אֲנָחָה

Through a holy sigh [anachah d'kedushah] one restores and heals the pulsating spirit [ruach ha'dofek] [the vital pulse; one's life-force and inner vitality], and is saved from the depression of spirit [atzvas ruach] that comes through the weariness from toil [yegi'as] and the preoccupation and distraction [tirdas] of livelihood — and one merits to great da'as.

Through a sigh, a person literally becomes a new creation [bri'ah chadashah mamash] in both body and soul.

Even within holiness itself, one can merit through anachah to ascend from level to level [madregah l'madregah]. [Translator's note: No source citation appears in the text for this teaching. The teaching implies that anachah is not only a remedy for spiritual fall, but a positive engine of ascent even for those already well advanced in holiness.]

One who merits to a truly authentic sigh from the depths of his heart — me'umka d'liba b'emes [from the true depths of the heart] — his very body is literally shattered [mishabeir] in truth by his sighing, to the point that he has no strength immediately afterward even to lift his hand — until he rests a little and his strength returns. This is as our Rabbis of blessed memory said: "A sigh breaks the body of a person" [Talmud Bavli, Berachos 58b] — breaks literally. However, even one who does not merit to such a sigh, nonetheless the virtue of a holy sigh is exceedingly great, as has been explained above.

It is good for a person, when lying in his bed to sleep, to train himself to pour out his conversation before Hashem Yisborach and to beseech Him, blessed be He, that he merit to draw close to His service. And if he does not merit at that time to speak words before Him, blessed be He — even so he should train himself to sigh, and to produce many sighs, one after another, over the fact that he has not yet merited to draw close to Hashem Yisborach.