will. Provide me with good advice; grant me perception, understanding and intellect so that I may merit to know how to give counsel to my soul wit regard to everything in the world. May I merit to always have perfect advice. Let me never be in doubt about anything. Do not split my advice into two so that it is ambiguous. Heaven forbid. Grant me “the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of advice and might: the spirit of knowledge and fear of G-d.” Have mercy me and save me; let me merit to real belief in the sages, as You desire, so that I believe in all the true sages with really perfect, wholehearted belief. Let me never swerve from their words of advice, whether to the right or to the left. By this, let me merit to the holy judgment, to really judge myself. Bring my judgment out into the light.

Grant me merit to always learn Your holy Torah for its won sake, to learn, to teach, to observe, to do and to fulfill with love all the words of Your Torah. Enlighten my eyes in Your Torah. Grant me holy wisdom, understanding and perception in order to gain insight and understanding from all my learning of Your holy books. Let me understand and learn rules from them all, with regard to really good and just behavior. Let me not swerve or turn away from the truth, whether to the right or left. Rather, let me merit to know how to behave with regard to everything by my learning the holy Torah.

Take pity and have mercy upon my poor, wretched soul. Save me from foolish advice, from the advice of women, from weak advice, from ambiguous advice. Now I am in doubt all the time and do not know how to give perfect advice to my soul about how to behave with regard to anything. Every time I desire to find a good counsel how to really come closer to You, I do not succeed. Because of this my advice is ambiguous and I have many doubts. Sometimes it comes to my mind to do a certain thing and to behave in a certain way and I even have many arguments and proofs that I must behave like this but, when I have finally decided to do this, when I begin to do it, so other ideas come to mind which contradict the first piece of advice. I get lots of reasons and proofs that I have to do exactly the opposite, such that my advice is split into two and is always hanging in the balance without my knowing how to decide one way or the other. Even if, sometimes the advice clearly points in one direction I do not merit to always have strong firm advice. My advice is very weak. All the time my heart gets doubts and confusions which weaken my advice and continually overturn my mind and heart, making me think that I should not do it like this…. Because of all my many immense sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions, I come to foolish, weak, ambiguous advice.

My Father in Heaven, have mercy upon me, my Father in Heaven, I do not know with what words of pleading for mercy or what words of crying or which words of sighing and shouting out to You I must use so that You will answer me and come to my help. In Your bountiful mercy, rectify all this by Yourself, for I have not the strength to rectify this. Even one point of all this is beyond my ability to rectify. I rely only upon You. Full of mercy, help me. You who are full of salvation, full of saving, full of good advice, provide me with good advice from You. Let me merit to perfect advice and let me fulfill it in such a way that I may now escape from all that I need to escape from. Yours is advice and wisdom; Your advice is faithful and Your deed truth. You are righteous and honest, close to those who call Him truthfully. Have mercy upon me for Your sake. Take pity upon my soul, upon all my children and all those dependent upon me. Grant me perfect, true and proper advice and let me merit to carry it out in such a way that I can save my soul from the Pit. Let me merit to always progress in the path of truth without any confusion of the mind at all, so that I may serve You with really perfect worship, all the days of my life, the life of my children and their descendants, from now on, forever.

Have mercy upon us and save us. Our Father in Heaven, Master of All, Lord of Peace, King to whom peace belongs, draw upon us blessing, life and peace. Save us from all sorts of controversy and strife. Protect us and remove from us any enemy, plague, sword, hunger or sorrow; remove Satan from before us and from behind us. Please save us from our enemies and persecutors, whether material or spiritual. Save us from all those who oppose us or hate us, from all the slanderers who speak evil against our soul. Save us from all the accusers and close their mouths. May the counsel and thoughts of those who rise against us be thwarted and frustrated. In Your bountiful mercy, guard us and save us so that the controversy will not harm us, either materially or spiritually. Rather, grant us by the controversy to repent perfectly with regard to all our sins, iniquities and willful transgressions, especially any blemish regarding belief in the sages, for I have blemished the honour of the true sages and their holy books. I did not really believe in them completely; I treated their words as something not binding; they were not important in my eyes.

Please Lord, in Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to rectify all this so that I have pity on my soul and look at myself well. Let me understand and learn how much I have blemished my belief in the sages by the fact that there is controversy and opposition to me. May I repent perfectly in this respect and rectify all my deeds from now on. Let me merit to fulfill the words of the true sages, without straying to the right or left….. In Your bountiful mercy and Your immense loving-kindness, help and save me.

Have pity upon me and save me from sorrow; remove from me all sorts of sadness, worries and melancholy, especially sadness and worries caused by the burden of making a living. In Your great mercy, remove and cancel these feelings from me, for due to my many iniquities, due to the immense feeling of burden, sadness and melancholy which dominated my heart because of my evil desires, the yoke of the burden of making a living has been added to all this, such that the spirit of my heart has become stupefied and the spirit of the pulse in my heart cannot flow smoothly through all my limbs as it should. Because of this my hands and limbs are very weighty and due to this immense burden the spirit of the pulse has become even weaker, so it continues in a vicious cycle until, due to the immense heaviness and weakness and blocking of the heart by great sadness, my soul almost leaves the body, Heaven forbid.

Master of the World, You know all this, You know my bitter and impetuous heart. The bitterness of my heart reaches to the heights of the heavens, until “the strength of the bearers of the burdens is decayed”. “Woe is me, my mother, that you gave birth to me”. On these holy days of Rosh HaShana, write us down for a good and long life, for a good, sweet year and that we merit to really fulfill Your desire and always accept the yoke of Your kingdom upon us. Let us merit that our souls be joined together with great love among the souls of the true tzaddikim until we merit by this to great happiness and tremendous joy, as is written: “The light of the righteous rejoices”. Especially on these holy days of Rosh HaShana may we merit to tremendous happiness, as is written: “….eat the fat and drink the sweet; send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; do not be sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” And it says, “Blessed is the nation that knows the joyful sound (teruah); they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Your Countenance. In Your Name they shall rejoice all the day; in Your righteousness they shall be exalted.”

62.    AND  G-D  LED

a)  Through the Jewish people's eating, a unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah, face to face, is brought about. But the eating has to be from food after it has been separated from any hold of the husks which became mixed up in the foods as a result of the eating from the Tree of Knowledge. For, by the food which contains this mixture, a person can come to sin; and by sins, a separation between the Holy One and the Schechinah is caused.

b)  Clarification of the foods is through faith. When a person has perfect faith he may be able to cause a unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah by his eating, as above. This is an aspect of "graze on faith" (Psalms, 37:3), an aspect of eating with faith.

c)      The limiting of the human mind by the Holy One, so that it can understand, means that is a great mitzvah to sharpen the intellect to understand each thing completely. About this it says, "Know what to answer the heretic" (Perkei Avot,Ch.2). However, there are philosophical questions of faith that the human mind cannot understand or answer; only in the future the answer will be revealed, so, in the meantime, it is forbidden to delve into them. Anyone who relies on his intellect and delves into and investigates these questions, about him it says, "None will go into there and return" (Proverbs, 2:19). For in a question such as this, one mustn't rely on the intellect; rather one must rely on faith.

d)  Even regarding those questions that have an answer, sometimes the paths of the intellect are blocked and he cannot answer to the heretic in his heart. This is an aspect of "their heart is divided" (Hoshea, 10:2) meaning there is a conflict in his heart between the two inclinations. For knowledge is from the good urge in his heart, whereas the concealment of knowledge is from the evil urge in the heart; and it is this concealment that is itself the heresy and the difficult questions that the evil urge asks so that a person's heart will fall into evil. The rectification to this is to learn halachic decisions, for the source of this dissent is from the dissent in holiness, that's to say from the disagreements between the Tana'im and Amori'im of the Gemorra. From their dissent the dissent of the evil urge materialized in the world. But by learning halachic decisions, a person becomes connected to holy peace; then the controversy of the evil urge in his heart is nullified and the gates of intellect are opened for him so that he will now how to answer the heresy in his heart. All the time that he doesn't merit to sharpen and open his intellect, he must rely only on faith even regarding these questions, for faith is the main thing.

e)  Peace-Shalom- is alluded to in the initial letters of  'o'da ma sha'tashiv l'apicoris' – 'Know what to answer the heretic'. By learning halachic decisions, which represent peace (deciding between different opinions), one merits to know how to answer the heresy in one's heart.

f)  Furthermore, by learning halacha, one merits to pray properly with all one's heart. For the main obstacle to prayer, that one doesn't pray with the proper intentions, is only because a person hasn't got perfect faith and his heart is divided from G-d.  The truth is that if a person were to know and believe with all his heart that all the world was full of G-d's glory, and the Holy One stands over him at the time of prayer, hearing and listening and paying attention to every single word of prayer, he would certainly be very careful to concentrate on all his words and he would pray with great enthusiasm. It is only because his heart is divided and isn't strong in this knowledge with all his heart, because of this he isn't so careful and doesn't concentrate well in his heart during prayer.  And all this stems from the questions and heresy in his heart, as above;  that they are the controversy of the evil urge in the heart. Therefore, by learning halachic decisions, one nullifies the dissent of the evil urge at its source, as above. By this, one merits to pray properly, with all one's heart in truth. This is what it says, "I will give You thanks with uprightness of the heart" (Psalms, 119:7). Specifically in the heart, with the two inclinations; and when is this? "When I learn Your righteous judgements", as explained previously.

g)   The main perfection and adornment of faith is by bringing those far away from G-d closer to Him. To perfect the faith, that's to say, bringing those far away closer to the Holy One, first one has to raise the sparks of the letters of speech. To rectify this is through a fast, for all the physical cravings are an aspect of husks and bodily wastes; this is because without these cravings the body could still exist. When these cravings overcome a person, this reflects the husks overpowering the holiness. The prime cravings are to eat and drink for and all the other cravings are drawn after them. When they overcome a person, they draw the power of speech into exile, to the narrow straights of the throat and to the back of the neck such that he can't say anything to G-d, like it says, "My throat is dried" (Psalms,69:4).  By the fast, that he starves himself from moistening the narrow straights of the throat. He fulfills "Cry aloud, spare not" (Isaiah, 58:1); so that then he is able to speak out to G-d and pray with proper concentration. As a result, the voice then turns itself and gathers holy sparks from among the husks which then remain without life-force. Then the nations, who draw their vitality from the husks, when they see that they have no life-force, throw away their faith and all turn to the Jewish faith. By this, one perfects one's faith and merits to complete faith and thus to clarify the foods. Through one's eating one is able to unite the Holy One and the Shechinah, face to face.

h)  Faith applies only to things that one doesn't understand their reason. Even though, for the believer, the thing he believes in is apparent as if he actually sees it with his eyes, this is because of the intensity of his perfect faith.

i)  Faith is renewed for a person every morning, as it says, "They are new every morning" (Lamentations, 3:23). However, during the day, because of the bother of worldly affairs, this faith becomes concealed.

j)  Because their faith is not perfect, many people stumble into the mistake of making the causes, intermediaries between themselves and G-d. That's to say, they believe in G-d but they believe also in the intermediary means, saying that one needs the cause. They believe, for instance, that the cause of making a living is trading, and say that the cause of the trading is the main thing as if without this, Heaven forbid, the Holy One wouldn't be able to provide a livelihood. Similarly the cause of the cure is the medicine and they make that the main thing, as if, Heaven forbid, without this, the Holy One couldn't cure. This isn't so, for the Holy One is the Cause of all Causes, the First Cause of all First Causes; He needs no intermediary cause. When one uses any one of these intermediary causes, one has to believe solely in the Holy One and not make the means the main thing.

k)       The main element in each thing is the beginning, for all the beginnings are difficult since one goes from one extreme to another. However, after the beginning, one enters into somewhat of a routine, it becomes less difficult. Therefore, the work and fear of a person each day is according to the beginning; for every day he has to go backwards and take strength from the beginning which was then very difficult for him. This being the case, one has to start every time from anew because perhaps the beginning was not as it should have been, meaning that all one's service of G-d isn't as perfect as it should have been, for everything is according to the beginning. So, one has to strengthen oneself and arouse one's heart to start anew each time with great enthusiasm and a new, increased strength in the service of G-d, as if one had never started before. All this is in order that his service of G-d be proper, according to the strength of the beginning, as mentioned. Every time one has to have this suspicion that maybe one hasn't yet started properly and thus increase one's strength to start anew from now on.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

l)  Every time that one comes to the tzaddik one also has to see to it that one comes anew, not with the feeling that you were already by him and now you are coming a second time; you have to feel that you are now coming for the first time. You must start each time from anew, for the main thing is the beginning, as mentioned.

m)  Controversy leads to heresies and through this one also cannot pray properly, as explained.                                           However, when there is peace, all the heresies and apostasy in the heart of each person              are nullified. For when there is peace and people get together to speak with each other, each one can bring his friend back from his evil opinions extracting the heresies and disbelief from his heart. But, because of controversy, a person does not get together to speak to his friend returning his mind to the truth; even if they speak together one doesn't listen to the words of his fellow. This is because of his desire to be victorious in the argument. It turns out that the main faith depends primarily on peace.

Prayer (62)

Lord, our G-d and G-d of our Fathers, plant faith in You firmly within our hearts and the hearts of all the People of Israel faith in You. Merit us to have really strong, proper and whole-hearted faith without any doubts or confusion at all. Let our faith be so firm that we have the impression of actually seeing the thing we believe in. May we merit to serve You always, with all our hearts. Help me to drive out all kinds of disbelief from my heart and mind.

So also, help me, in Your bountiful compassion, so that I merit to study books of Halacha with great persistence. Help me to learn a great deal of Halacha every day; open my mind and prepare my heart so that I can study with great speed and understand the Halachic decision very clearly. Assist me to clarify and to know how to decide what is the true Halachic decision. By this may I draw peace into all the worlds until it spreads into this world as well. Place peace among all Jews forever and nullify all kinds of controversy from the world. Let peace multiply in the world until each person can talk with his fellow and explain to him the ultimate Truth. Merit us to believe in You and in Your genuine tzaddikim so that we can really serve You with all our heart, with all of our desires. Merit us to know with complete knowledge and with a full heart that all the world is full of Your glory. You, Yourself, in Your glory stand over us when we pray. You hear and listen to every word of prayer. Let us feel Your G-dliness at all times especially at the time of prayer. As a result of this, give us great spiritual arousal so that we pray with tremendous enthusiasm and with immense concentration, reciting each word with great care in order to have the proper intentions.

In Your great mercy, give us merit to rectify the spoiling of speech and help us to separate and raise all the sparks of the letters of speech that fell into a great exile among the husks of the Other Side because of our iniquities, because of our having followed the stubbornness of our hearts and having chased after the craving for food and drink. We used to fill ourselves with excessive food, eating and drinking, that which is not necessary for the body’s survival, until by our many iniquities, by the blemish of the craving for food and drink, the three ministers of Pharaoh, which are the three husks, overcame us – the Minister of Drinks, the Minister of Bakers and the Minister of Cooks, which are (symbolic of) the windpipe, gullet and veins. By this, the yoke of the exile of Pharaoh and Egypt, which is the narrow straights of the throat, has overcome us: holy speech is drawn to the nape, to the narrow confines of the throat, until the throat becomes parched and one cannot say anything worthwhile before You.

Master of the World! Master of the World! You know the desires of my heart; You know me from the beginning to end. You know my disgrace, shame and reproachfulness; al my oppressors are before You. I know of now way nor of any advice for how to behave with regard to eating with holiness, in a way that I can merit to really be saved from the blemish of the craving for food and drink. Master of the World, my needs are many, regarding everything, and in every single matter concerning worshipping the Lord, until my need for salvation in incredibly great in all matters. Therefore, I have no word to express myself and I cannot speak at all for I do not know where to start to speak and to illucidate myself. The truth is that I know myself that I am culpable from beginning to end. There are several blemishes I have caused by the craving for food and drink because I did not make any effort to drive away that craving from myself, until by this, my speech became very blemished and the parts of my speech fell into a very great exile, so much so that I do not merit to say anything fitting and worthy. I still have not started to really and properly call You at all. “I have become weary in my calling, my throat parched and my eyes have ceased from hoping for my G-d”.

Master of all the World, I am immeasurably distressed. I do not know any way, suggestion or scheme at all to rescue my wretched, miserable soul from the Pit, for I have no strength other than in my mouth and this also is precluded from me. “For there is no word in my vocabulary. Yes, Lord, you know it all”, for the parts of my speech have fallen into a very great and heavy exile. Oh, Lord! I am very distressed. Behold I call to You out of distress, from the restriction of the throat, from the depth of the exile. “From the depths I called You, Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications”, “You heard my voice; do not hide Your ear from the sighing and my cry”.

In Your great power and immense loving-kindness, help me so that I merit to truly and completely break the craving for food and drink. May I be content with little, with eating very sparingly only that which is vital for me. May I eat with great holiness and purity without any craving or enjoyment of the body at all.

Help us to always engage in studying Your holy Torah and to serve You wholeheartedly. May we feel that our service is new every single day. Let us start anew each time as if we had never started to serve You. This is especially true of someone like me who is of so little worth having never really started to serve You. And even when You enable us to serve You really properly, merit us to always start again from anew each time so that we renew our youth like an eagle with Your Torah and holy service. Let us not fall at all to a feeling old age and a lack of strength.

In Your bountiful mercy, let us merit to faith and real, wholehearted trust. Let us cast before You alone all our please for that which we lack and may we always be very strong in our perfect trust in You. Do not let us put our hope in any cause or intermediary factor but, rather, let us know and believe that everything comes about by Your Divine Providence alone; whether it be income, children, health or any other things in This World. With regard to them all, may we not use or put faith in any natural cause at all. Rather, let us know, believe and really put our trust in your ability to arrange our income in a perfect way, without any intermediary cause such as business deals etc. So also, You can send us complete healing without us going to any doctor or using any medicines for You are the Lord, our G-d the First of all causes, the Cause of all causes. Even when according to Your will, we are forced to engage in some cause, some natural means, in order to acquire an income etc., let us merit to believe in You alone and not make the means the primary thing. Heaven forbid.

In the merit of true tzaddikim give us strength to nullify, by our prayers, that which has been decreed because of fortune. Let us overturn and change the process of nature by our prayers and supplications, such that everyone will see and really believe that there is no law of nature at all. Rather, everything always takes place according to Your Divine Providence…..Pardon and forgive us and all of Your Nation, Israel, for all the blemishes we have caused to Your holy belief by our putting faith in natural causes. From now on, strengthen our hearts and the hearts of all Your Nation, Israel and all the people of the world, so that we all merit to know and believe that You are the Lord, G-d in the Heavens and upon the Earth. Everything happens only by Your Divine Providence. All the causes are from You alone.

Lord, G-d, return the radiance of Your Countenance and let us be saved. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart find favour before You, G-d, my Rock and Redeemer.

Amen and Amen.

63. THE  SECRET  OF MILA

a)      The brit (sexual organ) is called in Aramaic, 'ama', an aspect of the measurement of length called 'ama' which consists of six tephachim, an allusion to "Seraphim stood above him; each one had six wings" etc. (Isaiah,6:2).

          { Editor's note: It seems the meaning  is that the brit is called Yisod, which is the sixth Attribute and includes all the other Attributes, as explained in Torah 29. Therefore, when one rectifies the brit, one automatically rectifies all the six Attributes. That is 'ama' of six tephachim. This is because the six tephachim are an aspect of the six days and the six days are an aspect of the six Attributes.}

b)      The true tzaddikim and leaders have various ways of behaving towards those who come close to them. Sometimes the tzaddik shows himself as very close to the public, whereas sometimes he covers and hides himself from them and distances himself from them very much. Not only does he distance himself from them so that they cannot approach him, but also they have doubts and queries about him such that their minds become crooked and confused from how the tzaddik behaves towards them. All of this is for the benefit of those who come close to him. Consequently, don't let your thoughts get confused about this, for everything is for your good.

c)                  However much more you come close to G-d, you have to know that you are still very far away. If you think and imagine that you are already close to the Holy One and have knowledge of G-d, this is a sign that you know nothing , for if you knew even a little of the Holy One, you would know that you are very far away from Him and don't know anything at all. This is a matter that cannot be spoken about or explained, for the exaltedness of the Creator is beyond measure.

d)      Sometimes the tzaddik takes suffering upon himself for the sake of the world. That's to say, he doesn't want the bounty or Divine Providence that should have come to him, but rather, takes upon himself suffering. He chooses spiritual bounty and Divine Providence. That (material) bounty that went away from him spreads among the public.

e)      There is a Serpent which is an aspect of "wise men spreading evil", the researchers of philosophy and atheism. Through their evil words , such as slander, gossip, lies, mocking, flattery, embarrassing words, obscenity, idle talk and other evil speech, especially slander against the tzaddikim and kosher Jews, they create wings for the Serpent so it can fly and harm the world a lot, Heaven forbid. In other words, their evil wisdom and atheism becomes stronger and flies (from one place to another). This is an aspect of the Primaeval Serpent, which by evil speech, as mentioned, damages the world a great deal. However, by holy speech we create wings of holiness. When these holy wings are as they should be the Serpent will not have wings created by evil words, as explained above; then they cannot harm the world so much.    

          {Editor's note: It seems that the meaning of the six wings mentioned in paragraph a) is that it refers to the six Attributes that are included in the brit. Through holy words, we make and rectify all of the holy Attributes. Also, the contrary, through evil words we strengthen the bad Attributes of the evil wise men. We give them strength to harm the world with their evil wisdom, Heaven forbid. May G-d protect us from them and may we always merit to holy words.}

Prayer (63)

Guardian of the brit and of loving kindness, have mercy on me for Your Name’s sake. Merit me from now on to guard the holy brit such that I will not blemish the brit at all. May I sanctify myself  with the utmost holiness in what is permissible. Let me rectify in my lifetime all the innumerous and immense blemishes that I caused to the holiness of the brit during my lifetime. No one needs Your compassion more than someone who causes blemishes against You specially with regard to spoiling the brit. Master of the World have mercy upon me and upon all those who are far away from You who need great compassion. Do it for Your names sake and for the sake of the true tzaddikim who guard the brit. Merit us from now on to complete repentance so that we will not return to our folly.

May the tzaddikim rectify everything we have blemished in the holy brit. For we have no power to rectify even one blemish. We rely solely upon the merit of the tzaddikim and upon their great power. Merit us in Your bountiful compassion to come close to true tzaddikim who guard the brit with the utmost perfection. Have mercy on us and make them known to us. Merit us to know to which of the tzaddikim to come close so as to receive from them real holiness and purity. Then merit us to complete repentance and to turn away from all the evil. Let us only do that which finds favour in Your eyes.

Please G-d, do it for Your Name’s sake. Do not allow our sins to make us become distant from the tzaddikim. Rather let us be strong with perfect faith always. Help us to believe that all their ways are very

straight and proper. They are truly righteous in all their ways and in every movement. It is just that we cannot ascertain their awesome and sublime level. Merit us that the tzaddikim will have mercy upon us bringing us closer each time. May they lower themselves to us, while clothing and covering their great light, in such a way that we can merit to see their wonderful light revealed. Let them bring themselves close to the public so as to have mercy upon us with great love and compassion and may their thoughts always be to bring us close and not to drive us away, heaven forbid. By this may we always be able to cleave to them forever.

Therefore merit us not to struggle against the suffering we have to undergo as is Your will. Let us draw upon ourselves the Light of Your Countenance, drawing good bounty into the world at all times. May the true tzaddikim protect us for they suffered greatly for the sake of the Jewish people. Have mercy upon them and grant them all forms of good. Save them and their offspring especially from all kinds of anguish and suffering, from all kinds of worries and fears. Cure them from all kinds of illness.

So have mercy upon us and save us. Merit us to guard our mouths and tongues from all kinds of evil words. Let me never say a falsehood, slander, gossip, mockery, flattery, idle chatter or obscenities nor anything that would cause another Jew to be ashamed. Master of the World, Who is full of compassion, have mercy upon us; guard us and save us from all these kinds of blemished speech. My G-d guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking deceitfully. By  this subdue, break, crumble, uproot and nullify all forms of evil wisdoms of the philosophers and deniers of faith for their evil wisdom damages the world, very much. Their words are like a serpent. Save us from all their evil wisdom so that it does not reach us. Hide us in the shadow of Your wings. Do not let their atheism and philosophical investigating fly into our mind and heart. Weaken their evil wisdom in all of its aspects and reveal to the world the true wisdom of the genuine sages. Turn all the nations to a clear language to call out to G-d and to serve Him with one accord.

64.  COME  TO  PHAROAH

a)      It is a severe prohibition to delve into philosophical books for there are several difficult questions that stem from the Vacant Space (see inside) to which no answer at all can be found; only in the Time to Come will the answer be revealed, because only then the secret of the constriction of the Vacant Space  will become known. This in itself will be the reward of the tzaddikim who will ascertain and understand what had previously been impossible to understand in This World. However, in This World, it is impossible to find an answer to these questions through any human intellect and whoever delves into these philosophies, stemming from the Vacant Space, will sink and become lost there. About these people it says, "None shall go into there and return" (Proverbs,2:19); it is impossible to find the Holy One there and to answer these questions and the perplexities within them with any kind of intelligence. Only the People of Israel, through their faith, pass over all these philosophies and all the perplexities in the world. This is because they have faith in G-d and in His holy Torah without any investigation or philosophy; only with pure faith. Because this, the Jews are called 'Ivrim' – Hebrews, for, by their faith they pass over ('ovrim') and transcend all kinds of investigations and philosophies. They don't need to investigate at all for they know the absolute truth as a result of their perfect faith that they believe in the truth according to what we received from our fathers and our holy rabbis. By this they pass over and transcend all the philosophies, all of them.

b)      Know, there are great tzaddikim who are obliged to delve into these philosophies. This is even though they also cannot reveal the godliness that is in the Vacant Space, nor answer all the questions and perplexities that stem from this Vacant Space, for all this is impossible until the Time to Come, as explained. Even so, through their delving into these philosophies, they raise and extract from there several souls who have fallen and sunk there. This is because by the great holiness of the tzaddik, when he studies these philosophies, he subdues the power of perplexities and investigations that come from these philosophies. Since everything craves for its source, so when the tzaddikim deal with these philosophies, all of the souls who fell into them begin to desire and become enthused to cleave to the neshama of the tzaddik who removes them from there.

c)      Through the song of the true, great tzaddik he raises the souls of those who fell into atheism, as above, which has no answer. 

                { Editor's addition: That is what the Sages said that David raised the yoke of repentance… by tunes and songs of King David, he returned all the Jewish souls in repentance even those who fell into the perplexities of the Vacant Space. Therefore, the Rebbe said that saying Psalms has the special power of bringing a person to repentance.}

d)      The existence of controversy between the true tzaddikim is drawn from the aspect of the Vacant Space (see inside). It is impossible to understand this through human intelligence, therefore it is forbidden to think about this controversy. Rather, one has to believe that these and these are the words of the Living G-d; but we cannot possibly understand this. We have to strengthen ourselves in faith alone.

Prayer (64)

Master of the World, who performs great wonders beyond understanding and wonders beyond number. Master of the Universe You fill all the worlds and surround all worlds. You are above all worlds, below all worlds and between all worlds. There is no place void of You. Through Your good will bountiful mercy You created the world from before time in order to reveal Your compassion in the world. You consctricted Your G-dliness, so to speak. You removed Your great, infinite Light to the sides thus creating a void space. Within this space You created all the worlds from beginning to end all in order that acknowledge Your existence in the world. Guard us and save us from all kinds of disbelief and atheism. Let no query or doubt from the investigations of the philosophers come into my heart to confuse me. These doubts and queries stem from the void and have no answers.

Out of Your bountiful compassion, send us true tzaddikim of very great stature, who are an aspect of Moshe our teacher. Give them strength to enter these philosophical ideas stemming from the vacant space such that they can break, nullify and uproot them completely. May they extract all the Jewish souls that have fallen into these enquiries in the vacant space and let the great tzaddik have the power to arouse and reveal the sublime tune and song, the chosen song of all songs of the world, for by this song he can extract all the souls that have fallen into the queries and confusions stemming from the vacant space. He alone knows the extent of the mercy they need.

Master of the World, You informed us that every wisdom in the world has a special song and melody. So also, every form of belief has a special song and melody. So also, every form of belief has a special song and melody. Therefore, take pity and have mercy upon us. Save us so that we never  hear a special song or melody belonging to a foreign wisdom, especially any wisdom or atheism or any false belief, Heaven forbid.

May we merit to sing joyfully and play holy melodies before You; to glorify Your Name with songs and melodies drawn from Your holy belief which, themselves, have the strength to remove from denial and perplexities in the heart and all sorts of confusion of the mind. Let us really arouse and draw the heart towards You, to Your Torah and to Your true worship. “Awake my glory; awake psaltery and harp; I will awaken the dawn”. Grant us, draw upon us and reveal to us holy songs, songs of praise and melodies stemming “from the earliest beginnings of faith” stemming from the sublime melody and song of Moses, may he rest in peace, from whom all the songs and melodies of the world derive. By this, let us merit to really perfect belief.

May I merit to be included within the soul of Moses, may he rest in peace, for he is the aspect of remaining silent. Let me merit to accustom myself to remaining silent and thereby to fulfill what the Sages, of blessed memory, said: “A fence around wisdom is silence”. They also said: “I found nothing better for the body than silence”. “May I also be ‘silent’ (utterly calm) in my mind whenever I need to be silent verbally. Whenever thoughts and confusions come to my mind, especially confusions regarding faith, may I be dumb and remain silent. Let me be like a deaf man who does not hear like a dumb person who does not open his mouth. Do not let me turn my mind and incline my thoughts to answer anything in my mind with regard to all the mistakes and confusions, crookedness and perplexities that come into the mind and heart. Rather, grant me merit me to be mute and keep quiet completely, in my mind also and may I rise and be included in the Supreme Silence Above, which is the source of holy belief. By this, may my belief, my mind and my heart be strengthened to perfection with great strength and holy boldness. As a result, nullify automatically all the perplexities, confusions and doubts in the world. Distance from me all sorts of strange thoughts and improper contemplations in the world, just by the holy trait of keeping silent; whether they be thoughts of disbelief or of adultery and other cravings; whether they be improper thoughts at the time of prayer or when learning Torah or any other evil, improper thoughts or confusions or crookedness in the heart which prevent a person from real holiness. May they all become distanced and nullified from me completely, in utter nullification, just by true silence.

You know our weakness at this time and that we have no council or strategy against them, we cannot give any answer to these many confusions, whether small or big, that stand against us and surround us at every moment, all the time. Really we just depend on You and upon the strength and merit of the true tzaddikim who are the aspect of keeping silent. Let us merit to be enjoined in them and to truly follow in their footsteps. Let us draw upon ourselves the radiance of their holy silence. Our eyes are set towards You alone. Let us hope and long for Your mercy which is hidden away for Your creatures…. I spread out my hands in prayer all day. “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord who mad heaven and earth”. Fulfill in us the verse which says: “And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will show you today: for the Egyptians who you have seen today you will never ever see again. The Lord will fight for you and you will keep silent”. Do not forsake me Lord, my G-d; do not be far from me. Make haste to help Lord, my salvation”. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart find favour before You, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Amen and Amen.

65.  BOAZ  SAID  TO RUTH

a)      There is a Supernal Field where all the neshamot grow and these neshamot need a Master of the Field who will involve himself in their rectification. Anyone who wants to have mercy on his soul, so that it won't be without clothes, wandering around  outside the field, has to ask and plead a lot from the Holy One all the days of his life to come close to this tzaddik who is the Master of the Field; he looks over each individual in order to bring him to his ultimate purpose which is all one and all good, as explained in paragraphs b and c, for it is impossible to reach this good, eternal ultimate purpose other than through this tzaddik who is the aspect of the Master of the Field.

b)      The main perfection of prayer is when one merits to come to the ultimate purpose to make one from all the prayer. For when a person is about to pray and begins to say the first word, such as 'baruch', as soon as the first letter leaves the mouth, for example, 'b' from 'baruch', then the letter asks and pleads from the nefesh of the person praying not to become separated from it. It doesn’t let the nefesh go on and speak more; it hugs and caresses the nefesh and asks her not to depart from it. This is even more so when one finishes a word, for then the whole word hugs and holds onto the nefesh and doesn't let her go away to speak other words of prayer. For when a person is about to pray and say words of prayer, he gathers up beautiful blossoms, flowers and roses. This is like a person who goes in the field and gathers beautiful roses and flowers, one by one, until he makes one garland , then, afterwards, he picks another flower and another, collecting them into another garland, joining them together; so he goes and picks and gathers several beautiful, pleasant garlands. Similarly, when he goes in prayer from one letter to another until several letters are joined together, thus he forms a word of speech. Afterwards, he goes on and joins several more letters which form a second word, and so on. After this the two words join together and he goes on and collects more letters until he finishes one blessing. Following this he gathers more and more, progressing from the Avot to Gevorot and from Gevorot to Kedushot and so on. Who can describe the immense beauty of the gathering and garlands that a person picks and gathers in the words of prayer. When a word leaves the mouth it leaves from the nefesh and comes to be heard in the ears; then the word asks from the nefesh not to let her go further; it hugs and caresses her in order that she won't leave it, as mentioned. "For how can you leave me? Do you not see the virtue of my beauty, the radiance and splendour of my beauty, for am I not the word 'baruch'?  Please listen to what you say and let your ears hear what you speak out. How can you go on to gather more very desirable, precious charms? How can you leave me and forget me?" At least, in every place where you go, see to it not to forget me and not to depart from me. Therefore, the main perfection of prayer is when one merits to make one from all the prayer such that when one says the last word of the prayers one should still be thinking of the first word of the prayer. Like this, one never departs from the first letter of prayer even at the end of the prayers; then the prayer is perfect. However, to merit to this is impossible other than through the great and true tzaddik who is the aspect of the Master of the Supernal Field, who can bring each individual to his true ultimate purpose which is all good, all one. By this, he will merit to make one from all the prayer and this is the main perfection of prayer, as mentioned.

c)      When a person merits, through the Master of the Field, to look at the ultimate purpose, then he has no anguish or suffering from anything in the world. The truth is that there is nothing bad in the world, rather, everything is entirely good. The main feeling of distress when a person has suffering, Heaven forbid, is only because his understanding is taken from him such that he becomes unable to perceive the ultimate purpose which is entirely good. If he were to merit to look at the ultimate purpose, he would have no feeling of distress at all from this suffering, for the intention of the Holy One is certainly for the good; or it comes to remind him to repent or it comes to cleanse him of his iniquities, thus enabling him to merit to the Eternal Life. Therefore, the suffering is a great favour; it would be fitting for him to be full of joy at the great favour that G-d performed for him through this suffering, if he merited to perceive the ultimate good purpose in it.

d)      A person has to train himself each time in the aspect of nullification, to look at the real ultimate purpose which is good and eternal. This is impossible other than by closing the eyes from any glimpse of This World, not to look at all at the physical cravings and vanities of This World. This is because it is impossible to perceive and become included in the ultimate purpose other than by closing the eyes, by blocking one's eyes completely from glancing at This World, even if one has to press the eyes closed with the fingers; then one will have no suffering or feeling of distress from anything. However, it is impossible to be in this state of nullification permanently for then one would go beyond the definition of a human being. So, this nullification must be in the aspect of 'running and returning' for then the impression of the nullification radiates to the understanding a light of sweetness and pleasantness, a sparkling of godliness which one person cannot possibly describe at all to his fellow. By this, great joy is drawn upon a person and this leads to a flow of Torah innovations which enable him to rejuvenate himself in times of suffering and during difficult events which he experiences, Heaven forbid. Then he will merit to taste and feel, even while in This World, something like the World to Come.

e)      In truth, at the time of nullification to the ultimate purpose which is all good, all the suffering is cancelled, as explained previously. However, it is impossible to maintain this nullification permanently; the nullification must be in the aspect of 'running and returning', as mentioned. When the intellect comes back from this nullification, returning to the brain, it is beyond the brain's ability to receive this intelligence which is an aspect of nullification, for it is an aspect of the Ein Sof, the Infinite. This inability is the reason why the brain feels the distress of the suffering. The suffering even becomes much stronger than previously; it is like two people, who are fighting with each other. When one sees that his adversary is overcoming him, he then makes a bigger effort to resist and subdue that adversary. But afterwards, the suffering becomes weaker and he takes consolation in it through the Torah innovations he merited to as a result of the suffering. This is because, through the nullification to the ultimate purpose, he ascertained that all the experiences of suffering are great favours. This leads a person to be full of joy which, in turn, is a vessel for the Torah innovations (see inside). Then, through them, the suffering becomes cooled. This is an aspect of "Blessed is the man whom You chastise, o Lord, and teach him from Your Torah" (Psalms, 94:12) for, by means of the suffering, he merits to innovations in Torah. (Editor's note: This verse ends "to quiet him down during the bad days". This is because through Torah innovations the suffering is lightened.)

f)       The sign that you have achieved something through the suffering, and accepted them properly, is that you merit afterwards to Torah innovations. This is a sign that you merited to nullify yourself to the ultimate purpose through the suffering and, even though you must return yourself from the nullification, even so, from the impression that remains from this nullification you become full of joy and merit to Torah innovations.

Prayer (65)

Unique One, who was, is and will be, in Your plentiful compassion, grant me the merit to really be included in Your Oneness, Please, You who are full of mercy, help me and save me so that I can gather together all my strength and might in order to close my eyes and seal them against looking at This World at all. Let me shut my eyes very tightly so as not to look at all at the vanities of This World and its desires! May I be in This World just like a blind person, not seeing, looking or gazing at This World at all. Rather let me merit to direct my eyes, my understanding and my intelligence to always perceive the true purpose of life, the eternal purpose, such that I merit to really know and understand Your true goodness. Let me be worthy of really understanding that there is no evil in the World at all, for everything is goodness and loving-kindness. You do great good for everyone all the time, at every moment. Your intention is always for the good, for You desire to make us worthy and to bring us to the true purpose in life, the eternal life. Let me merit to always be happy.

Please, Awesome and Holy One, save me from the time of trouble. Be with me at all times. Help and save me any time when, according to Your good judgments and ways of justice, You send me suffering, Heaven forbid. Give me strength and intelligence to look at its true purpose, to look at the ultimately good purpose of the suffering. Help me to really be included within You at the time of suffering. Let me nullify myself completely and seal my eyes completely from looking at This World. With immense willpower, may I close my eyes and seal them against the cravings and vanities of This World such that I merit to behold that which is distant, to perceive the good and eternal benefit which I will be worthy of by my suffering; thereby may I nullify completely all my suffering.

Please G-d, whose goodness never ceases, let me merit from now on to Your true goodness. Provide for us from Your eternal goodness. Help me and grant me to be really and completely included in the Unique One, with proper, total self-nullification, as is Your good desire. Let me understand that everything is good and that there is no evil in the world at all; all the troubles and suffering that exist in the world are all great favours! By this understanding, may I nullify all the troubles and suffering in the world. Let me be worthy of accepting, with great love and happiness, the suffering which has come to me. Let me negate all the suffering by really nullifying myself to the good purpose which lies behind it. Then, afterwards, when we return from that state of self-nullification, do not let the suffering have the power to overcome us, Heaven forbid. Rather, help me merit then to negate the suffering by perception of the Torah. Through happiness, let us merit to ascertain and receive the light of the holy impression left in our minds from our perception of and negation to the ultimate purpose, which is all good, all one. Then, let this impression shine into the vessels of the brain an ability to ascertain the secrets of the Torah.

So have mercy upon us and save us so that we merit to pray with perfection. Enable us to unite with all the prayer such that all our prayers, supplications and requests become merged together in the ultimate unity in a way that will give us strength every day to arrange as many songs, praises and prayers before You with the utmost perfection as You desire.

Please,You who desire the prayers of the Jewish People, You know the immense beauty and splendour of the holiness of the words of prayer, every single letter of the words of prayer, that we merit to recite before You. Who can describe the splendour of the words that we collect and gather together like wonderful and awesome flowers and plants collected from the holy and supernal fields. If we understood the immense, holy value of each word of prayer we would not be able to separate ourselves from the first word and go on to further words of prayer. The connection between the words of prayer and the soul is so immensely strong that the word does not want the soul to go on further to other words..

I have come before You, Compassionate One, Master of all deeds and of all souls to ask that You have great mercy over Jewish souls, especially over my poor soul. Give us a true Master of the Field who can work to rectify our souls, spirits and neshamot. May he have the strength to rectify the souls of the living and of the dead bringing into the holy field all those souls who are outside. Let him involve himself in their rectification and needs, planting, watering and growing them so that they give much fruit while distancing one plant (soul) from another so that it will not damage or weaken its fellow. Guard and protect this master of the field so that he can rectify us and all the field. And may this master of the field in Your immense loving kindness watch and look at each and every Jewish soul who is far from the ultimate goal and bring him closer to the true, ultimate goal so that each one will merit to shut his eyes and mind from even glancing at this world in any way. Then he will be able to always merge, through the ultimate self nullification, in the aspect of running and returning within the true eternal goal which is all oneness and goodness. You, who are good to all, help us to nullify all our materiality completely and merge into your Unity which is always entirely good. Then may our prayers be perfect, holding onto your Oneness from beginning to end.

 Fulfill in us the verse which says: “And then G-d will be King over all world.On that day G-d will be One and His Name will be One.

66. LET THERE BE  A DOUBLE PORTION OF YOUR SPIRIT UPON ME

a)      It is a very great thing to be present at the passing away of the tzaddik, even if one is not his student, for at that time a great radiance is revealed. This is a great benefit to anyone present and through this they merit to longevity. However, the students who are then present receive the most powerful radiance. They can then merit to receive a double portion of the soul of their rebbe, providing that they are attached to him firmly, like branches of a tree, such that they themselves feel all their rebbe's ascents and descents, even when they are away from him. Then it could be that when the student rays with concentration, he will be able to bring from potential to actuality, deeds and acts of righteousness greater than his rebbe. But, in truth, it is all in the strength of his rebbe.

b)      The students are from the same source as their rebbe, the tzaddik. They are dependent on him like branches of a tree, since the tree draws life-force from its source and the branches draw their life-force through the tree. In this there are several aspects. Some students are an aspect of the branches while others are an aspect of leaves, and so on. Therefore they can receive a double portion at the time of the passing away, as mentioned (see inside).

c)      There are several aspects to the passing away, for there is also an aspect of the passing away of the name, that he passes away (sacrifices) his name and fame; this is also an aspect of a passing away of the soul, for the soul is the nefesh, an aspect of "a living soul is its name" (Gen.2: 19). In sacrificing his name there is an aspect of real self-sacrifice (see Torah 260). There is also a passing away from one spiritual level to another. According to the aspect of the passing away, so the students, who are present at the time, can receive some kind of aspect of this category of a double portion.  And at the time of completely passing away, then the receiving of a double portion is at a greater and more sublime level. Therefore, the student has to try to see the face of his rebbe on each opportunity, for maybe now is the time of some aspect of his passing away. When the student accustoms himself to this, he can merit to an aspect of a double portion in the spirit of his teacher.

d)      The main essence of all the mitzvot and sins, is when we bring them from potential into actuality, for the main perfection of a mitzvah is only when we merit to actually perform it. When we merit to bring it into actuality, this is an aspect of the creation of the world, literally, for we sustain the entire world. Likewise, the opposite is also true regarding a sin, Heaven forbid. In the beginning, when a person thinks about committing a sin, Heaven forbid, it is potentiality; afterwards, when he brings it into actuality by performing it, then he is completely wicked. He is considered to be dead for he kills himself and kills a whole world, Heaven forbid. The entire world was only created by this aspect, so that the creation came out from potential to actuality through the Holy One. Consequently, in each sin, Heaven forbid, a person blemishes the generality of all the worlds and the generality of all the Holy Names, Heaven save us, Heaven preserve us. There is no hope other than by repentance, because, through regretting the sin and discarding it, everything mentioned above is rectified. He returns and brings the rectification of all the worlds from potential to actuality.

e)      To bring out from potential to actuality is by means of the perfection of the power of speech, for whatever a person does, first has to come into speech, for all things have to pass through the aspect of thought, speech and action. All a person's thoughts that will become actualized in to deed need to come into speech at the time of thought; even though a person doesn't feel this, even so, it exists at a very delicate level, as it says in the holy Zohar. Through the power of speech one can then complete the action as it can go from potential to actuality. So one has to perfect one's speech in order to bring things from potential to actuality.

f)       Perfection of the power of speech is achieved by the aspect of the World to Come, for now the power of speech is deficient and imperfect because not everybody in the world uses it to call to the Holy One. However, in the future everyone will call out to G-d with speech, as it says, "Then I will turn upon the peoples a pure language that they may all call upon the Name of G-d" (Zephania, 3:9). Specifically, a pure language, for since everyone will call to the Holy One with their voice and, because of this, the power of speech will be perfect. All this will be in the future through the great revelation of the truth that there will be then. By this, everyone will see the greatness and splendour of the tzaddikim and kosher Jews. So also, the opposite, in the downfall of the wicked. For the main greatness of the tzaddikim and kosher Jews, who are attached to them, will be revealed only in the future, on the great and awesome Day of Judgement; then everyone will see their greatness and splendour. "How great is Your goodness that is stored away for the tzaddikim." Similarly, everyone will see then the downfall of the wicked, for then there will be a great Day of Judgement when Man will be judged on every action and on every single detail – nothing will be overlooked, even the smallest thing, for there is no forgetting in G-d's eyes; then a person will be reminded of everything. At that time everyone will see the difference between a tzaddik and a wicked person, between someone who merited to come close to and attach himself to true tzaddikim and those who opposed them. Through the immensity of this truth that will be revealed, everyone will return in repentance to the Holy One and they will all call out with the Name of G-d. By this, the power of speech will become perfect.

g)      But one has to draw this aspect of the World to Come into This World also. That's to say, that there should be a downfall to the wicked also in This World. This is achieved through truth, as explained. For the primary downfall of the wicked in the World to Come will be through the truth that will be revealed then (see inside). Therefore, when a person merits to pray truthfully, for the sake of the Holy One alone, without any ulterior motive for the sake of other people, by this he merits to draw an aspect of the World to Come into This World. That's to say, there will be a downfall of the wicked also in This World such that everyone will have to return to G-d. Through this, one draws into This World the perfection of the holy power of speech. Then one merits to bring out from potential into actuality all the things in the realm of holiness that one desires to do.

h)      Someone who feels dependent on other people for his livelihood or even has his own source of income but he has a craving for honour and esteem, is also considered as being dependent on others since he needs their respect and admiration. Because of this, he can fall into great falsehood in his prayer, meaning that he may make false body movements (such as swaying or clapping) for the sake of other people,( to make an impression on them), since he needs them for his livelihood or honour etc. Even a person who is bit more kosher, not being a complete hypocrite or liar, nevertheless, when he is dependent on people in some aspect, it is very hard for him to pray with complete truth. This is because even if he is ashamed to pray in really complete falsehood and wants to pray truthfully but sometimes he is over-sincere, that's to say, he deceives himself and makes some sort of movement or claps his hands etc. for some ulterior motive (to impress someone he depends on) for a livelihood or for honour etc. He fools himself and invents reasons in his mind why he really needs to make this movement in his prayer; he covers the lie with an appearance of truth. However, the Searcher of Hearts knows that this is not the truth. There is only one truth, to pray for the sake of the Holy One alone, without any ulterior motive. Therefore, anyone who is dependent on others in any way will find it very hard to pray in public. This is because among people, ulterior and false motives become covered with a veil of truth, as explained. Therefore, a person has to take care, at the time of praying and serving G-d that at least then he shouldn't feel dependent on people. Rather, he should truthfully put all his hopes and trust in G-d and not think at all about any other person or being. Then he can stand among thousands of people and pray sincerely, for the sake of G-d alone. This is "I will praise G-d with my life" (Psalms, 146:2). That's to say, this is when I live my own life and I am not dependent on others, for he who depends on others, his life is not called life, for his life is not his, since he lives as he does from others. But when I don't need anybody, and my life is my own, then I will be able to praise and pray sincerely before G-d.

i)       Through the yearning and longing to bring a mitzvah, or other things in the realm of holiness, from the potential to actuality, one draws vowel points to the letters one speaks. This enables a person to speak out his words perfectly from the narrow confines of the throat such that he calls and cries out a lot to the Holy One with the voice until he manages to bring the holy desire from potential to actuality. This is an aspect of (Song of Songs, 1:11) "points of silver" which alludes to the vowel points being made from 'silver'('kesef'), meaning 'yearning'. By means of the yearning and desire, one creates vowels to the letters of the words, to speak them out perfectly. Then one will merit to actualize the holy desire.

j)       All the obstacles that a person experiences are all for the sake of desire, in order that he have more desire for the holy action; this is how it is with people, the more that one prevents a person from something, the more he desires to do it. Therefore, when a Jew has to do something that is crucial to his Judaism, especially if he has to do something upon which all his Judaism is dependent , such as travelling to a true tzaddik, then he is given a desire from Above. The desire he is given is through the obstacle that is prepared for him, for by means of the obstacle, so his desire increases, as mentioned. Consequently, a person has to know that there is no obstacle in the world that he cannot break if he wants, for the obstacle is only for the sake of the desire. Once he will have a strong desire and very great longing, as is fitting for this holy thing that he should be doing; then he will certainly merit to complete it, and bring it from potential to actuality, for the obstacles are only in order to increase the desire, in order that through this desire specifically a person can merit to complete the action, as mentioned previously.

k)      Know, that however much greater the thing is that he desires, so, from Heaven, they arrange for him much greater obstacles in order that he increase his desire, for the desire is according to the obstacle. Therefore, it is fitting for a Jew to understand that when he has very very big obstacles that arise and spread out before him in every direction preventing him from coming close to the tzaddik, from this itself he should know and learn the great value of that which he desires to do. Because of this, the obstacles are so great. For against all things in the realm of holiness there are numerous obstacles, especially when he wants to travel to true tzaddikim, an act upon which all his Judaism depends, then the obstacles certainly grow strongest. However, there is an aspect of a point of truth between the tzaddikim when one wants to come close to them, upon which everything depends, then the obstacles spread out a lot and lie before a person in all directions. This in itself shows how important the thing desired is. So, one has to strengthen oneself until one has a very strong desire and yearning in accordance to the thing desired. In so doing he will merit to break the obstacles and attain his desire. This is the rule – there is no obstacle in the world that a person cannot break; it's only that he needs a very strong desire and yearning which corresponds to the thing he desires, as mentioned.

l)       Although it's not fitting for a person to excuse himself and find an excuse by saying that since he desires and yearns to perform something holy, but because there are obstacles and he is prevented by force of circumstance, therefore it is considered as if he had done it, as the Sages said," A person who thought to perform a mitzvah but was prevented and didn't do it, he is considered to have done it" (B'rachot,6). All of this is said only about someone who really wants to fulfill his obligation, then he is considered to have fulfilled his duty, for what could he do, for, after all he was prevented by force of circumstance. But someone who doesn't want to only fulfill his obligation with this mitzvah but, rather, he wants the mitzvah or good deed itself, if so what will it benefit him that, through the leniency, he is considered to have done it. This "as if" doesn't appease him. He desires, craves and yearns a great deal to perform the mitzvah itself and is not satisfied to be freed of it with an "as if". For really it is appropriate for a Jew to complete his desire with regard to anything in the realm of holiness, bringing it out from potential to actuality in perfection. Whoever has such a strong desire will certainly merit to fulfill his desire and to bring it from potential to actuality while at the same time breaking and nullifying all the obstacles and forces of circumstance. For all the obstacles come only in order to increase a person's desire, as explained. When he will have a strong desire, corresponding to the virtue of what he desires to do, then he will surely merit to complete anything in the world that he desires to do in the realm of holiness.

m)    Anger damages a person's livelihood (see Torah 68). By anger he becomes very distant from the truth, for when his income is pressing he feels dependent on others. Because of this he cannot pray sincerely, as mentioned previously. As a result, he is not able to complete his desire, to bring from potential to actuality all the mitzvot and holy deeds he needs to perform.

n)       When one overcomes and breaks the anger, the spirit of Meshiach is made and drawn into the world; the whole world is considered to have been brought into existence and created by such a person. Then he merits to a livelihood and to pray sincerely, for the sake of G- d alone, without ulterior motives such as for the sake of the respect of other people, Heaven forbid; and he merits to bring all the mitzvot and holy deeds he needs to perform, from potential to actuality.

o)       Shabbat is an aspect of truth. By this, the downfall of the wicked is drawn down and the greatness of the tzaddikim and kosher Jews is revealed. Through this, the holy power of speech is perfected and through this prayer is brought to perfection. 

(Prayer 66)

Lord, G-d of the spirits who rules in the world Above and Below, in whose hand are all the souls of the living and dead, have mercy upon me in Your bountiful compassion and merit me to a good, a spirit of holy life. Draw upon a spirit of true holy life  from the true tzaddikim who are our life and the length of our days. Merit me to come close to them and stand before them to serve them and provide for their needs. Let me be really attached to them with utter perfection like a branch to a tree. And when the time comes for them to pass away may we merit to hear them so that we receive twice as much..

Have mercy upon me and grant me truth in the ulitmate perfection. Grant me all my income from Your full and generous hand. Guard me and save me so that I do ot come to need the assistance of others for anthing in the world, nor need their livelihood. May I have no craving at all for any honour, pride, glory, importance or appointment of authority. Rather, let all my trust, expectation and hope be in You alone; in You I will always trust and support myself, for You will never desert me.

Provide for me all the needs of my livelihood and all that I lack, even before I need them, in a generous way fro Your holy hand. Don’t  bring me to the need for handouts from people or for their loans. Have compassion on a poor and needy wretch such as myself, who is far from an income. Help me, speedily and soon, to remove and pay back all the loans and debts that I have owed until now. My Father, Merciful and Righteous, Shepherd of Israel, “who gives food to all flesh since His love endures forever.” Open Your hand to a poor needy wretch such as me; fill all that I lack materially and spiritually. Help me to remove very soon all the debts that I already owe. From now on, save me from debts and loans! Have compassion upon me for Your Name’s sake and in mercy, fill all my wishes for the good and provide me with my livelihood from You, not a forbidden one; in contentment, not in anguish;  in such a way that I merit to truly do Your will.

You who are full of compassion, let me merit even now to the attribute of perfect truth. Let us merit to absolute truth as You desire and reveal the truth in This World, such that the wicked will have a downfall even in This World…. Help us to draw perfection of speech from theWorld to Come into This World… You know the immensity of the many obstacles that we have that we have to all the holy things we have to do. There is nothing connected with holiness that is without many obstacles, that we have to all the holy things we have to do. There is nothing connected with holiness that is without many obstacles, especially when we have to do a major thing upon which all our Judaism depends, such as coming close to true tzaddikim. Even more so is this the case when we want to come close to the point of truth which is between the tzaddikim. Then all the obstacles and delays become stronger and mulitply very, very much, beyond number or measure. They spread out and put many barriers before us and do not let us come close to the point of truth. However, You have already informed us that there is no obstacle in the world at all! All the obstacles are only for the sake of desire, in order that the desire, craving and longing to do Your will all become stronger. However much the obstacles become stronger, so we need to overcome them such that our desire will be greater and greater, so that by the strengthening of desire, all the obstacles will be broken and we will merit to ascertain the desired holiness.

 For this I have come to ask of You, O Lord my G-d, who desires our good; rise and come to our aid; let us merit to holy desire so that we long for, desire and crave for You and Your holy service with really great and strong desire and longing. May the desire and longing become progressively stronger, day by day, hour by hour, until the desire becomes strong enough to break the obstacles that need to be broken, until the desire overcomes the obstacles and thye all become nullified by strong desire and longing such that we will not want to excuse ourselves by claiming that force of circumstance or obstacles prevented us. Let us not be satisfied with knowing that if force or circimstance prevents us, it is considered as if we performed the commandment or good deed just because we desired to do it but were prevented.

Please Lord, help us that we should not excuse ourselves by this, for we do not want to fulfill our duty by claiming we were prevented and have it thereby considered as if we had done it. We do not want ot excuse ourselves with any obstacle or force of circumstance. Rather, grant us such strong desire and longing that we be worthy to always turn matters of holiness from theory into action. Every time that we arouse ourselves to do something in holiness, whether big or small, be with us and help us to have a new and strong desire and longing. Let the deisre and longing not weaken at all. Rather, let us become stronger and bolder all the time; to long for, desire and crave for holiness with a wonderful desire and intense longing. In accordance with the power of the obstacle or force of circumstance, so let the longing and desire become stronger until we merit to break all obstacles and delay which stand in the way of all matters of holiness in the world, until we merit to turn the theory into action with regard to all our desires in heavenly matters. Everything that we want to begin doing in the service of the Lord let us do wholeheartedly and successfully,  until we  actually do all that You really desire.

Master of the World, Lord, G-d of Truth, who desires truth and who is close to those who call Him in truth – rise to my assistance; give me strength, might, wisdom, understanding, intelligence and advice in such a way that I merit to break, nullfiy and drive out from myself all the bad thoughts, all the lies and all the extraneous motives which come into my mind at the time of prayer, to confuse my prayer, Heaven forbid. You know how numerous, immeasurable and immense the obstacles are which hold back my prayer, especially when I stand to pray among many people, for then very, very many improper motives and lies enter my mind. I do not know what to do or how to act for I desire and yearn very much to pray in absolute truth, for G-d alone.

What can I do? My iniquities have caused improper motives and tremendous confusions to arise within me and they confuse my prayer very much with bad thoughts and very numerous, differing confusions. All sorts of improper motives, both the crude and suble, the obvious and hidden automatically come to my mind, in amy aspects, such that it is impossible to detail them. Every single day and during every prayer, the improper motives, confusions become very much stornger, such that I cannot even say one word of prayer proerly, with absolute truth. Take pity and have mercy upon me; help me to complete truth so that I will not need money from others in any way at al.. Let me have no desire or craving for the honour, praise or money of people nor anything else of theirs. Rather, may I know and believe in absolute truth, that everything comes for You…..

67.  G-D BUILT THE RIB

a)      When new honour comes to a person he needs to be very afraid of this, for sometimes the honour comes to him for the sake of the passing away of his soul, Heaven forbid. Therefore one has to be very careful to receive the honour with great holiness for the sake of G-d alone, without using the honour for one's own needs or pleasure at all in order that one won't be damaged, Heaven forbid, by the honour and that one's soul will not be taken. For the soul is very precious and one needs to take great care over it and protect it a lot. One needs to pray a great deal to the Holy One not to be hurt by the honour and that one's soul will not pass away because of this; for honour is the source of all souls and when the soul passes away  it passes away into honour which is its source.

b)      However, usually honour comes for a good purpose, for when a new soul comes to a person it comes clothed in honour. Therefore, when he merits to receive honour properly he can receive a new soul through the honour which came to him.

c)      By craving for food, honour is blemished and he mars the honour of G-d. This leads to an aspect of  G-d's Countenance becoming hidden; harsh judgements increase, Heaven forbid, and then  honour falls upon the brazen-faced people of the generation who take all the honour; then all the leadership, rulership, government and honour is in the hands of the idol worshippers, evil-doers and brazen ones. As a result, when Jews need to act boldly in order to preserve our holy religion, we need to receive strength from these brazen ones etc. but when we break the craving for food, then we elevate the holy honour and prevent the brazen ones from receiving any official standing, control or honour. This is an aspect of the elevation (revelation) of G-d's Countenance which is a nullification of harsh decrees.

d)       Through giving charity one attracts loving-kindness, nullifies harsh decrees and rectifies any blemish to honour which causes a hiding of G-d's Countenance, as explained; thus one elevates honour and the Holy Kingdom from among the forces of the Other Side. The blemish of the craving for food becomes rectified and honour returns to those who really understand who the true leaders are.

e)      Therefore, we give charity when saying, "You rule over everything" (in the morning prayers) in order to elevate the honour and rulership from the realm of the Other Side into the realm of Holiness.

f)       When honour returns to those who understand, meaning to genuine leaders, then, when their rulership starts, controversy is aroused.

g)      As a result of the split among those who hate the people of real understanding, as mentioned, the former are able to exist longer. But when the haters join together then the excretions of the mind draw nourishment very fast; it is from there that the haters draw their vitality, and thus they fall away quickly.

h)      When new honour comes to a person, a holy soul is clothed within it, as mentioned previously, so one has to strengthen oneself in the holy attributes of fear and love of G-d. By this, one will merit to give birth to and bring up the new soul which came to him through honour, as mentioned (see inside).

i)       One needs to pray with all one's heart until one feels the words of prayer in all of one's limbs. But when a person prays without his heart in it, then the soul becomes distant from its source and then his soul is tired and his limbs are confused with fright; he has no vitality in his soul or in his limbs. Furthermore, as a result of praying without one's heart in it, one causes, Heaven forbid, wisdom to depart from the elders and the wise men.

j)       By means of giving honour to an elder who has forgotten his learning, one attracts cool waters, an aspect of waters of understanding, which revitalize his tired soul; that's to say, one rectifies the blemish of praying without one's heart which is what caused the soul to be tired.

k)      Through true tzaddikim, cool waters, from the waters of understanding, are attracted and revitalize one's tired soul. Then one merits to pray with all one's heart, with great intent and concentration such that all one's limbs hear very well the words of prayer; then one's prayer becomes an aspect of "All my limbs will say" (Psalms,35:10), meaning that one prays with all one's strength and mind that are in one's limbs. This is the main form of the perfection of prayer.

l)       This is the difference between someone who learns from a book as opposed to someone who learns directly from the true tzaddikim. For a person who learns from a book does not know how much he needs to learn in order to revitalize his soul, but when one hears from the mouth of the tzaddik, then the tzaddik bestows upon a person cool waters in the proper measure, according to the person's spiritual level.

(Prayer 67)

Merciful One, full of compassion. Merciful One, full of compassion. Have mercy on Your great and holy honour. Grant us merit and help us to raise and return all honour to the realm of holiness. In Your bountiful mercy, let us merit to always give plenty of charity; let us give a lot of charity to deserving poor people, with happiness, real good-heartedness and in great perfection as You desire. By this, may we draw the Light of the Countenance into honour. Bless us all together in the Light of Your Countenance and draw upon us Your abundant loving-kindness which is included in Your Great Name… Help us merit to raise the honour and the Kingdom from the aspect of justice to charity. Help us and save us so that we may extract all the honour from the brazen-faced ones and so that we may return all the honour to those with undertanding and perception of holiness. Let all the greatness and honour be returned to the tzaddikim of the generation and those really kosher Jews of the generation who are called the true face of the generation.

So have mercy upon us and upon all of Your People Israel; always make peace between them. Cancel all sorts of controversy and strife from among us and let there be no jealousy, hatred or provocation, or any argument or strife against the kosher Jews who wish, desire and long to really serve You, especially the true tzaddikim and sages. Controversy, strife and accusation have greatly increased among the Torah scholars, because of our many iniquities. “There was no peace to whoever went out or came in.” All the world is full of controversy and strife! You know that controversy and strife damages us a lot in trying to serve You truly. There is specially great controversy and strife, which becomes stronger all the time, against those who were distant from You and have now come to return to You, have come to draw closer to Your great Name to truly serve You. Most of the controversy against them and against those who engage in bringing them closer to You is without reason and about nothing.!

Please Lord, Full of Mercy, Master of Peace, King to whom peace belongs, save us from controversy and strife. Let us merit to a pure and refined mind, perception and intellect without any dross at all. Let us merit to a quiet and serene mind. Let our minds not be confused at all. Nullify all the waste and extraneous matter in the mind for we have no knowledge of how to fight our adversaries and those who persecute us without reason, nor do we know how to react to them. Our intentions should be good, for the sake of Heaven. We desire to really service You and to return to You very soon, in perfect repentance. We do not want any controversy and strife at all!! You, who are full of compassion, have mercy on the oppressed of the flock, on a people dragged and plucked out, a poor and wretched nation. Have mercy, redeem and rescue such weak ones from controversy and strife, for we have no one on whom to rely other than our Father in Heaven. To You alone we have cast our prayers for aid. We rely only upon You. Our hopes are dependent on You, until You graciously answer us.

Take pity and have mercy upon us; fulfill our wishes for the good. Let us merit to always give a lot of charity to truly deserving poor people as You desire. Grant us merit to give charity when we pray, at the moment when we recite the verse: “You reign over all,” and by this let us merit to raise G-d’s authority, honour and kingdom from the husk. Let us raise and extract all Your honour, greatness and authority from the wicked heathens and the brazen ones of the generation and may we return all Your honour and Kingdom to the realm of holiness. Let the honour return to the real tzaddikim and sages of holiness who  really understand. Let us be worthy of breaking the craving for food and to draw G-d’s Countenance to honour. By the honour of holiness help us so that many holy souls will come. Let us merit to perfect fear and love. By this, let us merit to give birth to and raise children without any difficulty at childbirth and with out any anguish at all in raising them. Master of the World, let us merit to raise all the honour to its source in holiness. Let the soul never become distant from honour at all.

68. THE SEVERITY OF THE PROHIBITION OF ANGER

a)      The soul originates from a very sublime place where money also stems and evolves from. For the beginning of the place where money evolves from is an aspect of holiness and holy abundance; only later on does it materialize in the world below and turn into money. This is what it says about the money of a hired daily worker, "His life depends on it" (Deut.24:15). Therefore, the soul craves for money because the soul comes from the same place as where money stems from. However, one mustn't desire the physical money itself, as already explained regarding the great disgrace of craving money, rather, one must crave for and love the place where money stems and evolves from, as mentioned.

b)      Know, it is proper for all Jews to have money but there is one attribute that causes us to forfeit and lose it. This bad attribute is the attribute of anger. Anger causes money that a person should have had to be damaged and lost. Know that when the evil urge entices you to become angry, you should know that at that moment Heaven is bestowing upon you a sum of money, but the evil urge wants to spoil that abundance by arranging for you to get angry for by this it damages the abundance and the wealth (see inside).

c)      Know, even if a person has already received the abundance and it turned into money and he already has the money, even so, the Evil One sometimes irritates a person until he becomes so angry that he loses even the money that he already had. May G-d save and protect us from this disgraceful attribute. Amen. So may it be His will.

(Prayer 68)

May it be Your will, O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our Fathers, that in Your bountiful compassion, You have mercy upon me and do good for me from Your true goodness. Save me and guard me at all times form the very severe iniquity of anger. You know that his evil quality of anger and irritation has taken holf of us since we were young. We have laready become accustoemd to this iniquity very much. I have transgressed time and time and time again, beyond counting, until it had become like something permitted. You know the immensity of the blemishes that I have caused by this very severe iniquity of anger which is an alien god, and is really ildol worship, as it says: “There shall be now strange god in you; nor shall you worlship any alien god.”

 By this iniquity the soul is actually torn to pieces, as it says: “He tears his soul in his anger.” There are many other immense blemishes caused by this in all the worlds. “Lord, G-d, You know” that because of my many transgressions, I now know no way to save my soul from this severe iniquity to which I have become accustomed very much.

Master of the World, who is good and does good to all, take pity and have mercy upon me. Teach me the ways of Your goodness in such a way that I merit to hold onto Our holy virtues, to always be good and to completely break the characteristic of anger, impatience and irritation so that there will not be any element of anger in my heart at all. At any time when the evil urge wants to provoke me to become angry, Heaven forbid, may I merit to know and believe with perfect belief that at this moment they [in Heaven] want to bestow upon me great wealth. The evil urge wants to spoil this bounty of wealth, Heaven forbid and to turn it into anger so as to tear my soul to pieces, Heaven forbid.

By this belief may I merit to strengthen and encourage myself, to overcome, break and nullify my anger completely and to turn it into compassion. May I merit by this to great holy wealth, which is the root of all souls and let the Evil One have no power to spoil the bestowing of  wealth by anger and rage, Heaven forbid. Rather, may we merit to have drawn upon us the wall of wealth, as it says: “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city and as a high wall in his own domain.” May the wall of wealth protect us and guard as from all sorts of anger and rage which is like an unwalled, undefended city, as it says: “He who has no rule over his spirit is like a city that is broken  and without walls.”

Master of the World, You know how very much I have lost by anger. You know how many souls I have lost, how much wealth of holiness I have lost and how many worlds I have blemished by this. Master of the World.  Master of theWorld, because of the fouling of my mind, anger and irritation are aroused and overcome me all the time until my heart has become soured by great crookedness and confuses me very, very much. I do not know what to do. Because of my many iniquities, I do not have patience to arrange my prayers before You so that You will save me from this very severe and aweful iniquity through which some people have been expelled from two worlds, from This World and The World to Come, Heaven forbid. As You know, I do not know what to say other than, Save me! O King, save me! My Father and Lord, save me!. My King. My G-d. Let me merit to break and nullify the attribute of anger completely and let me merit to holy wealth which is the root of all souls.

69. THE SEVERITY OF THE PROHIBITION OF STEALING

a)      The prohibition of stealing is very severe for if a person steals money from his fellow, through this he is also stealing his children. That's to say, a thief takes his victim's children and if he hasn't yet got children, the thief may steal from him so that he won't have any. And even if the victim already has children, the thief can harm him such that his children may die, Heaven forbid, because of the money he stole from him.

b)      By stealing from one's fellow, a thief can come to bad thoughts of cleaving to and yearning for his victim's wife.

c)      Furthermore, sometimes the thief may lose his own marriage partner through the theft; sometimes the thief can steal from his victim the latter's marriage partner.

d)      It is also possible that a person has stolen money even though he stole nothing with his hands. He stole by his coveting, desiring and longing for his fellow's money. By this alone he can rob him. This is the severe prohibition of "Do not covet", for coveting itself is a very severe prohibition. Covetousness itself has the power to steal from a person his money, the soul of his sons and daughters, just like a real, physical theft.    

e)      By giving charity a person can rectify any stolen money that he has; that's to say, stolen through coveting. Actual stolen money has no rectification until it is returned to its owner. And if a person stole money of the community such that it is impossible to return, he should use it for the needs of the general public, as the Sages said.

f)   If a person sees that his livelihood is very limited, he should use his money for charity for, by this, he rectifies his money so that he will have plenty of money and a good income.

g)      Someone who marries a woman for the sake of money is stupid and a fool; he blemishes and loses his mind. By this, he will have children who are not worthy, as the Sages said (Kiddushin, 70).

h)      Because of the craving for money one creates haters and, according to the intensity of the craving for money so the strength of the haters increases. And when the craving for money becomes very strong this creates people who hate without reason.

i)   The craving for money makes a person's mind turbid and confused such that he becomes foolish. And so, however much more he craves for money, his mind becomes more and more turbid.

j)   Every person has excretions from the brain from which the hairs of his head stem. The wise man and the tzaddikim also have excretions from the brain, an aspect of 'hairs' ( in Hebrew, 'sa'ar'), but for them they are 'gateways' ( in Hebrew, 'sha'ar') with the vowel point over the 's' on the right making it into the letter 'sh'. The excretions of his brain are an aspect of gateways through which he opens up the gateways of wisdom and knowledge to the service of G-d. Because his brain shines far too brightly for the public to receive from, he has to disguise and lower himself to small, lowly matters so that the world can receive from him; then he can open for them the gateways of wisdom and understanding, thus bringing them closer to G-d.

k)       The brains of the tzaddik are an aspect of tefillin. And the fact that the tzaddik lowers himself sometimes to small, lowly matters in order that the world can receive from him, which is for him an aspect of excretions of the brain, as mentioned previously. This is all reflected in the straps of the tefillin.

 

(Prayer 69)

Let me merit to holy wealth which is the root of our souls. Help me to break the craving for money completely and let me not desire or yearn for money at all; even more so, may I not desire other people’s money at all. Rather, may I long for the root of the holy souls and merit to honour the wealthy as is Your good desire. Let all my love for the wealthy and all the honour that I give them be really for the sake of Heaven, for the holiness of the root of the souls that You bestow upon them which is from where they receive their wealth. May I have no craving at all for material money, rather, may my soul always crave for Your Name and Your remembrance.

So, in Your bountiful mercy, have pity on me; always guard me and save me from the very severe sin of theft. Let me not steal from my friend even as much as the smallest coin. May I not covet or desire my neighbour’s house, animals, servant or maid, silver or gold, jewelllery, clothes, household utensils or anything that belongs to him. Whatever happens let me always be careful not to desire them or any part of them.

Master of the World, You know how many souls have sunk in this sin of craving for money; by which some of them have fallen to actually stealing and some of them have fallen to great coveting and craving for the friends’ money which is also considered real theft. Master of the World, protect me and save from this; protect my soul and save me from all sorts of theft: whether actual theft, such as stealing even a small coin from my friend, even inadvertantly or by mistake (I would rather relinquish my own money): or whether stealing by coveting or craving, Heaven forbid, by which one can also steal, G-d forbid, as You informed us through Your holy Sages. Save me from all this! Let me merit to be unsoiled by any sort of theft in the world! Help me so that I will not look at what my friend has at all, nor yearn for or covet anything at all that belongs to him. Save me and protect me, with Your bountiful mercy, so that no one in the world will have the power to steal from me at all, neither by actually taking nor by coveting. Even more so, let him have no power to touch my soul, Heaven forbid, or the soul of my wife, my sons or daughters and descendants. Just grant strength to my soul and to all th souls dependent on me, so that we merit to stand strong against all the thieves who rise against us like killers of souls, G-d forbid and let us subdue them or throw them down into the dust, ‘to extract from 

their mouths all that they have swallowed’. Let them have no power to touch us or our money at all.

May we merit to always give a lot of charity and by this may we profit in all our business dealings; arrange our income even before we need it. Grant us great wealth from the side of holiness -  wealth, honor and life. Master of the World, You know the lack of a livelihood which exitst nowadays such that  ‘the power of endurance fails’, for our lives hang in the balance; we do not know any way to acquire an income other than relying upon You alone, for  from whom shall I ask bread or an income and all my needs, which are very great? From You alone, for You support and nourish all living things from the great horned buffalo to the small eggs of lice. Have mercy upon me and save me. Generously provide me with an income from Your benevolent and full hand and let me not come to the need for handouts from people or for their loans.

Help me to remove all the debts that I already owe and from now on, save me so that I will not need any debt or loan at all. Come to my help so that I may soon merit to rectify the blemish of all the thefts that I have perpetrated from my youth until today.

May I merit to return all the stolen money or objects that I stole, or the money from exploitation that I gained unjustly, whether inadvertantly or on purpose, whether by force or circumstance or willingly. All the disputes in money matters which, by mistake or oversight, caused some of my friends’ money to be left in my hands from some trading or debt etc., whether I still remember or whether I have already forgotten, may I reslove and pay back the owner very quickly indeed. In Your mercy, grant me a lot money in such a way  that I fulfill my obligations and pay off anyone whose money or possessions I touched in any way in the world. And if, Heaven forbid, I still have in my hands some stolen object or money or debt whose owenership is unknown to me, help me in Your great mercy, so that I merit to use these items for the needs of the community as You commanded us by Your holy Sages. In doing so, may I merit very soon, in my lifetime, to rectify and return all the stolen objects or money or debts that are in my hands. For You know the severity of the prohibition of theft which is considered as if one steals the victim’s soul and the soul of his sons and daughters, as if one commits adultery with a married woman!

You, who are full of compassion, spare me and take pity on my soul; help me to rectify the blemish of all the stolen objects or money or dets in my hands. Open my hand and make me generous; help me and let me merit to give a lot of charity to many deserving poor people in such a way that I merit to rectify by this the blemish or the stolen objects or money in my hands that came about by covetousness, that I used to covet and crave for my friends’ belongings until I stole from him. Please, Lord, let me merit to rectify this by giving charity.

70. AND ON THE EIGTH DAY

a)      There exists a true tzaddik who is the foundation of the world, as it says, "And the tzaddik is the foundation of the world" (Proverbs, 10). This tzaddik is unique in the world for he is the foundation of the world; all things are drawn from him and even all the tzaddikim are only branches from him, each one according to his aspect. One is an aspect of a branch from him while another is an aspect of a branch from the branch. This unique tzaddik is humble and lowly and makes himself like the dust of the earth. By this he has the power of attracting, meaning that he pulls all the world toward him in order to bring them closer to G-d and to His holy Torah. This tzaddik draws all the bounty into the world.

b)      He is also an aspect of the Tabernacle which had the power of attraction, drawing godliness to the place where it stood. So also this tzaddik. He has this power of pulling godliness to the place where he is.

c)       Likewise, the honour that each person has, whether he is insignificant or important, he receives only from this tzaddik, for all the honour and importance exist only in the hands of the tzaddik and everyone else receives from him. This is also true regarding the renewal of honour , for every time a person is appointed to a new position, the leadership and honour are renewed; this all comes from this tzaddik, according to how he raises each time the Tabernacle from which all honour stems.

d)       That the general public are far away from this tzaddik and are not all drawn to him is because of the force of compulsion which acts counter to the power of attraction of the tzaddikim. There are people who, through their words and actions, stop this natural pull of the tzaddik and compel people to distance themselves from the true tzaddik. The main way this force of compulsion becomes stronger is by pride, haughtiness and honour for they make a person fear that his honour will be lessened and degraded if he comes close to the truth. Therefore, anyone who wants to know the absolute truth should really humble his mind and remember his real worthlessness and lowliness; he should remember everything that has happened to him until now. When he really feels his lowliness then the truth will certainly be revealed and the power of the attraction of the tzaddik will overcome the force of compulsion; he will then be drawn at great speed to the true tzaddik.

e)       When one give charity to this tzaddik who makes himself like the dust of the earth, the person becomes blessed instantly, for this is an aspect of sowing in the earth seeds that will grow and multiply many times over, like it says, "Sow righteousness for yourselves; reap according to loving-kindness" (Hoshea,10:12).

f)        However much more a person humbles himself, he has more power of attraction, that's to say, he has more power to attract the Divine Presence into the world below such that it dwells with us. This has been G-d's desire since the day He created His world. So also he has the strength to attract people to him and to bring them close to the service of G-d. In addition, he can draw good bounty and blessings to the People of Israel. He also merits to be drawn towards and come close to the true tzaddik, as mentioned.

(Prayer 70)

Master of theWorld, Master of the World, G-d of truth, You know the tzaddikim who have the power to bring everyone close to You. They have immense power to attract the entire world to them, their holy Torah and their wonderful advice and paths. Many good things could grow from this for all eternity. The rectificaton of all the worlds and the final complete Redemption dependent on this. But, You know  Master of the World, the immense and innumerous power of those forces that compel and distance them from coming to tzaddikim. This power overcomes us at every opportunity. Master of the World, G-d,  Master of War, You know the awesome war that each generation experiences all the time. On the one side, there is the power of afttraction of the real tzaddikim who draw all the world to the service of the Creator for eternity. But on the other side, there is this power which pulls against and separates or distances people from the tzaddik. Many souls have sunk in this war.

Master of the World, help us and save us, in the merit of the genuine tzaddikim who really have the power of attraction. Let their strength become far greater than that of the forces pulling people away from the tzaddikim and the service of G-d until this force falls and becomes nullified. It is the source of all the obstacles, temptations, seductions, doubts, controversy, questions and all the physical cravings and bad traits – all the obstacles in the world. May they all fall and be nuillified compeltely in the face of the power of attactions of the true tzaddikim until eventually everyone will throw away their idols of silver and gold and all their cravings. Then they will all run after and pursue the true tzaddikim. Merit us  to come close to them and to hear their holy Torah and to study their holy books such that we put into practice their words and advice in a perfect way, as You desire.

So, merit us to break and nulify all our evil cravings and traits nullify so that we can nullify ourselves completely. Let us achieve true humility. We the dust of the earth, so we merit to also have the power of attraction. Merit us to attract Your G-dliness and holiness to us and to attract the entire worldto Your holy faith, to true tzaddikim and Your service and holy Torah.

Help us succeed to give charity to true tzaddikim who are really humble, like dust. By this, may our charity blossom immediately. Merit us to bounty in plenty, to blessings, mercy, life and peace, children, life and a livelihood. Guard us and save us so we will not stumble upon unworthy poor people. Rather, in Your mercy, do not let our charity reach the hands of undeserving poor people. Merit us to give a lot of charity to deserving poor people and to true tzaddikim. Help us, for  Your Names sake. Have mercy upon us in Your bountiful compassion and merit us to achieve all this very soon.

Grant us merit and help us to run away from honour with absolute truth. Draw upon us holy honour, truly for Your Name’s sake, honour which is drawn from the true tzaddik who has a magnetic power of attraction which always erects the tabernacle. All the real honour of holiness is within him; all of Israel, from the small to the great, all receive their honour and greatness from him. Let us merit to holy honour such that Your great honour always be revealed, glorified and sanctified in the world. Reign over all the world very speedily with Your honour. Let Your honour fill all the earth. Fulfill the verse which says: “ I am the Lord, that is my Name; and my honour I will not give to someone else.”  “Tell of His glory among the nations and his wonders among all the people.” “They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power.” “Blessed be His glorious Name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory.  Amen and Amen.”

71. FAMOUS RABBI

a)                                    It is very hard to be a famous rabbi, for whoever is famous needs to accept upon himself a lot of suffering for the sake of the many. However, there are those rabbis who are forced by Heaven to be famous.

72.  STRENGTHEN ONESELF…AGAINST THE EVIL URGE

a)      If a person arouses himself to do teshuva, then when wants to enter into the ways of G-d, to travel to the tzaddik, a bigger yetzer hara (evil urge) overcomes him each time. Therefore, one needs to strengthen oneself more each time with renewed strength against the new evil urge which overcomes a person on each occasion. This new evil urge causes sometimes that when a person is aroused to travel to a tzaddik or to true servants of G-d, he has, at first, a great desire but, afterwards, when he starts to travel his desire weakens and sometimes, when he arrives to the tzaddik, his desire falls away completely.  All this stems from an aspect of the above, for as soon as he is awakened to travel to the true tzaddik, he kills the evil urge he had previously and so, later, when he wants to travel, a new evil urge comes into being to him which is stronger than before, as it says, "Anyone who is greater than his fellow, his evil urge is also greater" (Succah,52). Therefore, whoever wants to really bring himself close to the Holy One needs to  strengthen himself anew each time against the new evil urge which renews itself on each occasion.

b)      There are several aspects to the evil urge. Most of the world have an evil urge which is lowly and very crude, a real spirit of folly. Whoever has the minutest clarity of mind and who can sense in his heart even a little of the greatness of G-d, for him this evil urge is certainly great folly and madness; even the temptation of the craving for sex is for him foolishness such that he doesn't need to strengthen himself at all to overcome it. Rather, he has an evil urge which is far higher than this. But the evil urge of most people is really great foolishness for someone who just possesses true intelligence.

c)       There are those whose evil urge is an aspect of a thin delicate husk. This evil urge only bothers a man of valour of somewhat considerable status. However, this is still not the evil urge of the true tzaddikim, for their yetzer hara is actually a holy angel.

d)      Also in the matter of bringing oneself close to G-d there is a big yetzer hara. That's to say, sometimes a person has great enthusiasm, beyond the proper measure, which is from the evil urge. This is an aspect of "In case they cross the boundary to go up to G-d" (Exodus, 19:21). One has to plead for mercy in order to be saved from all of this.

e)      Someone who has harsh decrees upon him, Heaven forbid, and has some trouble, Heaven preserve us, has to see to it to muster up courage and strengthen himself especially in order to be saved from the evil urge. At such a time the yetzer hara overcomes a person more than usual, for the main source of all the evil urges is Gevurot (Powers of Severity) and harsh decrees.

f)        Some people have indecent thoughts, Heaven forbid, which overcome them especially at the time of prayer. There are people who, whilst praying, see apparitions before their eyes, as if it was an image of idol worship or other evil images. These images then confuse such people a lot when they pray and they have great suffering from these images; they want very much to overcome and remove these images from their minds so they shake their head from side to side. But know, the more suffering they have and the more a person struggles to remove them from his mind, then these confusions and evil images grow even stronger. Such is their nature; the more one thinks about them to push them off, they attach themselves to a person even more. Therefore the main advice is not to pay any attention to them at all and not to care at all about what images or thoughts appear before you; don't listen to them at all, just do what you have to do, whether learning Torah or praying or business matters. Don't take any notice of them at all and don't stare behind you to see whether they have left you or not, just do what you have to do in whatever you are involved in and by this they will automatically disappear. However, this is just a temporary piece of advice, for the moment. The main thing is that a person has to sanctify and purify his body and go to true tzaddikim who will teach him the paths of truth. Then these images will leave a person completely.

g)       Sadness is very damaging and gives strength to the evil urge to overcome a person. Sadness also gives strength to those afore-mentioned confusions. Therefore, one mustn't let oneself be sad because of these confusions,  nor be afraid or in awe of them at all. Rather, one must strengthen oneself a great deal to make one's soul happy by using all the paths of advice which are explained elsewhere, each one in its place. For the main form of strengthening oneself is through happiness and joy, an aspect of "The joy of G-d is 'your strength' (Nechemia, 8:10). When you strengthen yourself with joy, these evil images will automatically leave you; just don't put it to the test by looking behind you each time to see if they have already disappeared. Rather, remove your mind from them completely, as explained previously. Understand.

(Prayer 72)

You know that it si impossible to perceive the true good in each level otehre that by breaking the power of the evil urge, who blocks and entices us in every level, as the Sage’s said: ‘Whoever is greater that his fellow, his evil urge is greater.’ Master of the World, Master pf the World, You are good and do good at all times at every moment; Your goodness and compassion never cease even for a moment. You knowth great strength of the harsh decrees that want to overcome us on every occasion, Heaven Forbid. For they strengthen themselves and are jealous of a Jew whose heart burns to serve G-d. Cut a pathway each time, for us to return to You and truly recognise You. My Father in Heaven, Who has mercy on the poor, Who looks to guard the persecuted. Teach and instruct me…. to find a path and advice how to strengthen myself against all the evil urges each time. Teach me to become wiase with true wisdom and to strengthen myself in all sorts of ways, at all times and at every spiritual level; in all the ascents amd descents in the world. May I have patience and control my spirit, thus conquering my evil urge in such a way that I merit to subdue, break and nullify all kinds of evil urge and all kinds of forces that prevent me from truly serving You. May I merit to walk in Your holy paths to turn aside fromevil and always do that which is good in Your eyes.

Master of the World, Master of the World, Your great goodness is very sublime, far above all the loftiest holy levels. You Yourself ae entirely good, without any element of harsh decree (din) at all. You are entirely good without any element of din at all, even the ‘din’ which is holy and pure. You are far above this in a very wonderful and awesome way which is impossible to grasp. However, You Yourself give life to all harsh decrees, from the ultimate sublime source of holy and awesome din to the end of the emanation of all the harsh decrees where filth and total waste (husks) take hold of htem. You give life to them all.  All these harsh decrees the evil urges take hold of from the very lowest level to the very highest level, until the Sublime Crown which is the secret of the source of the evil urge of the great holy and awesome tzaddikim. These decrees all receive their vitality from You, for without You no one can raise his hand or leg. They have no strength or vitality whatsoever other that from You.

Master of the World, Master of the World, Master of the World… reveal to me some true advice  so that I will merit to carry it out and truly repent. Teach me a path, both materially and spiritually, in such a way that I merit to overcome the eveil urge, the obstacle; delay and confusion of any moment at any spiritual level, whether at the time of ascent or descent. Only You know how many thousands and myriads of obstacles, temptations and incitements rise up agains us every day from anew, as the Sages said: ‘Every day a person’s evil urge overcomes him and wereit not for G-d’s assistance he would fall into the evil urge’s hands.’ Have mercy upon me for Your Name’s Sake.

Help me and save. Merit me to be stubborn in the service of G-d. Let nothing confine or frighten me such that my spirit fall or I become distant from You,  Heaven Forbid. Let me not take notice of any negative thoughts that bother me and want to weaken my resolve.

You, in the merit of the true tzaddikim, who pray for us, please have mercy upon us. Let us overcome any worrying thoughts. Rather, let us strengthen ourselves studying Torah and by praying… May I  return to You in genuine repentance from now on. Letme take joy in Your salvation. Sweeten from over me and for all Jews all the harsh decrees. Break, crumble, subdue, nullify and put an end to all the evil urges at all times and at all levels. Nullify the evil urge of most of the world which stems from actual filth in the blood and is true folly. Furthermore nullify all the forms of the evil urge of the most pious Jews which is an aspect of dybbuk (evil spirit), Heaven save us. Similarly, save us from the evil urge of the tzaddikim which si actually and angel. At all levels, save us. Merit me to strengthen myself every day from anew to start to come close to You through Torah and prayer.

73    ATTACH THOUGHTS TO WORDS OF PRAYER

a)      Through prayer with concentration, attaching one’s thoughts to the words of  prayer very strongly, one merits to ascertain the innermost, hidden meanings of the Torah. Such prayer brings bounty and blessings to the world, therefore, the Holy One craves for such prayer, for He desires to bestow His Good upon His creatures.

74    EXALTED, O GOD, ABOVE THE HEAVENS

a)      There are some types of suffering that a person experiences which stem from decrees of holiness, which is an aspect of suffering from love, an aspect of “One who G-d loves, He reproaches” (Proverbs,3:12).  This is an aspect of becoming distant that is a beginning to coming close (to G-d). However, there is a type of suffering which stems from harsh decrees of impurity, Heaven forbid. A sign for a person to know whether his suffering is from the side of impurity or the side of holiness is prayer.  That’s to say when the suffering doesn’t prevent a person from praying then he can know that the suffering is from a holy decree, an aspect of suffering from love.

b)      Prayer is an aspect of Countenance (see unabridged version for explanation). When prayer gets cancelled this is an aspect of a concealment of the Countenance (of G-d), Heaven forbid, as it says, “You hid Your Countenance and I was afraid” (Psalms, 30:8).

c)      By striving to study Torah until one merits to know and understand it, one cures one’s soul and raises it to the place of its source; one sweetens all the harsh decrees. One plants a Tree of Life in the World Above where everything is health. In addition, one sustains and renews all the worlds and reveals the Glory of G-d in the world which is the main purpose of all man’s service of G-d – in order that the Glory of G-d be revealed.

d)       When someone engages in studying Torah but cannot understand it, this is also very good for all the words rise above and the Holy One is happy with them. From them an aspect of Aravei Nachal (willow branches) is created.

e)        The Festival of Hoshana Rabbah is an aspect of words of Torah without understanding, because a person cannot yet understand. Simchat Torah is an aspect of speech with understanding, meaning that one merits to know and understand the wisdom of the Torah which is a cure for the soul (see inside).

(Prayer 74)

May it be Your will O G-d, our G-d.and G-d of our Fathers, that You help me and save in Your immense mercy so that I merit to cure my evil completely and to elevate it to the place of its source in holiness and great purity. Enable me to engage in study in Torah for Your sake both day and night.

Have mercy upon me and nullify form over me all kinds of harsh decrees in the world. Guard me and save me always from very harsh decrees which stem fromt eh Side of Impurity, from the Poison of the Serpent. Do not deal with me according to my sins but rather guard my soil and save me from these very harsh decrees which come throught the Other Side. Give me understanding and holy intelligence to study Torah truthfully in such a way that I sweeten all the holy decrees that come through the holy path which is an object of the Strengths of Yitzchak. These holy decrees are for the good.

Master of the Universe I believe that all the harsh decrees and suffering that we experience, the Jewish People in general and each individual in particular at any time, all the obstacles, confusions that hinder us from serving You. They are all sent from You for our good. And even if we think that they are bad, Heaven forbid, You think of them for our good; You reprimand, discipline and purify us for our own good. Because the immense materiality and coarseness of our bodies we cannot even accept Your holy decrees, for the suffering confines us a great deal. Wehave not the strength or patience to accept the harsh decrees without becoming distant from You. This is especially true about my poor and miserable self. I coul not stand up to the slighest test or suffering. Have mercy over me in Your bountiful compassion. Sweeten and nullify all the harsh decrees from upon me and all my family and all those associated with me.

Draw upon me and upon all the Jewish People a new heart, an new and holy spirit; let me completely forget my wicked ways and evil confusing thoughts. Merit me from now on to think only about Torah and prayer, with holiness and great purity so I can cleave all the time to You, to the true tzaddikim and to Your holy Torah. By this, merit me to cure my soul from all its immense pains and fatal illnesses which are beyond measure.

75. BLESS US LORD

a)  The attribute of wanting to be victorious, wanting controversy and war stems from the blood in a person’s body that hasn’t yet served G-d. For every person has to see to it that he serves G-d with every drop of blood in his body. That’s to say, he should speak a lot in Torah and in prayer, then he will merit to peace and to nullify all the attribute of wanting to be victorious or to cause controversy.

b)  By words of Torah and prayer a person raises all the fallen sparks and all the fallen worlds are rectified and rejuvenated; it is considered as if one had created heaven and earth and all the worlds from anew. Therefore one has to speak only holy words, not other words, in order to raise the sparks and to rectify all the worlds. By this one brings closer the coming of Meshiach.

c).        One has to speak a lot of Torah and prayer until one’s body becomes completely nullified, like it is absolutely nothing. To this one merits through the attribute of fear of G-d and then one can achieve peace which attracts all the blessings.

Prayer 75

Master of the World, merit me to the attribute of peace. Let me be a lover of peace and to always pursue peace. Guard me and save me through Your immense compassion from the trait of wanting to triumph over others and from controversy stemming from the other side. Let my heart be free from these traits which come from blood in the body which has not been used to serve the Holy One. Have mercy upon me and merit me from now on to study Torah and pray a lot. May I speak out many words of Torah and prayer every single day until I use every drop of blood in me to service G_d. May all the drops of blood within me become holy words of Torah and prayer until no drop of blood remains that has not served the Holy One. Father, merit me to serve You with all my strength throughout my lifetime with every drop of blood that I have. Let me verbalize so many words of Torah and prayer that my body becomes completely negated as if it is actually nothing at all. Please merit me to perfect fear before You at all times. Draw down and bestow in my heart fear, shame, dread and a great awe before Your constantly.

By this, merit me to clarify, elevate and purify all the letters and sparks that fell into the world, as ‘broken vessels’. As a result of my sins and enormous iniquities, in this lifetime and in previous lifetimes. These sins lead to controversy, doubts, confusion and obstacles to Your holy service and from these stem all the physical cravings in the world. May I have the strength to elevate all the fallen sparks to You. As a result, may the Holy One and the Shechinah be united and through this, may a great and wonderful peace exist in the World Above and Below and in all the worlds. Let there be great love and peace between all the Jewish people and all created things in the world.

76. AND AFTER THESE THINGS

a) By trusting G-d, meaning that one watches and looks expectantly for the Holy One alone while relying on Him, one creates a vessel for bounty; then one merits that that the bounty and income come at the time and moment one needs them, like it says, “ The eyes of all wait for You” and through this “You give them their food in its right time” (Psalms,145:15), in other words when it is needed.

b)            There is an aspect of “My soul thirsts”. That’s to say like someone who is very thirsty who will drink even dirty water; so also in the service of G-d. There are people who are always in an aspect of thirst – they learn and serve G-d continually yet they are always ‘thirsty’ for their soul yearns continually for the service of G-d. But it is not in the right time or with intelligence because sometimes to cease from Torah is the way to preserve it, as it says, “It is a time to act for G-d, they made void Your Torah” (Psalms, 119:126). Their main thirst is in essence because they are in a state of ‘limited consciousness’ and they do not merit to a renewal of the mind. They are an aspect of those who cannot see or are blind in the service of G-d. The blind person lacks a feeling of satiation, as the Sages said. Therefore they cannot give satiation to their souls, or to quench their thirst in the service of G-d. This is the virtue of attachment to tzaddikim for, by this, one merits to serve G-d in an aspect of ‘seeing’ and ‘intellect’ which represent a boundary and proper time, not an aspect of thirst. Consequently, a Jew has to try to come close to tzaddikim, for even someone who constantly studies and serves G-d doesn’t know how to behave in his service without the advice of a tzaddik.

c)  Through repentance resulting from a love of G-d, no impression remains from a person’s sins. Then he can merit to pray and study with a pure intellect, which is an aspect of ‘expanded consciousness’. Then he will merit to pray as is fitting as well as studying and understanding without great effort; and he will merit to renew his mind every single day.

77.

The rule is that whatever we do, whether prayer or studying Torah, it is all in order that the Kingdom of G-d become revealed.

Prayer (77)

“My soul thirsts for G-d, for the living G-d: when shall I come and appear before G_d.” Your mercy is great O Lord: quicken me according to Your judgments.” Master of the World, let me merit to repent sincerely and wholeheartedly before You. May I really repent out of love in order that You pardon me for all my iniquities, so that no impression at all remains of them. Let all my iniquities turn into meritorious deeds. Let me be worthy of a holy mind and intellect to a pure, refined intellect, free of any dross or waste, just like pure silver. Like silver that has been refined and purified seven-fold. May I merit to renew my mind all the time with great holiness and purity. Help me and save me at all times to learn and teach with a pure and refined mind. May I merit to understand very quickly indeed every book that I learn so that I need not peruse any further at all. May my mind progress and grow with great holiness, with tremendous speed, with purity and clarity. Help me merit to be very speedy in the service of Heaven and to understand everything in the words of Your holy Torah, perfectly and truthfully at great speed, without any confusion at all.

In Your bountiful mercy, give me the merit, show me and teach me all the time to really know how to behave in each matter and in the matter of learning the holy Torah, how to set a quantity and limit to my learning so that I know when to learn and when to cease whit it is absolutely necessary. Let this be in such a way that my brain and mind exist with great perfection and great holiness, as is Your good desire. Do not let a lot of learning and engaging (in holiness) beyond the limit harm me, as it is written: “It is time to act for the Lord, for they made void ceasing from learning the Torah is its continued existence.” “But I am more brutish (ignorant) than any man; and I have not the understanding of a man.” I have no idea how to behave in this matter so that it really be as Your desire, for sometimes I cease from learning completely, more than is really fitting, and sometimes my soul burns and is enthused and longs very much to learn all the time, without even a break or ceasing at all. In fact this is not good either, for Your desire is to set a limit to each thing.

Therefore I cast my supplication before You and spread out my hands in prayer towards You, my Father, merciful Father. You see, gaze, look upon and know the concealed, hidden feelings of my heart. In Your bountiful mercy and very great immense and awesome loving-kindness, grant me a holy mind. Guide me in Your truth and teach me at all times how to behave with regard to learning and with regard to all holy matters – when and how much to learn or teach, how much to do or engage myself in Your holy service. Let me know when to pause and break off for a little, according to the necessity, as is Your good desire, in order to give my brain a rest, so that I do not cease completely. Heaven forbid, by learning beyond the proper limit, as You know. Take pity and have mercy upon us for You know how many confusions and doubts there are in this matter, for each person is according to his spiritual level. We do not know what to advise our souls in this matter at all. Have mercy upon us for Your Name’s sake. Show me Your ways so that I merit to always determine and attune my behaviour in all matters in accordance to the ultimate truth. “Teach me Your way. O Lord. I will walk in Your truth: unite my heart to fear Your Name.” Lead me in Your truth and teach me: for You are the G-d of my salvation; for You I wait all the day.

78.”AND HE WILL GIVE STRENGTH TO HIS KING” ( Shmuel,1, 2:10)

a)      Holy speech, meaning words of Torah and prayer and fear of G-d, is very sublime and precious; for holy speech is an aspect of the Divine Presence, an aspect of the revelation of His Kingship and His faith. It is an aspect of the Spirit of Meshiach, a Spirit of Holiness, an aspect of the Resurrection of the Dead and an aspect of the Unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah.

b)      Speech is also an aspect of ‘Mother of the Sons’ meaning that like the mother always accompanies her sons, even into the filthy places, and doesn’t forget them, so also the power of speech accompanies a Jew at all times even into the filthy places in order to always remind him of the Holy One. That’s to say even if a Jew is situated in the lowest of spiritual levels, wherever he is, Heaven forbid, even so, through the power of speech he can forever remind himself of    G-d’s presence in the world. In other words, even if he is where he is, when he strengthens himself even there to at least speak holy words of Torah and prayer, or to speak to G-d or to speak to his rabbi or friend about fear of G-d, he can always remind himself of G-d, even there in the places far away from the service of G-d which are like filthy places. Even if he fell to wherever he fell, Heaven preserve us, speech doesn’t let a person forget the Holy One. Understand well the greatness of the power of speech; it is a wonderful and awesome piece of advice to whoever really desires not to lose his world completely, Heaven forbid.

c)      Without studying Torah it is impossible to live for sometimes a Jew burns with enthusiasm to cleave to G-d beyond measure such that he could become entirely burned out, Heaven forbid, because of his excessive burning enthusiasm. However, by studying Torah he cools the fire of this burning so that it will be in the proper measure and he can continue to exist. The opposite is also true, Heaven forbid, for sometimes a Jew burns with the desires of this world so much that he can burn all his body, Heaven forbid, from the intensity of the burning fire of cravings. However, when he studies Torah it shields him and saves him; it extinguishes the burning fire within him so that he can live. So it is that the main essence of life we acquire through studying Torah.

Prayer (78)

May it be Your will G-d our G-d and G-d of our Fathers that in Your great compassion You help me and merit me to sanctify the words of my mouth always. May I constantly say holy words every day and pray a lot. Protect us and guard us so that no word escape our lips that negates Your will. Let us never blemish our speech. Rather merit us to sanctify our speech at all times and to speak abundantly holy words and Torah and prayer.

My Father, compassionate Father, bring us close to Your holy Torah. Merit me to study and contemplate You Torah by day and night until I merit to cool down all my fiery passion by means of my words and Torah and prayer. For You know the degree to which my heart burns. Sometimes my mind becomes confused and this passion turns into a heart which burns for the physical cravings of This world. It becomes like a fiery furnace which wants to burn up my body and soul, Heaven forbid.

Now I have no wisdom or advice other than to shout out to You until You bring me closer to You for Your sake out of Your bountiful compassion. Hover over me and protect me. Save me. Blow on my heart so that this will put our the fire of my evil cravings. Drive out from me the spirit of folly. Merit me to draw upon me the spirit of life, the spirit of holiness. May I  fulfill the verse which says: “Let the Book of Torah not cease from your lips and you will study it by day and night”.

And merit us to recognize You truly above and beyond all the worlds.

79. “TRUST IN THE LORD AND DO GOOD” (Psalms,37:3)

a)      Every Jew has to see to it that he causes no delay in the coming of the Meshiach. That’s to say, he has to rectify his deeds and repent perfectly so that he will not hold back with his sins the coming of the Meshiach.

b)      In every genuine tzaddik there exists a revelation of Meshiach. At least there is an attribute of Meshiach which is an aspect of Moshe meaning that he is very humble etc.; he truly knows his own lowliness while at the same time knowing the importance and greatness of the People of Israel. He is prepared to sacrifice his soul and his life-force for the sake of Israel. All this he merited to through such perfect repentance that all the evil was discarded entirely and he became totally good; this is also an aspect of Moshe Meshiach.

c)      Those Jews who are not yet regular in the service of G-d and their repentance is still not perfect, but rather, sometimes they happen to have thoughts of repentance and begin a little to serve G-d but afterwards fall away from this and then arouse themselves, changing like this each time from bad to good and from good to bad, they are an aspect of once impure, once pure, once defiled once kosher etc. this kind of repentance is like the six work days of the week for this person hasn’t a sense of rest. However, when he repents perfectly this corresponds to Shabbat meaning that he feels at rest in every aspect; the evil is pushed away completely and he becomes entirely good. By this he merits to really see his lowliness together with the importance and greatness of the People of Israel such that because of this he sacrifices his soul and vitality for their sake. This is an aspect of the attributer of Moshe Meshiach, as mentioned previously.

d)      Through the sanctity of Shabbat one merits to genuine humility. That’s to say, one sees one’s lowliness and recognizes the importance of the People of Israel; then one is willing to sacrifice one’s soul for them like Moshe, our teacher, may his memory be blessed.

e)      The main aspect of humility is that a person consider himself as being beneath his own lowly spiritual level, lower than what he is, like it says of Shabbat, “Remain every person in (under) his place” (Exodus,16:29) meaning, below his own level. At least he shouldn’t go out from his place, to above his own level.

f)       By means of humility and lowliness no-one can remove or push him out of his place; that’s to say, no-one can take away his income, Heaven forbid.

Prayer (79)

I have come G-d, my G-d and G-d of our Fathers to cast my entreaties before You. In Your immense mercy, please bestow upon me peace and quiet. Merit me to genuine complete repentance. Let me make my Torah study regular and holy from now on, so that I can serve You constantly  by day and night with all my heart, using good and bad urges. Raise me from impurity to purify, from the mundane to the holy, from the six workdays to holiness of Shabbat.

Merit me to receive Shabbat with great joy and immense happiness with all kinds of honour and delight for Shabbat, with tremendous holiness and purity as You want. May I become merged in the holiness of Shabbat and draw the holiness of Shabbat into the six work days. Merit me to the repentance of Shabbat and to rest from all mundane matters, turning away from all the cravings and vanities of This World.

Woe am I for I have sinned. Oh what have I done! How did I not have mercy on my very precious soul. How was I so cruel with my soul, more than all the murderers vicious people in the world.

Help me not to have any hidden pride in my heart, Heaven forbid. Save me from pride and haughtiness at all times. My Father in Heaven, merit me to the eye of Shabbat such that I can see my true holiness. You know my lowliness is beyond measure. Even so my mind becomes confused with extraneous thoughts and pride. Please return me in repentance. Save me from all forms of pride and merit me to true humility until I see my own worthless ness. As a result, let me see the greatness and importance of the Jewish People and sacrifice myself for them at all times.

Guard me so that Meshiach will not be delayed because of me, Heaven forbid. Protect and save me from now on from sins, iniquities and bad thoughts and from all kinds of confusion 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 in all my heart. 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.

80.    “THE LORD GIVES STRENGTH TO HIS PEOPLE” (Psalms,29:11)

a)      The essence of peace is to connect two opposites. Therefore, do not get confused if you see someone whose opinion is exactly the opposite from yours and it seems to you that it is impossible to sustain peace with him. So also when you see two people who are actually two opposites, don’t say that it is impossible to make peace between them. On the contrary, this is the main perfection of peace, to try and make peace between two opposites, just like the Holy One who makes peace in the Heavens between fire and water which are two opposites.

b)      To merit to peace is by means of self-sacrifice, for the sanctification of G-d’s Name (see inside). Through this a person merits to speak holy words of Torah and prayer. That’s to say, he will merit to put all his mind, wisdom and understanding into the words and connect his thoughts very well to the words until he understands and listens very well to what he is saying. This is the main holiness of the power of speech. G-d has great pleasure from such speech. To all this one merits through peace to which one merits by self-sacrifice in the sanctification of G-d’s Name.

c)      Even the simplest of Jews, even among the sinners of the People of Israel, when the idol worshippers want to force them to renounce their faith, Heaven forbid, they sacrifice themselves to sanctify G-d’s Name, as we have seen already several times. Therefore a Jew has to remind himself of this every day that he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to sanctify G-d’s Name. This is the main holiness of a Jew and through this he merits to peace, as mentioned above.

d)      This is a good idea, when you want to pray with concentration, for when a person sees that it is difficult for him to focus his mind in prayer because of many thoughts that confuse and bother him, then he should remind himself that he is certainly willing to die to sanctify G-d’s Name; because even the sinners of the People of Israel sacrifice themselves to sanctify G-d’s Name. By this self-sacrifice to sanctify G-d’s Name a Jew will merit to connect his thoughts to the words of prayer and thus pray with concentration. Even without this, the main perfection of prayer is to pray with self-sacrifice.

Prayer (80)

Help me and bring me salvation so that I am always ready to really sacrifice my soul to sanctify Your Name, especially at the time of reciting “Shma Yisrael” and praying. Merit me to fix in my mind very firmly, with a strong desire, readiness to sacrifice my soul to sanctify You name while burning with enthusiasm so I can overpower my evil urge and thus give over all my body, soul and all my money in order to sanctify Your holy Name. May I, by this, be able to always pray with great concentration in true holiness and purity. And let me put all my mind and thoughts with the words of prayer, connecting my thoughts to the words very firmly indeed. As a result please find pleasure in my prayers.

G-d I need many wonderful forms of salvations all the time. In Your bountiful compassion open up Your fountains of salvation. May the salvation flow and renew itself all the time at every moment in such a manner that we are saved from what we need to be saved from. Sanctify and purify us, through these streams of salvation, from all the impurities, stains and blemishes in the world. Fulfill in us the verse which says: “And I will throw over You , pure waters and will You will be purified; from all the impurities and all the idols I will purify You”.

Master of the World who makes salvations flourish. Fulfill our wishes for our good. Save us hastily and bring us salvation both materially and spiritually in whatever we need. And let this be in such a manner that I return to You and come closer to You in truth.

81.

 Sometimes a tzaddik talks with the public about mundane subjects. This is a great favour for them for there are people who are very far away from the Torah and understanding of it such that it is impossible to bring them close (to G-d) by means of words of Torah, but rather, specifically only by these mundane conversations when the tzaddik clothes the Torah within them. Also, sometimes it is a favour to the tzaddik himself; he has to sharpen his mind and revive himself by such a conversation. Then, automatically, this benefit will reach the person who spoke with the tzaddik the mundane conversation which revived him.

82.

Disgrace is an aspect of foreskin, as is written, “We cannot…who is not circumcised, for it is a disgrace for us” (Gen.34:14). There are three layers of skin in the foreskin which are an aspect of the three husks: a storm wind, a great cloud and fire flaring up. By remaining silent about a disgrace, one pushes off these husks, for he doesn’t want to argue and disgrace his fellow. There is also a fourth skin which is very fine; this is an aspect of the husk called ‘noga’, an aspect of ‘chashmal’ (electrum), that’s to say ‘chash’ and ‘mal’. For to remain quiet and silent in the face of disgrace is an aspect of mila- circumcision. It’s known that sometimes ‘noga’ becomes included in holiness but sometimes it goes to the opposite side. Therefore, silence at a disgrace also has two aspects. Sometimes a person remains silent against his fellow in order to cause him more suffering. It turns out by this that he causes even more disgrace to his fellow. Then the silence becomes included in the husk of ‘noga’, an aspect of disgrace, as above. But those who hear themselves disgraced yet do not answer and act from love, meaning that they remain silent out of love, not wanting to embarrass or disgrace their fellow, then this silence, which is an aspect of ‘noga’, becomes included in the realm of holiness. This is what is written  in the words of the Ariz’l; on the eve of Shabbat, the husk of ‘noga’ becomes included in holiness. Then the three husks of impurity also want to rise and take a hold on the holiness. So a holy fire descends and burns them so that they cannot attach themselves to holiness (See there in the writings of the Ariz’l). Therefore, the Sages said (Shabbat,88) about those who act out of love, as mentioned above, the verse says, “Those who love him are as the sun when it comes out in its might” (Judges,5:31). That’s to say, they are like a holy flame. By this, ‘noga’ is included within the realm of holiness, an aspect of ‘chash-mal’, for this silence is an aspect of nullification of the foreskin and the disgrace, as mentioned above.

(Prayer 82)

Master of the World, help me and save me so that I merit to remain silent and calm in the face of those who insult me. To those who curse my soul let me be sidlent. May I be among those who are insulted but do not insult, who hear their disgrace but do not reply; who act out of love and are happy in their suffering. Merit me never to have in mind to cause distress to others by my remaining silent to them. May all my intention in keeping silent be true love. Help me always to be very careful not to shame or disgrace my fellows not any person in the world, even those who insult me.

So also, save me and merit me to overcome, break and nullify my evil urge, all my cravings and bad traits. Force my evil urge to be subservient to You such that I can drive away, break and subdue all te impure husks and forces of the Other Side which ixist in all worlds, whether the three completely impure husks (the storm wind, cloud and flashing fire) or whether the bad in the husk of Nogah.

May I merit to destroy and nullify them completely so that I can separate the good in nogah and elevate it into holiness. Then let all the impure husks disappear and become nullified from upon me entirely so that they have no hold over me, Heaven forbid, for now on and for ever. Help me and guard me. Merit me to guard the brit. Nullify from me the husk of foreskin, the foreskin on the heart and the flesh. May I become truly merged in Your sublime holiness.

Merit me to perform perfectly the mitzvah of wahsing in hot water and cutting my nails  every eve of Shabbat in such a way that I can push off and nullify from me all these three impure husks so they will have no holk on me at all. Then let me separate and clarify the husk of nogah from all its evil and thus elevate its good into Your sublime holiness. All the husks will then descend and fall into the depths and become nullified completely. Merit me to accept upon myself additional sanctified time prior  to Shabbat. Grant me an extra and pure neshama every single Shabbat. Then, amongst all the pious Jewish People, may I elevate all the worlds to far, far above.

83.

 The impurity of a nocturnal emission is caused by the husk called 'Lilit'. It takes nourishment from the six letters of the alphabet which, when you write them in full (as they sound) they contain the letter 'pheh'. (The letters are 'aleph', 'kaph', final 'kaph', 'pheh', final 'pheh' and 'kooph'.) Six times the numerical value of 'pheh' (80) is 480 which is exactly the numerical value of the name 'Lilit (L is 30; I is 10; l is 30; I is 10; t is 400). Then from the letter 'pheh' ;(spelt pheh- aleph) comes the letters 'aph' (aleph pheh, meaning 'anger'). This signifies how the harsh decrees become stronger and take revenge on  a person, Heaven save us. The rectification for this is to give charity in a secret manner. By this one redeems the holy sparks from out of the husk. Then the anger (aph) will turn into the letter 'pheh'. This is what it says, "A gift in secret pacifies anger" (Proverbs, 21:14). That's to say it pacifies and changes the 'aph' (anger) to 'pheh'.

(Prayer 83)

Master of the World. Merit me to guard the brit perfectly. May I sanctify myself even in what is permissable such that my marital realtions will be an aspect of “if meritorious the Shechinah dwells between them.” You informed us that by blemishing the brit, by a nocturnal emission, one causes a strenghtening of the harsh decrees and G-d’s wrath in the world, Heaven forbid. This is an aspect of “if not meritorious, fire devours them”. Therfore let us give charity to worthy poor people especially in an anonymous manner and by this my all the harsh decrees which were created by a blemishing of the brit be sweetened. Fulfill in us the verse “Anonymous charity forces down the wrath”. Merit us from now on to be sa ved from all kinds of blemishes of the brit.

84.

It says in the holy Zohar that 'There is no day which does not contain good and there is no good other than the Torah.' That's to say, every single day contains hidden good which are the secrets of the Torah that belong to that specific day. However, when a person wants to contemplate on and think about words of Torah, in other words the secrets of the Torah, but he is not worthy of this, then 'snakes and scorpions' come to confuse his thoughts such that he cannot reach a place which is free of them. These are the thoughts that come to a person and confuse him. By wanting and desiring very much to enter into the hidden good and to cleave to good attributes, the latter become gateways and openings to see and ascertain this hidden good in each day. Then each day becomes very long and large for him, for he sees and perceives the hidden good, meaning the hidden secrets of the Torah that belong to each day. This is the essence of 'lengthy days'. And the main way to merit to this is through yielding. When a person yields regarding his money this is the attribute of our Patriarch, Avraham. By this, all the 'snakes and scorpions', that's to say, all the strange thoughts that confuse a person's mind, fall away and become nullified. As a result, one's mind becomes pure and lucid and a person can reach the hidden good which belongs to him each day.

85.

By the brains and the understanding that the Lord (YHVH) only is G-d etc., we rectify and magnify G-d's Kingdom, taking upon ourselves the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven (see inside).

86. TAKING A SMALL STEP ON SHABBAT

c)      The main way that the External Forces (of Evil) take hold during the weekdays is through the aspect of the 'legs'; that's to say, they don't let a person 'walk' (progress) in the paths of G-d. On the holy day of  Shabbat we again receive the power of walking, an aspect of "if you restrain because of Shabbat your feet…" (Isaiah, 58:13). However, just like an infant when it begins to walk still needs support, so also a  Jew who begins on Shabbat to walk in the paths of G-d needs support. This support is by means of truth which is included in the sanctity of Shabbat, as the Sages said, "Even an ignorant Jew is afraid to lie on Shabbat" (D'mai, Ch.4). Even so, he needs to receive power in his legs in order to be able to walk (progress) well. To this he merits by giving charity for the sake of Shabbat. That's to say, one gives charity to a Jew for him to buy his needs for Shabbat or one hosts a poor person at one's table on Shabbat.

d)      Charity is an aspect of the sun, as it says, "the sun is charity" (Melachi, 3:20). Charity that one gives  during the weekdays corresponds to the sun nowadays whereas charity for Shabbat corresponds to the sun of the future which will be renewed, becoming like the light of the Seven Days of Creation.

87.

Immediately when a person wants to walk on the straight path, he at least needs fear of G-d, that's to say, fear of Divine punishment. This fear is called 'tzeddek' (justice) which is an aspect of harsh decrees. As a result of this, in most cases, when a person begins to come closer to the service of G-d, harsh decrees and suffering are aroused and come upon him, Heaven forbid. However, afterwards when he reaches the truth, meaning fear of G-d's exaltedness, which is called faith, then all the harsh decrees become sweetened at their source and great loving-kindness and great mercy are drawn upon him.

88. WHO COVERS THE HEAVENS WITH CLOUDS (Psalms,147:8)

a.       The tzaddik's attributes of fear and love of G-d are in his hands into which he receives all the bounty and the blessings, to bestow them upon the Jewish People. He covers and conceals his love and fear so that accusing forces will not accuse him and thus steal all the bounty from him.

b.      However, when the tzaddik is very well known and the accusing forces know about him, they make a big effort so as not to let him bring down the bounty to the Jewish People. Therefore, the Holy One instills in the heart of another tzaddik to desire to arouse controversy against the former tzaddik. This covers him so that he can bring down the bounty.

89. "YOU HAVE MADE HIM SLIGHTLY LESS THAN THE ANGELS" (Psalms, 8:6)

When a person knows that anything he lacks reflects a lack in the Shechinah he may certainly feel great, immense anguish and sadness. Then he will not be able to serve G-d with happiness. Therefore he should say to himself: Who am I that the King Himself tells me His lack? Is there any honour greater than this! By this her can attain great happiness and renew his brains.

90.

By taking joy in G-d, all the deficiencies in the Shechinah are fulfilled.

91.

A person needs very strong faith so that it spreads through all his limbs. Then he can merit to reach intellect by way of faith. That's to say, in the beginning one has to believe because one doesn't understand the concept. Afterwards he can then merit to understand intellectually. However, later on, there are more lofty things which he cannot understand by intellect. Then he must strengthen his faith by believing in what he does not yet understand by way of intellect until, eventually, he merits to understand these lofty concepts also. And so on ad infinitum.

(Prayer 91)

All Your commandments are faith. G-d of faith have compassionn over me for Your sake. Merit me to real faith. Help me and save me so that I strengthen myself with perfect faith constantly. Merit me to achieve higher and higher levels of faith until I reach , understand and ascertain in my mind things that I was unable to understand previously. Enable me to acquire complete faith so that it spreads through all my limbs. Master of the World grant me faith. Master of the World Youknow everything that happens in the world with regard to faith and thus is the foundation of everything especially to what occurs to the Jewish People, Your holy nation who are believers, the descendants of believers. Even so there are thousands and tens of thousands of levels in faith and all the troubles an d exiles that the Jewish People experience are because of blemishes in faith for it is the basis of all Torah as the holy Sages have revealed to us.

Master of the World, merciful One. How can we rectify this . From where should we start to rectify it in Your bountiful mercy You sent us true holy and awesome tzaddikim in each generation who revealed to us wonderfuland sublime Torah innovations. They draw down and teach holy belief, eye to eye, to all people. But even after all this we have not retracted from our mistakes and this has caused us all the troubles that befall us. We are in great distress, both generally and individually.

G-d of faith, have mercy on us.  Save us. Hear my prayers. Listen to my pleading. In Your righteousness, answer me. Help me for Your Name’s sake.

Strengthen me to know and believe in You every moment in such a way that I will be saved by this from all kinds of sins, iniquities and wilfull sins, from all kinds of bad thoughts and sorts of confusions, especially crookedness of the heart and thoughts against Your holy faith. Teach us to draw upon ourselves holy  faith which our Fathers, Sages and tzaddikim achieved through their immense holiness. Merit us to draw upon ourselves their faith, goodness and righteousness which they acquired by their tremendous efforts and self-sacrifice. And the main thing is to continue to reveal holy belief to all the people of the world especially the holy Jewish People.

So, merit me to constantly bring holy belief into my  understanding such that the faith spreads to all my limbs. May my mouth always be full wit wordsof holy belief spoken really wholeheartedly. Fulfill in us the verse which says “Atzaddik lives by his faith.”

Blessed are You, G-d, for ever. Amen. Amen.

92.

By a person wandering back and forth, even within his house, he can sweeten harsh decrees and revive the dead. (See inside.)

(Prayer 92)

Master of the World, You informed us of the greatness of the holy tzaddikim who have the power to revive the dead by walkng back and forth in their house. By this they sweeten all the harsh decrees. Have mercy on us and let us come close to tzaddikim like these. Merit me to engage in studying Your holy Torah every single day so that I can cool down the fire which burns in my heart for all the cravings and vanities of this world. Rather, may my heart burn with great holiness, yearning of Your Torah and Your service in the proper measure. Let me cleave to Your Torah, so much that I become merged with it in Your Oneness and let me be numbered among the holy tzaddikim. And by walking back and forth in my house enable me to sweeten all the harsh decrees and draw down an aspect of the revival of the dead.

93. BUSINESS WITH FAITH

a)      By conducting business with faith, G-d's Name becomes loved by people because of you and you fulfill the positive commandment of "And you shall love" which is the root of all the commandments, as it says in the Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 20.

b)      Through this you can also reach a spiritual level which is above time and this allows you to pray with a clear, pure mind.

(Prayer 93)

Master of the World, merit us to perform the mitzvah of “And you shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart”  which is the source of all the mitzvot. May I engage in studying Torah a lot and serve Torah scholars. Merit me to carry out business affairs with faith such that the Name of Heaven becomes loved through me. By this, enable me to reach a spiritual level which is above time and to achieve expanded consciousness. As a result, merit me to pray with great concentration and a pure mind.

94.

When you want G-d to bestow His loving-kindness on the Jewish People, believe that in all things there are holy sparks and join wisdom to faith (for by faith you reach intellect, as explained in Torah 91). Then you will have such a holy eye that whatever thing you look at in the world, you will raise the sparks which are the letters. And when you raise them you create holy words of speech through which the Holy One bestows abundant goodness to the Jewish People. This is all that G-d takes delight from.

(Prayer 94)

Merit me to holy eyes and a pure and very clear power of vision such that through this alone I will be able to look at something with wisdom and intelligence and with perfect faith. Let me believe that in each object there are letter and holy sparks. By this looking, may all the sparks rise that are clothed in the object so they return to their source in the aspect of “Engraved like a signet righ, Holy to G-d.” And from the letters and sparks may words be made and by these holy  words bestow much good to the House of Israel for this is Your main delight, so to speak.

Have mercy on all the letters and holy sparks which are in a deep exile and speedily redemm them for Your Name’s sake until Your glory is upraised and exalted.

95.

When patrons and leaders of the generation take pride (in themselves), then the Holy One brings upon them people who oppose them and speak evil about them so that they will not be arrogant.

(Prayer 95)

You, Who make peace in the heavens, bring peace upon us and over all the Jewish People.  Master of the World. Save me from all forms of controversy, from being abused and attacked. Help me to avoid feeling proud; may I never have a sense of pride in relation to any other person.

Help all the benefactors and leaders of the generation to avoid pride, Heaven forbid. Don’t let them be haughty. Rahter may they consider themselves to be an aspect of “what” - non-existent and nothing. By this, save them from all kinds of controversy and insults and arrange for us benefactors and leaders who are pious and honest.

96.

The extraneous thoughts that come to a person when praying, especially to a tzaddik who wants to pray with great concentration (and cleaving to G-d), are from the holy sparks which fell during the Breaking of the Vessels. These extraneous thoughts that come to each person are a reflection of the attribute and spiritual level that the person is at, just at that moment. The tzaddik has to know from which world and which attribute each extraneous thought comes from; he also has to know how to raise it to that world and attribute where he is now. However, sometimes the tzaddik wants to raise it, but cannot. This is because that particular thought is from an aspect of a sublime spiritual level to which the tzaddik hasn't yet reached. Therefore it is impossible for him to raise it. But how does it happen that he gets the extraneous thought before its time (before it can be raised)? This is because when there is a controversy against a certain tzaddik, then an extraneous thought which reflects the controversy falls into the mind of another tzaddik. Then, because the tzaddik wants to raise this thought, even though he doesn't, through the strength of his desire he breaks all the people causing the controversy.

97.

Every Jew can take control through his prayer such that he can bring about what he wants. But the main thing which prevents this is pride, ulterior motives and extraneous thoughts.

  One person has pride because he is from an important family or because he has strenuously worked hard in the service of the Creator. Then he certainly cannot have control in his prayer. Therefore when a Jew begins to pray he needs to break all this, to forget his important lineage and all his efforts in the service of G-d. Rather, it should seem to him that he was born today and has yet to begin making any effort in the service of G-d. Also he should think he is alone in the world and has no important lineage. Furthermore, he should break and nullify other extraneous thoughts that come during prayer because of his earliest intentional sins or intentional sinful thoughts; then he will be able to control his prayer. This will fulfill the desire of the Creator, may He be blessed. G-d will have great delight from his prayer. By this he will draw down into the world all kinds of bounty.

(Prayer 97)

Master of the World, You know how far I am from proper  prayer and supplications. The main reason is because of thoughts that bother me, both before and during the prayers.Thoughts of self importance and ulterior motives and many extraneous, bad thoughts and confusions. They are endless and innumerable. There ar emany prayers that are so mixed up with these thougths that I was unaware that I had recited words of prayer. Many words of prayer and blessings I just skipped over completely without noticing. What I recited is as if I had said nothing, for the words were far away from my heart. My heart was full of bad, extraneous and confused thoughts. Where will I hide and secret myself in the face of my great shame and disgrace which is so immense and bitter. The mouth cannot describe it nor the heart imagine it.

I have com before You, Who listens to prayer and chooses the prayers of the Jewish nation out of compassion. You long for the prayers of Jews. For this You created the worlld. So, help us at all times to drive out these thoughts which bother and confuse us and merit us to pray before You with all our heart, with great concentration from the depths of our heart truly. May our thoughts be holy and pure so that  our thoughts will be connected firmly to the words of prayer, with total unity. At the time of prayer let no ulterior intention or extraneous thought enter my heart, rather merit us to remove all these thoughts and the foolish vain ideas of self importance. Help me to forget about any importance stemming from the status of my family and may I never imagine that I have already struggloed and achieved a lot in the service of  G-d. Rather, let me truly recognize my deficiencies and my lowly status so that I will not have any thoughts of pride or superiority.

Grant the power to rule in our prayers such that we have the power to bring about what we want through our prayers, even to alter nature. Fulfill wishes of our heart for the good out of Your mercy. Take delight in our prayers always. Draw upon us Your loving-kindness at all times; sweeten and nullify from upon us and upon all of the Jewish People, all the harsh decrees in the world. Break and nullify all the harsh decrees whether those that have already been decreed or whether those that they want to decree, Heaven forbid.

Master of the World,  merciful One. Help us like You did for our Fathers. Protect and save us in every generation. See our weakness and fight our batttle (with the evil urge).  Redeem us speedily, a full redemption, for Your Name’s sake.

98.

A person doesn't see how far the blemishes of his sins reach. The tzaddik has the eyes of G-d, as it says, "The eyes of G-d  are to the tzaddikim" (Psalms, 34:16). The tzaddik sees how far a person's blemishes extend. When the tzaddik wants to punish someone he gives that person his eyes so that he too will see how far his blemishes reach. Until then, this was hidden from the person. There is no greater punishment than when a person sees what he has blemished.

99.

A Jew has to strengthen himself in prayer, whether he merits to pray with a feeling of cleaving to G-d or whether he doesn't merit to pray with this cleaving and the prayer isn't recited fluently, Heaven forbid. Even so, he should encourage himself even then to pray with all his strength and concentration, for when he merits in the future to pray with cleaving and the words of prayer are fluent in his mouth, as is fitting, then all the previous (imperfect) prayers will rise to Heaven together with this prayer that he prayed properly.

Prayer (99)

Lord, open my lips and let my mouth speak Your praises. Master of the World, merit me to pray before You with great concentration and tremendous devotion. Let my prayer be smooth and fluent in my mouth. Even when I do not manage to pray with real devotion as I should, nevertheless, merit me to put all my strength, concentration and heart into the words of prayer with maximum focus.  May I truly believe and put my trust in Your great loving kindness. And when You help me to pray before You with great devotion, as is fitting, and my prayer is fluent, then may all the other prayers rise up together with this one that I merited to pray properly. By this enable me to always strengthen myself in the service of prayer. Fulfill the verse which says: “May my prayer come before You; give your ear to my song”.

100.

The tzaddik who has acquired a great light from the light of the Torah and his deeds are at least commensurate to his perception in the Torah, then his righteousness and his Torah studying both co-exist comfortably. As a result he is calm and companiable with people. But a tzaddik for whom the light of the wisdom of the Torah he gained is much greater than his deeds, then the Torah makes the fire of the holy Torah boil within him, so it is impossible for him to be calm and companiable with people like the former tzaddik mentioned above.

(Prayer 100)

Master of the World, merit me to engage in studying Torah a lot. Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah. Help me to ascertain the great light from the radiance of the Torah. However, much more I ascertain each time in the understanding of the holy Torah, so merit me to add righteousness, piety and good deeds. By this, may I be pleased with others without showing any anger or strictness towards anyone at all. Rather let me be good to everyone. Even if I show to one individual some displeasure about something I consider to be improper, nevertheless let me speak to him positively and softly so my words will be acceptable and settle in his heart. Fulfill in me the verse: “The words of Torah scholars are calm.” “Let me find favour and good understanding in the eyes of G-d and of people.”

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman!