Prayers-Part-4

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

Sleep and dreams

Loving G-d: save me from evil thoughts and bad dreams, and let my bed be a place of perfect holiness. Help me sleep only the n-dnimum necessary for the health of my body, and even that in holiness and purity. Let my sleep be sweet. As I go to sleep, let it be with thoughts of Torah in my mind and with feelings of joy. Let me recite the bedtime Shema with great holiness and surrender, with deep concentration and heartfelt intensity, so as to kill all impure and destructive spirits and all unholy forces.

Let my nefesh, my ruach and my neshamah be joined in unity with all the holy souls of the Jewish People. Let my soul ascend with them to You as I sleep, and let my soul be delivered into Your hand alone, as it is written: "Into Your hand I entrust my spirit: You have redeemed me, Ha- Shem, G-d of truth." Loving G-d: banish all the different kinds of evil spirits and unholy forces wanting to take hold of my soul. Have mercy on my poor soul and help her ascend to You in peace while I sleep and return in peace to my body when I wake up. Let me enjoy good, sweet, holy sleep - the sleep of life! Send me good, true, holy dreams through true, holy angels, and save me from false, vain and confused dreams caused by unholy spirits.

Kind and merciful G-d: guard me and save me from the vain en-dssion of seed at night. Let me never have a vain emission either during the day or at night. Let me always sleep in holiness and purity: let me lie down to rest in goodness and purity, and awaken to Your love.

Kind, ever-loving, merciful Father: You watch over us from afar, planning eve g for our ultimate benefit. Have pity on us and on our little ones, and save me and all the Jewish People from vain emissions. You know the terrible damage this causes in all the worlds, up to the very highest. Because of this our city was destroyed, our Holy Temple was made desolate, the glory was taken from the House of our life, and we were exiled from our land, dispersed among the nations and scattered to the four comers of the earth.

Have pity on the remnant of Your people, the House of Israel. Have pity on Your poor, scattered flock - for there is no one to gather us in. Loving King: have pity on us. Good and beneficent G-d, give us success in our search for You. Return to us in love for the sake of the patriarchs, who carried out Your will. Say "Enough!" to our troubles. Loving G-d: purify us, guard us and save us from night-time emis- sions from now on, and guard us in life and peace when we go out and when we come in, from now and for ever. Protect us from all evil. Let us never harbor evil thoughts by day, so that we won't come to impurity at night, G-d forbid. Let all our thoughts be pure and holy at all times.

 

Study of the Halakhah

Help me devote myself to Your Torah in the proper way, and give me the ability to clarify Torah law, so that in each case I will come to the right decision. Help me study the law codes, and inspire me with the necessary wisdom, understanding and knowledge so as to be able to" clarify the final decision and distinguish between what is permitted and what is forbidden,, what is pure and what is impure, what is valid and what is invalid.

This will give me the power to fix and make amends for the damage I have caused in all the worlds through my many sins and transgressions, which caused good and evil to become mixed up.

Help me come to genuine prayer, so that the light of true wisdom will be opened up for me and I will be able to clarify the Halakhah and come to the right decisions. I will then have the power to sift out the good from the bad in all the worlds and correct all the damage caused by my sins, whether in this incarnation or another. Fulfil all the requests of my heart for good, and let me see everything I need and ask for come to fruition.

Through the study of the Halakhah, help me cleanse, purify and rectify the four primary elements of which my body is composed, so as to break and conquer all the bad traits and desires that derive from them, while refining the good.

 

Teshuvah

Please, HaShem: I am in such painf Redeem me! Have pity on my poor, wounded soul, which has been snatched and ground down as if between the teeth of a lion. I am full of sin. I am far from You in every way. When will I think about my destiny and prepare provisions for my journey, like all the pious, G-d-fearing Jews who have gone before me in all the generations? What will I do on the Day of judgement? Where will I take my great shame? How will I hide myself away? What will I do when G-d will arise? When He recalls my deeds, what will I answer Him?

 

The Path of Teshuvah

Help me to follow the path of Teshuvah all my days. "Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart and purified myself of sin"?" You know our hearts, and how we often have mixed and impure motives for even the good that we do. Even when I am confessing my sins, I have improper thoughts and motives. I find it impossible to say even a single word sincerely and honestly. My sins are real enough, but I have a block against owning up to them.

So please help me to keep going forward on the path of Teshuvah, and to repent over my repentance - to make amends for the inadequacy of my earlier Teshuvah. This way, with Your help, I will eventually be able to attain the highest level of Teshuvah: You will open my heart and mind to know Your Name, and I will then attain such a level of spiritual perception that I will understand that I have not even begun to repent as yet in a way that is commensurate with Your awesome greatness and exaltedness.

You will then help me repent genuinely over my earlier repentance. With each new and higher perception of Your exaltedness, I will repent over the limitations of my earlier perceptions, and for having allowed material images to influence the way I conceive of You, detracting from the supreme exaltedness of Your divinity. I will keep going forward on the path of Teshuvah every day of my life, until the day when You will finally take my soul and bring me to the World to Come, the "day that is all Shabbat, all Teshuvah."

Help me to slaughter my Evil Urge, and thereby give You honor in two worlds, This World and the World to Come, as it is written, "The one who slaughters [the evil urge, and offers] the thanksgiving offering will give Me honor."

Help me run away from honor. Let me minimize my own importance, while doing everything I can to enhance the glory of G-d. Grant me a share in Your great glory, and lovingly bring me to experience the glory of G-d and attain holy glory for Your sake alone. Let me never make use of Your glory for my own personal advantage, but only for the sake of Your Name and in Your service, and let no one feel the need to raise questions about my reputation and honor.

HaShem, help me be firm, strong and determined in Your service at all times. Don't let me ever fall away, G-d forbid. "Don't throw me down from before You, and do not take Your holy spirit from me." Bring me to be one of those who is always "coming in and going out" of the Palace of the I<ing, constantly striving to achieve ever greater intimacy. Teach me how to "run forward" to new spiritual heights, and then "return" and integrate the perceptions and insiI have gained into my life as a whole. Help me develop the skills I need during all the different phases of my spiritual life, both when I am making progress and when I find myself regressing. Let me be expert at "running forward," and expert at "returning," expert when "con-dng in" and expert when "going out."

Let me be able to find You everywhere, whether I go up or down, as it is written: "If I go up to Heaven, there You are, and even if I make my bed in hell, behold, there You are!" Let me constantly reach out for connection with You, so that I will be able to say: "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine."

Please, HaShem, have compassion on me and remember me for good. Don't abandon me, and do not leave me to sink and become trapped in the lowly, degraded situations I have been caught in until now. "Don't forsake me, HaShem my G-d, and don't keep far from me. Don't let me be swallowed up in the depths, and don't let the pit shut its mouth over me."

Be kind to me and lift me out of the dust. Help me rise from my degraded state. Be with me, just as You promised You would be with Yaakov: "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you up." It is true that I have fallen, but I ask You to let my fall be a preparation for a great ascent. Have pity on me. Send me Your help and take hold of me with Your loving hand of mercy. Support me tenderly and lovingly, and always be with me. Give me the strength and good sense to hold on to You at all times, and never ever let me fall. It is written: "Even if he falls, he will not be cast aside, because HaShem is supporting him by the hand." Fulfil this in me.

Grant me spiritual freedom very soon. From today on, release me from the vicious cycle of backsliding and failure I have been caught in so far. Help me overcome the sense of distance from You that I have had until now. You "lift the poor out of the dust and the needy from the scrapheap." I am poor and needy: take pity on me. Be kind to me, and lift me up. "My hands are raised to You. From the ends of the earth I call to You. My heart is fainting. Bring me up to a rock which is too high for me."

Master of the Universe! Master of the Universe! My Father in heaven: Take pity on me, and drive away all those who are persecuting me and pushing me down. Call a halt to my troubles. Say, "So far and no further." From now on, help me, and start to lift me up, level by level, quickly and easily. Turn all my spiritual failures into successes. If my relationship with You until now has been one of distance and alienation, let it be transformed from now on into one of closeness and intimacy.

In Your compassion, You have made a start in drawing us close to You. Through the true Tzaddikim You have sent us in each generation, You have begun to shine the light of Your holiness and love upon us. HaShem, it would not be fitting for You to abandon us now.

You began showing us Your greatness and goodness when You gave us Your holy Torah through Moshe, Your faithful prophet. In each generation You have lovingly sent us all the Tzaddikim who have transmitted the Torah to us - from Moshe to Yehoshua, from Yehoshua to the Elders, and from them to the subsequent Elders and Tzaddikim in every generation, until the chain of Torah tradition has now reached us.

Your love for us has still not ceased to flow: "I awaken, and I am still with You." just as You have alwayhelped us until now, stir up Your compassion yet again, and help me fulfil the entire Torah in love. Take pity on me and help me remain attached to You and to the true Tzaddikim for ever, both in This World and in the World to Come.

Please, HaShem, lovingly help me open my eyes, my heart and my ears to see, understand and hear Your greatness and exaltedness, and to return to You in complete sincerity and truth. Grant me knowledge, understanding and wisdom to understand and grasp the ways of Teshuvah. Help me to follow them at all times, and let me be a true Baal Teshuvah, a Master of Repentan. For Your right hand is held open to receive those who return, and You want Teshuvah. If not now, when?

Help me come to perfect Teshuvah on the highest level, so that through my efforts to make amends and repair what I must, the lowest point and highest points of creation will be united, and the Supernal Man will be seated upon the throne. Let my nefesh, ruach and neshamah be merged in that exalted place from now and for ever.

Restore the moon and fill its dark portions with light. Let the light of the moon be like the light of the sun, and let the light of the sun be sevenfold, like the light of the Seven Days of Creation. For Your IGngship governs everything in heaven and on earth.

Your miracles and wonders are unfathomable. You work out ways to make sure that no-one should be cast aside. You "cause death and bring to life, You take souls down to hell and You bring them up." You have the power to connect, bind and unify complete opposites - from the lowest depths of hell to the supreme, most exalted heights, from the lowest point to the highest. For "Who will tell You what to do?"

If so, let Your tender mercy reach even me. G-d who takes pity on the poor and hears the cry of the needy: forge a channel from beneath Your throne of glory down to me, and help me stir and wake up, and return to You in perfect Teshuvah. Help me be genuinely attached to the true Tzaddikim from now on and for ever.

"For You do not wish for the death of the sinner but that he should turn from his ways and live." "You grind man down to the dust and say, "Return, sons of man."... Return, HaShem -until when? Relent over Your servants." "Bring us back to You, HaShem, and we will return. Renew our days as of old."

 

Pure Thoughts

Loving G-d: Help me clear my mind and my thoughts of ideas and theories that are in conflict with the Torah, in order that I should not sully my intelligence and sensitivity with sinful thoughts and desires, or sour my mind with erroneous theories. Free me of all doubts and skepticism, and let my mind and my thoughts be pure, clear and holy.

Give me the strength to fight against the bad thoughts, doubts and sinful desires that come to confuse me. Let me keep them out of my mind. Let me fight them down and drive them away completely. Let them have no power to enter my consciousness at all, and let me sanctify my and my thoughts at all times.

Please, HaShem: You know the tremendous damage caused in the upper worlds by every single bad thought, and even more so by evil doubts that go against the very foundations of Torah faith, G-d forbid. Such doubts cause a flaw in all the worlds, and have the power to uproot a person from the Source of life, until becomes extremely difficult for him to repent and rediscover the path of life. You alone know the full extent of the damage caused on the highest of levels by every evil thought and idea that comes into the mind.

You also know the tremendous power such thoughts have over our minds, and their ability to confuse us. We are under constant pressure to succumb to them. I have sinned in this many times. I have failed to protect myself against such thoughts or fight them, and I have caused tremendous damage to my own mind by the evil thoughts I have allowed to enter. My whole mind is full of alien thoughts. I have transgressed the prohibition against chametz - leaven, souring my mind with forbidden desires and skeptidsm, and allowing myself to fall prey to all kinds of meaningless distractions.

Not only have I not tried to fight against such thoughts. I have opened myself to them, making no effort at all to push them out. I have not followed the advice given in Your holy Torah to at least sit passively rather than willfully entertain sinful thoughts: "sit and do nothing." I have not listened to my teachers.

How many of my days have gone to waste because of confused and evil thoughts. "I am sinking in the depths of the mud with nothing to support me; I have come into the deepest water and the current is sweeping me away." My mind is such a tun-noil of evil thoughts and confusion that it is extremely hard for me to fight them even when I want to.

"HaShem, You know my folly, amy sin is not hidden from You." I come before You prostrate, humbled, begging and supplicating like a poor man at the door, sighing and beaten down, asking, requesting and begging as a free gift and an act of mercy that You should show me Your wonderful love and kindness and take me out of my darkness into the light. Help me to sanctify my thoughts today and forever.

 

Attachment to the Tzaddikim

HaShem: Help me draw the breath of life from the Tzaddikim to satisfy all my needs. Always hear the sound of my sighs. Let me draw the breath of life and goodness from the true Tzaddikim through my sighs, so as to satisfy my needs and provide me with everything I require, whether materially or spiritually.

Let all my needs be satisfied for good, "for the source of life is with You": You give breath and life-spirit to everything which is alive and to everything in the world - all through Your true Tzaddikim, who are constantly attached to Your holy Torah, which is our life and length of days.

Have pity on Your people Israel: reveal to us who the true Tzaddikim are, and help us draw the breath of life from them. Give us the ability to make up for anything we may be lacking by simply sighing over it. Fulfil all the requests of our hearts for good.

 

Attachment to the true Tzaddik

Even so, my hope in HaShem is still not lost, because He loves mercy. You want the wicked to repent, not that they should die. In Your great love, You have taught us to confess all our sins and transgressions before You. Through Your holy sages, now at rest, You have taught us to go before the true Sage and Tzaddik and openly confess in his presence in order that all our sins should be atoned.

Thus it is written: "The anger of the King [is expressed through] emissaries of death, but the wise man will atone." For "He overlooks transgression for the sake of the remnant..." - "...for the sake of the one who makes himself like remnants [because of his humility]." This refers to the true Tzaddik and Sage of the generation, who is "More humble than any man on the face of the earth."

Through his hun-dlity, the Tzaddik has the power to lift up our woof confession before You and bring atonement for all our sins, and remove the evil that has become inscribed on our bones as a result of our sins. Our twisting of the teachings of the Torah can then be rectified, so that the pure, clear message of the letters will shine forth as at first - all through our confession before the Sage. Then our shattered bones will be healed and put back in their proper place, and through this we will become merged in You for ever.

Please, loving G-d, who works out ways that none should be rejected, "remember Your love and mercy, HaShem, for they are eternal." The hand of the enemy is high, and we have no one to lead and support us. What should we do now, HaShem our G-d? We have been left as orphans without a father: we have no-one to stand up fous. We have lost our saints. The true Tzaddikim and Sages of the generation, who had the power I mentioned and more than that as well, have left this world owing to our many sins. And we are here alone, empty and bereft of all good. We are like a lone mast on the top of a mountain and a flag on top of a hill.

 

The Guidance of the Tzaddikim

Master of the Universe, HaShem, G-d of truth: In each generation You planted true Tzaddikim among us. Loving G-d: help me come close to the true Tzaddikim and receive true counsel from them. Let me follow their advice without deviating from it in any way.

Guard me, my family and friends, and all Your people Israel, from all evil influences. There are people whose advice and suggestions are like those of the archetypal serpent. Let me pay no attention to anything they say. Let me not even hear their words. Let nothing they say enter my heart and mind in any way.

Let me keep well away from people who have strayed from the path of Torah. Don't let them have any power to deceive me with their destructive ideas. Thwart their evil intentions. Save me from all falsehood and error. Protect me from those who cover their lies with a veneer of truth, twisting the words of the Living G-d, and calling evil good and good evil. Their ideas and suizeestions are the opposite of the truth, and they are holding back the Jewish People from the true and correct path.

They make light of the most serious laws of the Torah, while turning minor matters into issues of major importance. What You reject, they embrace; what You desire, they reject. Not all of them have evil intentions: some of them have simply made a mis, and they do not know the real truth. They speak in all innocence, but their ideas and suggestions are false, and they are very damaging to us in our efforts to serve You.

Master of the Universe: You know the truth. Before You, all secrets are revealed. You know the mysteries of the entire universe and the hidden secrets of all living. Help us and save us from these people. Let none of what they say stick in our hearts in any way. We want nothing of them not them, and not their tumult, and not their uproar."

Almighty G-d: You are the supreme Guide. Lovingly grant that the true Tzaddikim should be revealed to me. Help me come dose to them and receive sound, clear guidance from them founded on the six hundred and thirteen niitzvot of the Torah. Through their guidance and counsel, let me receive the light of truth, and thereby come to genuine, perfect faith for ever.

 

I bind my prayers to the true Tzaddikim

On the contrary, the Tzaddikim in every generation most certainly lift up our every prayer and put each one in its proper place, building out of them, as it were, the structure of the Shekhinah. Eventually the entire structure will be completed, and then the Mashiach will come and bring the work to perfection and raise the Shekhinah completely.

I would like to bind all my prayers to all the Tzaddikim in our generation. And You, in Your abundant mercy, arouse the hearts of the true Tzaddikim of this generation, and give them the power to take my prayers and elevate them to You.

My prayers may be far from perfect. There may be much about them that is not right. There may not even be a single word or letter that is pure and clean. My words are very muddled and what I say is full of mistakes. I do not speak with the proper concentration and awareness, and my words are far from where my thoughts are.

Even so, Your love and kindness are overwhelming: give Your true Tzaddikim the power to lift up and elevate all my prayers and cleanse and purify them from all blemishes and impurities. Let my prayers rise up and find favor before You, and let the Tzaddikim use them to build the structure of the Shekhinah, to prepare Her, support Her, and lift Her out of her e)dle. Raise up the fallen Tabernacle of David through our prayers, and return Your Divine Presence the Shekhinah - to Zion, and shine Your face upon us.

"Turn to me and show me favor, for I do not put my trust in my bow, and my sword will not save me." Only in Your Name do we put our trust. "For G-d alone do we have praise all day, and we give thanks to Your Name for ever!"

 

The true Tzaddik

Loving G-d: You have planned everything for our ultimate good, and You have sent us the remedy even before the wound. You have sent us true Tzaddikim - holy ones now at rest in the earth - who have been our support and refuge. Because of the awesome good they did, You gave them the power to elevate all those who had the privilege of coming genuinely close to them, and to bring them back to You in complete Teshuvah.

They even had the power to lift up my poor soul and restore it after having been so terribly shattered, so tired, so hungry, so thirsty and so bitter. Together with all the other souls gathered around them, I too was uplifted and inspired, proving that there is hope for the lowly. What a privilege it was to see Tzaddikim who had such powers and more! How fortunate were the souls who used to ascend to such heights of devotion with the help of these Tzaddikim, and experience renewal.

I have come before You now, Hashem, my G-d and G-d of my fathers, to ask You to have mercy on me and take pity on my posoul. Show me what I should do now that the true Tzaddikim have left this world because of our many sins. We have been abandoned, like a solitary mast at the top of a mountain. "Tbe Tzaddik has been lost, yet no-one stops to ponder it; the men of piety have been taken, yet no-one understands: the Tzaddik has been taken, so as not to see the coming evil."

Loving, merciful Father in Heaven: Look at the desperate plight we are in. We are now experiendng the fulfilment of the prophecy that "a time of trouble will come for Yaakov the like of which never was." You have struck us with "a blow which is not written in the Torah" - 'this is the death of the Tzaddikim," those faithful leaders who used to carry us like a nurse carries a suckling child. Thad compassion on our souls. They were constantly looking to heal and revive our souls and renew our days of darkness like the eagle.

Where should we turn to now? Where should we run for refuge? Where should we look for help?

Master of the Universe: See what a pitiful state we are in. Our hearts are full of pain and sorrow. We are like sheep being led to the slaughter.

Look at what I've become! I go around like a "fugitive and a wanderer." I'm like a body without a soul, a mindless robot. I'm like a captainless boat drifting in the heart of the sea, with the storm wind blowing stronger and stronger every moment.

My sins make it seem impossible that I will ever be able to come close to You. The pathways of Teshuvah are hidden from me. I have no idea how to set about gaining wisdom and understanding, or how to develop the strength to fight against my evil inclination and break it and force it into submission to You, so that I will be able to turn to You sincerely with all my heart.

I have strayed far away from Your holiness, Hashem: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Search out Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments." HaShem: You know that no matter how many confessions I make to You, I have still not begun to express my thoughts and explain to You how far I feel myself to be from You. It is impossible to find words to express how far away I am, and how many mistakes I have made. I don't know where I am in the world. All I know is how distant I feel from You, and how much damage I have done. From the time I was young until today, I've not had a single day I could call perfect and flawless.

Even on those occasions when You helped me arouse myself and start trying to serve You, I was never able to persist and keep following the path of holiness for more than a short while. Even when You have helped me, I've not had pity on myself. I've not tried to stand firm for even a single day. "Even while the King was still sitting in Ffis place, my behavior gave off its scent.,,

Even so, Your love and kindness are with me all the time, and You help me constantly. You have treated me kindly, but I have repaid You with evil. I am so weak and under such pressure that I desperately need You to send us a true leader - one who will constantly watch over us and "have pity on the poor and needy, and save the souls of the needy." I need someone who will take me by the hand and lift me out of my darkness into the light, showing me the path to take and what I should do.

Master of the Universe! Loving G-d! G-d of Israel, who truly loves the Jewish People: "Tell me, You whom my soul loves: where do You pasture Your flock? Where do You put them to rest under the fierce sun of the harsh e)dle?" Our many sins have caused us to experience the fulfilment of words of the prophet: "Who will take pity upon You, Jerusalem, and who will nod in sympathy with you, and who will turn aside to ask how you are?"

Even so, Master of the Universe, You have already pron-dsed us that there is no orphaned generation. Even in this generation there must certainly be true Tzaddikim who have the power to gather up our souls and revive them, and reveal new, inspiring Torah teachings that will bring us back to You in complete Teshuvah.

HaShem our G-d and G-d of our fathers: Have compassion on us and do not turn away from us. Show us the true Tzaddikim of this generation, and grant that we should come close to them. We have no-one to depend on except You, our Father in Heaven, and the true Tzaddikim, through whom You lovingly help and support Your people Israel.

 

The Power of the Tzaddikim

Master of the World: You know that regardless of anything I might say to You or ask of You, if I have any hopes of speedy salvation, the only thing I can depend on is the power of the true Tzaddikim. You have sent us Tzaddikim in every generation. In this generation too You have sent us awesomely great Tzaddikim. I have nothing to rely on except their strength. And so, let Your great love and compassion for me be aroused. I am under continuous attack. I've fallen so low. I'm in such pain. My heart is so stricken. Loving G-d, help me! Through the power of the true Tzaddikim and in their merit, help me fight against all my evil thoughts and develop perfect knowledge and awareness of G-d in holiness and purity. Help me study and ponder Your holy Torah constantly, day and night. Let my thoughts and intellect be cleansed and purified until they are free of all waste. Let my mind be sharp and alert, and help me gain a true, dear grasp of whatever subject I am studying quickly and without my having to pore over it at all.

Bring me to true meekness and hun-dlity. Let me never be swayed by the least hint of pride or by false motives. Even when You help me and enable me to learn much Torah, don't let me take any of the credit for myself. Don't allow my Torah studies to lead me into arrogance. Let me learn much Torah for its own sake, in holiness, purity, and true humility. Help me study, teach, guard, practice and fulfil all Your Torah teachings in love.

Rising beyond oneself through prayer Loving G-d, bring me to true prayer.

Throughout the day let me always pray in the proper way, truthfully and sincerely. Arouse my feelings until I pour out my very heart to You in prayer and supplication. Help me bring all the goodness concealed within my inner good point" out into the light. Let me draw the words of my prayers and supplications from the very depths of my heart, until the goodness concealed within me will be revealed and the good will outweigh the evil, enabling me to subdue my evil side and remove it completely. Bring me from evil to good, from darkness to great light.

Help me pray with complete surrender, until I lose all sense of my own independent e)dstence and material being. Let me not pray for my own benefit. Help me to rise beyond all the limitations of self, as if I am not in the world at all. Let my only aim in my prayers be for the sake of Your Name, to lift up the Divine Presence from the e)dle and reveal Your G-dliness throughout the world.

Loving G-d: You have already begun to reveal Yourself to the world. Through the true Tzaddikim, You have taught us to offer You songs and praises, prayers and supplications. You have sustained us by teaching us Your holy Names and attributes, thereby permitting us to address You and call upon You. This is the only support we have in our hopes of drawing dose to You with all our hearts and knowing You. Now too, help all of us in every generation. Help every Jew, including me. Through the Torah that I study, give me holy understanding and help me offer You constant songs, praises, prayers and supplications all the days of my life. Let me pray with perfect sincerity, with faith, complete calm and full concentration. Guide me toward the truth, so that I will call to You and address You in fitting terms, and my requests and praises will find favor before You and arouse Your love and good Will.

 

Show us the Tzaddikim

Certainly there is no orphaned generatioq., There must be true Tzaddikim even in this generation. But they are concealed from our eyes. We do not know who they are and we cannot get near to them. HaShem, where should we turn to find medicine for our wounds? Where is the doctor of souls who can bind up and heal our wounds and relieve us of our desperate pain?

We have been robbed! Every heart is melt, everyone's knees are trembling! The sun has gone down in the middle of the afternoon. The delight of our eyes has been taken from us - the one who encouraged us and inspired us with life and vigor, the pride of our heads, our glory and strength, our nefesh, our ruach, our neshamah, our holiness and purity - the true Tzaddikim, the highest saints, who have left us because of our sins. They have gone to their rest and they have left us to our sighs. HaShem, see how low Your people have fallen!

But You, G-d of truth, scrutinize all hearts. You know our innermost feelings. You know the strength of my desire and yearning, and that of all Your people, the House of Israel, to find healing for our wounds. All who feel the pain in their own hearts are yearning, longing and hoping to draw close to the true Tzaddik, in order that he should bring them back from their sins, rectify their transgressions, and show us the path to follow and what we should do.

And now, HaShem our G-d, where is Your earlier kindness? In every generation there were true Tzaddikim who led the Jewish People, taking them in their arms like a nurse takes up a little child. They taught them the path of G-d and brought them close to You. Then why have You abandoned us and smitten us with "a wound that is not written in the Torah" - "that is the death of the Tzaddikim", which is harder to bear than even the destruction of the Holy Temple?

Why should G-d's Assembly be like a flock without a shepherd? We are orphans of orphans, babes who never saw the light. We are sullied with every kind of madness, we are full of sins and transgressions. What should we do? Mere should we go in search of a remedy? How can we escape our own folly, the pain in our hearts and the corruption of our deeds?

Please, HaShem, pardon us and save us from destruction. Come after Your scattered flock, for there is no-one to gather us together. You Yourself draw us close in Your abundant love and mercy. I am fully aware that after the terrible things I have done I am not worthy of coming close to You. My actions have been despicable and my thoughts appalling. I have done the same bad things time after time. I have repeatedly promised You that I would not go back to my wrong-doing or make You angry ever again, but I have not been able to keep my promises for even a short time. I've always been quick to go back to my bad ways. This has happened time and time again. How can I dare come before You and try to placate You?

But we know, HaShem, that Your thoughts are way above our thoughts, and the power and depth of Your love and mercy are far beyond the grasp of our minds. It is impossible to apprehend the awesome heights of Your love and mercy. "The mercies of HaShem will never be exhausted, nor will His love ever come to an end." As long as there is life there is hope. "You return man to the dust" - "Up until the moment when life itself is crushed into dust, sinners are received." I have trust in Your great love, and I will rely on Your mercy. I know that You will not abandon me.

You alone know the true extent of the damage I have done. It is impossible for me to begin to understand even the tiniest fraction of the damage caused by my sins. I am still not fully aware of who it is that I have sinned and rebelled against, because my sins have caused Your exaltedness to be concealed from me. You alone know what I have done and the damage I have caused - what, how much and against whom. For no-one knows anything of You except for You alone, blessed be Your Name for ever.

In spite of all this, the power of Your love and mercy will overcome everything. You know our nature and our inclinations, and Your desire is to show mercy. You do not want the death of the sinner but that he should turn from his ways and live. You wait for him until the day of his death, and if he repents, You receive him immediately.

I have therefore come before You, HaShem my G-d and G-d of my fathers, with a crushed heart and humble spirit, to beg You to take pity on me and upon all of Your people, the House of Israel. Send us true Tzaddikim who will have the power to heal us and bring us to complete Teshuvah, to restore our souls and bring atonement for our sins.

 

Connection with the Tzaddik through intense Torah study

Arouse Your love for me. Shine Your holy spirit upon me. Bring me to learn Torah - both the Wriften and the Oral Torah - with such holy intensity that when I am studying, I will have the power to connect my soul with the soul of the Tzaddik who first revealed the teaching or law I am learning. Help me come to the level of spiritual communion that is referred to as "kissing." Let me attach my soul to the soul of the Tzaddik with such intimacy that it will be as if I am "kissing" the Tzaddik or the Tanna who first revealed this teaching.

May my study give the Tzaddik or the Tanna profound pleasure. Let me cause the Tanna or Tzaddik supreme delight by studying his words in extreme holiness, so that even there in the grave his very lips will be gently whispering. And by studying the Torah in great holiness and purity, let me lift the Shekhinah up from the dust and out of exile. Please HaShem, loving G-d: Our spirit is so crushed. Have pity on us. Protect me and my children, my descendants and those of all Your people, the House of Israel. Keep me well away from those who have gone astray from the true path. Compassionate G-d: Don't ever let my Torah study turn into a fatal poison, G-d forbid. Don't allow the least hint of opposition to the true Tzaddikim ever come into my heart as a result of anything I study. Don't let me ever study for my own self-aggrandizement or in order to chide, especially when studying the Oral Torah - the Gemara and its commentaries, and the Law Codes.

HaShem, G-d of love: Save me from evthe least hint of pride or arrogance. Don't let me ever be sly and over-clever in any way. Let me never harbor doubts or questions in my heart about the true Tzaddikim of the generation, and certainly never let a single insolent word against them leave my mouth. Let me never insult their honor in any way, G-d forbid. On the contrary, let my studies bring me to a close bond of connection with the true Tzaddikim. Let me accept their authority, believe in them, and subordinate myself to them. Let me embrace the dust of their feet and drink their holy words thirstily all the days of my life - and so too my children, my children's children, and those of all Your people, the House of Israel, from now on and for ever.

Let me come close and bind myself to the outstandingly great, true Tzaddikim who have the power to bring all the twisted words of slander spoken against the true Tzaddikim ba& to their holy source and to use them to reconstruct the original Torah laws from which these evil words of the enemies of the truth developed. For they used their study of the Oral Torah to twist the words of the living G-d, so as to give themselves an opening to speak out insolently and contemptuously against the Tzaddik.

Loving G-d: Through the power of the true Tzaddikim, let me become enuinely sanctified and purified until I too can attain this wisdom and know how to sift through these twisted words, and transform and elevate them back to their holy root, so as to turn them into genuine Torah laws.

Help me lift up the Shechinah from her exile and bring her to rejoin her Beloved in love, brotherhood and friendship, "embracing," "kissing" and perfectly unified. Help me humble and break all those who have set themselves in opposition to the truth, and let me take their prey from their mouths. Put truth and faith into their hearts, and let them realize the truth. Let them come back to You genuinely and whole-heartedly.

Reveal the truth and spread it throughout the world, and fulfil the verse in the Psalms: "Truth will blossom forth from the earth, and justice will be seen from the heavens." Let peace reign among all the members of Your people Israel for ever.

Let me serve You happily at all times. Help me be one of those people who bear insults without returning them, who do not answer even when they hear themselves abused, who act out of loveand rejoice in their suffering.

Grant us all holy wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Let us come to learn the Holy Torah for its own sake at all times and return to You truly and sincerely. Let abundant blessings flow down to us from the source of blessings, and let us do Your will in truth all the days of our lives - we, our children, our descendants, and all Your people the House of Israel, from now and for ever. Amen. Selah.

 

Torah insights

Let me always be able to pray and plead with You until words hot as burning coals come pouring out of me. When I pray to You, let me bind myself to the souls of Israel, so that my prayer will be a collective prayer that You will not reject, for "Even though G-d is mighty, He will not despise [the weak]."Let my prayers bring about a tremendous increase in holiness in the higher realms, so that I can draw Torah ideas and explanations from the Supreme Heart, where they are all written.

Help me follow the Torah path and fulfil the teaching of our Rabbis of blessed memory, who revealed to us that the way of the Torah is to "eat bread dipped in salt and drink water by measure." Let me constantly labor in the Torah and draw Torah explanations from the holy soul that suffers so bitterly over the e)dle of the Torah - the soul that is the source of all original Torah insights and explanations. Let me draw Torah explanations from there through my prayers and supplications, until I will constantly be developing true, holy original Torah insights derived from the Thirteen Perfect Features of the Holy Beard, namely thThirteen Rules for Interpreting the Torah.

Guard and protect me from all kinds of confficts and arguments and save me and the entire Jewish People from all causeless hatred. Put it into the hearts of all our opponents to repent and give up their hatred and opposition. Turn their hearts to the truth and let us never again suffer from gratuitous opposition. Let peace dwell amongst Your people Israel for ever.

Torah Revelations of the true Tzaddik-Sage Master of the Universe: Grant that I should come dose to the true Tzaddik and Sage of this generation - the elder who sits in the assembly" of scholars teaching publicly. He is constantly able to draw new, true Torah insights from the Supreme Heart by making all the necessary preparations - binding himself before the discourse to all the souls of those present, who have come to hear the word of G-d, and pouring out his heart like water before G-d while bound to their souls. In his prayers he relies on nothing but pleas and entreaties.

He certainly has the power to wield a "rod of strength" through the outstanding power and merit he possesses as a result of his n-dtzvot, his good deeds and his unremittingly reverential, loving, fervent, zealous, passionate service of G-d. Even so, the only use he makes of this "rod of strength" is to quash the evil in the community and release them from the power of unholy forces in order to bring them into the domain of holiness. But before G-d he stands in prayer like a poor beggar without relying on his merit in the least. He only pleads and entreats, binding himself to the souls of his listeners so that his prayer will be a communal prayer that will not be rejected, as it is written: "Even though G-d"is n-dghty, He will not despise [the weak]." A prayer like this, which is in fact a communal prayer, causes a great gathering of additional holiness above, through which the Supreme Heart pours forth original Torah insights more than ever.

Master of the Universe: Grant that I too should be part of the holy gathering of those who have come together to hear original Torah insights from the lips of the sage and elder sitting in such an assembly. Not only will the evil in me be crushed and removed through the good in the sage who is teaching, buf I will also have a part in the original Torah teachings that he brings down, since in his prayer before his discourse he will have bound himself with the souls of his listeners, and my soul will be included among them. In this way I too will have a part in the extra holiness gathered above through the prayer of this sage. For You have revealed to us that the greater the number of souls with which the prayer is bound, the greater the holiness above, as it is written: "And You are holy, enthroned upon the praises of Israel." This arouses the Supreme Heart to pour forth more Torah insights than ever.

Master of the Universe, have mercy on me and bring me to everything I have asked of You. Let me draw close to the elder seated in the assembly of scholars, laboring to bring down new Torah insights through all the amazing preparations this requires, so that I too will flow with passionate words of holiness and have true and original Torah insights.

 

Torah Study

Master of the Universe: Help me study Torah for its own sake at all times. You have taught us that prayer can only be complete through study of the holy Torah: "When a person turns his ear away and won't listen to the Tor his prayer is also an abomination." Therefore help me engage in Torah-study day and night, so that You will lovingly accept my prayers.

Help me 'sing out at night at the beginning of the watches" and pour out my heart like water before You, so that we will merit complete redemption by our righteous Mashiach. Let my prayers be a sword and a weapon for Mashiach, as You have intimated to us through Your holy Sages.

Lovingly help me bind all my prayers to the true Tzaddikim of the generation, who have the power to elevate all prayers through the appropriate gate and tribe.

Please, loving and gracious King, make it possible for me to engage in the study of the holy Torah for many hours each day. Let me study the Torah for its own sake. Let my only motive in studying be to keep, observe and fulfil the entire Torah in love.

The letters of the Torah which come out of my mouth as I study are 'sparks of souls". May they all enter into and be merged and clothed in the holy words of my prayers and develop and be renewed there. Let the light of my prayers then shine forth in full radiance, as You have taught us through Your holy sages of blessed memory.

Help me to make an effort with my prayers at all times. Let me never despair of calling out to You and praying. Bring me to have perfect faith in the power of prayer. Our e)dle has lasted so long. Your people, the House of Israel, cry out to You every day and appeal to You to shine Your face upous, build our Holy Temple and redeem us eternally. Despite all this, we have still not been delivered. Even so, let us come to believe and know with firm and perfect faith that no prayer is ever lost or in vain, G-d forbid.

And so too, HaShem our G-d and G-d of our fathers, help me labor in Your holy Torah constantly, day and night, in holiness and purity. Let, my Torah study arouse the very roots of the souls of Israel, which stem from the Primordial Thought of G-d. All the Jewish souls are rooted in the letters of the Holy Torah. HaShem, let my labor in the Torah so radiate that my Torah study will arouse the roots of the souls of Israel until they shine to one another, and even the souls of the wicked and the sinners will shine, inspiring them to repent and come back to You. Through the shining of the souls, create and give birth to the souls of converts, and let those who are distant come and convert. Let them acknowledge the power of Your lcngship, until the whole world will genuinely serve You.

I may be very lowly and far from studying Torah with such holiness that I can arouse the souls of others to repent. Even so, loving G-d, take pity on me and help me study Torah in such a way that I unite myself with the soul of the true Tzaddik of this generation, who does learn Torah with this degree of holiness. Let the Tzaddik's Torah teachings so inspire me that my soul will radiate at its very root in the Primordial Thought of the Holy One blessed be He together with the other holy souls of the Children of Israel, Your People. Shine light to me from the root of my soul until I come back to You in genuine Teshuvah.

Help me labor at Your holy Torah cons, day and night. Open my mind and let my eyes see the light of Your Torah. Grant me a dear, pure intellect with which to study Your holy Torah. Give me a rapid grasp of everything I study. Let nothing in the world have any power to distract me and throw me off course during my study-sessions - whether irrelevant thoughts, or fantasies about the vain pleasures of this world, or confused and distorted ideas about my studies themselves and how to approach them. Help me fight off all such distractions and confusion while studying. Let me rapidly cover plenty of ground with clear understanding. Let me start and finish all the books of the holy Torah, both the Written and the Oral Torah, and go through them again and again many times.

HaShem, loving G-d: You know the powerful distractions and mental confusion I suffer from constantly, especially when studying. Until now I have never once managed to study with a clear head for even a brief moment. All day, and even when I'm studying, my mind is in turmoil, with an endless succession of thousands upon thousands of twisted and confused thoughts and feelings. I have no idea where to run to escape them.

HaShem: You know how disjointed my thoughts are. I've damaged my mind so much. For years and years now my thoughts just go everywhere. My mind wanders along every avenue of folly, confusion and evil. I cannot possibly go into all the details. If I wanted to describe even a tiny fraction of the turmoil in my mind, it would take for ever. The true Tzaddikim have given much good advice about how to escape such thoughts by just sitting passively without pursuing them further. But I have neglected their teachings and done the very opposite. I have thrown away all the good advice You have revealed and continue to reveal through various hints, as to how to escape mental confusion and turmoil. I've made no effort to follow any of it. My mind is so confused that even when I want to fight my evil thoughts and keep to Your advice I am no longer capable of keeping calm and concentrating on holy thoughts for even a short time.

HaShem, loving Father in Heaven: You are filled with love and kindness every single moment. You know how far I am from purity of thought and holy knowledge. My years have been wasted on vanity, emptiness, confusion: I've had nothing but evil, corrupt thoughts the whole time. In my entire life I've never had even a single hour of true inner calm and concentration. My sins and immorality have left my n-dnd turbulent and confused. I hno idea how to heal myself and go about cultivating true holy knowledge and awareness, because I have failed in all the pathways of holy knowledge.

Please HaShem, have mercy on me. Have pity on my poor, exhausted, weak, hungry, thirsty soul, which has descended to such a level of degradation. You alone know the true pathos of our condition at this time of deep exile, as we await the coming of Mashiach. The dimensions of our spiritual tragedy cannot begin to be described. It is impossible to express even a tiny fraction of our troubles in words. Heavenly Father, be kind to us and help us! Heavenly Father, I have no idea what to say and how I can placate You, seeing that I've rejected Your profound guidance and rebelled against You so much.  

 

Reveal the secrets of the Torah

Let Your kindness then flow to us, and open up to us the light of Knowledge. Let us come" close to a true Tzaddik who has the power and wisdom to gather all the souls together and lift them up, as it is said, "And the wise man takes souls." All our souls will be merged together in unity, and the true Sage will take them and ascend with them so as to renew them for good, bringing down new Torah teachings from the mouth of the Ancient of Days, as it is said, "The wise man ascended to the city of the mighty and brought down its secure stronghold" - the Torah. Loving G-d: Reveal to us the secrets of the Torah - the Torah of @e concealed Ancient One.

Please, HaShem: lovingly grant my request for Your Name's sake. I(ind and merciful G-d: Grant that I should come close to the true Tzaddik of this generation, who has the power and wisdom to gather our souls and elevate them, unifying the Holy One blessed be He and His Indwelling Presence. And let our souls be reborn and renewed for good through the new Torah teachings he will reveal.

You know how bitter and confused I am. I'm so bitter that "...the power to endure has collapsed." I cannot bear my pain and confusion any more. My mind is racing everywhere. I have no-one to stand up for me and help me, and save me from this confusion and bitterness.

I have nothing to rely on except the true Tzaddikim. They are the only ones who have the wisdom and skill to save someone like me from this confusion, and elevate even my worst traits and desires. Only the Tzaddikim have the power to purify my negative characteristics and elevate them together with all my good traits and desires. Only they can gather together the scattered parts of my personality and lift them all up together so as to renew them for good, radiating new light to my darkened soul. I will then be able to experience the "brilliant lights," and my hungry soul will be filled with good, and my youth renewed like the eagle. My soul will be joined with all the souls of Your people, the House of Israel, and we will all be united, great and small.

Loving, gracious G-d: Let me come close to the true Tzaddik who has this power and wisdom. Let him gather all our souls together and rise with them before the throne of Your glory, so as to arouse Your love for us. Let our souls rise up and give You pleasure and find favor before You. And You rejoice in our souls, and let Your unity be revealed through us - the unity of the Holy One blessed be He and the IndweUing Presence. Let all our souls be renewed and reborn. The Tzaddik will bring down new Torah teachings, and the secrets of the Torah - the Torah of the Ancient Concealed One - will be revealed to us. With this the Tzaddik will mend our souls, perfecting the Supreme Chariot and the Lower Chariot.

You have already informed us through Your holy sages that You overlook nothing in the World to Come. You pay each person according to his ways and the fruits of his deeds. Your love and forgiveness are mainly for the people who genuinely repent in This World. You pardon them for all their sins, even if rebelled against You greatly. You made this known to Your servant Moses, as it is written: "and He will cleanse - will not cleanse." Our Rabbis explained this to mean that " "He will cleanse'those who repent, and "will not cleanse" - those who do not repent."

I therefore throw myself down and prostrate myself before the radiance of Your holiness." Kind, loving G-d, who is good to the wicked and the righteous, who waits for the sinner, longing for him to be acquitted: take pity on me, and help me come to complete Teshuvah in This World. Let me repair all the damage I have done before I leave This World. From now on, help me abandon my bad ways, and release me from the evil and confused thoughts that are holding me back from the path of justice and goodness. Let me banish the thoughts that caused me to go wrong and become distanced from You. Rise and help me purify and sanctify my n-dnd. Let me bind my thoughts to You truthfully and sincerely from now on and for ever.

Please, HaShem, take pity on my soul. Order all the dirty garments I have clothed my soul in through my sins to be removed. These filthy garments created by my sins are the biggest obstacles to my repentance, preventing me from following Your pathways of goodness and holiness. HaShem, You know what a tremendous struggle it is for me to try to strip myself of these clothes. My "power of endurance has tottered.r I cannot endure the bitter struggle I have to suffer before I can break through the walls of iron separating me from holiness. I have sinned so much that these dirty clothes are very many. You alone know how far I am from You as a result.

Stir Your love and compassion for me and have mercy on my nefesh, my ruach and my neshamah. Command Your holy angels to take Off these sullied garments and cme in garments of splendor, so as to remove all the obstacles and barriers of iron that prevent me from sanctifying myself, making it impossible for me to carry out any holy task in the proper way. Take away all these barriers and obstacles. Let me repent sincerely and from now on be a person who genuinely 'turns from evil" and does only what is good in Your eyes.

 

The Power of Torah Study

Through the merit and power of Torah study, give me the strength to conquer and break my evil inclination and drive it out of myself. Help me rid myself of the foolish spirit that has taken hold of me because of the wrong I've done. I'll be able to get free by studying and keeping the Torah, which is entirely made up of Your holy Names. The power of the Torah will overcome any sway this foolishness may have over me. just help me drive it out and remove it from myself and my life.

Please, HaShem: You know the many thoughts that trouble me every single moment of the day and distract me from serving You properly. They are all caused by the foolish spirit that has taken hold of me because of the wrong I've done and all my sins and transgressions. My mind is in turmoil, and my good sense and intelligence have been severely impaired.

Father in Heaven: You are good to all and merciful to all Your creatures. Forgive me and save me from destruction. Loving G-d: Give me the strength to conquer my own foolishness and drive it out of myself by studying and practicing Your holy Torah.

 

Pure Thoughts

Loving G-d: Help me clear my mind and my thoughts of ideas and theories that are in conflict with the Torah, in order that I should not sully my intelligence and sensitivity with sinful thoughts and desires, or sour my mind with erroneous theories. Free me of all doubts and skepticism, and let my mind and my thoughts be pure, clear and holy.

Give me the strength to fight against the bad thoughts, doubts and sinful desires that come to confuse me. Let me keep them out of my mind. Let me fight them down and drive them away completely. Let them have no power to enter my consciousness at all, and let me sanctify my and my thoughts at all times.

Please, HaShem: You know the tremendous damage caused in the upper worlds by every single bad thought, and even more so by evil doubts that go against the very foundations of Torah faith, G-d forbid. Such doubts cause a flaw in all the worlds, and have the power to uproot a person from the Source of life, until becomes extremely difficult for him to repent and rediscover the path of life. You alone know the full extent of the damage caused on the highest of levels by every evil thought and idea that comes into the mind.

You also know the tremendous power such thoughts have over our minds, and their ability to confuse us. We are under constant pressure to succumb to them. I have sinned in this many times. I have failed to protect myself against such thoughts or fight them, and I have caused tremendous damage to my own mind by the evil thoughts I have allowed to enter. My whole mind is full of alien thoughts. I have transgressed the prohibition against chametz - leaven, souring my mind with forbidden desires and skeptidsm, and allowing myself to fall prey to all kinds of meaningless distractions.

Not only have I not tried to fight against such thoughts. I have opened myself to them, making no effort at all to push them out. I have not followed the advice given in Your holy Torah to at least sit passively rather than willfully entertain sinful thoughts: "sit and do nothing." I have not listened to my teachers.

How many of my days have gone to waste because of confused and evil thoughts. "I am sinking in the depths of the mud with nothing to support me; I have come into the deepest water and the current is sweeping me away." My mind is such a tun-noil of evil thoughts and confusion that it is extremely hard for me to fight them even when I want to.

"HaShem, You know my folly, and my sin is not hidden from You." I come before You prostrate, humbled, begging and supplicating like a poor man at the door, sighing and beaten down, asking, requesting and begging as a free gift and an act of mercy that You should show me Your wonderful love and kindness and take me out of my darkness into the light. Help me to sanctify my thoughts today and forever.