The Writings of Rabbi Nachman - volume 2 - 51- End of the holy book

HH

HH

The Writings of Rabbi Nachman

Volume 2

51.

  The evil urge ensnares a person again and again arousing him to do whatever he does. And even if he doesn't listen to the evil urge, even so, it traps him again for a second, third, and fourth time and more. But if a person is firm in his mind and doesn't pay attention to it at all, then the evil urge will leave him and go away. Similarly, during prayer, thoughts come to a person to confuse his prayer several times but if he is firm and doesn't take any notice of them at all then they go away, as explained elsewhere.

52.

  Don't become confused when you have questions about the true tzadddikim. The true tzaddikim are similar to their Maker and just as a person has questions about the way G-d runs the world, so it is inevitable that he will have questions about the tzaddikim. Concerning questions about G-d's providence, know that because of His immense exaltedness it is impossible to ascertain His understanding. If G-d's ways were according to what we think of as being necessary, Heaven forbid, then His understanding would be just like ours, Heaven forbid. Therefore it is good and appropriate for the Creator that He is exalted and far above our understanding.

53.

  The greatness and preciousness of the power of thought is beyond measure; really perfect things are made from it which will cause the worlds to exist always, for ever and ever. Wisdom is even more precious for the power of thought is only what comes into the mind whereas wisdom is what constructs with its wisdom buildings in a person's intellect and that is very precious. The main thing is that it should be with truth. Even a simple Torah innovation is also a very great thing. This also has to be with truth. The opposite is also true. When it is without truth, other, negative things are also made from it.

54.

  Free choice is in the hands of a Jew to do whatever he wants, as he chooses. With non-Jews there are things that they have to do, but a Jew, everything that he does, such as even traveling to a certain place etc. contains the service of G-d; and therefore he always has free choice about everything.

55.

  The profit to be made in This World is immeasurable. That's to say, what a Jew can gain in This World. He doesn't even have to invest from his own money, only that which the Creator has prepared for him; he can accumulate great gains such as ‘no eye has ever seen’ etc.                         

56.

  When a person has a heart, there is no place that will prevent him from serving G-d. He cannot excuse himself by saying that in such and such a place it is impossible for him to engage in the service of G-d. For when a person has a Jewish heart, all the places in the whole world belong to him.                    

Prayer 56.

Master of the Universe, master of all, whose rule extends to every place, You are the place of the world; the world is not Your place. Have mercy on me, for Your Names sake. Please grant me a really holy and pure heart so that I can serve You and fear You with a true Jewish heart until my heart becomes a dwelling place for Your glory. Let the presence of Your great and holy glory be drawn into my heart for it dwells in every Jewish heart as it says, “And I will dwell within them,” The main dwelling of godliness is in the heart, as it says, “God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.” Have compassion on me and help me so that my heart will be full of godliness such that no place in the world can confuse or obstruct me from Your service or from fearing You. Just merit me to recognize and find You in all the places in the world and at every level, for no place is void of your Godliness. Enable me to become merged within You with all my heart. Then, let all the places in the world become nullified to You completely and totally until they will have no power to confuse me, Heaven forbid, from anything in the realm of holiness. Rather, enable me to ascertain and find You, cleaving to You, in all the places in the world.

So, teach me and guide me at all times how to behave regarding travelling from place to place so that everything will be al You desire. According to the word of God I will travel on each trip, both in general and in every detail. In whatever place, let me find You and really cleave to You. Let me not get confused by any place in the world. Have mercy on me, for Your Names sake. Fulfil my heart’s wishes for the good. Merciful One, purify my heart to serve You in truth. Unite my heart to fear Your Name. Create a pure heart for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour before You, God, my Rock and Redeemer. Amen.

57.

  Through the wonderful and awesome Torah innovations that the great and true tzaddik reveals, the lowly Jew's status grows; everyone runs after him and comes to him to hear him because of the great noise created by the great and true tzaddik's Torah innovations which he reveals. Also on the Other Side there is one who grows because of this.

58.

  However much greater the level of the great tzaddik is and the more he has the ultimate humility, being really like nothing, so the more he can supervise and overlook the world, not like some people who incorrectly claim that because of the greatness of the tzaddik he is far away from the world. (See inside).

59.

  Sometimes a person acts with speed and gains by it whereas another person acts with speed and loses by it. That's to say, someone who has been a tzaddik from his youth and has always followed the straight path when he is very fast, he loses because of this. For when he progresses gradually from one mitzvah to another he can ascertain also the holiness which exists between one mitzvah and another. But when he runs very quickly to the next mitzvah he passes over and skips over that perception of holiness mentioned previously. (See inside). But someone who has to repent, has to be deliberately extremely fast, to hurry up and run a lot to escape and save his soul. It is forbidden for him to linger at all in order to stand and collect his thoughts. He has to run and skip over what is necessary to skip over and to jump to the holiness with great haste. Such a person who is fast, gains.

60.

  (a)  When there are wars and the spilling of blood in the world this causes drought, Heaven forbid, and this leads to higher prices, Heaven save us.

(b)  Someone who gives over Torah in public and students who are not worthy hear him, this also leads to drought.

(c)  By honouring the Torah, rain comes.   

(d)  When a person gives over Torah in public and unworthy students hear him, his punishment is that he is arrested and imprisoned.         

Prayer 60.

O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, may it be Your will to nullify all wars and all the spilling of blood from the world! Bestow a great, wonderful peace upon the world. “Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.” Rather, let them all recognise and know the absolute truth, that we haven’t come to This World for controversy and strife, Heaven forbid, and not for hatred, jealousy, provocation and the spilling of blood, Heaven forbid! We’ve only come to This World in order to acknowledge and know You, may you be blessed forever. So, have mercy upon us and fulfill the verse which says: “I will give peace in the land and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will rid evil beasts out of the land and neither will the sword pass through your land.”

In Your compassion, raise all the vapours from the earth for the good so that they turn into rain which brings blessing. Master of the Universe, have compassion on us; bless us with success from our efforts. Grant us an abundant living, with holiness and purity. Anything that we lack, bestow upon us before we come to need it. Guard and protect us always from taking loans for they bother and confuse the mind a great deal. From now on, please help us and save us; enable to pay back any debts we have already. Merciful One, Who bestows sustenance and a living to each person, let us never have to take loans from people.

So, merit me to be counted among the worthy students of the true tzaddikim for, in Your bountiful loving kindness, You have merited me to hear and receive much holy and awesome Torah from the mouth of tzaddikim. Have mercy upon all Jews and help us, through the holy Torah, to draw Your godliness to wherever we are. You love the Jewish people therefore You give permission to the true tzaddikim, through their Torah innovations, to draw Godliness into our brains and intellect. We can catch and capture You, so to speak, in our minds which is an aspect of ‘a king imprisoned in chains,’ an aspect of “you rose to the heights and took a captive.” For Your Name’s sake, help and save us, let the tzaddikim finish their work of rectifying us by revealing to us Your Godliness. Merit us to attach our minds to Your holy Torah, day and night, very firmly indeed so that we can draw down and grasp Your Godliness in our brains and minds, with great holiness and purity, with faith, fear, dread and awe.

Merit us, by all our Torah innovations, to always draw upon ourselves, and into our brains and intellect, our hearts, two hundred and forty-eight limbs and three hundred and sixty five sinews so that all our body becomes a vehicle for Your Devine Presence. Let me never step outside the realm of holiness even by a hairs breadth. Help me not to have extraneous thoughts, Heaven forbid, rather, let me cleave to You and Your holy Torah to such a degree that I can instill in others knowledge of the truth of Your Godliness. Enable me to instill in their brains, minds and hearts Your Godliness such that their eyes and hearts will open up to really feel the pleasantness of the Torah and the sweetness of Your radiance.

 Let all the Jewish People come to recognise You very soon. Guard and protect us from teaching students who are not worthy for You know that we are only flesh and blood and don’t know how to take care and avoid this. Have compassion on the honour of Your holy Torah so that it won’t reach students who are not worthy and who shouldn’t receive it. Please have mercy on them and return them in repentance before You in such a way that they can receive the pleasantness of Your holy Torah. Prevent falsehood from having the power to cover over and hide the truth, Heaven forbid. Guard and protect us all the days of our life from the punishment of imprisonment and captivity. Have mercy over the Jewish People, especially over those who have already been captured or imprisoned; hastily, release them calmly, without harm, for You know their distress, pain and sorrow. They need immense mercy so extract from them darkness and death; break their chains and bring them into the light, into freedom. God, You release the imprisoned, so say to the imprisoned, ‘Leave!’ “As for me, may my prayer to You, God, be at an opportune time; O God, in Your abundant kindness, answer me with the truth of Your salvation.” “God will give might to His nation, God will bless His nation with peace.” Amen and Amen.

61.

 The main perception of time stems from limited understanding. However much greater the intellect is, time becomes lessened accordingly. This is like a dream when the intellect departs leaving just the power of imagination. Then, in a quarter of an hour, all of the seventy years can pass, for it seems in a dream that several long periods pass in a few moments. Afterwards, when he wakes up and his intellect returns to him, then he sees with his intellect that all the times and years that passed in the dream were really only a few moments. Seventy years in reality are seventy years according to the person's intellect. So the truth is that in the sublime intellect which is far above ours, what we considered to have been seventy years in reality is also only a quarter of an hour or less, it's just we don't understand this. This is like in a dream; if someone were to come then and say that these years were only quarter of an hour, we wouldn't believe him. So too there is an intellect that is so sublime that all time is nullified entirely. Therefore Meshiach, who has experienced whatever happened to him since the day of the Creation of the World, and suffered whatever he suffered, after all this, in the end, the Holy One will say to him, "Today I have given birth to you" (Psalms,2:7). All this will be because of the tremendous and immense virtue of the intellect of Meshiach which will grow greatly. Therefore, all the time since the days of the Creation of the World will really be for him absolutely nothing and it will be actually as if he were born today.

Prayer 61.

“I am obliged to proclaim that God said to me, ‘You are my son, I have begotten You this day.’” Master of the Universe, You live forever and exist for all eternity, You existed before You created the world and afterwards; You are above time. All time, what was and what will be, for You isn’t even the blink of an eye. In Your boundless compassion, Grant me true understanding and intelligence in such a way that I manage to escape from under the influence of time. Merit me to know and understand that time is nothing at all; it is all like vapour; our days pass like a shadow. In truth, there is no such thing as time at all, if  a person has true understanding and intelligence. Our perception of time stems from a lack of understanding. In Your awesome wonders You hide true understanding from people so that we will perceive time. In that way we have the freedom of choice although, really, time doesn’t exist at all. Merit us to attach ourselves to genuine tzaddikim who achieved this perfectly, to merge themselves, through their understanding to the aspect of being above time. They have escaped from the concept of time altogether. Thus, they have completely escaped from evil deeds that are performed under the sun, under time. Therefore, merit us to follow in their footsteps and fulfilll their advice so that we never look at things that are beneath time which include all the physical cravings and bad attributes. Let us not become confused by things affected by time. Rather, merit us every day, every hour and every moment to remind ourselves to nullify time, for the truth is that time is really nothing at all. Enable us to always attach ourselves to this aspect of being above time, for there all cravings, bad attributes and confusions caused by time-bound experiences become completely nullified.

           

Master of the Universe, many of Your People have fallen under time because of the length of this bitter exile. However, the truth is that, from afar, You plan everything for our ultimate good. The favours You perform for us are awesome and wonderful, therefore You have given us glimpses of wonderful sparks from the aspect of above time in order that we know and believe that all the length of this bitter exile, together with what ever befalls each Jew, everything is considered as nothing. Everything will be forgotten and become completely nullified when meshiach reveals to us perfect understanding. Then we will merit to achieve understanding which is above time. Therefore, have mercy on us and share upon us a radiance of the holy understanding which is the light of meshiach.

 As a result, merit us to subdue and nullify all physical cravings and bad attributes by remembering always that time doesn’t exist. Time runs, flows and flies very fast. Help us never to exchange the world which exists for all eternity for this transient world, Heaven forbid. Let us not be fooled and misled by time at all. Rather, may we start to serve You from anew every day. Prevent us from being confused from what occurs to us. On the contrary, merit us to sanctify ourselves, attaching and merging ourselves to the aspect of above time until we manage to escape from being under time and place. Let us rise above time and place, as You and Your holy, true tzaddikim want from us, for they merited to this in perfection. “Bring us back to You, God, and we shall return; renew our days as of old.” May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour before You, God, my Rock and Redeemer.

62.

  (a) By the travels of the Jewish People, when they travel from one place to another they atone for a lack of faith.

(b)  Any flaw in faith, Heaven forbid, is an aspect of idol worship; then G-d's wrath exists in the world but through the journeys of the Jews this blemish is atoned for, as mentioned; the wrath is sweetened and G-d's mercy is drawn into the world. The essence of mercy is an aspect of " May G-d Almighty give you mercy" (Gen.43:14) – "you" specifically, meaning that He should give over the attribute of mercy into our hands in such a way that we will understand it as mercy.

63.

  Know. When Ya'acov, our Father, sent his sons to Joseph, he sent with them the melody of the Land of Israel. (See inside, wonderful things.)

64.

  Money comes from the fall of the wealth of the prophets, for “all the prophets were wealthy” (Nedarim, 38). And prophecy when it came to the prophet caused him to be like a madman, as Rashi explains (Shmuel,I,18:10) "He prophesied and became mad". Therefore, all those who are extremely wealthy are almost like actual madmen in their behaviour for with them the money creates complete madness.

65.

  When one is zealous for the sake of G-d of the Hosts it is considered as charity, as the Tosafot wrote (Baba Batra,10B): Nevuzaradan then performed charity for G-d that he was zealous for the Holy One.

66.

  (a)  The tzaddik has to perform 'teshuva' (repent) for the sake of the Jewish People, for all the punishments that G-d inflicts upon a Jew, affect G-d, for "In all their distress, He is distressed" (Isaiah,63:9), so also they afflict the tzaddik as well. All the four basic elements, from  which man is made, stem from the simplest element which is an aspect of the tzaddik, an aspect of "the tzaddik is the foundation of the world". Therefore, "also punishment to the tzaddik is not good" for when He punishes someone it afflicts the tzaddik himself. Consequently, for all those who are the closest followers of the tzaddik their repentance is the easiest for the tzaddik repents for their sake.                                                                                                                              

(b)  All a person’s attributes stem from the four basic elements. Therefore, when a person sees the tzaddik, who is an aspect of the simplest element from which all the four elements stem, it is fitting that he look and feel, by this, how he is holding in all the attributes that come from the four elements, for they stem from the tzaddik who is an aspect of the simplest element. Because of this it is fitting that he repent completely for any flaw in his traits.

(c)  The fact that we call the day after Yom Kippur 'the Name of G-d' is because all the punishments for our sins affect G-d's Name and after Yom Kippur, when G-d forgives the Jews for their sins, they are automatically saved from all the punishments and from all the harsh decrees. Through this primarily G-d's Name is glorified. Therefore we call the day after Yom Kippur 'G-d's Name' because as a result of the forgiveness and pardon brought about on Yom Kippur, G-d's Name is glorified.

Prayer 66.

    

            “If our sins testify against us, O God, act for Your Name’s sake.” For the sake of Your Name, God, forgive us our sins for they are many. Therefore, we have nothing to say. We have no way to come before You; we have nothing to rely on other than Your Name. In Your Name we have come before You. You called Your Name upon us. But for Your Name’s sake, for Your Name is joined to ours, and for the Name. Please have mercy upon us; sweeten, lighten and nullify all the harsh decrees from upon us and from upon all the Jewish People, especially any hard and bitter decree which is about to take place. Have mercy, for Your Name’s sake. Have mercy on us, for the sake of the truly great tzaddikim who suffered greatly and repented completely for the sake of the Jewish People. The tremendous suffering that they experienced for our sake is certainly worthy to protect, atone and forgive our sins and iniquities, from beginning to end. Only You know the immense and awesome power of their wonderful repentance which they did for the sake of all the Jewish People and their many sins. Nowadays we are so weak that we have nothing to depend on other than the power of the repentance that the tzaddikim did for us.

            Act for You Name’s sake and sanctify Your Name. Be with us to help us so that we merit very soon to return to You sincerely and wholeheartedly, especially during the very, very awesome, holy and frightening days of Elul, Rosh HaShana, the Ten Days of Repentance and the Day of Atonement which, altogether, are the forty days of grace in which You were appeased by Moses, our teacher, may he rest in peace, and you gave him the second set of tablets, until, on the last day, You became completely appeased and said to him happily, “I have forgiven, according to Your words.” This day was fixed as a day of forgiveness and pardon for all generations. It is the holy, awesome and sublime Day of Atonement – One day in the year. You did everything for the sake of Your great and holy Name in which we are named. Have mercy upon us, help us and save us, so that we merit to welcome these holy and awesome days in great holiness and purity.

May we merit to return in perfect and sincere repentance. May we really and wholeheartedly take upon ourselves to walk in Your paths and to fulfill Your commandments and sincerely engage in learning Your Torah all the days of our lives; to pray with perfect devotion and to pour out our hearts like water in the presence of Your Countenance. May our eyes flow with rivers of tears because of our sins, iniquities, wilful transgressions and our many troubles, until we merit to really appease You, so that You pardon, forgive, and atone for us for all our sins of error, iniquities and wilful transgressions that we’ve committed before You. Uproot, break and nullify all the decrees that are not good for us, whether those that have already been decreed or those that they want to decree, Heaven forbid, until we always merit to glorify and sanctify Your Great Name. Just as You answered Moses, our teacher, when you said to him on Yom Kippur, “I’ve forgiven!” so, be reconciled and appeased to Your nation, Israel, on Yom Kippur. Answer, and say to them, “I’ve forgiven!” Say it in great happiness and joy such that You name be glorified forever, until we merit that the day after Yom Kippur be really and truly worthy of being called “The Name of the Lord” through the Name of the Lord being glorified on that day for eternity by the pardon and forgiveness of Yom Kippur and by the nullification of all the harsh decrees and troubles from upon us. Then, specifically, Your Great Name is perfected, as You informed us by Your holy sages, may their memories be blessed and may their merit protect us.

67.

 (a)  The true tzaddik is the splendour and beauty and charm of the entire world; he is the master of all of the entire world; he is an aspect of the master of the Holy Temple for he shines his light to the Temple and to the entire world. For he is the light, splendour, beauty and charm of all the world. And when this tzaddik's name becomes famous and glorified in the world, this causes G-d's Name to be made greater. However much more his name is magnified and glorified, so G-d's Name is magnified and glorified in the extreme. And whoever becomes included in this true name, which is the true splendour and charm of all the world as mentioned, meaning that he comes close to him and becomes included in his name, by this his eyes are opened and he begins to look at himself and all his attributes, how good or flawed he is in them, and then to repent on any bad attributes in which he blemished. Then he will merit to behold the greatness of the Creator, may He be blessed, and to look at how to rectify the world; he will merit to draw upon himself holy and pure brains from this holy name of the true tzaddik.

(b)  The opposite, Heaven forbid, is also true; when the name of the true tzaddik disappears and departs from the world, and falsely famous leaders become magnified and publicized even though they do not contain the Name of G-d at all, by this, the Name of G-d is diminished and disappears, so to speak. Then, people with well-known names and of darkness are glorified and things occur in the world which only names of impurity help them, Heaven forbid. As a result of this, fires spread in the world, Heaven save us. And the light of the eyes disappears, as mentioned previously. This is an aspect of the burning down of the Holy Temple which was also caused by the departure of the radiance of light, and through this the lights of fire were strengthened (see inside). This means that when the true tzaddik departs from the world, this is an aspect of the burning of the Holy Temple and then all the Jewish People are considered to be wandering about outside in exile, Heaven forbid.

(c)  In these days, when the exile has already been long, and G-d yearns every moment to return to us and to rebuild our Holy Temple, it is fitting for us not to delay the building of the Temple, Heaven forbid, but rather to make an effort towards its becoming built. Therefore we have to be very, very careful to rise at midnight every night and to mourn very much over the destruction of the Temple for maybe in the first reincarnation I was the cause of the Temple's destruction, and even if not, maybe I am now delaying its reconstruction through my sins and this is also considered as if I had caused its destruction. About this you should cry and mourn a lot every night at midnight, then it will be considered as if you were taking part in the re- building of the Temple. As a result you will merit to come close to the truth, meaning you will come close to the true tzaddikim, G-d fearing and kosher Jews who are the main splendour, charm and true beauty of the world.  {Editor's note: It appears that this is the intention of the proximity of the following verses: "At midnight I shall rise to thank You etc” and "I am a friend to all those who fear You", as mentioned.} Through this your eyes will be opened enabling you to look at yourself and at all of your attributes; then you can repent on all the bad attributes and merit to know and recognize G-d's great Name.

(d)  By rising at midnight and mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temple one is saved from fires.

Prayer 67.

            Master of the Universe, truly merciful Father, You know that all our life-force is dependent on the tzaddikim, our holy teachers, may their memories be blessed. We have to talk to them and receive their holy words from anew each time. But now, what shall we do? Teach and guide me how to shout out and plead in such a way that now also I can draw their immense holiness upon myself through the impression of their holiness that they left in the world, in their holy books and precious students. The tzaddikim, now, are even more present in the world, as it says in the Zohar for the main perfection of the neshama is that when it passes away far, far away into the world Above, it will also be in the world Below in order to arouse, awaken and revive all the Jewish souls, even those who dwell in the pit of Hell and beneath it, so that they never despair for any reason.

.

            Please have pity and mercy upon Rachel and her tears which she spills profusely at our distress and the anguish of our souls. Rachel cries over her sons who were exiled from the table of their Father and from their country. She cries every night, with tears on her cheek. There is no-one to comfort her because of our sins. Master of the Universe, have mercy on us. Who will rectify our souls? Who will return us in complete repentance? Who will arouse us from our sleep so that we really return to You? Woe to us in these generations. Nevertheless, we know that, even now, these tzaddikim are engaged in the rectification of countless souls, both the souls of the living and those of the dead.

God, You are holy and Your Name is awesome. Your Name is bound up with the name of the true tzaddikim. Merit us, in Your immense compassion, to really know who is the ‘Master of the House’ over the whole world now, and who draws strength from all the true tzaddikim of previous generations. In Your great pity, merit us to really come close to him and to always be really merged in the name, splendour and glory of the true tzaddikim. May we attach ourselves and cleave to them with a really strong bond which is unbreakable, in such a way that we can look truly at ourselves from now on, especially all our attributes and cravings which stem from the four base elements (earth, water, air and fire). Help us to refine and purify them from all evil so that we can return in full repentance. Merit us to strengthen ourselves so as to break and nullify all our bad characteristics and physical cravings, which stem from the four base elements, so that we can purify and sanctify ourselves with the utmost perfection. As a result, enable us to perceive the exaltedness of the Holy One and to see His awesome wonders. Then, may we draw upon ourselves holy and pure brains from the holy name of the tzaddikim in such a way that we can merit to add holiness upon holiness until we become completely good.

            O Lord, My God, you know. To converse and pray a great deal before You is impossible other than by Your great compassion and salvation, for I have no word in my language to express myself well before You about all that is hidden and concealed in my heart. May I merit to find grace in Your eyes from now on, so that You open for me, from anew, the gates of prayer, the gates of supplication and request, the gates of real rhetoric, the gates of meditation, the gates of conversation and holy speech, the gates of grace and supplications. As a result, may I merit from now on to express myself before you with new words of supplication, favour and appeasement each time, in such a way that I can pour  out my heart like water before You, and can prostrate myself before You with real yearning, with real self-sacrifice, to ask from before You to save my soul because of all the sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions that I’ve committed so greatly against You all the years until now. What can I say? “I will drive off sleep (in prayers) because of the bitterness of my soul.” “Would that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night” over the distress of my soul, which I cause in vain because of a slight craving that passes away like a shadow. I’ve rebelled against You in the way that I have. I have come to what I’ve come to; I’ve lost what I’ve lost. Woe is me! Woe is my soul! Oh, what have I done? “If it weren’t for Your Torah, my delight, I should have perished in my affliction.”

Therefore, I have come before You, who are full of mercy, that You grant me new, sincere words from the source of holy speech in such a way that I merit from now on to pour out my speech before You at all times, with words of grace and sincere supplications so that I merit to find favour and appease You and so that from now on, in Your bountiful mercy I will walk in Your statutes and observe Your commandments. May I merit, from now on, to renew those days that passed in darkness and in the gloom of the banished. Let me not return to folly again. You, who are full of mercy, help me and save me; You who are full of salvation.

            Open the eyes of my intellect and mind in the way of the truth and true simplicity, so that I merit to know very well the true, right path for how to make pleasing , sincere prayers out of the Torah discourses, as is Your desire and the desire of those who fear You – the true tzaddikim who revealed these new interpretations of the Torah in the world. Let me make these prayers in such a way that they bring great delight before You, until Your mercy is really and completely aroused. Really return me to You. Help me grasp the holy intention of the true tzaddikim wherever I learn in their holy books and to arrange beautiful and holy prayers on all the things that are really stated or alluded to in their holy words so that I may implement them very soon.

May I pour out my conversation before You about every single Torah lesson that the true tzaddikim revealed to the world. Let me progress in Your service sincerely with all the words of their lessons so that I may walk in the path of holiness for some time in the light of one of their new interpretations of the Torah and to plead, beg, pray and talk before You during that same period until I manage to reach and grasp that way of serving God which is spoken of in that Torah lesson and to really fulfill everything that is stated there. May all my service during that same period be according to that Torah lesson. Afterwards, let me progress for a certain amount of time with another new interpretation of the Torah until I’ve progressed with all the new interpretations that have been revealed in the world and to really grasp their intention and to merit to implement them perfectly. If I am very, very far away from this at the moment, still, in Your eyes nothing is distant, for nothing is beyond You. Yes, “You can do everything and nothing can be withheld from You.” You do new things all the time that have never been done before. Help me. Help me. Save me. Save me for now I have no strength other than to spread out my hands to plead for mercy. This also I don’t really manage to do properly. Just from afar I will hope and look forward at all times to Your complete and true salvation. Do with me that which is good in Your eyes for I don’t know anything – How to talk or what to say or by what path I will merit to achieve all that I have asked from You. Nor do I know how to find the real point at all times. This is the point which relates to my heart at a certain time and through which I could merit to behave at all times, at every moment, as is Your good desire; then I could arrange a sincere prayer and pleasing conversation before You and attach myself sincerely to the true point which relates to my heart at this time. By this I could return to You and could always be really as is Your good desire.

            Unique One, Eternal One, strong and bold One, strengthen and encourage me always in prayer and conversation before You. Lord, open my lips so that my mouth may declare Your praise. “Accept, I beseech You, the free will offerings of my mouth. O Lord, and teach me Your judgements.” “Preparations of the heart are in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Show me what to say; give me wisdom to know what to ask; inform me how to appease You; really teach me the paths of meditation and conversation with You, the master of compassion. May I use the language which I usually speak so that my conversation before You will always be just like speaking to a friend. Teach me by which path I may merit to triumph over You so that You return Your Countenance to us and return us in complete, sincere repentance before You. For You have already revealed to us that it is You desire that we merit to triumph over You.

Arouse Your compassion upon Your sons and, together with all those who desire and long to express themselves before You, grant me holy words drawn from the ten types of song by which King David composed the Book of Psalms which was written from the words of his holy conversations that he poured out all the time to God. For You know that we don’t know any path of the ten types of song. We only rely and resort upon the power and merit of King David, may he rest in peace, and in the power of all the tzaddikim who composed songs, praises prayers and conversations to be recited before You until they merited to ascertain all the ten types of song with ultimate perfection. In their strength alone I also rely, together with all those who desire to express themselves before You. May we also merit to speak holy, sincere words, which are drawn from the ten types of song as You desire. Let us pray a great deal and always express ourselves before You, sincerely and wholeheartedly, in such a way that by these holy words and prayers we may always defeat You, so that You very quickly begin and finish redeeming us, bringing us a complete redemption after which there will be no exile; a redemption of the soul, of the body and of our property, generally and specifically. Let us turn away from evil completely and always do that which is good in Your eyes, to be always permanently attached to Your holiness and to rise every time from one spiritual level to another with great holiness, as is really Your good desire. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, O God, my Rock and Redeemer.

           

Master of the World, who hears forever His people, Israel, protect us and save us so that we won’t be attracted to the songs of wailing and sadness which the wicked usually sing, for it’s the way of the world to be drawn to them very much. Have mercy upon us; protect us and save us from such songs for You know how very many spiritual faults and blemishes are caused by such songs and how much damage they do to good Jews, Heaven forbid. Have mercy upon me; in the strength and merit of the true tzaddikim; come to my aid and protect me at all times so that I be rescued from them. Let us merit to always gladden our souls in holiness and purity by tunes and songs of happiness which draw the heart towards You, to You worship, Your Torah and to true tzaddikim. Help us, in the strength of the true tzaddikim, to raise all these songs of the wicked through the holiness of Shabbat. Grant us strength to raise them and turn them into happiness when we sing them on Shabbat. May the merit of Shabbat protect us so that they won’t have any power to draw upon us sadness and sighing, Heaven forbid. On the contrary, let us merit to clarify them and raise them, turning them from sorrow and sighing to joy and happiness… May I merit to sing many melodies, songs, and songs of praise every Shabbat and on Festivals, with great happiness and joy, with a joyful and happy voice, with tunes of depression. Gladden our souls in Your salvation and purify our hearts in order to truly serve You.

           

O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, who chooses David His servant and his ancestors, who chooses songs of praise, may it be Your will that in Your great mercy and loving-kindness, You remember the Divine Presence who’s wandered from her place like a bird wanders from its nest. Raise the Community of Israel from its decline. In Your bountiful mercy, help us so that we merit to raise the voice of song in order to have the strength to arrange before You melodies, songs and songs of praise, in a voice of gaiety and joy. May we sing our melodies and songs in a pleasing and sweet voice, all the days of our lives, just as You like. Help us to learn Your holy Torah for its own sake both by day and by night. Grant us merit to learn the Written Torah by day and the Oral Torah by night.

           

Master of the World, in Your bountiful mercy, grant us the strength to overcome sleep so that we can drive sleep from our eyes and learn all the Oral Torah by night, as it says: “Rise, sing in the night in the beginning of the watches.” By this, draw upon us a thread of loving-kindness. Help us, through this, so that if we hear a voice of song or the tune sung by anybody in the world, it won’t have any strength to damage us or confuse us from serving You, Heaven forbid even if they are blemished voices stemming from birds caught in a trap (from souls trapped in the realms of impurity). Just grant us the strength to raise them, clarify them and return them to the realm of holiness. In Your bountiful mercy, arouse the rose of Sharon to sing in a pleasing, joyful voice. O Lord, quickly reign alone over all Your works. May the verse be fulfilled which says: “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.” Return the Priests to their service, the Levites to their rostrum, to their songs and to their melodies, and Israel to their dwelling place, the Holy Temple. Grant us holy intellect and wisdom to merit to always draw upon us the yoke of Your Kingdom. Let us reveal Your Kingdom and Lordship to all peoples. Speedily establish the Throne of David and bring us, very quickly and soon, Messiah the son of David, “the sweet psalmist of Israel.” “Then our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with singing.” Then we will sing before You all our lives. May the verse be fulfilled which says: “The Lord is ready to save me; therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.” May this be speedily in our days Amen.

           

Please bring me speedily to the Land of Israel, the good holy Land. Draw Your perfect supervision over all the Land of Israel and over all the world. Renew Your world with the holiness of the Land of Israel in which all things happen according to Your Providence alone… Arouse a new song in the world, a song of wonders, as it says: “A Psalm. Sing to God a new song for He has done wonderful things…” We will give thanks to You by a new song for our salvation, for the redemption of our souls. Let us merit to sing psalms, praises and tunes before You, new tunes, songs and praises, songs of wonders beyond the laws of nature until we merit to take pleasure in the Lord, and hear the song and the melody which will be revealed in the future – a single, double, quadruple song, included in Your special Name (of 72 letters) and played on seventy-two chords which corresponds numerically to ‘chesed’ – which means loving-kindness.

           

Master of the World, grant me life; let me live and not die. Grant me a godly portion in the Next World. Grant me merit, grant me merit; be gracious to me and save me so that I may hear the voice of this song and melody which will be revealed in the future when You will renew Your world. You, who are full of mercy, who is good and does good – help me from now on so that I may strengthen myself and close my eyes and ears from looking at and listening to This World. Let me not look at the vanities of This World at all, nor listen to the voice of This World at all. May I never say anything which isn’t about Your Name and Your worship. From my words let there come song, praise and exaltation to Your great and holy Name. Let no vanity from the vanities of this world attach itself to me. Let me merit to subdue all my body, hands and legs to You so that I shan’t do anything with them that is devoid of Your worship. Rather, may my eyes, ears, mouth, heart, mind and thoughts; my whole body and hands and legs; the 248 limbs and 365 sinews; all the senses and strength, be attached to You and really cleave to You with a very strong bond of connection. Let them all be subservient to Your worship, for ever and ever, for all eternity, until I merit to hear in the future the voice of this holy and awesome melody which will be revealed in the future and which will be played upon 72 chords. Blessed is he who will merit to peep through the cracks to see and hear the dance of the tzaddikim when this great and holy melody will be played before them… It is impossible to perceive or grasp in the mind at all the pleasure and sweetness of this melody. Which You alone know. Help me and let me merit to turn away from evil speedily and always do that which is good in Your eyes. Let us merit to come closer to the true tzaddik who has already merited to the voice of this melody.

           

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. 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.

            Please Lord, Merciful One, full of compassion, have pity On my very wretched soul. Always come to my aid; strengthen and encourage my soul with all sorts of boldness and might in such a way that my good and holy soul overcome the body, its cravings and bad characteristics, until I merit to rid my soul of all sorts of cravings due to the body and its attributes. Let me purify and sanctify my soul and body by all sorts of purity and holiness and let me merit to extract my soul from all the cravings and evil characteristics which stem from the four basic, materialistic elements of the body.

           

In Your great compassion, extract me and raise me from the aspect of the animal to the aspect of man, from body to soul, from matter to form, from darkness to light, from foolishness to wisdom, from extraneous wisdoms and thoughts to the wisdom of the holy Torah, from forgetfulness to remembrance. Bestow upon me the power of memory from You and may I always remember well all the words of Your Torah and Your service, whether those that I learn from holy books or those I've heard, or will hear in the future, from my rabbis, my teachers and my friends. Let me merit from now to always remember well, through the power of holy memory, all the holy words that relate to fear of the Lord, to His worship and His Torah. Let me not forget anything of that which I have learnt. May I always remember very, very well my final end and let me always recall why I came to this lowly world. During all the days of my life, let me never forget what will be at the end of my life and after, when my end comes. May I member this every single day, for all our days and years are vanity, like a fleeting dream, like a passing shadow, as a cloud which vanishes, like a wind which blows, like dust which flies. It is impossible to escape death in any way at all. What will we think before the Lord and what will we do on the Day of Judgement? “Remember, don’t forget how you angered the Lord, Your God” from the days of your youth until today. There is no forgetting before the Throne of His Glory and nothing is hidden from His eyes! Help me and save me so I’ll always remember this, such that, from now on, I will merit to have mercy upon myself, to rescue my soul from the Pit, to prepare provisions for my ‘journey’.

 In Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to forget all sorts of extraneous thoughts, improper thoughts and extraneous wisdoms and all the evil thoughts and crookedness of the heart which attached themselves to my heart and mind because of my many iniquities. Let me forget all sorts of thoughts that confuse me and distract me from Your true service. In Your great compassion, grant me merit to remove all of these things from my mind and heart completely so that I forget them completely from now on, forever. Now let me always remember You when I sit at home or when I travel, when I go to sleep and when I get up. May I always really attach my thoughts to You and to Your worship with fear and love, with great holiness and purity, with perfect truth and belief. May I merit to really attach my heart and thoughts to You. to Your Torah and Your commandments, with great cleaving, with a very strong and mighty attachment, such that I merit to always remember very well all the words of Your Torah and Your worship. Let me never ever forget even one word of Torah or of worship, rather, let me merit to always remember them, in This World and in the World to Come.

           

Our Father in Heaven, in Your compassion, fulfil our wishes. Save us from the power of illusion, from ‘death of the heart’ (a lack of sensitivity), from forgetfullness 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’ve 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.

           

Master of the World, who remembers the forgotten things, You are He who is Eternal. There is no forgetfulness before the Throne of Your Glory. Help me and save me for Your Name’s sake., so that I merit to remember very well all the words of the true tzaddikim from whose mouths I heard or from whose books I read. Let me merit to remember very well by means of the power of memory, every single word that I heard from their mouths or read from their written works. You know the immense loftiness and sublime virtue of every one of their holy words, even about worldly matters. It's impossible to set a value to them, for all their words are truthful and just. He who merits to really accept their words and engrave them well - in the power of his memory receives his face and mind and soul from the tzaddik, and then the light of the face of the tzaddik, his mind and his soul, are engraved in the mind of the receiver and listener, especially when one hears from them holy words of Torah. Several times a spark was ignited in my heart because of the immense, wonderful holiness of their awesome words which shine upon the earth and its inhabitants a very, very wonderful and awesome light which is beyond estimation. However, because of my many iniquities, forgetfullness has overcome me and the shining light of their words has been forgotten. Consequently, I’ve become as distant from You as I have. I have forgotten that which is good for me; I’ve forgotten their holiness. “I’m as forgotten from the heart as a dead man. I’m like a broken vessel.”

           

Therefore, I’ve come before You, Master of mercy, who recalls the forgotten things, to ask that from now on You have mercy upon me and grant me the merit to remember all the words of truth that I’ll hear from the mouths of true tzaddikim or that I’ll learn from their holy books. Remind me of all that I’ve heard already but forgotten. In Your mercy, bring it all back to my memory and let me never ever forget again something that I've learnt. Let this be so all the days of my life. Come to my aid and save me very soon so that I may perform that which the Sages warned us to do, which is to picture in the mind at the time of learning the image and face of the Tanna or the tzaddik whose holy words I am learning. It should be as if the Tanna or tzaddik were standing before me. So also, when I tell others of his words of Torah, let his holy image be pictured before me until it's considered as if the Tanna or tzaddik himself speaks with them and they hear his words from his holy mouth; then let his holy words complete their mission perfectly. May the tzaddikim finish all the rectifications that they began to draw into the world, to really return all the world to Your worship and to Your Torah. Let me merit to review every word and every true innovation of the holy Torah, one hundred and one times at least, so that I remember every word very well. Let me never forget anything that I've learnt, even one word, such that the face, intellect and soul of the true tzaddikim whose words I am learning will all be engraved and pictured in my mind, intellect and soul, and so that I will really taste the pleasantness and sweetness of their very lofty words. Shine into my mind and soul the light of the sparks of their radiating words. Shine a very, very, lofty and awesome light so that I merit to return to You in repentance very soon. Let me throw away all the idols of silver and gold and let me not follow my evil arbitrariness and stubbornness of heart. Let me draw myself away from the vanities of This World, its cravings and delights. Rather, may I direct all my aim in life, longing, desire and hope towards the Eternal World to Come. Don't let me exchange the permanent world for a world which passes as a shadow and is gone.

           

Have mercy upon me for Your Name's sake and let me merit to a real, holy memory, so that I remember well all the words of the holy Torah. Let me merit to be consistent in my learning, to learn Your holy Torah day and night. Let me review each thing one hundred and one times such that I remember very well every word of the Torah, every innovation, explanation and counsel that You revealed to us in Your holy Torah, which is full of holy and awesome advice and lights. Through the power of memory may I remember them all very well all the days of my life, forever, until the day that You will peacefully gather me to You. Let me merit to come there (before You in the World of Truth) with all the words of the Torah. Let all the words of the Written and Oral Torah be attached, engraved, included and united in my mind and soul. In Your compassion let me be considered among those who fear You and engage in learning Your Torah, about whom it says “Blessed is he who comes here with his learning at hand’s reach.” Have mercy upon me for Your Name’s sake, for in my oppression I know my own lowliness and worthlessness and how far away I am from all this. However, I rely upon Your bountiful mercy, for You are good and do good to all. You desire that we pray and plead before You for all the really great, eternal favours. On this I rely. Blessed is the Lord, God, the God of Israel who alone does wonders. May His glorious Name be blessed forever and let His glory fill the Earth.

Amen. Amen.

            O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, may it be Your will that You help me, protect me and save me from evil speech. Let me never blemish my power of speech. Let no evil word about another Jew ever leave my mouth. May I never search for the sins in others. Rather, help me and direct my heart so that I always merit to search after any merit or good that is possible to find in each and every Jew, even the worst of the worst. Let me merit to strive after this, to look under the surface and find some merit even in the least of the least. Always be with me and help me so that I succeed to always find in them some element of merit and good. Let me always judge every person on the side of merit. In Your bountiful mercy, save me from the great and very serious transgression of speaking evil and the even more serious transgression of gossip, which is considered equal to the three most serious crimes in the Torah — worshipping idols, adultery and the spilling of blood. The crime of speaking evil is equal to all three of them together!

           

Master of all the World, have mercy upon me for Your sake and be with me whenever I speak. Let me merit to guard the openings of my mouth so that no evil speech or hint of evil speech against any Jew will come out of my mouth. Let me not say anything that isn’t fitting. Save me from all sorts of evil speech — speaking evil of someone, gossiping, speaking nonsense, joking, flattery, lying, disclosing secrets that shouldn’t be revealed, vulgarity, or speaking words of Torah or worship in a place or at a time that is not proper. Save me from all sorts of speech that are not good, from all sorts of foolish speech which blemish holy speech, for holy speech is he spirit of the mouth of the Holy One.

           

May I merit to always be good to everybody and never search for the flaws in people, Heaven forbid. Rather, let me merit to always try with all my strength and might to always find merit and good in each individual from Your Holy Nation, Israel, even in the least of the least, even in the most insignificant, even in those who oppose and persecute me. In Your compassion, may I merit to always judge them on the side of merit. Grant me intelligence and perception of how to always search and find merit or good points in them.

            Save me from “the end of all flesh”, from all sorts of people who are the brazen ones of the generation, who always investigate and search after flaws in people and who always want to find a flaw or blemish in each and every person. Master of the World, You know all that has happened to us until now, everything that happens to us all the time, every day, every hour. Many have risen against us. The truth is, I know Lord, my God and God of my fathers, that I myself was the cause of these things by not guarding myself and by blemishing the covenant of the mouth and the covenant of the flesh. Through those blemishes, words were drawn to those who oppose us so that they have the power to speak against us, denunciate us and accuse us, Heaven forbid.

However, You, O Lord our God, have already promised that You desire mercy and You do great good; You want the wicked to repent, You don't want them to die. You hate and utterly despise all those who. Heaven forbid, want to arouse harsh judgement, to denunciate or accuse Your Nation, Israel, especially at the time when we are rebuked by You because of our sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions. Even though we really sinned before You, even so You don't want that people will accuse us, Heaven forbid. You choose, bring close and cherish whoever has mercy on Israel at such a time; whoever engages in praising their merits at such a time; whoever sacrifices himself to pray for them, to appease You on their behalf just like Moses, may he rest in peace, who sacrificed himself for Israel and always prayed for them even at the time when they did what they did. You, in Your mercy, always hearkened to his prayer. You cherished him very much because of this.

           

Save me from the hands of my enemies and persecutors. My Father in Heaven, save me, please, Redeemer and Saver. Save me, rescue me and redeem me physically or spiritually, from all sorts of haters, denunciators and accusers. Have mercy upon me for Your sake, for the sake of our fathers, for the sake of all the true tzaddikim upon whom we always trust. Grant us strength and might in the merit of the true tzaddikim; help us and save us so that we merit to subdue, and throw down to the earth all those who oppose the truth... Your mercy is very great. Do with us as You want, as is Your will. Who could say to You 'What are You going?' But who appointed them as a prosecutor or judge to judge us, Heaven forbid, and to accuse us? Who requested this from them?

           

Master of the World, hearken to the cry from the depths of the Pit of Hell and from even further down. Hear my bitter cry, my wailing and sighing. Awaken to my suffering and my persecution, for I myself persecute myself more than anyone. Others persecute me very, very much. Be gracious to me and help me to subdue the Other Side, “the end of all flesh”, under the power of holy speech... Uproot all the mouths and tongues of those who accuse, denunciate or speak evil against Israel, against those who desire to really fear Your Name. Make them repent of their evil ways and let them really search in their hearts for the truth. May the truth be revealed in the world.

            Master of the World, who desires mercy, who is full of compassion, who looks at the wicked person and desires his righteousness, who always judges every person on the side of merit. You, who are great in loving-kindness and do much good, who rules His world in loving—kindness and His creatures in mercy, help me and grant me worthiness to go on the true path in such a way that I merit even now to search and find in myself some merit or good points, to always judge myself on the side of merit. Let this be in such a way that I merit to gladden  myself at all times and really place myself onto the side of merit and thereby merit to really perfect repentance. By this, let me pray with great concentration, with liveliness and great happiness and immense joy. Let me merit to really fulfil the verse which says “I will sing the praises of God as long as I live”, with the little bit extra good I find in myself.

           

In Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to always judge every person on the side of merit even when I see a totally wicked person. Even so, let me search and search until I find some good points in him, until I merit to judge him on the side of merit and really place him in the scale of merit and, by this, really and truly bring him to perfect repentance. Master of the World, in the merit and strength of the true tzaddikim, who always speak well of Israel, who busy themselves and strive to search for and uncover and find some merit and good in every one of us, even the worst of the worst, in their merit and strength let us also merit to really reach this level. May we merit to come close to these true tzaddikim who are always engaged in this, to search and find good points in every Jewish individual, even in the sinners of Israel. Through their wisdom they search and find good points in everyone. They collect these points and join them together one by one to make an account and so place these people in the scale of merit. The tzaddikim build from these sinners wonderful and awesome structures of holiness and raise great pleasure before You, such pleasure as has never been raised. They merit to make holy songs and tunes by gathering all this good from these places. Master of the World, full of mercy, grant us merit to come close to these tzaddikim.

Let us merit to be included in them and to hear the holy prayer of these awesome tzaddikim, who alone know how to pray for all of Israel; who alone know how to pray in front of the congregation and fulfill their obligation, collecting all the good and all the good points from each one of the worshippers. Merciful One, only they know how to pray before You with all this good, to turn the attribute of strict justice into that of mercy. In Your great loving-kindness and immense mercy, let us merit to be included in the prayers of these tzaddikim and let them always pray on our behalf. Don't rest until You have mercy upon us, upon every individual. Gather us to You, homewards, and really enter us into the scale of the just. Always gladden our souls and return us in complete repentance before You, from now and forever.

           

Master of the World, let us merit to really enter into the scale of merit in such a way that from now on I may merit to return in really perfect repentance before You. Through the merit of all the true tzaddikim who existed in each generation and in the merit of the true tzaddikim in this generation, let me merit to Your help; save me, teach me and show me true advice at all times so that I merit to gladden my soul at all times by this teaching (of finding merit in everyone). Don’t let sadness or depression enter me or touch me at all. Rather, let me merit to always be happy because of each and every good point to which I’ve merited during the years and because of having caused You some pleasure. Show me and teach me perception and understanding in such a way that I merit to gladden the souls of Your People, Israel, and to judge them on the side of merit until everyone merits to really return to You in happiness. Fulfill the verse which says; “Let the sinners (sins) be destroyed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.”

            Master of the World, Your way is to be patient both with the wicked and the good; this is Your praise. You, who are full of compassion, who is good and does good to all, whose way is to do good to Your creatures, You always tend towards mercy. You don’t desire to gaze and look at the evil and transgressions that we commit, Heaven forbid. Rather, in Your immense loving-kindness, You gaze and take note of the little good that You find within us, as is written: “No one has seen iniquity in Jacob, neither has anyone seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him.” So, hear O God, hearken to the voice of my prayer. Therefore I still pray before You, I still look forward to Your real salvation when it will come, so that I merit to truly return to You. I still haven’t been saved. I know that I myself am what prevents it, but I rely upon Your great goodness that You will peek at, gaze upon and take note of the very, very few good points that are still within me. Don’t see or look at the immense and grievous evil that is within me, so that by this You will subdue and nullify this immense evil in the face of the little good that is within me...

            Have mercy upon me and upon all of Israel; grant me perfect, holy perception in such a way that I merit to cleave to Your holy ways and not look or gaze at the evil of any Jew in the world! Let me not look at all at his bad deeds and evil characteristics. Rather, let me judge everyone on the side of merit, to look only at the good of each Jew and not to look at his evil at all. In Your bountiful mercy and loving—kindness, open the eyes of my mind and grant me perfect perception of holiness in such a way that I look, search for and find good and merit in every Jew, even in the worst of the worst. Let me look just at the good in each one and not look at the evil in them at all. Grant me a good eye to look at each Jew in a positive way. Let me perceive the good in him but not the evil. May I not notice the evil at all, in order that I be good and honest with the Lord and with people. Let me “find peace and good understanding in the sight of God and man” in such a way that I can discuss with every Jew, in absolute truth, the real purpose of life. Let me receive their good point in order to arouse myself to return to the Lord. And, may I shine in them from my good point to bestow them with the truthfulness of the perception of my good point and to inform them of all the good hidden within me from the holiness of Israel. Take pity and have mercy upon me and upon all Israel for Your Name’s sake, for the sake of Your true tzaddikim, for the sake of Your holy Torah. Don’t leave us or desert us in this impoverished generation. Send us true leaders, fitting to really lead us, as is Your good desire. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart find favour before You., Lord. my Rock and Redeemer. May He who makes peace in the Heavens make peace for us and for all Israel.

Amen.

           

Please act with loving—kindness towards us and help us — by Your meriting us to guard the brit- to really be included amongst those Jews called tzaddikim. Just as You helped Joseph when he had a trying experience and saved him by giving him the strength to overcome his urge, so also grant us holy intellect, wisdom, understanding and perception, holy strength and might, in such a way that we can escape from all sorts of blemishes of the brit; help us so that we can overcome our urges. Let us merit to always have our minds attached and fastened to Your holiness, without even a moment’s break so that we have strength to arrange our prayers properly before You, without any obstacle, delay or confusion, such that our prayers will be accepted by You. Arouse Your compassion upon us and return Your Countenance towards us. Quickly and speedily redeem us. Bring us our righteous Messiah. Do it for Your sake, not for ours. Help us so that our prayers be arranged suitably. Grant us intellect and perception so that we can organize our prayers correctly. Let us not stumble in the words of our mouth by turning to the right or the left of the just and true path in prayer...

            May we merit to always strengthen ourselves very much with regard to prayer. Let us never despair, Heaven forbid, from shouting out, crying and praying. Rather, let us merit to believe with perfect faith that even though our exile has lasted so long and all Jews cry out to You every day and pray and cry a great deal that You shine Your Countenance upon us and that You rebuild our Temple and redeem us once for and all, yet we still haven’t been redeemed — even so let us know and believe with a firm and perfect belief that no prayer ever gets lost or is wasted, Heaven forbid. On the contrary, all our prayers are certainly raised and established by the tzaddikim in each and every generation and from those prayers they build up the stature of the Divine Presence, so to speak, until its full stature is completed. Then Messiah will come and complete it and establish it in perfection...

           

In Your bountiful mercy, speedily bring forth the horn of Your servant David. Make haste and hurry our redemption and let the spark of Messiah shine in the world. Arouse the heart of Messiah, Your servant, the son of David, so that he accepts our prayers and raises them as a fragrant offering before Your Throne of Glory. Let all the prayers. with all the good fragrance of each plant of the field which is included in them, be included in: ‘“The breath of our nostrils, the Messiah of the Lord. “Let them all rise as a sweet fragrance before You. Hurry and make haste to redeem us by way of our righteous Messiah. Let him certainly come and not delay. Quickly and speedily redeem us, once and for all.

           

Arouse Your bountiful mercy upon us. Hurry and make haste to redeem us. Send us very soon our Messiahs: Messiah the son of David and Messiah the son of Joseph. May the two of them join and combine together so as to subdue and throw down into the soil all the seventy heathen nations and all the Other Side. Let the wisdom of the two Messiahs be revealed to the world and may their springs of wisdom spread outward. “And the Land will be full of knowledge of the Lord, just as the waters cover the Land to the sea.” Let every created thing know that You are its Creator and let every formed thing understand that You are its Maker. By the wisdom of the two Messiahs may all the nations return to worship and fear You. Fulfill the verse which says: “Then I will turn upon the nations a clear voice to all call upon the Name of the Lord, to serve Him as of one accord.” “Then You will remove the dominion of tyranny from the Land.” Let the Kingdom of the wicked quickly be uprooted, broken, finished, destroyed, subdued and overthrown, speedily in our days. Then nullify and remove all the clouds that cover the eyes, so that we may merit to always cleave to You and to Your holy Torah without any pause or break at all. Let no obstacle or confusion have power to confuse our minds at all. Rather, may we always cleave to You, all the days of our lives, for ever and ever, for all eternities...

           

You chose us from among all the nations, loved us and wanted us. You raised us above all the tongues and sanctified us with Your commandments. You, our King, brought us close to Your service and You called Your great and holy Name upon us. O Lord, our God, with love You gave us Your holy Torah through Your loyal prophet Moses. You commanded us not to swerve from that which the true tzaddikim will tell us in each generation. In Your bountiful mercy, You graced us in each generation with several true tzaddikim and Torah scholars who taught Israel the true and proper path, and who left behind them a blessing of holy and awesome books in order to illuminate all the world and to reveal to us the paths of Your holy Torah and in order that we merit to fulfil all the words of Your Torah with love. By this, let us merit to draw upon ourselves, upon every single one of us, the holiness of the spirit of our righteous Messiah whose spirit hovers over the face of the waters, over the face of Torah, over the holy books of the holy Torah. This holy spirit of Messiah is clothed in each and every Jew, according to his level of holiness and purity. The main factor in holiness is the holiness of the brit, for the spirit of Messiah is very strict with regard to guarding of the brit. Due to his great holiness and purity he is vengeful even about the slightest whiff or indication of a sexual blemish, for he can’t bear any blemish of the brit, even the most subtle. “The breath of our nostrils, the Messiah of the Lord.” All his desire is to incline our hearts towards Him, may He be blessed, and that we merit to really guard the brit, as is His desire... Help me and save me, in Your bountiful mercy, so that I merit to rectify, in my own lifetime, all the blemishes to the brit that I’ve caused during the years until now, whether by accident or on purpose, whether by force of circumstance or by choice. Have mercy upon me and, from now on, save me from all sorts of blemishes of the brit, in thought, speech and deed...

 Help me and grant me merit so that the holiness of the spirit of Messiah, which dwells upon and hovers over the holy books of the holy Torah, shine upon me. In his merit and strength, let me merit to completely leave behind any improper sexual desire. Let me not come to any bad thought or sight that’s connected to this particular desire. May I close my eyes from seeing any evil. Save me from any kind of blemish of the brit. In Your bountiful mercy protect me from even the slightest trace of improper sexual desire...

           

Help us and grant us merit so that these few books left to us by the true tzaddikim can spread out in the world. Let their fountains of wisdom spread far and wide and fulfill their task effectively. May the spirit of Messiah be drawn into the world. Let a spirit of vengeance come about in order to purify Israel from the poison of improper sexual craving. May we, and all of Your Nation, Israel, break and nullify this craving    altogether

           

           

Master of the World, in mercy, fulfil all our wishes for the good. My mind is too limited to be able to clarify all my many needs and requests, both physical and spiritual, especially I with regard to the guarding of the brit which is the foundation of everything. I haven’t even started to explain the minutest part of that which I need to. I should have to prostrate myself and plead before You a great deal about the past, the present and the future. However, everything is revealed and known to You, therefore please consider it as if I had detailed it all. Help us and save us, for Your Name’s sake, so that we merit to sanctify ourselves in great holiness, especially with regard to the guarding of the brit... Purify our hearts in order to serve You truly... Do it for Your Name’s sake. Do it for the Name of Your sanctity. Do it for the sake of Your Torah. Hasten and bring our redemption very soon; bring us very speedily our righteous Messiah. Fulfill very soon the verse which says: “... He acts with loving-kindness to His Messiah, to David and to his seed, for ever.”

Amen and Amen.

            Help us, grant us merit and be gracious to us so that we merit to sweeten and soften Your anger against us and all Your Nation, the House of Israel. In Your plentiful compassion and loving-kindness, let us merit to very quickly break our attribute of anger. Don’t let us be angry about anything in the world. Rather, let us break, nullify and sweeten all sorts of anger against us and against all of Israel. Don’t be angry with us. Let us merit to refine, sweeten and purify the 'smoke' of the anger such that it becomes a pleasing fragrance, an airy fragrance, a spirit of holiness. By this, let the spirit of Messiah be drawn upon us. Bring us our righteous Messiah. Very soon, make haste to redeem us, once and for all...

           

In Your bountiful compassion, protect me and grant me merit so that there be no delay in the coming of Messiah because of me, Heaven forbid. You know that we’ve already caused the delay of the Messiah several times because of our evil deeds. We’ve lengthened the exile by our many transgressions. Say to our troubles, ‘Enough!’ From now on, protect us and save us from sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions, from evil contemplations and thoughts and from all sorts of confusion of the mind. Let us merit to pure thoughts, to holy, refined and proper thoughts. You, who are full of compassion, really bring me closer to You and let me merit to turn my badness into complete good, to real good, to eternal good. Let me merit to be eternally firm in Your worship, in Your Torah and in fear of You, truly and wholeheartedly. Grant me merit to come close to real tzaddikim, to those who are really pure and straightforward in their hearts. In Your mercy, grant us a real leader, a loyal shepherd, just like Moses, may he rest in peace, who was a loyal shepherd. Let him bear us until he brings us truly to within holiness and repentance. Quickly and hastily redeem us and bring us our righteous Messiah. Help us to be as You desire, all the days of our lives...

“Return us, O Lord, to You and we will repent. Renew our days as of old.”

            In the merit of holy speech and in the merit of the holy Torah, save me from all sorts of sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions and from all the evil cravings. Drive out the spirit of folly from me. Let me merit to draw upon myself the spirit of life, the spirit of sanctity through the cord of holiness which is attained by holy speech”. Let us merit to raise the Kingdom of holiness from its exile and let each and every one of us reveal the elements of the holiness of Messiah which are rooted in every single Jew. Draw upon us a good long life and let us merit to eternal life. Have compassion upon us and save us. Let us merit to stand and rise up at the time of the resurrection of the dead, together with all the tzaddikim, the devout, the pure and the kosher Jews. Let us merit to perfect the speech of the kingdom of holiness. Bring us very speedily, in our lifetime, our righteous Messiah. Let him reign over us forever, and let us merit to hear his holy, pure and awesome words straight from his holy mouth.

            Master of the World, who gives the Torah, have mercy upon us and let us merit to engage in learning Your holy Torah for its own sake, with great diligence and perseverance. Grant us merit to learn a great deal every day. Help us so that every holy book we learn we are able to explain well, in a way that we understand. Let this be in such a way that we merit to arouse and draw upon ourselves the spirit of Messiah which is “the spirit of God that hovers over the waters”, waters which represent the Torah. Messiah suffers many illnesses and is afflicted with great suffering because of our wilful transgressions and iniquities, this being in order to atone for us and to save us from all the troubles. By this he gives us a chance to survive. Have mercy upon him and upon us and let us merit to engage a great deal in learning Torah. Let us explain well each thing that we learn in a language that is understood, especially when learning with friends or with students, such that our words enter their ears and hearts.

 By this, let the spirit of Messiah be aroused upon us. He suffers greatly for us. He lowers himself and dresses himself in several common, everyday appearances in order to be with us, in order to revive us and establish us in the midst of this long, powerful and bitter exile. Our Father, merciful Father, have mercy upon us, help us and save us, in his merit, in his strength. Save us from all the troubles and from all the harsh decrees, whether those that have already been passed against us or those that they wait to decree, Heaven forbid, for the “power of endurance fails.” Rock of Israel, rise and come to the assistance of Israel. Speedily save us in these troubled times through the strength and merit of our righteous Messiah, the holy one of Israel. Fulfill in us the verse which says: “Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed (Messiah); He will hear him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand.” And it says, “Great deliverance He gives to His king and shows loving-kindness to His Messiah, to David, and to his seed for ever.” And it says, “The Lord is their strength and He is the saving strength of His Messiah.” “Save us Lord: let the King hear us when we call.”.

 Amen and Amen.

“At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous judgements.” You, who are full of mercy, who awakens the sleepers and arouses the slumberers. Take pity and have compassion upon me; in Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to rise every single night of my life at exactly midnight. Let me merit to awaken from my sleep at exactly midnight, with tremendous speed and without any laziness or difficulty at all. Don’t let sleep or slumber overcome me, Heaven forbid. Don’t let anything prevent me from this.

           

In Your bountiful mercy and great loving-kindness awaken the northern wind which blows through the harp of King David at midnight, and from there let there be drawn upon me a spiritual arousal, so that I always awaken from my sleep at midnight.

 “Awaken, my glory; awake psaltery and harp; I myself will awake at dawn.”

Master of the World, You warned us in several ways to always rise at midnight, as is written in the holy Zohar where there are awesome warnings about this. However, You know that the obstacles have multiplied and overcome each one of us, preventing us from this such that most nights we haven’t managed to rise at midnight. Therefore, Master of all, abundantly strong to save, I have come before You; give me advice how to merit to this, to always rise at exactly midnight which is immediately after six hours from the beginning of the night, both in summer and winter. Let me awake then with great speed and say the Midnight Prayer; to mourn and wail over the destruction of the Holy Temple; over the exile of the Torah whose secrets have been passed to external forces; and over my many and enormous sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions which have caused all this and lengthened the exile so much. Maker of all, it’s clear to You how very much I have lengthened the exile because of my many transgressions, both generally and specifically. Oh, Oh, woe is me! What can I say? What can I speak? How can I justify myself? Behold, I stand before You in great guilt. What’s passed is passed. Let me merit from now on to truly return to the straight path. Let me not lose any night of my nights by not rising at midnight. Always be with me; help me and guard me so that rising at midnight won’t harm me in any way at all. Let me not suffer any headache or any harm from this.

 My Father in Heaven, raise me and hasten me. Grant me merit from now on to always rise at exactly midnight, every night, whether on a weekday or Shabbat or Festival, whether at home or travelling, and to recite the midnight prayer and then learn a lot of Torah. Help me and save me so that I merit by reciting the midnight prayer to sweeten and nullify all the harsh judgements from upon myself and all my family and all Your Nation, the sons of Israel. Let me look at the heavens every morning and, by this, help me to draw upon myself holy perception, a refined and pure perception, a true perception by which I can merit to really return to You, to be really as You desire, from now on and forever. Let there be drawn upon me every morning a thread of loving—kindness from the “morning of Abraham”. May You fulfill the verse which states: “The Lord will command His loving—kindness in the daytime and in the night His song shall be with me; a prayer to the God of my life (who gives life).” And it says, “Your loving - kindness O Lord is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.” And it says, “They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, O God, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen and Amen.

           

You, who are full of compassion, have mercy upon me. You are abundant in loving-kindness and truth, who greatly does good, who greatly pardons the sinners and forgives the wilful transgressors, who acts charitably with every one; in Your immense loving—kindness help me and save me, strengthen me and give me courage in Your wonderful ways so that I merit from now on to rise every single night at midnight and to recite the Midnight Prayer; to mourn, wail and cry a lot over the destruction of the Holy Temple, over our sanctuary and splendour, the House of our lives and the length of our days, our charming Temple, the beauty of our ornament, the excellency of our strength, our glory, our Splendour, our majesty, our holiness. Oh, woe, what has happened to us, that by our iniquities we've caused the destruction of the Holy Temple, the dwelling place of Your strength, the place of Torah and prayer, the place of the revelation of Your Divinity, where we could draw upon ourselves perception of Your Divinity to know and recognise You also in this material world and to attach ourselves to You forever and ever.

            Master of the World, Master of the World, what’s passed is passed, for the Holy Temple has already been destroyed and because of our iniquities the tzaddikim have already passed away. What happened, happened. On this we should certainly cry. "For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water.” In my many immense and very weighty iniquities — in essence, quantity and quality — I’ve caused the delay of the building of the Holy Temple. Who knows, maybe also in the first reincarnation I was the cause of the destruction of the Temple! Woe to me because of my sins! Woe to me because of my iniquities! Woe to me because of my wilful transgressions that I committed in this reincarnation and in previous reincarnations! Oh. woe! What did I do that someone disgraceful and despicable as myself caused the destruction and held up the building of the Holy Temple and delayed the redemption of Israel and their return to the land. Woe is me! I destroyed the Temple through my iniquities! I burnt the Holy Palace! I caused the exile of Israel among the nations! I’ve lengthened the exile so very much by my evil and bitter desires!

           

 Master of the World, Master of the World, do it for the Your Name's sake; sanctify Your Name, for the sake of the honour of Your Name. May Your Great Name be glorified and sanctified in the world by us. Full of mercy, Master of all, who knows the hidden things. You know everything that is done in this world in these generations. You know how, by our many iniquities, the world has become very, very mixed up and confused beyond measure or estimation, for all the true tzaddikim, the glory of the generations, have passed away in our days because of our many iniquities. You alone know the greatness of their immense virtue, power and holiness. Your Name is enjoined in theirs, so that however much we glorify their name, Your Name is glorified more and more. But, by our many iniquities, they have passed away before the proper time. Oh, look what’s happened to us in these generations! And yet, because our minds are so stupefied there is no one who perceives this pain, this great distress and calamity, nor knows how far it reaches or how far this great blow has spread — incredible blows such as these. A marvel and a wonder, a blow that’s not recorded in the Torah: the death of true tzaddikim who have passed away in our generation because of our iniquities, sins and wilful transgressions! Oh! Oh! Woe! Woe to us for that which we’ve lost through our iniquities! Alas for that which is lost and isn’t to be found. “The tzaddik has perished and no man takes it to heart; men of loving-kindness are taken away but no one understands that the tzaddik is taken away because of the evil."

           

Master of the World, Master of all, although because of our transgressions we’ve caused the destruction of the Holy Temple and the passing away of true tzaddikim, help us from now on. Help us so that we at least merit to rise every night at exactly midnight and break our hearts crying profusely over our immense sins that have caused all this such that we remain as orphans without a father, like those who have gone astray but are not searched for, like those far away without means to come close — with no one to stand up for us. Master of the World, have mercy upon us for Your Name’s sake; behold our lowliness and disgrace. Look from the Heavens and see how we have become an object of scorn and derision (among the nations). Not enough that we are abused and belittled among the nations who plan every day to finish us, yet You save us from their hands, but even worse is that amongst Your Nation, Israel, strife has become rampant. Great dissension has been created among the Torah scholars so that their hearts split one from another and each one is scorned and despised in the eyes of his fellow, until "the power of endurance fails."

            Master of the World, Full of Mercy, awaken Your compassion upon Your sons. Have mercy upon us. Take pity, pardon and have mercy on the remnants of Your Nation, the House of Israel. Full of Mercy, how can You restrain from having mercy on oppressed souls, on the souls of Your Nation, Israel, which ‘roll in the markets, the roads and the tops of streets’. They are very, very precious souls, but they have been poured out into the tops of streets. Over them, over every single soul, Jeremiah the prophet bemoans with many lamentations, as is written: "How is the gold become dim! How is the most fine gold changed! The hallowed stones are poured out at the head of every street. The precious stones of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthern pitchers, the work of the hand of the potter!"

            Master of the World, Master of the World, You alone know the immense preciousness, glory and holiness of these precious souls, precious stones that are now poured out into the heads of streets without anyone to collect them and bring them home; for, because of our iniquities the true tzaddikim, who are called ‘the head of the house’ since they are masters of the world, have passed away. When they are in the world and their names are glorified in the world, then the world has a master, then we are all called members of the household. However, ever since they passed away because of our sins, their holy and awesome glory, splendour and charm have disappeared such that we must travel and we are tossed backwards and forwards; precious- souls from Your Nation, Israel, roll at the tops of streets. The great tzaddikim, called ‘masters of the house’, ‘masters of the world’, have passed away!...

            In Your mercy, let us merit to rise at exactly midnight every night and to mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple which was destroyed because of our transgressions. By this, let us merit to arouse Your mercy so that You comfort and gladden us very soon. Give glory instead of ashes to those who mourn Zion. May we merit to subdue the lights of devouring fire and turn them into the radiance of light. Let the Holy Name, the Name of the Lord, the name of the true tzaddikim overcome the name of impurity, the names of external forces. Let falseness be nullified in the face of truth. May the holy and awesome glory, splendour and charm of the true tzaddikim be revealed, glorified and publicised throughout the world. Let us merit to be included in their name and in the splendour of the glory of their holiness such that our eyes be opened to the truth and we look at ourselves really well. Let us examine our four basic elements, then sanctify them, purify them and refine them from all the evil desires and bad attributes that stem from them. May we clarify them and turn them from evil to good. Bring us to all the good attributes and good deeds. And let holy and pure minds be drawn upon us by the true tzaddikim until all our four minds and the four elements be included in the holy and awesome primary element. This is the tzaddik himself, for he is the pillar of the world, ‘the river that flowed out of Eden to water the garden’. May everything be included in Your special, glorious, holy and awesome Name. Hasten and quicken our redemption; build the Temple of our holiness and glory. May Your Name, our King, be made great, sanctified, blessed, praised, glorified, exalted and extolled in the mouth of every person; at all times forever, for eternity.

68.

  The main perfection of the tzaddik is that he can show to someone who is above others and it seems to him that he is on a high spiritual level, that the opposite is true. So also someone who is below others on a very low spiritual level, the tzaddik can show him that he still has no reason to lose hope, for even from where he is he can cleave to G-d and return to Him; there is no despair in the world at all (see Torah 7). We have already spoken about this that when a person sees that he is very far from the Holy One it is fitting for him to revitalize himself with this itself that at least he knows that he is far away from G-d. Previously he was so far away that he didn't know at all that he was far away. Now that at least he knows his distance, this itself means that he has come closer. In this itself it is fitting for him to revitalize himself and to return to G-d.

69.

  See inside about the custom to give a blessing to the man who brings the drinks to the guests, such as at a wedding etc.

70.

  However much greater a person is, he needs to look for his needs at a greater distance. Therefore, Moshe, who was on a very great level, had to search for a wife from Midian; his need was far away because of his greatness.

71. " THE BONDS HAVE FALLEN FOR ME IN PLEASANT PLACES" (Psalms,16:6)

(a)  The essence of the mind and wisdom is only in the Land of Israel. Even Jews outside of Israel receive and draw nourishment to all their mind and wisdom from the Land of Israel. Every Jew has for himself a portion in the Land of Israel and according to his portion in the Land of Israel so he derives sustenance and receives his wisdom from the Land of Israel. But when we blemish the honour of G-d, Heaven forbid, we fall from the 'brains' of Israel and the 'brains' that remain are an aspect of those outside of Israel. By this, controversy and arguments are caused for the 'brains' of outside of Israel are an aspect of controversy.

(b)  All the Creation was only for the sake of G-d's honour. Therefore everything was created only for man, for all the enhancement of the honour of G-d depends on man specifically. Therefore, when some honour comes to a Jew he has to be very careful not to take anything of it for himself. Rather he has to see to return and raise all the honour to the Holy One; by this he rectifies and sustains the entire world, for all the world and its fullness was only created for the sake of G-d's honour.

(c)  The 'brains' of the Land of Israel are an aspect of the pleasantness of the Torah, an aspect of peace whereas the 'brains' of outside Israel are an aspect of 'saboteurs', an aspect of controversy.  By giving charity, especially charity to the Land of Israel, one creates a vessel to receive the bounty of this pleasantness. From the sublime pleasantness comes the power of giving birth, meaning that a person merits to children through whom the honour of G-d is revealed even more, for the primary revelation of the honour of G-d is through man, as mentioned previously. Therefore, by this, the 'brains' of outside Israel are rectified, for all their flaws were through blemishes to G-d's honour. Consequently, they can certainly be rectified by revealing the honour of G-d.   However, Heaven forbid, when the 'brains' of outside Israel are damaged extensively by having blemished a great deal the honour of G-d; then they cannot be rectified.On the contrary, these 'brains' of outside Israel also blemish the 'brains' of the Land of Israel which represent peace. As a result controversy is also created in the Land of Israel. This is the explanation for the controversy that now exists outside the Land of Israel and inside it.

(d)  When we don't blemish the honour of G-d we merit to the 'brains' of the Land of Israel which are an aspect of pleasantness; then we merit to feel the pleasantness of the Torah.  For there is pleasantness in the Torah and this is the main thing, to merit to feel this pleasantness that there is in the Torah. Happy is he who merits to this.

Prayer 71.

“Portions have fallen to me in pleasant places.” In Your great mercy, please help me and merit to holy brains, refined and pure brains, Jewish brains and brains of the Lord of Israel. Save us from blemished brains, from the brains of outside Israel. Grant us wisdom, understanding and knowledge of holiness, from You. Save me to go and travel quickly to the Land of Israel, the Land of Holiness, the Land of Life, where the main wisdom and brains of holiness exist. Raise me very soon from outside Israel to the Land of Israel. Please perform this wonder for me.

           

Merit me and help me to rectify during my lifetime any blemish to Your glory. I know I have blemished Your glory a lot through my evil physical cravings. They have caused me to stumble into sins and iniquities which I have committed since my youth until now. I have blemished Your great and holy glory and this has led my brain to be blemished, like the brains of outside Israel. I have become distant from the holiness of the brains of the Land of Israel.

           

Master of the Universe, king of Glory, Who created the world in Ten Sayings so that Your holy honour will be revealed, increased and extolled in the world. This is the purpose and source of all creation, as it says; “Everyone who is called by My Name and whom I have created for my glory whom I have formed and made.” In Your bountiful compassion, let me always run away from honour and, when You send me some honour, help me and save me; give me strength to overcome any desire to take the honour for myself. I don’t want to take any pleasure from it. Rather, merit me to raise all the honour to the Holy One, the king of all honour, the source of honour. Let me receive the honour in holiness and purity, only to increase the honour of God for this is what sustains the world. Master of the Universe, grant me the strength to merit to all this land to be able to stand in the palace of the King.

           

Let me throw off everything and travel to the holy Land of Israel very soon and there may I recognise the greatness of the creator and the greatness of the Holy One. So, I have come to pray and ask from God to help and strengthen my heart so that I merit to yearn and crave to come to the Land of Israel.

Therefore, please have mercy on me; merit me to give a lot of charity, especially for the sake of the Land of Israel and the poor people who live there. When I give such charity let me have no ulterior motives such as my own honour. By giving charity to these poor people in Israel, may me merit to open the paths in our hearts and, thereby, to receive the flames of holy compassion. In other words, let our hearts burn with enthusiasm and yearning for You with great love and strong desire. Furthermore, merit me, by this charity, to crate a vessel to receive the bounty of sublime pleasantness, with great holiness and purity. Let me feel the wonderful pleasantness and sweetness that is in Your holy Torah to such a degree that all the physical cravings become nullified, especially the craving for and love of women. Rather, may my intention in having children always be for Your Name’s sake, to fulfill You mitzvot in order to raise children to serve and fear You. Merit us to have generations of descendents who will study Your Torah and perform You mitzvot. May they always perform Your will and increase Your glory in the world. By this, may they fulfill the intention of the creation which is to reveal Your glory in the world. As a result merit us to the brains of the Land of Israel, which are called pleasant; and to rectify all the brains from outside Israel which are called ‘spoilers’ (because they cause controversy). May these foreign brains become nullified from the world. Then great peace will reign in the world between one person and another, between husband and wife, and especially between those who fear Your Name.

           

Merit us to always feel the pleasantness and sweetness in the words of Your holy Torah. “They are more desirable than gold, than even much fine gold; and sweeter then honey.” It says “Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its pathways are peace.” Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever, and may His glory fill the entire world. Amen and Amen.

72.  ETERNAL LIFE

(a)  By meriting to see oneself with the true tzaddik one receives greatness and a position of power, but the essence of greatness is humility. This is like we find with G-d, 'in every place that you find the greatness of the Holy One, there we find His humility'. The main resurrection in the future, when the dead will rise and come to life and live the eternal life depends only on the humility of each one. That's to say, that only the humility of each person will come alive and arise to life in the future. For the essence of the wonderful delight which is the eternal life of the World to Come is impossible to receive except for the real humility and lowliness of each person. To the degree that he really nullifies and lowers himself, so he will merit to live and receive the delight of the World to Come.  

(b)  By seeing oneself with the true tzaddik, one's mind and understanding are made to shine and, as a result, one receives greatness and a position of power according to that shining of the mind. Then one merits to make appropriate Torah innovations, according to one's mind.

(c)  Through Torah innovations shame is drawn upon each person, for a person has to feel very, very ashamed of himself. A sin is certainly a shameful thing, Heaven forbid; it has no connection to, nor is it fitting at all for a Jew. According to the holy source of a Jewish soul, it is certainly not becoming for him to have a sin. However, even when he wants to perform a mitzvah, he should also feel great shame, for what merit does he have to merit to perform the mitzvah. How can he dare to enter the palace of the King to perform a mitzvah. He should also consider in his mind before Whom he is doing the mitzvah and also the greatness of the virtue of the mitzvah, for the immense preciousness of each mitzvah is beyond measure. It is certainly fitting that great shame descend upon a person when he comes to perform a mitzvah; how can he come to grab the tefillin which are the crown of the King and put them suddenly on his head. Certainly it is fitting that great shame fall upon him. If a person had a sense of shame he would feel shame before the Holy One even to put food in his mouth, for what merit has he to deserve the food. One merits to shame primarily by seeing oneself with the true tzaddik for then one's mind shines and receives greatness and merits to make Torah innovations, as mentioned. This is like the time of Matan Torah when Moshe drew down the Torah for the Jewish People for about that it says, "In order that His fear may be on your faces" etc. which our Sages explained (Nedarim,20) refers to shame.

(d)  By means of shame one merits to repentance for the essence of repentance, which is not to sin again, comes from shame, as it says, "in order that fear may be on your faces" (which is shame) "so as not to sin". Repentance is an aspect of the eternal life of the World to Come, as it says, "Return and live" (Yechezkiel, 18:31).  The essence of life will be only the humility of each person, as mentioned. And therefore through repentance the humility of each person returns, is revived and arises. Rooted in all the 248 limbs of every Jew is the humility of Moshe but   this humility and lowliness is hidden in each person in an aspect of 'death' so he doesn't feel in himself this humility and therefore he becomes far from this feeling of lowliness. However, through his bringing himself close to the true tzaddik and seeing him, and even more so when he merits to hear Torah from him, and he merits through this to also make Torah innovations, and by this, he merits to shame and repentance.  And he merits that this humility and lowliness in him come to life. Through this, each person sees and feels his own lowliness.

(e) We have to pray and ask a lot from the Holy One to merit to true lowliness and humility for we do not know at all what true lowliness and humility is. Certainly the purpose is not to become disspirited and lazy (called an 'unfortunate') for humility is the essence of life of every single limb; it is the entire delight of the World to Come. The purpose of the World to Come is surely not to be disdained and lazy etc. Heaven forbid. Therefore we have to just ask from G-d that He help us to merit to genuine lowliness and humility which is the essence of life and the delight of the World to Come, as mentioned previously.

(f)  Through the true leader of the generation we merit to all these rectifications. This leader has to be set apart and very holy with a holiness and great separation from the desire of sexual immortality; then he is worthy of being a leader of the Jewish People. Just by his looking at Jews their minds will shine. He will dispense to each one a status which is appropriate for him and they will merit to Torah innovations, and to shame and repentance and humility, as mentioned above, which is an aspect of the eternal life of the World to Come. He also draws to every individual holiness and abstention from this sexual desire. But, when the Jewish People have no such leader, Heaven forbid, then all the world is confused and whoever wants to take leadership, takes it.

(g)  The general rule from this is that when one comes to a tzaddik and you hear Torah from his mouth one gets a sense of shame and one begins to feel one's own lowliness. This is a sign that you were in the presence of a true tzaddik. However, if someone comes to a famous leader and hears Torah from him and then feels self-importance as a result etc. (the opposite is understood automatically).         

Prayer 72.

Our Father in Heaven, Living God and King of the World, who revives the dead in great mercy, in Your immense compassion, let me merit to the revival of the dead. Help me from now on so that I be guided by my real humility which is rooted in every single limb. This real lowliness and humility is that of Moses, may he rest in peace, and is rooted in every single Jew in each and every limb. It is the principal element of the true life, the eternal life of the World to Come. However, because of my many iniquities, this lowliness is now in the state of death and I can’t feel this real lowliness, since I am so far away from You as I am. Master of the World, let me merit to all the real advice, strategies and paths of holiness in such a way that I merit to arouse and awaken and revive this real lowliness and humility which is rooted within me. You know how far away I am from lowliness and humility which is the main thing in life.

 Because of my many iniquities I do not know anything about what lowliness and humility is, or that it is the principal element of the true life of each and every limb. You have already informed us that You don’t want us to be degraded and lazy, for that is improper and invalid humility. Quite the reverse, You have warned us several times to be bold as a leopard etc. However, the truth is that I don’t know any way to achieve this other than by depending on Your compassion alone, that You will help me, save me and teach me the real paths of humility. Always revive me in Your eternal life and let me merit to really true humility.

           

Master of the World, let me merit to holy shame so that I may always feel fear and shame before You and therefore never do anything against Your will. Even when I want to perform some commandment, may I feel great shame because of the holy and awesome commandment itself. What have I done to merit to perform a commandment, to relate to the great splendour, preciousness and awesomeness of the holiness of each commandment! The awesome holiness of each and every commandment is very, very great and sublime. Who can be bold enough to take pride in himself that he is worthy to perform a commandment before You, may You be blessed. Especially is this so considering our great distance from You, because of our many transgressions and wilful transgressions, as each of us knows in his soul. It is certainly fitting that great fear and shame come upon us and appear on our faces when we want to perform a commandment.

Who am I that I should merit to snatch the holy and awesome tefillin which are the crown of the King, and put them on my very blemished arm and head! How can I enwrap myself in the clothing of a commandment, in the clothing of the King, in the holiness of the holy and awesome tzitzit! So also with the other commandments, for each and every commandment is very, very holy and awesome. Before whom do I perform the commandment? Before the King, the King of Kings, the Holy One, Mighty, Awesome and Glorious etc.! His greatness is unfathomable. If I merited even to the slightest true perception. then great shame would certainly descend upon me and appear on my face even when performing a commandment. Even to put food in my mouth should cause me great shame for someone who eats food which is not his feels ashamed to look in the face of he who feeds him! How much more so then is it fitting that I have shame and great fear such that I never transgress or sin or blemish, Heaven forbid, for a sin has no connection to a Jew at all — all the souls of Jews in their source are completely and utterly distant from sin. A sin has no connection to the soul of a Jew at all Master of the World, full of mercy, let me merit to come close to real tzaddikim and to hear from their holy mouths new interpretations and clarifications of the Torah in such a way that, by this, great fear of You and shame before You be drawn upon me. Let fear of You be upon my face so that I never sin again, from now until eternity. May that holy fear and shame to which the Community of Israel merited at the holy gathering on Mount Sinai, at the time of the Receiving of the Torah, always be drawn upon me.

           

Master of the World, full of compassion, who desires our repentance, who beholds the evil person and wants him to be found righteous, in Your mercy, let me merit to really see my shame and disgrace such that, by this shame, I merit to return in really perfect repentance before You. "Return me and I will return for You are the Lord my God." Our Father, return us to Your Torah; our King bring us close to Your service. Return us in perfect repentance before You and, by repentance, let me merit to the true life, the eternal life... In Your bountiful compassion and in the merit of the true tzaddikim, grant us eternal life so that the humility of Moses, which is within each Jew and in each limb of the body, will live and guide us. For, because of our many iniquities, this lowliness and humility is obscured and hidden within us in the aspect of death.

Therefore we don’t merit to real humility and we don’t feel our lowliness really and truly as we should. In Your bountiful compassion let us merit to the real life, the eternal life, that now also the aspect of the revival of the dead be drawn upon us so that the humility and lowliness of Moses which is clothed in each person, in each limb, guide us and be resurrected. Sole Master and truly humble One, let us merit to real humility, as is Your good desire. Grant us absolutely perfect humility which is an aspect of the life of the World to Come; an aspect of the revival of the dead; an aspect of the true life and eternal life of each and every limb; an aspect of real nullification to Ein—Sof, the Infinite One, may He be blessed. May this be in such a way that even in This World we merit to taste and to flavour the aspect of the life of the World to Come, an aspect of the real delight of Shabbat.

           

Master of the World, our King, our God, great, mighty and awesome God, whose greatness is beyond measure, in every place where we find Your greatness we also find Your humility. Teach and guide us how to arrange prayers and requests for this, in such a way that we merit to please and appease You and that You grant us all to merit real humility, as is really and truly Your good desire.

73.

  (a)  Someone who wants to merit to repentance should recite Psalms regularly because Psalms have a special power to arouse repentance. There are very many obstacles to repentance. One person may have no arousal to repent and even someone who is aroused to repent can be faced with several obstacles to it. For example, there are some people for whom the gates of repentance are closed to them while others may not know how to reach the gate which belongs to them, through which they have to pass in order to return to G-d and so on, other obstacles that prevent a person from repentance. So much so that he can waste all his life and die without repenting, Heaven forbid. Against all these obstacles reciting Psalms has the power to work even for someone who has no arousal to repent; by reciting Psalms he can merit to become aroused to repent and to reach the gate that belongs to his soul; he can open this gate until he merits to achieve complete repentance. Therefore, in Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance Jews engage in saying Psalms in order to merit through this to repentance. However, throughout the entire year we have to also engage in reciting Psalms in order to merit to repentance, as mentioned.

(b)  The forty- nine days of the Counting of the Omer correspond to the forty-nine gates of repentance which themselves correspond to the forty-nine letters contained in the names of the Tribes of G-d. Through these letters and gates we need to return to G-d. Shavuot corresponds to  the fiftieth gate which is an aspect of the repentance of the Holy One Who needs to return to us in mercy, like it says, "Return to Me and I will return to you". To all these gates one merits to reach and to open by means of reciting Psalms, as mentioned. Therefore, during the forty-nine days of the Counting of the Omer a person has to be especially careful to recite Psalms with concentration in order to merit, by this, to reach all the forty-nine gates of repentance, as mentioned previously, for they  correspond to the forty-nine days of the Counting of the Omer during which we have to purify ourselves from our filth and return to G-d so that G-d will return to us on Shavuot, an aspect  of "And G-d descended on Mount Sinai." 

Prayer 73.

            Master of the World, may I always merit to perfect repentance, especially during the holy days of the month of Elul which was when Moses our teacher, of blessed memory, opened up for us a paved roadway to repentance. This road is made up of two types of expertise — ‘running’ and ‘returning’ and of two Holy Names — the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) and Ehyeh. It includes the two holy points, the upper and lower, which are the essential perfection of repentance — the aspects of repenting and afterwards repenting for one’s original repentance, the aspect of repentance in This World and repentance of the World to Come. Therefore let us merit, during these holy days of Elul, to complete repentance. Let us merit to draw upon ourselves the holiness of Elul throughout the whole year, until we merit to always be in complete repentance before You and all the days of our lives to progress in perfection along all the paths of repentance. In Your bountiful mercy and great loving—kindness, accept all the aspects and levels of our repentance with great love and affection. Fulfill in us the verse which says: "We will search through and review our ways and return to God." "For Your right hand is outstretched to accept those who repent."

           

‘How many degrees of beneficence has the Almighty bestowed upon us? such that we’ve merited, really merited, to bountiful loving—kindness and great mercy, the faithful acts of loving-kindness of David... You sent us a saviour and teacher, "the annointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel"; he is ‘David, the King of Israel, who lives and remains for ever,’ who wrote for us the holy and awesome Book of Psalms, five books, corresponding to the Five Books of the Torah. How great is the good You did for us. "How can I repay the Lord for all His favours towards me.” In Your bountiful mercy, You revealed to us that by reciting Psalms one merits to repentance, for You desire loving-kindness and want the wicked to repent, not that they should die. Therefore You preceded the cure to the affliction and granted us this holy Book of Psalms, which opens for us all the gateways of mercy, all the gateways of repentance. There are Fifty Gates of Repentance, corresponding to the Fifty Gates of Wisdom (Bina). Master of the World, Merciful Father, in Your bountiful mercy, grant us merit to engage in reciting Psalms all the days of our lives. Help me and all my family, along with the community of Israel, Your Nation, so that they and I merit to recite many Psalms every single day, with truly great spiritual arousal and sincerity. May I merit to set my heart to the content of the verses, to let my ears hear that which I speak out, in such a way that I merit to find myself, at whatever spiritual level, within the verses of the holy Psalms which are made up of all the souls of Israel and from all the spiritual levels in the world, from the most sublime down to the depths of the Pit. All those who have fallen or become distant (from God) to the utmost degree can all find themselves in the Book of Psalms. Every individual can arouse his heart in complete repentance by the reciting of Psalms, in order to return to the Holy One, may He be blessed. Everyone can arrive to his own gate of repentance, to that location which corresponds to his letter among the forty—nine letters of the names of the holy Tribes. These forty—nine letters correspond to forty—nine of the gates of Repentance through which we have to return to God, until, by this, we merit to have the Holy One return to us in complete repentance (so to speak) and that He will have compassion upon us, in bountiful loving-kindness and great mercy; He will help us and support us at all times to always come closer to God from wherever we’ve fallen and to return to Him in complete repentance, always repenting on the previous repentance.

 Please, please, my Father, merciful Father, You know that I’ve blemished very much all the paths of Your advice which You revealed to us by Your true tzaddikim. However, I know and believe, with perfect faith, that really it is impossible to spoil Your advice in any way in the world. Therefore I still stand firm and wait expectantly every moment for a complete salvation, that You will bring me closer to You and return me in perfect repentance before You by way of all the paths and the wonderful, awesome, pure and simple pieces of advice which You revealed to us by Your true tzaddikim, in such a way that I will merit from now on to always be as is Your good desire.

           

Master of the World, let me merit to consistently recite many Psalms every day with great devotion and wonderful enthusiasm, with sincere intent of the heart, until I merit by this to feel the pain of my sins and to repent perfectly. May I merit to great happiness by the reciting of Psalms and to arouse upon myself all the ten types of melody with which the Book of Psalms was composed and is recited. They are a cure for ‘the princess’, who is the Community of Israel. You, who are full of compassion, let me merit to leave the exile of Egypt and all the exiles of the soul and body that are all referred to as the exile of Egypt. Grant me the merit to purify, refine and reveal the Forty—Nine Gates of Repentance by the reciting of Psalms which include all "the names of the Children of Israel who come to Egypt" There are forty-nine letters in the names of the Tribes which correspond to the Forty-Nine Gates of Repentance. By this, take me out of the Forty-Nine Gates of Defilement and let me enter into the Forty-Nine Gates of Holiness. Remove me from the distress of the throat, so that my throat not be parched, for I have already called You very much from distress, from the restrictions of the throat.

Take me out of the confines of Egypt to a spacious place; raise me from the aspect of the land of Egypt, from the distress and confines of the throat, until I merit to open wide my mouth. Then fill it with all that is really, eternally good (words of Torah and prayer) in such a way that I merit to come closer to You and return to You in perfect, sincere repentance, with all my heart, all my body and all my possessions. “Turn to me and I will return, for You are the Lord, my God." Our Father, return us to Your Torah; our King, bring us closer to Your service. Return us in complete repentance before You, for You look and wait for the wicked and desire his being found righteous. You desire repentance, for You do not desire the death of the wicked, rather You desire that he ‘turn from his ways and live.’ Until the day of his death You will wait for him; if he repents You will immediately accept him. "You turn a person to destruction (much suffering)" until deep depression, “and say, ‘Return you sons of man.’ ” "Return us, O God of our salvation and cause Your anger towards us to cease.” "Return us to You, O Lord, and we will return; renew our days of as of old."

            Master of the World, "this is my comfort in my affliction”; the true tzaddikim strengthened and encouraged us with all sorts of reason and revealed to us that ‘there is no despair in the world at all’! On this alone I relied for support; on their great strength I depended. I still await salvation from where I am now. Therefore, You who are full of mercy, I will ask You at all times to save me by all the forms of holy advice that You revealed to us through Your true tzaddikim. Every single piece of advice has the power to help and save me also! Even if I’ve spoiled them all by my many transgressions, I know and believe that You still have much compassion and many ways of saving; You have ways of salvation and wonderful advice, which You revealed only to them and they, the tzaddikim, haven’t yet revealed them in the world. I still have some hope that by that advice I’ll merit to return to You and start anew, to fulfill all Your holy advice, with love and fear, in such a way that I merit to rectify everything, very speedily, in my lifetime, as is always Your good desire.

           

You, who are full of mercy, let me merit to recite whole-heartedly many Psalms, with great devotion and wonderful enthusiasm until I merit that You bestow upon me at all times a radiance and great holiness from the Fiftieth Gate of Holiness which includes all the Gates of Holiness. In this way, remove me very speedily from all the Fifty Gates of Defilement and bring me into all the Fifty Gates of Holiness, for, our Father in Heaven, we have no one to rely upon except You. There is no place in which You are not present! Please, please help us from now on; grant us a complete salvation as is becoming to You, in such a way that I merit to be entirely renewed, so that I leave my bad ways and bad thoughts completely and never return to folly. “Create in me a pure heart, O God; and renew a true spirit within me." May I merit very soon, by the reciting of Psalms, to come to and reach the letter and Gate of Repentance belonging to my soul, corresponding to the root of my higher soul in the forty-nine letters of the Lord’s Tribes. By this, may I truly return to You whole-heartedly and serve You sincerely, with fear and love, with happiness and good-heartedness stemming from abundance. "Turn to me and I will return, for You are the Lord, my God."

           

Master of the World, let me merit to regularly recite many Psalms every day with great devotion, wonderful enthusiasm and sincerity until I merit by this to feel the pain of my sins and to repent completely over them. May I merit to great happiness by the reciting of the Psalms and to arouse upon myself all the ten types of melody with which the Book of Psalms is said. They are a cure for the princess who represents the community of Israel.

           

You, who are full of compassion, grant me merit to get out of the exile of Egypt and from all the exiles of the soul and body which are also referred to as the exile of Egypt. Grant me the merit to purify, refine and reveal all the Forty-nine Gates of Repentance by the reciting of Psalms that include all the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt. There are forty-nine letters in the names of the Tribes which correspond to the Forty—nine Gates of Repentance. By this, take me out of the Forty—nine Gates of impurity and help me enter the Forty-nine Gates of Repentance. Remove me from the distress of the throat, so that the throat be not parched, for I have already called You very much from the narrow confines of the throat. Take me out of the confines to a spacious place; raise me from the aspect of the land of Egypt, from the confines of the throat, until I merit to expand my mouth and then You will fill it with all that is really eternally good (words of Torah and prayer) in such a way that I merit to come closer to You and return to You in perfect, sincere repentance, with all my heart, all my body and all my money.

           

Master of the World, please remember the wonderful and awesome loving—kindness that You did for us in bringing us out of Egypt with great strength and with a strong arm. You revealed to us the truth of belief in Your Divinity by a great, wonderful, pleasing light. You performed great and awesome signs and wonders in order to reveal Your Divinity, Your Oneness and Dominion, which extend over everything. Since then, You brought us close to You as a holy nation. You took us out of the Forty-nine Gates of Impurity and entered us into the Forty-nine Gates of Holiness which are the Forty—nine Gates of Repentance that are comprised of the forty-nine letters in the names of the Tribes of the Lord. In Your bountiful mercy, You commanded us to count forty-nine days of the Omer to correspond to this, in order to purify the souls of Your Nation, Israel, from their filthiness, so that we merit by this counting of the Omer to get out of the impurity and to reach purity, to leave the Forty-nine Gates of Impurity and to enter the Forty-nine Gates of Holiness.

           

Master of the World, full of compassion, in Your tremendous loving-kindness let us merit to perform the commandment of counting the Omer with great holiness and wonderful and awesome spiritual arousal, so that we awake by the holiness of this awesome commandment and really return in repentance to You; let us merit to leave all our impurity and remove from within us all sorts of impurity and filth that has become attached to us through our bad deeds. Master of the World, Master of the World, deliver me by all kinds of salvation for You know the power of each commandment, how great its power is to extract us from the places into which we have fallen because of our many iniquities. Bring us closer to You. This is especially true of this commandment of counting the Omer, which is a preparation for the receiving of the Torah. which is the beginning of Israel’s coming closer to their Father in Heaven. You gave us this holy commandment in order that we get out of the Forty-nine Gates of Impurity and enter the Forty-nine Gates of Holiness. Grant me merit, from where I am now, to perform this commandment in absolute perfection, as much as is possible for someone such as myself to perform this commandment. Be full of compassion for me; help me and save me by this; extract me from impurity very quickly and bring me to holiness; bring me from the mundane to holiness, from sorrow to happiness, from servitude to redemption, from darkness to a great light, such that we merit on the holy Festival of Shavuot, on the fiftieth day, to have You return to us and open for us the holy Fiftieth Gate. Bestow upon us Your good from the Fiftieth Gate, with great mercy and sublime loving-kindness, so that we merit to rectify everything and always truly return to You… "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, O God, my Rock and Redeemer.”

Amen and Amen.

74.

 Purim is a preparation for Pesach. By the mitzvot of Purim which we perform we merit to be protected from chometz in Pesach.

Prayer 74.

            Worker of miracles and wonders in every generation, who fights our fights, who judges our judgements, who takes revenge for us, who pays back all our souls’ enemies and who separates us from our troubles, may it be Your will, O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, that, in Your bountiful compassion, You have mercy upon us and, in Your salvation and awesome wonders, help us to welcome and fulfill the holy days of Purim in their appointed time, as is fitting. May we merit to fulfill all the holy commandments that are customary on Purim, with great holiness and purity, with happiness and good—heartedness, with tremendously great rejoicing, song, joy and gaiety. Let us fulfill them in all their details, exactitude and intentions and the 613 commandments that are dependent on them.

           

Master of the World, You have already revealed to us that all the miracles and wonders which You performed for our forefathers and because of which the holy Festivals were established — these miracles are performed, revealed and radiate in every generation, in every person, at all times. We need to attract the holiness of Purim and the holiness of all the Festivals and the radiance of the miracles and wonders that were done then and in every single year, in every generation and in every individual specifically. Therefore I have come before You, You who perform miracles and wonders in every single generation, every day, every period of the day, and every hour; teach me, show me, grant me the merit of the really perfect happiness of Purim. Let me merit to rejoice very, very much, with all my heart and soul, on the holy days of Purim, with a boundless happiness such that I merit by the happiness and holiness of Purim to draw upon myself and upon all Israel the holiness and purity which stems from the red-heifer which purifies from the uncleanliness of the dead. You commanded us to engage in reading this portion of the Torah which refers to the red-heifer, after Purim. You revealed to us that by Purim one merits to the purity of the red-heifer in order that we merit to be pure and to accept the holiness of the Pesach sacrifice in its appointed time.

           

Master of the World, You know that because of our immense decline and fall into the depths of this bitter exile and the tremendous multiplicity of troubles that happen to each and every Jew, myself in particular, and the incredibly great depths of the sea that sweep over me and pursue me very, very much from all sides, I am in great trouble, very, very great distress beyond measure or estimation. I don’t know of any opening of hope to rectify or escape all this. Therefore for all these things I now need wonderful miracles and great, awesome acts of deliverance, just as You performed for the community of Israel in previous generations, wonderful and awesome miracles, such as in the days of Mordechai and Esther when the evil Haman, may his name and memory be wiped out, stood up against them etc. This miracle of Purim was greater than all the miracles You ever performed for us, as You revealed to us by Your holy Sages, may their memory be blessed, who said that in the future all the Festivals will be cancelled apart from Purim. Originally, all the beginnings were from Pesach, for all the Festivals are a remembrance of the leaving of Egypt, but now...

           

Master of the World, Master of all the World, Master of wonders who sows the seeds of salvation, You know the truth, that the main miracle of all the miracles and wonders which You performed for us when leaving Egypt and in the war against Amalek in the days of Moses and in the days of Mordechai and Esther, and all the miracles and wonders that You performed for us in the days of Channuka, and in every generation, the principal miracle of them all is the salvation of the soul. For the primary jealousy and hate of all our troublemakers and persecutors, materially and spiritually, is only because we believe in You, O Lord, our God, and yearn to go in Your holy paths and to fulfill Your awesome commandments and to reveal and publicise the truth of faith in Your Divinity, Your supervision and dominion over the world. Only because of this, more than one nation has stood against us to destroy us; in every generation they stand against us to destroy us but the Holy One saves us from their hands. Therefore the primary miracle and salvation from all the troubles is that You express Your vengeance and You perform miracles and wonders in order that the Torah and commandments can continue to exist, that they shouldn’t be nullified from the world, Heaven forbid, as the haters and deniers want, may their names be wiped out. All of them are from the side of Haman and Amalek, may his name be wiped out.

           

Now what can I say before You who sit in the Heavens? What can I tell You who dwells in the skies? After all these miracles and wonders, I myself persecute myself more than all the haters, for I haven’t overcome my desires, and I’ve even drawn upon myself the evil desire. I’ve done what I’ve done such that I’ve actually brought upon myself these troubles and this distress. They are more difficult and bitter than all the troubles for there is no distress as bad as that of the soul. The greatest compassion that there is, is to extract a Jewish soul from iniquities and blemishes.

            Master of the World, Eternal One, O true Lord, God, You alone know how far these things extend, for truthfully I am ignorant. I don’t know the power of the miracle of Purim, materially or spiritually, and I especially don’t know how to merit to draw upon myself the power of this miracle and salvation. You alone know everything. You allude to me from afar, by various sparks and countless signs, to come closer to You at all times. As for myself, because of my immense stubbornness, I still haven’t turned back from my mistake, but, in my bitter affliction, I find comfort in the fact that I am still determined to speak like this before You, that I utter to You from the dust and still hope for Your compassion and salvation.

           

Master of the World, You alone know the power of the miracle that was in the days of Mordechai and Esther when they merited to be victorious in the war against Haman and Amalek and to wipe out their name and memory from the world and how they merited, by this, to draw a wonderful radiance and awesome salvation to each generation. Only You know how, now, all our life-force and hope to escape our exile in body and soul, is only by the power of this miracle. We stand out and wait for Your salvation. Just like You helped them then to subdue and break the husk of Haman-Amalek, to uproot, nullify and subdue his great poison and to reveal faith in Your Providence in the world, to return, fulfill and accept anew the holiness of Your holy Torah — so, stand up for us in every single generation until You are victorious in the war completely and utterly, wiping out the memory of Amalek and removing the spirit of impurity from the land. Really return us to You and extract us very quickly from out of this bitter exile. Therefore, Lord of wonders, I have come before You to ask that You take heed of and feel the great distress we experience, Behold our affliction and labour. Don’t look at our bad deeds. Perform for us wonderful and awesome miracles, miracles of Purim, such that things turn out for the good and that we merit to return to You very speedily indeed in our lifetime. Let us never go back to foolishness.

           

Master of the World, living God, King of the World, who revives the living, have mercy upon us and revive us, give us existence, sanctify us, and purify us from the uncleanliness of the dead, which is the most severe impurity of all and which corresponds to thoughts of sexual desire that have become stronger and spread very much in the world such that we’ve drowned in the mire of the depths of the sea where it’s impossible to stand. I've come into deep waters where the floods overflow us." Through the strength of the holiness of the commandment of Purim, let us merit to accept and draw upon ourselves the holiness and purity of the pure red-heifer, to really purify ourselves, in This World and the World to Come, from the impurity of the dead.

           

You, who are full of mercy, help us and save us in order to fulfill the commandment of Purim with holiness and such great happiness that we merit to really be careful from even the smallest quantity of chametz (leavened bread) during Pesach. Let us fulfill all the awesome commandments of Pesach in great holiness and awesome and immense happiness. Have mercy upon us for Your Name's sake. Let us merit, in Your mercy, to impress our wishes upon You. Help us and save us according to this lesson to really return quickly to You. Save us by the power of the holiness of the miracle and wonderful salvation of Purim so that we merit to change completely from evil to good and let us get out of the sorrow and darkness and reach happiness and great light.

           

Help us and save us so that we can fast on the Fast of Esther, before Purim, with great holiness. Let us say the supplication in great devotion, crying out and shouting to You very much. Open my heart so that I merit to really feel the pain of my iniquities and the immensity of my distress which is beyond measure, such that I merit to shout out very strongly and bitterly, as is fitting for me to shout according to the multiplicity of my iniquities, my immense wilful transgressions and very, very great blemishes. Let me shout out to You until Your compassion is really aroused upon me. Speedily save me and redeem me from myself. Make me walk in Your statutes and heed Your commandments really whole-heartedly. My Father, my King. my Maker, my Creator, show me the way how to start from the aspect of the holiness of Purim, as You alluded to us by Your holy sages. Help us by way of a miracle and a wonderful, awesome salvation, by way of a wonderful and awesome innovation, in such a way that I merit from now on to return to You in really perfect repentance. May I merit to start anew, to really and whole-heartedly make a perfectly new beginning, with all my heart and soul, in truly serving You. Truly show me and teach me from where to start, in what way and by what advice I may merit to really return to You.

           

Master of the World, "Great in counsel and mighty in deed," "direct us aright with good counsel from before You, and save us speedily for Your Name’s sake,” such that from now I merit to really perfect repentance all the days of my life. Let me not stray from Your will, either to the right or the left. Let me merit to learn, teach, heed, do and fulfill all the words of Your Torah with love and to carry out all the commandments and all the things concerned with holiness, to do each thing at its appointed time and on time. Let me do it well at its proper time, with great holiness and purity. Strengthen me at all times in happiness and joy and may I merit, in the merit of the strength of the true tzaddikim, to drive out and nullify from myself and from all Israel, the husk of Haman—Amalek, may his name be wiped out. Let me draw upon myself the holiness of the miracle and salvation of Purim. Have mercy upon us in every generation, in every year, that we merit to rejoice very, very much during the days of Purim with great happiness and incredibly great joy. Let us merit to fulfill the commandments of reading the Scroll of Esther with great holiness and purity, with phenominally great happiness. Let us consider the greatness of the immensity of the wonderful miracle and this awesome salvation and may we publicize this miracle before all people and assembly. May we merit to fulfill the commandment of becoming drunk on Purim, as the Sages of blessed memory commanded us. Help us and protect us so that the drinking and drunkenness of Purim shouldn’t harm us at all, neither physically nor spiritually, and that we shouldn’t harm anybody or anything by our drunkenness. Rather, let us merit by the drunkenness of Purim to reach great happiness and phenominally great joy, to reach the happiness of Purim when the immense and wonderful radiance of Mordechai shines out, a radiance unequalled throughout the year. Let me merit to be happy and good-hearted, to gladded other people also, to gladden all Your Nation, Israel, with the happiness of Purim, with very, very great joy indeed.

We will rejoice and be glad in Your salvation with true happiness in such a way that You have contentment and satisfaction, such that You get great delight from our drinking and happiness on the holy day(s) of Purim. May we merit also now, every year, to the great miracle and wonderful salvation of Purim so that we can drive out, uproot and nullify from ourselves the husk of Haman—Ama1ek and his great poison. Let us wipe out his name and memory from the world. Let us purify ourselves from his poison and so reach great holiness and purity. May we draw upon ourselves the holiness of Mordechai and Esther. Let us merit to draw the holiness of Purim to all the days of the year, to always be happy in You with really great happiness and joy. By this, may we merit to the holiness and purity of the red—heifer and to the real holiness of Pesach. Let us merit to always be happy. Fulfill in us the verse which says: “For our heart shall rejoice in Him, for we have trusted in His holy Name." May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, O God, my Rock and my Redeemer.

75.

  Looking at the face of tzaddikim alone is a very great thing. Certainly when one merits to speak with him this is even better but just looking alone is very good and is very beneficial for achieving holiness.

76.

  Even a wanderer who travels back and forth and sometimes comes to places that are very far away from the service of G-d, such as the houses of the wicked and even of idol worship, even so as a Jew he has the power to raise and lift up all these places to G-d. Therefore, he has to do what he can to draw himself to the Holy One in any way he can in any place that he finds himself.

Prayer 76.

Master of the Universe, God of Israel, You know the immense bitterness of this exile, generally and for each individual. Because of our sins we have been exiled from our Land; we have been thrown out of our Land, we have gone from one exile to another. Each person has experienced several exiles and moves, physically and spiritually, like a bird that wanders from its nest. Our distress is so great, in body, soul and money, that even when we sit at home we wander back and forth because we have no rest from our persecutors and enemies, whether physical or spiritual. This is especially true nowadays in our bitter distress. Each person thinks about how he can hide or escape from these serious troubles. We have run out of the strength to suffer. Have mercy on me and upon all the Jewish people trapped in exile. In any place that we come to in exile, please be with us and Help us to raise and elevate all these places to You, your Torah and Your service such that even all the places that are very far away from holiness, will all cleave to You. Let all the places eventually be used to study Torah and pray. Fulfil in us the verse which says “And then he too will remain for our God.” Merciful one, redeem us speedily for Your Name’s sake. Rise to help us; redeem us for Your love’s sake. Blessed are You, our Lord, god of Israel, glorious kingdom for ever and ever and may His glory fill the entire world. Amen and Amen.

77.

 (a)  Every single Jew, even a great tzaddik, has to have some anguish each day. Whoever has greater understanding, his anguish is more extreme. By eating in holiness and with fear of G-d we sweeten this anguish so that it won't become strong, Heaven forbid.

(b)  Through eating with holiness and fear of G-d, the mouth becomes an aspect of the stature of a person. He can merit as a reward for this, to a greater spiritual level; to an aspect of "the Divine Presence speaking within his throat". But as for someone who whose eating is not with holiness, his mouth that he eats with is in the category of an animal and indeed he is actually like an animal, Heaven forbid.

(c)  The main feeling of fear comes to and reaches a Jew at the time of his eating. Therefore he has to be very careful to eat with holiness and to draw upon himself the fear which comes to him at that time. By this he will merit to all the above.

Prayer 77.

May it find favour before You, Lord, God, God of our Fathers that You come to my help and, in Your bountiful loving-kindness merit me to break the craving for food completely. Let me eat and drink with great holiness and purity at the proper time in the proper amount, as You really desire. Merit me to draw upon myself the holy fear which comes at the time of eating. Then I will be able to sit at the table at meal time with great awe and fear of You. By this, merit us, through Your immense loving-kindness, to sweeten and nullify all kinds of anguish and suffering and all the harsh decrees that befall us and to all the Jewish people.

           

You know all the distress and suffering that occur to us, generally and individually, every day. Because of our very lowly minds it is hard for us to accept and deal with this suffering day by day. Have mercy on us, for Your Name’s sake. Help us from now on to arouse ourselves and draw upon ourselves Your sublime holiness. Let us draw upon ourselves real fear of Heaven so that it shows on our faces such that we won’t sin. And by this fear, especially at the time of eating, may we nullify or sweeten all the distress and suffering from over all Jews.

           

As a result, merit us to rise from one spiritual level to another in holiness until we reach the level of a truly holy man until we become totally merged in the aspect of spiritual man. Let us have holy speech at all times for, by this, one is defined as man. Merit us to the aspect of the Shechinah speaking from our throats. May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour before You, god; my Rock and Redeemer.

78.

 (a)  The great tzaddik also must be a simple person at times and to abstain from studying Torah and cease his holy perceptions for he has to deal with his bodily needs as well. If so, how does he draw vitality at those times for is it not so that the essence of life is the Torah. However, know that he draws vitality then from an aspect of the existence of the world from before Matan Torah. Certainly then also the Torah existed in reality for the Torah is eternal; but then the Torah that is included in the Ten Commandments unapparent and hidden within the inhabited world which itself was created through Ten Sayings. And the tzaddik, at the time that he abstains from the Torah, and is an aspect of a simple person, he receives his vitality from this aspect of before Matan Torah, that's to say, from the hidden Torah.  By this, he gives vitality to all the simple people in the world, for all the simple people, even the wicked, and even, by distinction, other nations of the world, all receive their life-force only from the Torah which is the essence of life. But, the truth is that they are far away from the Torah, therefore they need the greatest simple person over them so that all of them will receive their life-force through him. Consequently, the great tzaddik is forced to descend and fall into simplicity to behave like a simple person for a period of time in which he draws vitality from the hidden Torah. By this he gives life-force to all the simple people in the world. Each person, according to how near he is to holiness and to the tzaddik, so he draws through him a higher level of life-force from the hidden Torah. So even someone who is a simple person, for example he cannot study Torah or he is in a place where he cannot study Torah, even so he has to strengthen himself even then with fear of G-d in any way that he can for everyone receives vitality from the hidden  Torah through the great tzaddik who behaves with simplicity at times.  (See inside).

(b)  Even someone who has fallen a great deal, Heaven forbid, and who is placed in the lowest pit of Hell, Heaven preserve us, even so he still has great hope through the great, true tzaddik, for through him a person can receive life-force from the realm of holiness in any place wherever he is. Therefore, despair really doesn't exist in the world. However a person is, even if he has fallen to the place where he has fallen to, Heaven forbid, since he strengthens himself in whatever he can, he still has hope to return and come close to G-d. The main thing is "From the depths of Hell I cried out." Even a cry from the depths of Hell is never lost. A person should shout out to G-d at all times regardless of whatever happens until G-d looks down and sees from Heaven.

(c)   Sophisticated wisdoms damage a person a great deal. Wise people become trapped in their own cleverness. We have to distance ourselves a lot from all kinds of wisdom that some people have. It seems to them that they know clever things in the service of G-d. Cleverness we don't need at all. The main thing is only purity and simplicity together with perfect faith in G-d and in the true tzaddikim. But in simplicity one also has to be careful to avoid being foolish. Nevertheless, cleverness we don't need at all. A person can come to great joy through his simplicity and faith. Happy is he who goes in the path of simplicity.

(d)  We have to ask a lot from G-d to merit to come close to the true tzaddik. For happy is he who merits to come close to the true tzaddik while he is still alive. Happy is he and happy is his portion in life.  The Evil One pays a lot of attention to this and tries to confuse the world. For the Jewish People are now very close to the Final Redemption. They now have great desire and yearnings towards the Holy One unlike any other previous generation. So the Evil One deceives us and establishes in the world many famous, false leaders. Also between the true tzaddikim he has introduced controversy such that no one knows where the truth is. Therefore we need to beseech G-d very much to merit to come close to the true tzaddik.

79.

  By means of repentance a person merits to nullify time. For all the troubles, harsh decrees and foothold of the Other Side are only in an aspect of time. By this repentance we merit to hear the voice of holiness and to subdue the voice of the Other Side. This is an aspect of "When you are in distress….in the end of days" (Deut.4:30) – specifically in the end of days for this is an aspect of time. Then "You will turn to G-d, your Lord and listen to His voice" (ibid), that's to say, we will merit to return to G-d. By this we will merit to cancel time and all the troubles and to hear the voice of holiness. This is also an aspect of those mitzvot dependent on time; they are in order to raise the concept of time through their performance to the level of being above and beyond time.

80.

  In earlier generations there were tzaddikim who wanted self-aggrandizement for the sake of Heaven. Whoever wanted to merit to self-aggrandizement was the leader of the generation. But, nowadays that the self-aggrandizement is for the sake of the person's own honour , the Sages established that no person should run after self-aggrandizement but  rather  he should  flee from it.

81.

  When a person studies Torah or performs a mitzvah with such joy that he dances with his feet because of the joy, through this all those who support the Torah financially are elevated.   Similarly, this rectifies all the words of evil called 'foot' ('regel'), an aspect of what it says,  "No slander  ("regel") on his tongue." (Psalms,15:3). A person is also raised financially, for money is called 'regel', as it says, "All the property under their feet" (Deut.11:6). They also merit by this to have children who are also an aspect of 'foot', for 'a son is the thigh of the father' He also merits through this to faith which is also called 'foot' as the Sages said, "Habakook came and stood everything on one principle- a tzaddik lives by his faith"(Makkot,24). And similarly, all the things called 'foot' are elevated through dancing for joy.

Prayer 81.

            Master of happiness and joy, in whose dwelling is might and joy and before whom there is no sadness at all. In Your bountiful mercy, help me and save me that I merit to always gladden myself at all times. Teach me perception; inform me of an advised path in such a way that I merit to always overcome and strengthen myself against sorrow, sighing and sadness; let me distance them from myself and from all around me, preventing them from entering, holding or touching me at all, Heaven forbid. Rather, may I overcome them with all my might and always draw upon myself happiness and joy. I will rejoice and be happy in You, in Your great salvation, Your wonders and Your many and tremendous acts of loving-kindness which You have done for me and which You will do for me in the future. In Your wonderful loving-kindness You supported my fate that I be born from the seed of Israel, Your holy Nation, and You gave us the Torah of truth and implanted eternal life within us. "My portion fell in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage." In Your bountiful mercy, let me merit to overcome and strengthen myself at all times, to always draw upon myself this great and wonderful happiness. May I strengthen myself with great happiness, so much so that the happiness reaches my legs and that I merit to dance from happiness, especially on Sabbaths of the Lord and Festivals of the Lord, holy convocations, Chanukah, Purim and the rest of the happy events stemming from commandments.

Always be my help; gladden me very strongly until I merit to dance a lot from happiness. May I merit to engage in learning Torah and to perform all the commandments with such great happiness that the happiness reaches my legs and I merit to raise my legs. You, who are full of mercy, help me and save me so that I can always be happy. At all times teach me the paths of Your true advice. Remind me, encourage me and strengthen me at all times to arouse myself to always be happy and to remember at all times Your awesome, sublime favours which You have done for each one of Your People, Israel, and especially for me, at all times, in the evenings, in the mornings and at noon, ever since I was born, until this very day. Help me remember Your innumerable wonders and favours, those that are known to me and those that are unknown and concealed from me. You alone perform for me awesome wonders, miracles and eternal favours at all times in order to enliven and sustain me for eternity in the holiness of Israel. There is no favour or happiness greater than this, than the fact that every single Jew, even the least of the least, such as myself, merits to some good points every day by performing a commandment of the Creator, may He be blessed; they are our lives and the length of our days, for ever and ever, for all eternities. How fortunate we are, how good is our portion in life, how pleasant is our fate and how fine our inheritance. Let us merit to remember and to believe in Your great loving-kindness, Your wonders and favours which never cease; help me to always gladden myself by remembering this. Open my heart and my perception; brighten the eyes of my mind; at all times guide me and teach me all the forms of advice by which I can gladden myself at any particular period or hour, in such a way that I merit to always be happy and until I merit to dance a great deal each time because of happiness. Let me raise all the elements called ‘feet’ to the aspect of a heart of wisdom, an aspect of that "we may get a heart of wisdom." By this, may all the harsh judgements in the world be sweetened from upon us and from all Israel. May I merit through this happiness and dancing to rectify the blemish of bad speech that I’ve committed from my youth until today by many forms of bad speech, especially slander and gossip. Let me raise and rectify it all completely by holy happiness and dancing...

           

Master of the World, in Your mercy, fulfill all our wishes for the good and let us be worthy of all that we’ve requested from You, so that we merit to always be happy... May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart find favour before You, O Lord, my Rock and Redeemer. Amen and Amen.

           

Master of joy and gladness; strength and joy are in His place. In Your Presence there is no sadness whatsoever. Help me, in Your abundant compassion, and merit me to gladden myself at all times in such a way that I can strengthen myself to overcome any sorrow or sadness. Let me drive them away without allowing them to enter my bounds or the hold of me at all. Rather, give me the power to overcome them and draw upon myself happiness and joy constantly. I will rejoice and be happy in You, in Your wonders and immense loving-kindness that You have performed for me  until now  and which You will perform for me in the future. In Your wonderful love You created me a Jew, and gave me Torah; the eternal life You planted in me. So, enable me to always be strong and to draw upon myself this great and wonderful joy, so much so that the joy spreads to my legs and leads me to dance, especially on Shabbat, Festivals, Chanukah and Purim or on other occasions like weddings or a brit mila etc. Be with me always to gladden me  so that I will dance a lot from joy. Merit me to study Torah and perform mitzvoth with great joy, to such a degree that it fills my legs and I raise the m in dancing. As a result, have mercy on us and strengthen those who support financially Torah studies. Fill their hands with God’s blessings so that they lack nothing and will be able to support Torah scholars in such a way that the latter will be able to study and serve god without any worries or confusions regarding money.

           

By the joy and dancing, merit me to rectify any blemish in my power of speech. I have blemished a lot by evil speech sine my youth until now, especially by slander and gossip. Let me now rectify everything by holy happiness and dancing from now on, guard me and save me from any evil speech such as slander and gossip. Let me sanctify my speech with great holiness in the utmost perfection. Save me from any blemish in my faith. Merit me to raise and rectify all the flaws in faith through the holy joy and dancing. From now on, may my faith be really perfect, as is proper, as You desire. Furthermore elevate me financially as well. Grant me great, holy wealth so the I can study torah and serve You without any worries and without having to stop. Enable me to give lots of charity and to support others who really study Torah.

            Draw blessings and a good life to all our children and offspring. Save us and all our generation from the anguish of raising children. Merit us all to raise our offspring without any sorry or harm. Just help us to raise them calmly, in peace and tranquillity, to the study of Torah, to marriage and to good deeds, for many years, in Your service.

           

Master of the Universe, fulfill all our wishes for the good. Merit us to achieve all that we have asked for from You. Merit us to always be happy. Gladden the souls of Your servant for I lift up my soul to God. Purify our hearts to serve You with truth. Fill us with Your goodness, gladden us in Your salvation. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and with a generous spirit sustain me. May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart find favour before You, God, my Rock and Redeemer. Amen and Amen.

82.  "WHEN YOU GO FORTH TO WAR" (Deut.21:10)

(a)  When a person sees that things are not going smoothly for him, he should know that he has pride and then repent; he should humble himself until he becomes an aspect of 'nothing' ('ma'). Then things will go smoothly for him.

(b)  The main time to perform repentance is in the month of Elul for they are days of Divine favour when Moshe went up to receive the second Tablets and opened a more accessible path to G-d. The path of repentance that Moshe made is this: a Jew has to connect himself to even the very lowest of the low of the Jewish People because even in such a Jew there is certainly a spark of godliness. By this Godliness he can unite and connect himself with him. Also, in every climb when he ascends spiritually, he must find G-d there. For sometimes, by rising to a new level, such as by becoming rich, a person forgets the Holy One. Even in the service of G-d we find that Elisha (Acher), after he rose to a new level, came to a complete denial of faith in G-d, Heaven save us. However, the truth is that it should certainly be the opposite. Know that this is an aspect of "His eyes were dimmed from seeing" for this is because he came very close to the light of godliness; for all the good, even materially, is godliness, as it says, "G-d is good for everything". And, by this, the light dims his eyes and harms him, just like a person who looks at the actual light of the sun; the intense light damages his eyes. Therefore you need to ask from the Holy One to bring you near to Him in a way that it will not harm you.

(c)  When you are in the aspect of 'nothing' and you draw godliness to yourself, meaning that you always connect your mind and thoughts to godliness, by this all your wars will be nullified and all the desires which oppose your will become nullified.

Prayer 82.

God is the Master of war – His Name is god. God is mighty and strong; God is strong in battle. Master of the Universe, sublime and holy, master of wars, have mercy on me for Your Names sake; fight my wars for me. Because of my sins I have run out of strength. I haven’t the ability to stand up to my enemies, whether physical or spiritual. Woe am I. What can I say? How can I justify myself? It is an immense and awesome wonder that I can still speak to you like this and ask You to find on my behalf against all my physical and spiritual enemies.

           

Therefore, I have come before You, merciful One, King of Glory, Who performs wonders – teach me how to be victorious over You so that You will fight my wars Subdue, break and nullify all my enemies. Nullify from me all my evil physical cravings and all my bad attributes. Help me to rescue my soul for Your Names sake. Save me and atone for my sins. We do not depend on our righteousness rather we caste our prayers upon You in the merit of Your bountiful mercy. How can someone so lowly as myself nullify the aspect of ‘disorder,’ and turn it into ‘order’? How can I attach myself at all times to the Holy One? How can I attach my mind to the Holy One so as to really cleave to Him? When will I be able to nullify myself, all my cravings and bad attributes to the will of God completely and utterly until I become like absolutely nothing and until I achieve the aspect of ‘man’ nothing. Let me really nullify myself until everything becomes ‘orderly’. Then all the desires of my enemies will become nullified to my desire which will really be Your desire.

           

Master of the Universe, teach me the paths of true humility. Teach me how to break and nullify the pride from my heart and mind. The truth is that I know my own worthlessness. In the light of all my many sins, I shouldn’t have any thought of pride. I have sinned and blemished a great deal until now, even so I am not clean from thoughts of pride. I am very far away from true humility. Because of this I am far from the aspect of ‘order’, when things go well for me. I have nothing in life that runs smoothly. Everything is crooked and causes confusions. My mind gets confused from many things, especially the greed for an income. All this stems from the aspect of ‘disorder’ because I have blemished the attribute of humility and stumbled into pride, Heaven save us.

I have come before You Lord, our God, and God of our fathers, to ask that You help me and save me, in the merit and strength of the path of repentance that Moses our teacher, may he rest in peace, and all the true tzaddikim in the world drew down and revealed to us. May I also merit to return in real, whole — hearted repentance before You, from now on. You know the wonders of the paths of repentance that they drew into the world. They (the tzaddikim) lowered themselves and attached themselves to the lowest of the low, even to the lowly such as myself, wherever I am. They still attach themselves to me wherever I am now. From their point of view it is quite possible to remove me from my exile, to raise me and really bring me into holiness, to raise me higher and higher. Have mercy upon me and grant me merit to always attach myself to holy tzaddikim such as these. Reveal to me the holy path, the paths of repentance which they draw into the world, in such a way that I merit from now on to return in truly perfect repentance before You and to really attach myself and glue myself to You always, in real humbleness and self-effacement to the ultimate degree. In Your mercy, guard me and save me so that no aspect of descent or ascent will have the strength to distance me from You, Heaven forbid, for sometimes a person is distanced, Heaven forbid, by You raising him up, such as by great wealth or other good which You grant him, or by great knowledge of Your exaltedness. This happens because an excess of light darkens the eyes and harms one, Heaven forbid. Therefore I’ve come to request from You that You protect me with Your hands; guard me and save me and shield me so that nothing will harm me. May I never ever distance myself from You in the aspect of descent, Heaven forbid, even in the deepest pit, even in the ten levels of filth, God forbid. There also may I merit to always find You, as it says: “His Kingship is in every place." "In the aspect of ascent also, when You have mercy upon me and raise me higher and higher, may I always merit to find You. May I always come closer to You in all aspects, whether in the good or in distress, Heaven forbid, whether in descent or ascent, as is written; “If I ascend unto Heaven You are there; and if I make my bed in the depths, here You are." By this, may I merit, from now on and forever, to really perfect repentance, especially during the holy month of Elul, which is a month of favour, when Moses ascended to receive the Second Tablets (of the Ten Commandments) and opened a paved way for us to walk upon. From now on, have mercy upon me, so that I merit to prepare to draw upon myself the holiness of the month of Elul, the holiness of the path of repentance which Moses, our teacher, together with all the true tzaddikim in the world, drew into the world through their wonderful and awesome ways. I have no hope other than this path which is known only to You and to the great, true tzaddikim. That which is good in Your eyes do with me. I will continually hope "until the Lord looks forth and beholds from Heaven."

83.

 (a)  By means of rectifying the brit (sexual purity) one can speak out words of prayer like arrows from a bow. Then begins the growth of the horn of Mashiach. Then one comes to the holiness of Shabbat and becomes a free man and merits to the ultimate knowledge. As a result, he can discard his leprous body which is from the skin of the Serpent and wear the clothes of Shabbat. In other words, he will have a holy body from the Garden of Eden and then his fortune will rise and he will merit to wealth; his good urge will become strengthened and thus sadness and mockery will be nullified. Through this he will raise all those who have fallen to lowly, bad forms of love and fear. He raises them to holy love and fear and thus removes the darkness from their eyes. Then their eyes will see wonders and it will be considered as if he had created the world. By this he raises all the supplications and requests that we pray. We awaken the redemption which depends on the heart and nullify the yeast and chometz of the evil inclination of a person that remains from his youth. Then the heart can become enthused in the study of Torah with flames of love. 'Many waters', which are the extraneous forms of love and fear, will not be able to extinguish this holy enthusiasm. The Shechinah covers over with its wings the blood of the Jewish People with this love so that no evil seed, the waters of the Flood, will overcome them. To all this we merit through the rectification of the brit.

(b)  Yeast and chometz are in the heart of a person. They entice a person to have doubts about the Torah scholars of the generation, saying that 'this one is pleasant and that one is not  pleasant'. By rectifying the brit we nullify this yeast and chometz.    

Prayer 83.

Master of the universe, from now on, help me and save me. In You bountiful mercy, do whatever You do, with wonderful loving-kindness; merit me from now on to really guard the holy brit. Return me to You in complete repentance over the past in the merit of the true tzaddikim who achieved completely perfect guarding of the brit.

Merciful One, You revealed to us that all the rectifications in all the worlds and the entire Torah all depend on the rectification of the holy brit which is the foundation of every thing. However, because of the power of the evil urge, we have blemished the brit a great deal. Therefore I have come to plead to You mercy and salvation. Help me to achieve a really perfect rectification of the brit. Make my eyes and mind shine at all times in such a way that I merit to keep far away from this craving and thoughts associated with it. Help me to escape from them so that I can drive them out and nullify them from me entirely. Then, let me achieve a perfect rectification of the brit, as You desire.

So, help me, in the merit of the power of all the true tzaddikim who rectify the brit completely. Then, let us merit to shoot arrows, Which are the words of prayer said in utter perfection. Merit us to always pray with tremendous concentration, with perfect faith and great energy and enthusiasm until we speak out holy words of prayer so forceful that the words will fly through the air like arrows rising far into the world above, activating all the rectifications in all the worlds above as they should.

Merit us to the sanctity of the holy Shabbat so that we can engage in studying Your Torah, prayer and mitzvoth without the need to work for a living during the week. Merciful One, You granted us the wonderful gift of Shabbat from Your Treasury. You know the virtue of the sanctity of the holy Shabbat which sustains and drives life-force to all the worlds. You know how far I am away from the holiness and joy of Shabbat, so teach me how to merit to the joy of Shabbat on every single Shabbat. Grant me a taste of the holiness of Shabbat.

Please God, Who alone has wisdom, teach me to know that I really don’t know anything. As a result, let me start from anew in the service of God every time, whether in time of ascent or of descent, Heaven forbid. May I not be confused or bothered by anything in the world. Don’t let my immense and innumerous sins weaken my mind, Heaven forbid. Just let me know that I really no nothing at all about what happens to me or what happens in the world. Just merit me to real wisdom, understanding and knowledge, to recognise the truth, that I am far away from true wisdom.

           

Therefore, in Your bountiful mercy, help me to discard my leperous body which is from the poison of the snake. Then, merit me to wear the cloths of Shabbat, that’s to say, a holy body from Gan Eden. You alone know from where this coarse, material and filthy body is drawn. The immense coarseness and filth of this leperous body, from which I cannot clean myself, dirties my deeds and confuses my mind. Teach me how to arrange my prayers before You so that at least from now on I can discard my evil deeds and confused, despicable thoughts. Let me discard me leperous, coarse, dirty, materialistic body, to such a degree that I merit to cloth myself in a holy body from Gan Eden.

Remove the darkness from our eyes until we see wonders. Fulfill in us very soon the verse which says, "As in the days when you left the land of Egypt, so I will show him wonderful things." Always draw upon me the holiness of Pesach. Help us always to recount and tell of Your wonders and Your true Torah. Let us merit to always talk and reveal the Torah of truth. Fulfill in us the verse which says, "The Torah of truth was in his mouth." Have mercy upon us. Save us and help us very soon to remove the darkness which covers the mouth of the depths, and to radiate the light of truth in the world until it be considered as if we created all the world. Master of the World, who gives the power of speech to the dumb, grant us speech to talk at all times of Your true Torah and wonders. "That the generation to come may know them, even the children who will be born; who will arise and tell their children."

            May we merit to inform our sons, the sons of our sons, and all Israel in their generations, of all the deeds and wonders of the Lord that He has done for us from the leaving of Egypt until this very day; as it says, "Teach them to your sons and your sons’ sons."

           

You, who are full of compassion, let us and all Israel merit to the light of real eyes, to always look and see the truth. Let us always gaze and really see the wonders of the Lord. Open my eyes and the eyes of all the people of Israel and let us behold the wonders from Your Torah which You revealed by Your true tzaddikim. You alone know the wonders of their Torah that they revealed in the world. By the light of their eyes may all our requests and supplications that we pray rise to the Temple. By this, may the redemption that is dependent on the heart be aroused; as is written "For the day of the vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come." By this nullify from us the leaven and leavened bread of the ‘desire of the heart of a man is evil’ which remains with us from our youth. This leaven and leavened bread in the heart entices a person to question the authenticity of the wise men in the generation and to say that one is pleasing and the other is not pleasing. Because of this, our hearts have opposed them, so the seventy-two tzaddikim in this generation have become hidden from us. We don’t know for certain even one of them. Have mercy upon us for Your sake. Remove, get rid of and nullify from us the leaven and leavened bread in our hearts such that we merit to believe in all the tzaddikim without questioning their authenticity at all. Let me not make any distinction between them, rather may they all be pleasing, dear and beloved in our eyes very, very much... Pardon and forgive me for all my sins, iniquities and wilful transgressions, really completely and utterly by this holy love.

84.

 (a)  The main form of connecting with and cleaving to the Holy One is through prayer, for prayer is the gateway through which we enter to the Holy One and from which we come to recognize G-d.

(b)  Most often when a person prays he gets thoughts of pride and this is an aspect of the exile of the Shechinah. By praying with all one's strength one can overcome the extraneous thoughts of self-importance and nullify them. This extracts the Shechinah from its exile and rectifies it. It causes a unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah to be made. Also, by means of praying with all one's strength, G-d's oath to the Patriarchs becomes renewed and it is as if now He is swearing an oath to our Fathers.

Prayer 84.

“Lord, open my lips and let my mouth speak Your praises.” Master of the universe, hear my prayer. You choose the prayers of the Jewish people. In You great compassion, merit me to always pray a great deal. May I pray with great concentration, strength and self-sacrifice. Help me to put all my strength into the words of prayer so that I can strengthen prayer, which is the kingdom of holiness, and thus subdue the kingdom of evil. By this, let me subdue, break and nullify all thoughts of self importance together with all the extraneous thoughts that come to confuse my prayer, Heaven forbid. You know that, by ourselves, we have no strength to nullify them. We depend on Your bountiful mercy and great loving-kindness. Have mercy upon me for Your Name’s sake. Just let me drive them out, get rid of them and nullify them completely from within me and around me. Don’t let these strange thoughts come into my mind at all and then, as a result, my prayers will be pure and proper; they will find favour before You. Merit me to refine my prayers and separate them from the hands of the husks and from the kingdom of evil until the prayers become completely rectified. Then, may they have the power to arouse You sublime love until we create a unification of the Holy One with the Shechina through our prayer.

            You revealed to us that the main way to attach ourselves and to cleave to You is through prayer, for prayer is the gateway through which we enter to the Holy One. From prayer we come to recognise Him. Have mercy on us for Your Name’s sake. Merit us to pray perfectly, with all our strength You taught us by Your holy sages, would that a person pray the entire day, so merit us to pray a great deal. Fulfill all our wishes through Your compassion. Let us pray with all our strength such that we nullify completely all extraneous thoughts. Merit us to perfect prayer until we come close to You and really recognise You. Then we will cleave to You with the utmost cleaving in a really perfect way, as You desire, for ever and ever, for all eternity. Fulfill in us the verse, “You who cleave to the Lord, Your God, You are all alive today.” May the words of my mouth and the musings of my heart fin favour before You, God, my Rock and Redeemer. Amen. Sela.

85.

  The Luz bone in the nape of the neck of a person which will remain after the decay of the body and from which the body will be renewed and rebuilt at the time of the Resurrection, this is our main consolation. (See inside).

86.

  When there is small-mindedness and blemished faith we need to perform difficult deeds such as to fast and so on. But when our faith is perfect, we can serve G-d in anything we do, for "G-d doesn't come with complaints against His creations."

Prayer 86.

“Create in me a pure heart, God, and renew right spirit within me.” Don’t caste me away from before You and don’t take from me the spirit of holiness. Master of the Universe, merit me to believe totally in You and Your true tzaddikim. Grant us patience in all things. Don’t let anything at all confuse us and prevent us to serving You. Save us from all kinds of atheism, Heaven forbid. Save us from every form of blemished and diminished faith for they are an aspect of the lack of patience, Heaven save us.

Master of the universe, You know what is happening to us in this lowly generation, how many spirited and physical enemies rise against us; they want to change our faith, Heaven forbid. They want to instill atheism in the Jewish People so that even kosher Jews have their faith blemished. This is an aspect of our lowliness and lack of self appreciation. Therefore, please have mercy on us; merit us to strengthen ourselves and our holy belief such that we come to believe in You and Your true tzaddikim with perfect faith really wholeheartedly. May we serve You by doing difficult things and really sacrifice our souls for the sake of the Torah and for Your service. Let us accept upon ourselves all the hard things (such as fasting or other self-mortification) in order to perform Your will (when we are threatened with forced conversion). Save us from all kinds of diminished faith for You have informed us that even tzaddikim sometimes have an aspect of this diminished faith. They don’t always have sufficient faith in themselves and their own Torah innovations. They don’t really believe that God takes great delight in their service and their Torah innovations. Occasionally they even neglect their Torah and service because of their lack of faith in themselves. Therefore, please have mercy on us and merit us to have really perfect faith in all its aspects such that we will need no fasts or other self-mortification.

Rather enable us to server You with all things in the world. Amen. So may it  be.

87.

  Because of a blemish to the brit it is hard for a person to find his marriage partner and even if he finds her she will oppose him; she will not do what he wants. By the special spiritual intentions of Elul blemishes to the brit are rectified. As a result, he will merit to find his marriage partner and she will do what he wants. (See the secret of the intentions of Elul, Lekutei Moharan, Pt.1, 6).

Prayer 87.

            Master of the Universe, merciful One, You revealed to us by Your holy sages that the main thing is the rectification of the brit. This is the main trial and test for each person in this world. Only for this a man comes to this world, to be tested with this expense. The entire Torah is dependant on this for guarding the brit is the foundation of everything. Now, after I have blemished so much, what can I say? I don’t know where to start speaking. However, You have already decreed, through the true tzaddikim, that we must constantly shout out to You. We must pray and plead to You, no matter what, whether we are ascending or descending. There is no measure to Your compassion and loving-kindness.

           

Therefore, may it find favour before You, Lord, my God, God of our Fathers, that You enlighten my eyes in Your Torah. Teach me how to merit to understand the words of Your holy Torah. You have commanded us to have in mind the intentions of Elul in order to rectify the brit. But I am ignorant, I know no way to have these intentions in mind. Have mercy on me, for Your Name’s sake. Sanctify us with Your sublime holiness. Open my heart in the study of Your Torah. Help me to study and to understand the intentions of Elul and all the Torah discourses connected to this. Merit me to find a straight and proper path to come close to You at all times. Let me be familiar with the paths of running and returning, of ascending and descending so that I can follow the paths of repentance. Open Your hand to me, for Your right hand is open to receive those who repent. Let me draw down all the relationships that come about by these intentions of Elul until I rectify the brit completely, as soon as possible.

           

In Your bountiful compassion, command Your holy angels, who hold shofars in their hands and who are appointed to search and dig for all the lost things that they make efforts to rectify our souls. Let them search after and dig for all the holy sparks that we have lost during our lives until today because of all our cravings and especially by our blemishing of the brit. Command them to search for all that we have lost in this lifetime and in precious lifetimes. Let them find everything very hastily and then return everything to us in such a way that our souls become rectified in the most perfect way, as You desire.

           

Have mercy on the Jewish People, Your Nation who find it hard to find their marriage partner. And even when they find each other she is resistant to him and doesn’t desire him. There is no peace in their home, Heaven forbid, (especially so and so, who is suffering from this. Have mercy on him and all Jews who suffer this). Help them and save them so that each one speedily finds his true marriage partner. Grant them peace in their home. Let her not oppose him at all. Rather, change her desire into the desire of her husband. Let their desires be in harmony so that they live together with love and real peace.

Have mercy upon us and save us so that we merit to always guard ourselves from eating any fruit before it ripens, and so that we pick no fruit before its time, for You revealed to us the immense loss and damage that can come to a person by this; one can lose one’s soul, Heaven forbid, by this.

Master of the World, in Your great mercy and immense loving-kindness, have mercy upon us, guard us and save us from this. Help us and save us and let us merit to always recite the blessing on foods, especially the blessing on fruits, in phenominally great devotion. Let us not throw any blessing out of our mouths, Heaven forbid. Rather, let us always - overcome and strengthen ourselves with all our might, every time we want to eat some fruit or take some pleasure from This World, so that we recite the blessing with great devotion, as is proper; and in such a way that whatever we may eat or drink or enjoy won’t damage our souls at all, but the reverse. May we merit to perfect our souls and to add to their holy life-force and great radiance, by everything that we eat, drink or get pleasure from. Help us and save us so that all our eating and drinking and all our gaining pleasure be with great happiness and purity, for Your Name’s sake alone, without any pleasure of the body at all. May we be included amongst the tzaddikim who eat to satisfy their souls in holiness.

88.

 (a)  One has to be very careful not to eat a fruit before it has ripened completely on the tree for one can lose one's soul through this. It is also forbidden to pluck a fruit before it has ripened just as it is forbidden to cut down a tree before its time.

(b)  When you make a blessing with great concentration and the proper fear of Heaven before eating a fruit, by this you can merit to save your soul from becoming lost through eating an unripe fruit. One has to be very careful when saying blessings over food and drink, especially with the blessing over fruit, for in fruit there are a lot of lost souls which need to be clarified and elevated.

(c)  Some people lose a lot because of their cravings. This is an aspect of "The desire of the wicked will be lost" (Psalms,112:10). Even someone who is a tzaddik occasionally loses, in an aspect of "There is a tzaddik who is lost in his righteousness" (Eccl.7:15). Even the tzaddikim who dig and search after losses sometimes also lose, as it says "Let them search and lose" (Psalms, 83:18). Know that there is an angel and under him several messengers and they all hold shofars in their hands; they search for and request losses all the time. They blow on the shofars- tekiah, teruah, tekiah. And when they find something lost it creates great noise and joy in the world above.

89.

  When someone cannot find his marriage partner, the rectification for this is for him to  endeavour to hear Torah innovations from someone with real understanding.

Prayer 89.

Almighty, blessed God, in Your bountiful mercy... have mercy on all those Jews for whom it is difficult to find a spouse (in particular so and so, son of so and so). Help them and save them very speedily so that each one merits to find his or her true, worthy partner from Heaven, without any delay and without any suffering at all. We don’t know at all, nor do we have any counsel or strategy how to find a spouse for each person. You know how difficult it is for a person to find his or her spouse, for all partnerships are from two opposites. Sometimes they are very great opposites such that it’s as difficult to match them as splitting the Red Sea! It is therefore impossible to join them and match them other than by the true understanding with which all the matchmaking is arranged. Therefore we need to hear Torah from the mouth of he who has true understanding, who produces wonderful innovations in Torah, who joins and matches words of Torah from one place to another by which all matchmaking is accomplished in the world. However, as a result of our many iniquities he has become hidden from us and we don’t know how to find this master of holy understanding in order to hear Torah from his mouth. Now, from where will our aid come? Therefore our eyes are turned to You alone; You who are full of compassion, who sits and arranges matches. Have pity on all Your People who need to find their spouse (in particular...). Send to each one very speedily his or her worthy true spouse from Heaven. Let her be as he wants and may she be a help to him. Unique Lord, Full of Compassion, who looks till the end of all generations, who governs His world in loving-kindness and His creatures in mercy, take pity and have mercy on the days of youth of the youngsters of Your People. Inform us of Your ways. How can we merit to know and find the true spouses of all those dependent on us? Grant us merit and help us, and in the strength and merit of great, true tzaddikim, who are the holy understanding of all the worlds, who drew and revealed a truly wonderful and great understanding in This World also, help us to quickly find the spouse of every individual of Your People. Let us speedily marry them off with good fortune, for a good, long life and peace. Let her be as he desires and not oppose him at all, Heaven forbid. Rather, let them live in love and peace, in holiness and purity as is truly Your desire.

90.

  In breaking a china plate at an engagement party (as is the custom) we hint to the groom and remind him that Hell exists. This is to remind him so that he will not become bound up after his physical craving but rather he should sanctify himself properly in his marital relations. It also hints to him that if his wife turns out to be evil he should not betray her nor should he divorce her for through her he will be saved from seeing the face of Hell, as the Sages promised. One must be very careful not to divorce one's wife.

Prayer 90.

            Have compassion on those of Your Nation, the House of Israel, who need to find their spouse, and let them merit very quickly to a partner in life, their true spouse, whom Heaven considers worthy. Let each one feel a sense of arousal towards You at the time of betrothal and when breaking the china vessel at the time of formal betrothal, and let them remember the final, ultimate purpose of marriage. Let each one remember the Gate of Clay that was in Jerusalem, which was the entranceway to Hell, so that he or she won’t betray his or her proper spouse. Let one never divorce the other, even if he or she suffers from the other, Heaven forbid, and let them remember the bitter punishment of Hell from which they will be saved by this, as the Sages said, "He who has a wicked wife won’t see Hell." This he has to accept with love and to remind himself that if his wife is good, as he wants, then he has to be very, very careful not to indulge his lust, Heaven forbid. Let him remember, certainly remember, that there is Hell, and let him have mercy on himself by sanctifying himself properly with the ultimate holiness at the time of marital intercourse, as is fitting for a Jew. Let him remember and never forget the bitter punishment of Hell which comes as a result of blemishing the covenant (brit), Heaven forbid, Heaven forbid! Have mercy upon me and upon all the seed of Israel; arrange things for the good in such a way that we merit to escape and save ourselves from Hell and from all sorts of punishments and harsh judgements in This World and the Next. In Your abundant mercy, have pity upon us in the merit and strength of the tzaddikim who brought us closer to You... May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart find favour before You, O Lord, my Rock and Redeemer.

91. "AND G-D SPOKE"

(a)  All the things and wisdoms in the world, whatever they are, have to be connected to the Holy One. And someone who does not connect them to the Holy One is an aspect of  (Proverbs,16:28) "A whisperer separates the master" ( "master" in Hebrew 'aluf' alludes to G-d). This person separates things from the Master of the World and causes, Heaven forbid, a blemish in the moon and the exile of the Shechinah. For each person, whoever he is, has to connect his mind wherever he is to the Torah and to the Holy One. All this is rectified by coming close to true tzaddikim for they raise and connect everything to G-d through their speaking about mundane, worldly matters. Even the apparently mundane conversations of the true tzaddikim are  very precious because specifically by this they connect to the Holy One even those who are very far away from G-d. Then all the harsh decrees are removed and all the wicked are subdued; we find all forms of light and all forms of perfection.

(b)  By binding oneself to true tzaddikim one merits to complete repentance and one's sins are atoned for. This leads to the sweetening and nullification of all the harsh judgements and, through this a unification is made between the Holy One and the Shechinah.

Prayer 91

Master of the Universe, Who is full of mercy, Who desires loving-kindness and abounds in bestowing good, You bestowed good to all, whether good or evil. You think about how to prevent the dispersed souls from becoming lost. Open Your eyes and see our helplessness. We have no one to stand up for us. What can we do now that You have taken the great tzaddik from us by his passing away. The tzaddik has brought us all closer to the Holy One but, because of our many sins, the sun, has set at midday and we are left as orphans without a father. Merciful One, teach us to cry and mourn the loss of the true tzaddikim so that we arouse Your compassion upon us. Teach us this generation who have the power to lead us on the path of truth bring us close to You and return us to You in real repentance. Merit us to come close to them and to behave in their pleasant words with perfect faith; their worldly words need studying for they contain hidden, wonderful Torah ideas and very sublime secrets. May I listen intently and connect my mind firmly to their holy words in such a way that they will connect me to You.

            Merciful One, in Your awesome and wonderful compassion, do whatever You desire but at least in such a way that I will return to You from now on. Let my evil thoughts be quietened and my bad deeds be returned. Don’t let me blemish anymore. Help me to connect my thoughts, words and actions, all my wisdom and knowledge to You truthfully from wherever I am. As a result let me attach the lower wisdom to the upper wisdom. Have compassion on us in this time of distress in the days prior to meshiach’s coming. You know the bitterness suffered by our souls. Merit us to find and come close to the true tzaddikim so that they will have compassion on us and bring us close to You, to Your Torah and service. May they extract us from all the bad places into which awe have fallen, each person according to his level, and thus bring us back in true repentance. Enable us to join and attach the lower wisdom to the higher wisdom. Merit us to create great and awesome unifications and, as a result, to fill the blemish of the moon and to bring the Shechinah out of exile. Let there be a constant and complete unification of the Holy One and the Shechinah and, by this, sweeten and nullify all the harsh decrees in the world Forgive and pardon our sins.

            Shine all the lights with a great wonderful light so that all the worlds will be completely rectified. Increase and reveal true knowledge in the world; let every made thing know that You are its maker and every formed thing understand that You are its creator. Let every breathing thing declare that the God of Israel is king and His kingdom extends to all places. Merit us to be very strongly and firmly attached to You for ever. In Your compassion, bring us close to true tzaddikim as soon as possible, for they are all our hope, in this World and in the Next. They are over life and the length of our days. So, have mercy on us for Your Name’s sake. Fulfill all our wishes for the good mercifully. Be gracious to us; hear and answer our prayers, for You hear the prayers of every mouth.

 Blessed are You Who hears prayer.

92.

  It is a great rectification for a nocturnal emission Heaven forbid to recite on that same day these ten psalms:

16.  Michtam to David

32.  To David Maskil

41.  Praiseworthy is he who contemplates the needy

42.  As the deer longs

59.  To the conductor, don't destroy

77.  To the conductor on Yedutun

90.  A Prayer to Moshe

105. Give thanks to G-d, declare His Name

137.  By the Rivers of Babylon

150. Praise G-d in His sanctuary

         Someone who merits to recite them on the same day as the blemish no longer has to fear this awesome blemish of a nocturnal emission, Heaven forbid, for it will certainly be rectified by this. And in the merit of the rectification of this sin, our righteous Mashiach will come to gather all of us dispersed in exile. May it be speedily in our days. Amen.

106.

It is fitting to think about words of Torah when having marital relations. Even so one can conceive children even though the mind is then cleaving to thoughts of Torah. It is very good to accustom oneself to this.

107.

 On one occasion the Rebbe spoke about how detestable the universal craving is, the craving for sex, and how we need to distance ourselves from it. He answered and said: Look, eating at least adds strength and vitality to a person, but this craving, on the contrary, it wastes and damages one's vitality a lot. It exhausts a person a great deal. We certainly don't need it at all other than for the sake of sustaining the human race.

   

125.

 About reciting Psalms the Rebbe spoke to someone and said to him that the essence of reciting Psalms is to say them all about oneself, to find oneself in each and every psalm. He then asked the Rebbe, 'How?' The Rebbe then explained to him a little. For all the wars that King David asked from G-d to be saved from them, all have to be understood as the war against the evil urge and its cohorts. And so on, in the other psalms (as is explained in Torah 101). So the chassid asked him how he should understand those verses where King David praises himself. For example, when he says, "Guard my soul for I am devout" (Psalms, 86:2) and other similar verses. The Rebbe answered him, this also one has to understand as relating to oneself, for a person has to judge himself favourably and find within himself some merit and good point about which he can be considered ‘devout’ and so on. The Rebbe said to him, do we not find about Yehoshafat that it is written that, "And his heart was lifted up in the service of G-d" (Chronicles, 2, 17:6). In the paths of G-d and in serving Him he lifted his heart a little. In addition the Rebbe said to him, in the morning prayers do we not first say "What are we, what is our life" etc.; and we humble ourselves a lot. Afterwards we say "But we are Your People, the sons of Your covenant" etc. In other words we strengthen ourselves and raise ourselves by telling of our greatness and taking pride that we are His People, the sons of His covenant, the seed of Abraham, Yitzchak and Ya'acov etc. For thus we have to behave in the service of G-d, as mentioned above. See more about this in the end of the first part of the book in Torah 282, on the verse "I will sing to my G-d with my little bit of good."

THE END OF PART TWO OF LEKUTEI MOHARAN

THANKS BE TO G-D ON HIGH WHO OWNS THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman!