HH
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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!
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