Prayers-Part-2

Prayers:    Part 1  | Part 2  |  Part 3  |  Part 4  |  Part 5

The Holy Covenant

Master of the World, who "leads Yoseph like a flock, You who sit upon the cherubs": Lovingly shine the light of Your holiness on me. Let a spirit of holiness and purity come upon me, giving me the power to control, master and break my evil inclination.

In Your abundant love and great kindness, enable me and all my offspring to guard the holy Covenant. Help me at all times, and keep me from all impurity and any breach of the Covenant, whether in thought, word or deed, whether unwittingly or intentionally, under compulsion or wilfully, whether with my eyes, ears or other senses. Let me sanctify and purify all of my faculties with the holiness of the Covenant, and do nothing to breach or blemish it in any way.

For in Your great love You have chosen us from all the nations and exalted us above all peoples. You have separated us from all their impurities and wrongdoing, as You wrote for us in Your Torah: "I have separated you from the nations to be one," and You called us all Tzaddikim, as it is said, "And Your People are all Tzaddikim."

Please, loving G-d, do not make Your holy Torah into an empty document, G-d forbid, for Your Word is true and enduring for ever. Deal kindly with me and help me to be a genuine Tzaddik by enabling me to guard the Covenant. Only in this way can one be worthy of the name Tzaddik, as You have informed us through the teachings of Your holy sages, who said that only someone who guards the Covenant is called a Tzaddik.

You helped Yoseph the Tzaddik when he was tested: You saved him and gave him the strength to overcome his evil inclination. In the same way, arouse Your compassion for me. Through the merit and strength of Yoseph, give me intelligence, wisdom, understanding and knowledge, holy strength and power, so that I will be able to avoid all impurity in my life and conquer my impulses and inclinations. Let my thoughts be bound and attached toYour holiness at all times, without a single moment's interruption.

Through purifying myself and observing the Covenant, enable me to offer You my prayers in the proper manner, without inhibitions, restraints and confusion. Accept my prayers and arouse Your love for me. Turn to us again and quickly redeem us and send our righteous Mashiach. Do it for Your sake and not for ours. Help me to order my prayers properly. Grant me intelligence and understanding, and let me use judgement to measure my words, so as not to stumble in what I say, or stray left or right from the straight, true path when I pray.

 

The Covenant. Foundation of Spiritual Awareness

I don't know what to ask for first. I've done so much damage to my mind with immoral thoughts and behavior that I don't know where to begin and ask You to help me do something about it. Should I ask You to help me make amends for my past and for all the damage I've done from my youngest days until today - with my thoughts, words and actions, with my eyes, my ears and other senses, whether deliberately or through carelessness, wilfully or under duress? Or should I pray to You about the future - that I should never do any more damage from now on, not even with so much as a thought?

Loving G-d: have pity on one filled with shame and embarrassment, on a stubborn, twisted heart. You know the extreme difficulties confronting me. I'm surrounded by traps on every side and I have no idea how to escape them. I can't even cry out to You, because I have no words or voice any more. I've damaged my voice, my power of speech and every one of my, two hundred and forty-eight limbs and three hundred and sixty-five sinews. I've corrupted all the pathways of wisdom and holiness, and I have no idea of any way I can possibly come truly and genuinely close to You.

But Your compassion is still not exhausted, and I trust in the power of the holy elders, the true Tzaddikim, on whom the entire Jewish People depends. On their power alone we rely, knowing that they have the strength to release the entire Jewish People from the dominion of unholy forces and bring them to holiness.

I have therefore come before You, HaShem my G-d and G-d of my fathers, with a broken, crushed heart, a sighing, tom heart, asking and pleading like a beggar at the door, lowly and impoverished, stretching out his hands and liftup his eyes to Heaven like the eyes of a servant hanging on his master's hands, like the eye of a guilty rebel seeking to placate his master, asking, begging and pleading for a gift of pure kindness.

Have pity on me! Be kind to me! Fill me with the wisdom and spiritual awareness revealed by the holy elders, and help me keep clear of any kind of immoral thought or behavior from now on. Loving G-d: guard and save me from all evil thoughts and feelings and anything that detracts from spiritual insight and awareness. Help me make amends for all my inunorality until now, so that I can fully observe the Covenant the way You want.

HaShem, help me: give me the ability to raise my voice in holiness so that the sound of my own voice will arouse my powers of concentration and I will be able to develop my spiritual awareness and insight to the full. Please, HaShem, have pity on me and help me fully observe the Covenant in holiness and purity, because this is the foundation of true spiritual awareness and insight.

You took our ancestors out of e)dle, physical and spiritual, in Egypt. You released them from the Fifty Gates of Impurity, and from the immorality and corrupt mentality that were the essence of the e)dle in Egypt. You brought them to the Fifty Gates of Holiness, helping them come to full observance of the Covenant and to spiritual awareness and wisdom. You gave them Your holy Torah and brought them into the Land of Israel.

In the same way, do great and awesome miracles and wonders for us. Release us from this bitter physical and spiritual e)dle, this e)dle of body and soul. Quickly remove us from all the Fifty Gates of Impurity. Redeem us and save us from every kind of immorality and every corrupt idea and attitude, and bring us quicldy to all the Fifty Gates of Holiness. Loving G-d: help us come to full observance of the Covenant and achieve genuine spiritual awareness and insight as befits the holy Jewish People. Fulfil in us the verse: "As in the days of your going out of the land of Egypt I will show you wonders."

 

Let me clap and dance for joy

Help me attach myself to the true Tzaddikim and channel their holy spirit into my heart, so that I will come to inner purity and my heart will always be directed to HaShem in truth, faith and genuine humility.

Let this holy spirit be drawn into my arms and legs, so that I will be able to correct all the wrong I have done with them. Let the spiritual light of my hands and feet be revealed and radiate. Wake up my heart and fill me with the joy of closeness to G-d. Let this holy joy spread into my arms and legs until I clap my hands and dance.

Give me the power to sweeten and remove all harsh decrees from myself and all Your people, the House of Israel, through clapping my hands and dancing in holiness. Let me lift up my hands and feet and elevate them, and cleanse them of all impurity.

Master of the Universe: My hands are weak - put strength into them! My knees are unsteady - fortify them! Help me purify and san@ my hands and feet. Tell the prisoners: "Go out!" Don't let my feet stumble. Release them from their chains. ff my feet have walked the path of sin and death, quickly bring them back from death to life, so that I will be able to say, "My foot stood on firm ground."

My hands are soiled with all kinds of filth and dirt. Have pity on me, and cleanse them. Remove the pollution that clings to them. Loving G-d: Forgive me for all the damage I have done with my hands and feet. From now on, help me sanctify my hands and feet and keep them free of all wrong and impurity. Let me constantly use my hands and feet to do mitzvot, so as to elevate them to their holy source and reveal their spiritual radiance. Let me clap my hands and dance for joy.

 

The Month of Elul

Master of the Universe: Help me to follow the path of perfect Teshuvah at all times, and especially during the holy days of Elul. During this period, our teacher Moshe opened up a pathway of Teshuvah for us consisting of the two skills of "running" and "returning", based upon the two holy Names of HaVaYaH (in its expansion of SaG) and EHYEH (in its expansion of KESA), and upon the two holy points - the uppermost and the lowest. This is the essential path of Teshuvah: the initial Teshuvah, and then, Teshuvah on the Teshuvah - respectively the "Teshuvah of This World", and the "Teshuvah of the World to Come."

During the holy days of Elul, help me to attain perfect Teshuvah, and let the holiness of Elul be drawn into the entire year, until we are able to follow the path of perfect Teshuvah at all times and to walk all the pathways of Teshuvah perfectly all our days and for ever.

In Your abundant kindness and mercy, accept all the different aspects and levels of our Teshuvah with love and favor, and enable us to search and examine our ways and return and rise towards HaShem, for Your right hand is stretched out to receive those who wish to return."

 

Eating

Loving G-d: bring me to eat in holiness and purity, with no physical desire whatever. Give me the power to arouse the light of the twentyeight holy letters of creation which are clothed in everything in the world, until all my enjoyment of everything I eat or drink comes only from the light of the holy letters contained in it. Through this, give me a good heart: let my heart radiate with great holiness through enjoying and being nourished only by the light of the letters that powered the act of creation and are contained in all things.

Help me and guard me from ever benefiting from this world without saying a blessing. Let me recite the appropriate blessings before and after everything I eat and drink with intense concentration and with the sole intention of blessing Your great and holy Name in holiness and purity. Let all my blessings and thanks, songs and praises flow forth in of perfect holiness - words of the Holy Language, as complemented and completed by the langof eN eryday conversation.

Let me thereby arouse the power of the thirty-two names of G-d that appear in the account of the creation, which are the force underlying all G-d's works, the force powering the letters clothed in everything in the world. Through them You created everything in the world according to Your will, from the largest to the smallest. You created everything with its own unique appearance, taste and form, corresponding to the letters of the holy Torah that You put" into it according to Your will, as weighed, measured and determined in Your holy wisdom., "How many are Your works, HaShem, You made them all in wisdom, the world is full of Your possessions." "And now, let the power of my Lord be magnified, as You spoke saying..."

For Your sake, for the sake of Your glory, and for the sake of Your holy letters clothed in all things, give me the power to always be able to arouse the letters of creation clothed in all things. Don't let me follow the stubbornness of my heart. Let me reduce my material desires to a minimum and have no physical craving for anything in the world. Let all my enjoyment of food, drink and other pleasures come only from the radiance of the letters they contain and not from the gratification of bodily desire.

Send blessing into my food, and let me be genuinely satisfied. Let me feel physical satisfaction even after eating just a little. Let my satisfaction come from the radiance of the holy letters contained in what I eat and drink in holiness and purity, and fulfil in me the verse: "And you shall eat with full satisfaction and praise the Name of HaShem your G-d, who has done wonders with you, and My people will never be ashamed."

Through eating and drinking in holiness, let my heart shine with goodness and joy, and let the radiance of my heart light up my face with holiness and joy until my face is constantly bathed in the light of HaShem's countenance. Fulfil in me and my offspring the verse: "This is the generation of those who search for Him, seeking Your countenance - Yaakov, Selah." Let my face be so radiant that I will be able to bring people to complete repentance just by their seeing my face. Let my face shine with the light of G-d's countenance like a bright mirror that people will look into and see themselves in, and realize how their own faces are sunk in darkness.

Let them be inspired to renew their youth like the eagle and come back to You in true, perfect teshuvah.

Kind and loving G-d: Grant me that I should come close to the true Tzaddik of this generation and hear the Torah of the Living G-d directly from his holy mouth, just as he hears it from Your mouth through the merit of his good deeds. Inspire me with awe of Heaven - awe at Your supreme exaltedness. Let me listen to the holy words coming from the lips of the true Tzaddik with reverence and awe, so that I too will be able to receive the full benefit of the Holy Language.

Bring me to true observance of the Covenant in great holiness as befits a member of Your chosen people of Israel. Be gracious to me, and grant that I should be able to make amends for all my sins and transgressions in my lifetime. Let me make up for everything I've done wrong from my earliest years until today, including even the sins I have comn-dtted unknowingly or under compulsion. Let me rectify eve quiddy and easily in my lifetime, and from now on let me come genuinely dose to You in holiness and purity, gain perfect mastery of the Holy Language and faithfully observe the holy Covenant.

 

Breaking the desire to eat unnecessarily, and avoidance of forbidden foods

Loving G-d: Help me break my urge to eat unnecessarily, until I become totally free of any urge to eat purely for the sake of gratifying my physical appetite. Let me eat and drink only for Your sake - in order to have the strength to follow the path of Your Torah with all my heart. Let me eat in holiness and purity for Your Name's sake.

Loving G-d: help me and protect me from ever eating any forbidden foods, both those forbidden by the Torah and those forbidden by our Sages. Always guard me from all hidden pitfalls, and never let any forbidden food come into my mouth. Master of the entire universe: You know that it is impossible for a mere human constantly to be on guard against all the different kinds of forbidden foods or mixtures of them. There is such an enormous number of complex details. And You also know the terrible damage it does to a Jewish soul to eat forbidden foods.

Please have pity on me and help me for Your sake. Guard my soul, and keep me well away from any kind of forbidden food - non-kosher animals, worms and bugs, mixtures of meat and milk, non-kosher wine, forbidden fat and blood, the sciatic nerve, the limb of a living animal, non-Jewish bread, food cooked by a non4ew, chametz on Pesach, and all other kinds of forbidden foods and mix-ins. Protect me and save me from all of them. Don't let any of them ever come into my mouth or bring impurity into my soul. Let me and my children, my descendants and the whole Jewish People be clean and pure, and keep us away from all forbidden foods. Sanctify us with Your exalted holiness and let us follow Your commandment to "be holy, for I am holy."

Have compassion on me, and save me from all kinds of impurity and anything that makes the soul disgusting. Sanctify me in every way. Help me eat with the holiness that befits a Jew. By eating in holiness and purity, let me repair the damage to the holy altar, and let my table atone for me like the altar itself. Bring me to perfect faith, and give me the strength and wisdom to banish all kinds of false beliefs. Help me bring people who have strayed into false beliefs back to true faith in G-d.

Please, HaShem: help me overcome my bodily desires and my lack of self-control, and give me mental clarity. Grant that I should be able to give charity generously to large numbers of deserving people, and to the true Tzaddikim of our generation, so as to be able to repair the damage to the altar caused by our sins. Today we cannot bring fire-offerings and sacrifices, and we have no priest to atone for us.

Have pity on me: let me overcome my desire to eat unnecessarily, and from now on help me eat in holiness and purity so that MY table will atone like the altar. Let me have guests at my table; let me give a of my meals to those in need; let me study Torah at the table, and let me eat all my meals in complete holiness.

Let my conduct at the table purify me from all my sins and earn me my share in the world to come, as well as a good livelihood in th-s world. Let me be marked for good in the highest worlds, and let me develop my strength for the time I will need it. Don't allow the forces of unholiness to draw nourishment from my table and my eating, except for the barest minimum that has to be given to them in accordance with Your will, but no more.

Let me fulfil the mitzvah of washing my hands before eating bread and at the end of the meal, and let me thereby sanctify my hands and bring perfect holiness and purity into myself in fulfilment of the verse: "You shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for L HaShem am holy." Help me say the blessing over bread, the grace after meals, and all the other blessings before and after food, with full concentration and devotion, in holiness and purity. Let my table be worthy of having applied to it the verse: "And he spoke to me, "This is the table that is before HaShem." " Through eating in holiness, let me overcome my mental confusion and lack of self-control, and help me attain perfect wisdom and connection with G-d.

Please, HaShem: You know the constant mental confusion and turbulence I suffer from. I just cannot stand it. But I have absolutely no idea what to do to try to clear my mind and rid myself of my impulsiveness and folly. These are the cause of my sinful behavior, but far from being able to bring some order into my mind and behave the way I should, I constantly do what I should not: my behavior is becoming more and more impulsive and reckless, and my mind ever more tur.

"My eyes are lifted up above, HaShem. Redeem me and save me! Intercede for the good of Your servant, and don't let my arrogant thoughts and sins overwhelm me. Take my soul out of prison." Grant me knowledge, understanding and wisdom, and help me repent of my evil thoughts. Let me abandon my wicked path and my corrupt and confused thoughts, which create such barriers against my turning to YOU. Have pity on me. Have compassion on me. Stir up Your love and mercy for me. Give me hope. Help me make a new start. From now on, let me drive away all evil thoughts and distractions and free myself of all mental confusion.

Enable me to develop my mind to perfection, quickly and easily, until I come to perfect holy wisdom and knowledge. And through this, help me to stop doing all the wrong I've done until now. From now on let me be a person who truly turns away from evil. Help me improve and perfect my behavior. In place of my former sinful behavior, let me devote myself from now on to good and noble activities that will evoke favor and joy before Your throne of glory.

HaShem my G-d and G-d of my fathers: please open me to the light of holy wisdom, and let me see the radiance of the true Tzaddikim, which shines in all the worlds, and nowhere more than in this lowly world. But because of the wrong I have done and my lack of spirituality, the light of the Tzaddikim has become so concealed from me that even when I try to bring myself closer to them and study their holy works, I am still unable to feel and see their pure, radiant light. I am insensitive to the sweetness of their holy words, because of my own spiritual darkness and bad habits. For me, the light of holy awe and love is shrouded in darkness, and because of my sins I am far, far away from true awe and love.

Please, HaShem, have pity on me! Don't reject me, and don't abandon me. Help me develop my mind and soul and improve my behavior. Open me to the light of holy wisdom, and reveal the truth to me. Let me see the light of the true Tzaddikim with the eyes of my soul. Grant that I should become one with them and cling to the pathways and good practices they have taught us. Through following them, bring me to complete holy awe and love.

Let me come close to the Tzaddikim who have the power to reveal the great pride and pleasure You have from the Jewish People in every generation, as it is written: "Israel, in whom I take pride." These Tzareveal both the pride and pleasure You take in the Jewish People as a whole - Your holy people, whom You chose from all the nations and exalted above all languages - and also the pride and pleasure You have from every individual Jew, even the most insignificant, even the Jewish sinners, as long as they still bear the name Jew because even then You still take pride in them and Your glory is enhanced and elevated through them. And these Tzaddikim also have the power to reveal even the pride and pleasure You take in the smallest details of the good deeds and gestures of every single Jew.

Let all this pride and pleasure be revealed by the true Tzaddikim, so as to reveal all Your intentions in creating the Universe as a whole and each of the different creatures in particular, and all of the unique details of each individual creature. For You created everything only for the sake of Your people Israel, so that You could take pride and pleasure in them and be magnified and exalted. Grant that we should be able to see and understand all this, so that we will attain complete awe and love of G-d, and we will come to fear Your mighty, awesome Name and genuinely love You with all our hearts, all our souls and all our might.

Please HaShem: You listen to every prayer, every cry and every sigh. Listen kindly to my prayer and grant my request - for Your sake and not for mine. Let me give much charity to genuinely deserving people and to the true Tzaddikim of this generation, and let me thereby bring the exiled good to recall its great worth, especially the good inside me, which is trapped in such a deep exile. Arouse and awaken it, and let it fight back against the evil in me, until I am able to conquer the evil and drive it out of me completely. Quickly bring me to complete repentance. Help me remove my physical appetite for unnecessary food. Help me eat in holiness and purity for the sake of Your Name, and remove the mental turbulence and folly that cause me to do wrong.

Kind and loving G-d: bring me to perfect holy knowledge and true spirituality. Let me do what is good in Your eyes. Open me to the fight of wisdom, and let the radiance of the true Tzaddikim, which shines in all the worlds, be revealed in its true power. Let it bring me to perfect awe and love of G-d, and unite my heart to genuinely love and fear Your Name from now on and for ever. Amen. Selah.

 

The "Mitzvot" of the Evil Inclination

Be kind to me and help me not to fall prey to the irrational appeals of my evil inclination. It tries to influence me and prevent me from serving You properly by dressing up its promptings as "mitzvot," as if trying to persuade me to do something right and proper. The truth is that these "mitzvot" which it dresses itself in are a hidden trap, as You alone know. Please, HaShem, have compassion on my poor soul and save me from the promptings of the evil inclination. Let it have no power to deceive me with these distractions.

I am throwing my whole burden upon You, HaShem, my G-d and G-d of my fathers. I am relying on You alone to lead me lovingly on the straight, true path at all times and in everything I do. Let my every movement be in complete accordance with Your will, and don't let me turn aside from what You want either right or left.

You know that we are flesh and blood - it is impossible for us to always know exactly what You want. I appeal to You to show me Your love and help me. Do not let the evil inclination have any power to unsettle and distract my mind with any kind of foolishness and irrationality whatsoever. Let me rely on You alone. Show me Your great love, and lead me on the path of truth at all times. Let all my actions, activities and behavior, and those of my children, my descendants and all who depend on me, be in full accord with Your good will at all times, from now on and for ever.

Loving G-d: Help me to be able to strengthen the power of holiness so as to overcome the power of evil. Help me to strengthen, my good inclination against the evil urge.

 

Faith, not superstition

Loving G-d: bring us to perfect, holy faith. Bring us to bein You and Your true Tzaddikim with genuine and complete faith. Save us from false and nonsensical beliefs. Keep us from all false beliefs, and let us never put our trust in any form of superstition. Let us never follow any kind of superstitious practices or even pay the least attention to such primitive lies and nonsense. Let our hearts be filled only with holy Emunah, and bring us to pure, clear, wholehearted faith in You, HaShem our G-d, and in the true Tzaddikim, in the Holy Torah - both the written and oral Torah - and in the entire holy Jewish People.

 

Faith in the Tzaddikim

Lovingly help me to have faith in the true Tzaddikim. Let no doubts whatever enter my mind on account of the disputes between the true Tzaddikim. Let me have complete faith in all the true Tzaddikim, and let me have no questions either about them or on account of the disputes between them.

Master of the Universe: It is true that I have wasted the drops of my mind and soul, and it is my own deficiencies that make it hard for me to draw close to the true Tzaddikim and develop genuine faith in them. This is the reason for the doubts I have about them. But still, HaShem, please do not treat me according to my sins. Don't judge me harshly, in spite of all the wrong I have done. For Your sake, if not for mine, fulfil my request and let no questions and doubts about the true Tzaddikim or their disputes enter my heart. Grant that I should have genuine, perfect faith in them at all times.

Lovingly and tenderly help me come back to You sincerely and walk the path of life. Let me fix everything I have damaged. Have compassion on me and bring me back from deato life, from chametz to matza, from bad fear to good fear, from a spoiled voice and a spoiled intellect to a good voice and a good mind. "Give me the wisdom to know the path of life and let me be satisfied with the joy of seeing Your face, so as to enjoy the pleasantness of Your merciful right hand for ever." "For with You is the source of life. In Your light we will see light."

 

Faith

HaShem: Surely faith is what You want that is where Your eyes are directed. Please help me: inspire me to have holy faith in You at all times without a moment's break. Bring me and all Your people Israel to perfect faith. Let us believe in You and Your true Tzaddikim without faltering. Let us be free of all confusion, and not deviate from our faith in any way.

Let me believe in all the holy miracles You have done for us. You have worked the most amazing miracles and wonders in every generation right up until the present - the "higher" and the "lower" miracles, those that have been revealed and those that reconcealed, those within nature and those beyond nature, general and specific miracles - for every single Jew, every day, every hour and every moment.

Let me and all Your people Israel believe in all these miracles unreservedly and with perfect faith. Silence the mouths of all the liars who want to put doubts into our hearts and cover up the miracles with natural explanations. "Cover their faces with shame, and let them search out Your Name, HaShem."

Have pity on me and help me avoid being influenced by such people. Remove any inclination I may have to listen to them. Give me the power to crush them and uproot their wicked ideas entirely. "For the slanderers let there be no hope, and let all the heretics, wanton sinners and atheists perish in an instant."

Put it into their hearts to repent, and let them all recant their evil and confused opinions. Let all of them return to You genuinely and honestly, and recognize the power of Your Kingship.

 

Forgiveness and Protection

All my sins and transgressions against You have driven the life- spirit out of me. It is my sins that have caused all my inadequacies and deficiencies. In the merit of the true Tzaddikim of the generation, forgive me and pardon me for all my sins. These Tzaddikim have the Spirit of G-d in them. It is through them that You are lovingly reconciled with the Jewish People, pardoning and atoning for our sins in every generation, because "The wise man will atone for it."

Drive all our enemies away. Break them and humble them. Thwart all who try to rise up against us with evil intent, and ftustrate their plans.

HaShem! You know how low and weak we are at this time. We have fallen lower and lower. "The enemy hand is ever stronger, and there is no one to save or support us." Our strength is gone. Every day, each one of us is sub ect to a multitude of pressures, all pushing us away from Your service and driving us away from life, G-d forbid.

I have enough troubles, problems and pressures within my own self. Every moment of."m every day I am under attack from my bodily desires and bad character traits. I don't have the strength to bear it. Because of my sins, I have not made an effort to drive out the "guest" - the Evil Urge - from within me, and now it has become the "master of the house." All my strength is sapped.

And as if all these inner pressures are not enough, I have a multitude of external battles to face as well. "HaShem, how many are our enen-des." To You, nothing is a secret. You know how many enen-des and accusers we have standing against us at all times, both in the upper worlds and in the lower worlds. You know how they have opened their mouths against us and how they wag their tongues. Their mouths are wide open to swallow us, because swallow us is what they want to do, G-d forbid.

Master of the entire Universe: You are truly merciful and full of love and kindness. You know exactly who we have fighting against us every day and every moment. "Why do You countenance the deceivers and stay silent while the sinner devours one more saintly than himselm Please show me Your love and give full rein to Your compassion.

You know that I do not have the strength to stand up against even a single one of my enen-des, whether physical or spiritual, let alone all of them. What am I but a despised, trampled, downtrodden worm? Won't You take pity on me? I am so weak - how can I stand up against lions?

You test people's hearts and innermost recesses. You know all their secrets. HaShem: You know that my real intention is to serve You truly. Maybe my actual behavior is not the best, and the things I do are a contradiction to my words. So far, I have not succeeded in taking myself in hand in order to achieve the only thing I really want in my heart, which is to be what You want me to be. Even so, Your love and kindness are more powerful than anything, and You value people's good intentions as if they had actually achieved what they wanted.

You know my heart. You know how I am constantly longing, yearning, hoping and waiting for You to help me and bring me to true service of G-d. Then why do You make me stray from Your pathways? Why do You give strength to my enemies, when all they want to do is to hide the truth and reinforce their lies? I do not have the strength to stand against them. I can only rely on You, and I am waiting and hoping for You to help me.

HaShem, our G-d and G-d of our fathers: Lovingly help us and save us from all our enemies and persecutors. We are under attack every day, both physically and spiritually. Give us the strength and holy life- spirit to overwhelm and conquer our enemies and bring them down to the ground.

Take away their life-spirit, which they draw from the realm of evil, from the unholy leader. Do not allow them to conquer us. Rescue us from their devouring mouths. "Save us from the sword, from their mouths, and the poor one from the mighty hand."  

 

  Love and Fear of G-d

Our Father in Heaven: It is from You that all the living have their share of life. Living G-d, our portion and our rock: Save us from death. Redeem us from destruction. Keep me and all Your people, the House of Israel, from all kinds of evil thoughts and doubts. They are called 'the side of death." In Your abundant love and kindness, grant me life. Let me live a life that is truly good, long, and eternal. Help me sanctify my mind, 'the wellspring of living waters."

Bring me to love and cherish Your great Name with a true love that will rise up to You directly. Unify my heart to love and fear Your Name. Save me from fallen fears, so that I will have no fear of anything in the world besides You. Let Your fear be on my face, so that I will never sin.

Help me pray to You with all my strength. Let me put all my energy into the words of the prayers and bring forth the sounds and words with great force. Let my voice penetrate my mind and resound in my heart like thunder, inspiring my heart to Your service. Let the thunder of my voice and words bring me to genuine fear of Heaven, so that my words will be a resounding influence drawing myself and others to serve and fear You.

Let the voice of our prayers rise and find favor before You, like the seven voices with which I-Cing David cried out over the water: "The voice of HaShem is upon the waters, the G-d of glory thunders, HaShem is upon vast waters! The voice of HaShem is in power..." Let the crookedness of my heart be smoothed out cornpletely. "The stubbornness of my heart will depart; I will not know evil." Bring me to be truly pure-hearted, and let me always face G-d honestly.

 

Bittul - Surrender and attachment to G-d

Open up Your great light to me - the light that has no end - and let me be merged in it to the full extent possible in this life. Especially during my prayers, help me to be truly attached and surrendered to You to the point that all independent ego will be erased and I will be completely separated from materialistic thoughts and desires.

When HaShem wants to help, no obstacle can stand in His way. I may be coarsely materialistic as a result of my deep exile amidst the lusts of the body and its evil traits. I am bound to my body like a chained, tprisoner. In spite of this, You are mighty and abundantly able to save. For You, nothing is impossible. I confidently wait, hope and expect that You will show me Your abundant love and grant me everything I have asked of You, so that I will be able to nullify all my bodily lusts and evil traits completely.

Let me come to transcend all material thoughts and desires, until I become genuinely merged in You all my days to the fullest extent possible in this life, until the day when You will finally take back my soul, and then You will lovingly bring me to be merged in You for ever. No sin or transgression will hold me back, because in Your abundant kindness and awesome mercy, You will forgive me for everything.

 

G-d's Glory

Arise and help me. Put it into my heart to take up the cause of Your great and holy honor, and that of my own nefesh, ruach and neshamah. Owing to omany sins, our status has fallen very low, because we have neglected Your honor and despised our own souls. We have been stripped of so much of our honor during our hun-dliating exile. "Our honor has dropped low among the nations, and they abhor us like menstrual impurity." See how very lowly the Jewish People has become, both collectively and as individuals.

Take up the cause of Your great and holy glory. It was for Your glory that You created al the worlds, so that Your glory should be magnified and exalted through Your people, as it is written, "All that is called in My Name, for My glory I have created it, formed it and made it."

Why has all the honor gone to strangers instead? Why has all the honor been taken from Israel and fallen into exile among evil, idolatrous people? They have all the glory, while Your people Israel are despised. We are subject to constant abuse and contempt.

Take pity on us for Your sake and the sake of Your glory. Send us help from Your holy heights. From now on, inspire me to serve and revere You sincerely, with all my heart. Let me repent and follow the path of perfect Teshuvah. Let me adom myself and others with good deeds and good character traits. Help me speak to people's hearts and show them the truth, and bring them back to perfect Teshuvah before You, in order that Your great and holy glory will be enhanced and elevated through me.

Your glory is most fully revealed when the people who were furthest away from You come genuinely close to You: then 'the Name of the Hol One blessed be He is exalted and glorified above and below." Therefore have pity on me and draw me close to You, despite my present distance from You. Multiply merit by letting me be an instrument to help other people who are also distant to come closer. Magnify and sanctify Your great glory by carrying this out through me, distant as I am. Support me and give me strength, and help me restore Your glory after the humiliation of exile.

Help me do everything I can to enhance Your glory at all times, and let me raise Your glory to its source in Awe. Inspire me with holy awe of G-d. Let me always be in awe of You and revere Your glorious and awesome Name. Help me come to perfect awe of Heaven - awe at Your exaltedness. Let me accord honor to genuinely G-d-fearing people. Let me defer to them and treat them with sincere, heartfelt respect. If I have been lacking in genuine awe so far, let me now make amends and attain complete awe of Heaven, so as to fulfil the verse: "Fear HaShem, His holy ones, for those who fear Him will lack nothing." Let me thereby attain perfect inner peace and harmony. Heal me spiritually and physically. Let me be whole, with no flaws or blemishes.

 

Everything is for good

Help me to set aside all my own wishes in favor of Your will. Let me have no other desire in the world except that my will should always be Your will. Bring me to know that HaShem is G-d, and that divine mercy and justice both come from one Source. Let me understand that no matter what may happen to me, everything is for my good. Let me bless You for everything as "Good and Beneficent", the way people will bless You in the future, as it is written: "I will praise Elokim [when G-d deals with me through His attribute of justice]; I will praise HaShem [when He deals with me through His attribute of mercy]."

Let us raise up and restore the fallen Kingship to its place, and let Your Kingship be revealed to all the world. Let the power of evil be shattered, and let the dominion of the idolators over us and all Your people Israel be broken and destroyed, and You, HaShem, will rule alone over all Your works.

Hashem, Master of the Universe: You know that I could attain all these levels with the help of true Tzaddikim. Therefore I appeal to You to reveal the true Tzaddikim of this generation. Show me who they are and help me to come close to them, so that with their help I can achieve everything I have asked of You.

If my many sins have created a barrier between myself and the true Tzaddikim, causing them to be hidden from me and making it impossible for me to discover who they are, may it be Your will, HaShem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, that You Yourself, in Your abundant love, should help me attain everything I have asked of You. Let my confession before You be accepted and accounted as if I had confessed before the true Sage and Tzaddik of the generation. Help me to nullify all my bad traits and desires and attain all the positive qualities and spiritual levels that I could have reached with the help of the true Tzaddikim. Grant me everything I have requested of You, and also the requests I have not mentioned.

Help me in all the different areas where I need help, HaShem, because You are my Father, and I have no-one to rely upon except for You, my Father in Heaven. You know how strongly I yearn to draw close to the true Tzaddik, but because of all my sins I do not know who he is or where. If only I knew and could find him, I would 'skip over the mountains and jump over the hills" to come to him. "I would tell him the number of my steps" - I would tell him every detail of my life.

Loving G-d, see my misery and pain, see my misery and bitterness. "I look at myself and I'm like a lone bird on a roof" - because I have no-one to turn to for help. To You alone I lift my eyes. Please take pity on me. Forgive me and grant atonement for all my many sins and transgressions. "HaShem is the G-d of love and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him. For the sake of Your Name, HaShem, forgive my sin, even though it is very great. For with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared."

Help me and grant everything I have requested as a free gift and an act of charity and kindness. If I have stumbled in my words, You, HaShem, grant me atonement. Grant that even in this world I should have a taste of the World to Come and surrender myself to You, knowing that all that happens to me is for my own good.

For HaShem is good to all. Grant me the privilege of revealing Your Kdngship in the world - "In order that all the nations on earth should know that HaShem is G-d and there is none other. And HaShem will be King over all the earth. On that day HaShem will be one and Ffis Name one. Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable before You, HaShem, my Rock and Redeemer."

 

Grace

O G-d: You are fof favor, tender mercy, kindness and goodness at all times. May it be Your will to have pity on me and shine upon me with grace and kindness. Grant me favor in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who sme. Send me words of grace and endearment that will enter into Your heart. Accept my prayers and requests at all times, and fulfil Your promise to "pour out on the house of David and those who dwell in Jerusalem a spirit of grace and endearment."

Let the words with which we address You be words of grace and endearment, and give them room to enter into Your heart, and let our words arouse favor and pleasure before the throne of Your glory.

Master of the World, see our poverty, our lowliness and shame. The grace and prestige of Your holy people Israel have fallen in this bitter exile. The Jewish People are despised and lowly in the eyes of the nations of the world and the wicked. All the grand importance have fallen to them.

Take pity on Your great and holy glory, and exalt, raise up and magnify the grace and prestige of Israel, materially and spiritually. Bring down the idol-worshippers, the unholy and the wicked. Let them have no grace and status whatsoever either above or below. Exalt Your people Israel and hear and receive our prayers and cries at all times.

See our toil and look at our plight, and fulfil what is written: "For He has not despised or spurned the suffering of the poor and He has not hidden His face from him. When he cries to He hears." Show us favor and answer us and hear our prayer. For You hear the prayers of every single one of Your people Israel in love. Blessed are You who hears prayer.

 

Let us help and support one another

Let love and harmony reign among us constantly, until we all become unified and inspire one another. Let us remind each other to turn to You sincerely, break all our bad traits and desires, and acquire good qualities by doing what is right in Your eyes all the days of our lives.

If any Jew has a deficiency of any kind, whether through neglecting some good trait or failing to work on a bad one, let a friend point it out to him and give him encouragement so as to enable him to fix everything in this life. Let us all come back to You in perfect Teshuvah and fix all the wrong we have done from our youngest days until today. From now on, help us to attain the good You want for us. Don't let us ever turn aside right or left from what You want. Watch over us with perfect care.

HaShem, Master of the Universe: Incline Your eand hear, open Your eyes and see our devastation. Don't hide Your eyes from us. Loving G-d: Take pity on us and watch over us with an eye of tender mercy and graciousness, a single eye of love, an open eye that never slumbers. Put us under Your perfect providence and let Your vision rest upon us through Your holy Torah, which You have radiated to us through the true Tzaddikim. Let us be close to Your holy, watchful eye, until we will be the focus of Your vision, and we will become merged with You.

Watch over us and take perfect care of us at all times, and send us a flow of goodness, blessing, holiness and purity. See our pitiful condition and how we are struggling. See the pressures we are under, physically and spiritually. Have pity on the Jewish People. We are scattered like a flock without a shepherd. Bring back our distant ones from the four comers of the earth. Redeem us quickly and send us our righteous Mashiach. For this e)dle of body and soul has gone on for so long that 'the power to bear it has collapsed," as You know, Hashem.

Show us love and pity. Shine Your mercy upon us. Bring us our righteous Mashiach quickly, and build the Holy Temple very soon in our days. "And as for me, in Your abundant mercy I will come to Your House. I will prostrate towards the palace of Your holiness in awe of You." Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart find favor before You, liashem my Rock and my Redeemer.

 

The Hidden Light

From now on, brinme genuinely close to You and lavish me with kindness from Your treasury of goodness. My eyes are hanging on You, waiting for You to bring me to true prayer. Help me to immerse myself in constant prayer, until I come to grasp the true secrets of the Torah, and I will have a taste of the hidden fight which You are going to reveal to the true Tzaddikim in the future - the innermost secrets of the Torah. Let me gaze upon the pleasantness of HaShem and contemplate in His sanctuary.

Master of all, kind, loving G-d: Grant that I should attain such a level of Torah and fervent prayer that, even in this world, I will be worthy of a taste of the hidden light that is concealed and stored away for those who fear You, as it is written: "How great is Your goodness that You have hidden away for those that fear You and have made for those who take refuge in You against the sons of man."

HaShem: You are good and benevolent to all. You know that there is no true good in the world except to turn from evil and to do good, to genuinely subject ourselves to the Torah and divine service with complete sincerity at all times, until we are granted a taste of the hidden light even in this world. This is the true and enduring good. Deal with me mercifully and grant that I should taste Your true goodness. "He lifts up the lowly from the dust, He will raise up the destitute from the trash-heap."" Be kind to me. Elevate me and satisfy me with Your goodness. Show me the radiance of Your glory and grant me eternal life from now and for ever. Amen. Selah.

 

Humility

Help me bear shame and embarrassment without throwing insults back in return. Even if I hear myself abused, let me not reply. "To those that curse me, let my soul be silent." No matter how other people may abuse and insult me, let me hold my peace and say nothing. Let me lisilently wait for HaShem and hope in Him", and "let me be like a man who does not hear and has no complaints on his lips...." "I will be like a deaf person - I will not hear; I will be like a dumb person who will not open his mouth."

HaShem, I know the truth: all the insults in the world would not be enough to cleanse me, considering the weight of all my sins. It is impossible to express in words how degraded I have become through my own choices and actions. My sins have cast a stain on Your great glory. I have dishonored Your holy Name, and I have mightily abused my own soul through my sins. I have given power to the blood in the left side of the heart, which has strengthened my evil inclination.

To make up for all this I must simply bear even the worst insults and persecution. So HaShem, when people abuse and insult me, help me bear it in silence, in order that this should be my atonement for all my sins.

HaShem, my G-d: In my heart of hearts I know that I am very far from genuine Teshuvah. My sins have gone over my head. They have left me in such a state of mental confusion that I really have no idea to come back to You. My good sense and intelligence have left me, and I feel as if I have no heart. I go around like a vagrant, devoid of mind and heart.

HaShem, You know my foolishness. I cannot conceal my guilt from You. Father, loving Father, what should I do? Where should I run for help? What possible remedy or strategy can I find to save my soul from destruction? "I lift up my eyes to the mountains: from where will my help come?" Help me! Help me! Please! Please be kind to me! Show me Your love and mercy! Save me!

Shine upon me from Your holy habitation, and cause a spirit of wisdom and understanding, holiness and purity to rest upon me, so that I will be able to genuinely sanctify and purify myself and come back to You in perfect Teshuvah. Let me hold my peace and say nothing to those who abuse and insult my soul. Let me 'silently wait for HaShem and hope in Him", bearing all degradation and persecution with love, as an atonement for my sins.

 

Eretz Israel

G-d of faith: Help me come to perfect faith, and bring me to Eretz Israel, the place of our sanctity, the root of faith, prayer and miracles, the fountain of life, the source of the Jewish People's closeness to their Father in Heaven, our holy place, our pride, the place of our vitality and long life.

Father in Heaven: Have pity on us and grant us as a gift of love that we should soon move to Eretz Israel and live a life of true service of G-d with reverence and love. Hurry and free us from this deep e)dle away from our land, which has lasted for so many years. Gather us in peace from the four corners of the earth and speedily bring us up to our land in pride and dignity.

Master of the Universe: You know that the only reason for this long e)dle has been our weak faith. This was why we first went into e)dle, and we have still not done enough to strengthen our faith. That is why this bitter e)dle has lasted until now.

Please take pity on the Jewish People, because we have no-one to stand up for us. Only Your great Name will support us: plant Your holy faith in our hearts and keep it firm from now on and for ever.

Free me from the sinuous doubts and questions in my . Let me never entertain the slightest doubt about how You run the world. Let me always believe that You are just and righteous. "For the word of HaShem is just, and all His works are done with faithfulness." "All Your commandments are faith. They have persecuted me falsely - help me."

Be kind to me and answer me, and help me have perfect faith at all times. In the merit of faith, bring us back to our land very soon, as it is written: "Come, look down from the top of Amanah - Emunah, faith." Speedily in our days. Amen.

Have mercy on me! Arouse Your great love and kindness for me and help me go to the Holy Land soon. Eretz Israel is the. very source of our holiness, as You know, HaShem. All our holiness, our purity and our very identity as Jews depend on Eretz Israel. It is impossible to be a true Jew and rise spiritually from level to level except through coming to Eretz Israel, the place of our holiness, the land You chose from all other lands and gave as an inheritance to Your people Israel, choicest of all the nations - the land You watch over constantly, as it is written: "A land that HaShem your G-d watches over; the eyes of HaShem your G-d are upon it constantly from the beginning of the year until the end of the year."

You know the terrible array of obstacles, blocks and distractions holding us back and preventing us from reaching Eretz Israel. Our days and years have been wasted in exile. We have been banished from the land of the living, the Holy Land. We"ve been kept from attaching ourselves to G-d's portion, which is the source of our very life and length of days, and from dwelling in the land HaShem has given us.

Master of the Universe, loving G-d: have pity on us! Open our hearts, the hearts of our children and of all Your People, the House of Israel, and fill us with the most powerful l, yearning and desire for Eretz Israel. Let us constantly yearn and long to come to the Land, until You actually bring us there soon, so that we will be truly inspired to serve You and fear You.

Loving G-d: have mercy on us! Don't let us waste our days in exile. You know our suffering and weakness at this time. It is impossible for us to break the tremendous array of barriers keeping us from Eretz Israel. We do not have the strength to break so many thousands and thousands of obstacles and barriers except through Your power and mercy. We have no-one to depend upon except You, our Father in Heaven. Have pity on Your People and bring us to Eretz Israel quickly and easily. Give us the strength to win the war and break, drive out and remove all those who say bad things about the country, creating all kinds of obstacles to prevent us from reaching there. Help us break and destroy all the barriers and come to Eretz Israel peacefully, quiddy and easily.

 

Joy of the Mitzvot

HaShem, our G-d and G-d of our fathers: Lovingly help me to fulfil Your mitzvot with great joy. Bring me to pray to You with all my strength. Let the various kinds of energy in all of my two hundred and forty-eight limbs, my three hundred and sixty-five sinews, my flesh, my bones, my veins and arteries, my fat, my blood, my brain, the nerves that branch out through my whole body, my five senses and all my other faculties enter into my prayers and be merged within them.

Let me bring out the sounds and words of the prayers with great force. Let my voice come forth like thunder, and let the sound of my voice arouse my inner concentration, so that I will hear and understand the words I am saying in my heart. Let me pray with intense attention and devotion. And bring me to attain the highest level of heavenly fear: awe at Your exaltedness.

Protect me from all extraneous fears, so that I will not be afraid of or anyone in the world - not of powerful officials or important personages, nor of wild animals, violent robbers or anything else in the entire world. Let me have no extraneous fear whatever. Let me only fear You at all times, and help me experience supreme awe at Your exaltedness.

 

Judging others favorably

Master of the Universe: Through Your holy sages, of blessed memory, You have given us a distant hint of the exalted holiness of the Jewish People. Every single Jew is a "crown" to the Holy One blessed be He. I therefore want to ask You to help me to always try to search for all the good points that are to be found in each Jew, and to judge everyone favorably.

Even when people are against me and abuse and insult me, let me hold my peace and say nothing. Even in my heart, let me feel no hatred or anger. Instead, let me judge them favorably

 

Self-judgement

Please, HaShem, loving, merciful G-d: Don't let me lose my eternal reward. Don't let all my efforts come to nothing and bear no fruits. Help me to examine myself constantly and reflect carefully on what I am doing in this fleeting world. Let me think about my path in life. Let me evaluate everything I do every day and every moment. Let me always ask myself whether I am behaving the way I ought to or not, so that I will take myself in hand and repent for my wrongful thoughts and behavior. Let me genuinely 'turn from evil" in thought, word and deed, and do only what is good in Your eyes at all t.

Please, HaShem, have mercy on me. Take pity on me. See how low I have fallen. I'm in terrible trouble - worse than someone adrift at sea and lying in the most dangerous place on the boat. I have no idea where I should run... where I should fly... to try to escape from my mner torment. I have no idea how to cry out to You. For years now I've been calling to You to stir Your love and mercy and release me from my evil thoughts and ways, so as to bring me out of my darkness to goodness and light. Through Your true Tzaddikim You have taught us that prayer helps in everything. Prayer is the basis for all true closeness to You. You hear all prayers, no matter whose. You even listen to a cry from the belly of hell and the lowest depths. Then why will You not attend to the words of Your servant, who has been standing and crying out to You for such a long time?

Not only have I failed to improve my behavior day by day. Every day my spiritual state is worse than it was the day before. I simply don't know what method I should use to try to bring holy power into myself in order to fight and conquer my evil urge and break and remove my desires. There's only one way I can escape from my urges and save my soul from heff - through prayers and supplications, cries and screams. But even this I find impossible. How can someone as persecuted, beaten about and manhandled as I have been come to true prayer? I have no option but to cry out and pray to the best of my ability. But if even this does not help, G-d forbid, I don't know what I can do to escape.

Master of the World, I know the truth: I myself am the guilty one. "The sin is mine, Master" - because I don't try to fight my desires for even a brief moment. In fact, I encourage them. Not only have I made no effort to grapple with my desires and remove them. I've actively embraced them. G-d help me to stop doing so from now on. But I've already asked You to help me with this. I've begged You to have mercy and save me from my very self. Let me stop being so cruel to my poor soul. Let me have pity on myself. No-one is more pathetic than a person who is far away from You and still unable to come close to You. This You well know, HaShem, my G-d, healer of the sick, who releases those who are in bondage and supports those who have fallen, and who hears the cry of the destitute. Have mercy on me! Don't abandon me! Don't throw me away! See how low I've fallen. See my bitter plight.

But I know that my Redeemer is alive and that from a distance You are planning to benefit me in the end and release me from my exile. Answer me, Hashem, answer me! Help me, help me! Save me, save me! Have compassion and save me from destruction. Help me repent sincerely and come to perfect Teshuvah. Let me walk the path of Your statutes and observe Your laws.

 

Livelihood

Loving G-d: Send me my livelihood before I need it. Provide for me generously and unsparingly through legitimate means, without my transgany prohibitions. Grant me my livelihood easily and honorably from Your wide and open hand, without my having to suffer pain and degradation. Let me not need to depend upon human gifts or loans.

Give me everything I need so that I will be able to do Your will and engage in Your Torah at all times, day and night. Grant me Torah and prosperity together.

HaShem, our G-d and G-d of our fathers" lovingly provide me with my food and a com-, fortable livelihood, honorably and without effort or anxiety. You have taught us that immorality causes a person's food and livelihood to be withheld, "for the desire for a harlot reduces one to begging for a loaf of bread." But keeping the mitzvah of Tzitzit saves a person from immorality and enables him to receive his livelihood in a holy way.

Master of the Universe, loving G-d: Save me from all forms of falsehood and error. When I speak, do not let a single untrue word leave my mouth, and when I act, keep me from all false and wrongful behavior. Protect me from the crooked paths of those who have gone astray, and help me walk the path of truth at all times. Through truth I will come to perfect faith, and connect truth and faith together, so that even in those areas where I have to depenon faith alone, because the truth itself is beyond the grasp of human reason, even so, my beliefs will be true.

Let my prayers be well-ordered and flow fluently from my lips and my very heart. Work miracles and wonders in the world "in ordthat all the nations on earth should know that HaShem is G-d, there is none other."

Remember Your people Israel and free them from this deep exile You have imposed upon them for so many years. Redeem us soon, help us come back to our land, and send us our righteous Mashiach quickly. "Justice will be the belt of his loins and faith the belt of his hips." "Truth will sprout from the earth and justice will appear from the heavens." "Come, gaze from the peak of Amanah - Emunah, faith." Quickly in our days. Amen.