יח

Master of worlds [Ribon alminin] — good and beneficent to all — You created Your world through Your good will according to what arose in Your primordial thought; and the ultimate purpose of Your good intention was for our benefit — so that we merit through this to attain the true ultimate good [tachlis hatov], the true ultimate purpose, the ultimate good of all ultimates. And for this You created all the worlds in wondrous wisdom — from the very beginning of the emanation [Atzilus] to the end of the making [Asiyah] — so that we merit, from the very end of the deed, to come and to be included in the first thought [machshavah techilah], to attain the final ultimate — the eternal good [tov hanitzchi].

And therefore may it be Your will, Hashem our G‑d and G‑d of our fathers — full of good, full of mercy, full of will — that You be with me to help me and guard me and save me from anger and from rage and from all kinds of grievances; and may You shield me through Your mercies and guard me always. And even in the moment when there comes upon me, G‑d forbid, some anger — may You have compassion upon me through Your mercies and guard me and save me — that I not enact through my anger any cruelty at all; rather may I merit to break and to overturn the anger through compassion [rachmanus]. And may I merit to overpower my inclination to break the anger and to turn the anger into compassion — to show specifically great compassion in the very place where I was about to become angry, G‑d forbid; and there shall be no strange god within me and I shall not bow to an alien god [Psalms 81:10] — for this is said about one who becomes angry, who is considered as if he had worshipped idolatry [Talmud Shabbos 105b]. Master of the Universe — You know how hard it is for us to break and to nullify this evil trait of anger and grievances — for when the anger begins to flare within us, G‑d forbid, we are almost out of our minds; and it is hard for us to extinguish the fire of anger and to suppress it. Therefore have mercy upon us for Your Name's sake — and be with us to help us and guard us and save us always through Your mercies and Your great lovingkindnesses; and help us to break and to nullify the trait of anger and grievances from upon us and from our domain — and may we never become angry, and may I not be any kind of short-tempered person at all; rather may I merit to always be good to everyone from now and forever.

Master of the Universe — You know how very far I am from the true ultimate purpose; and not only did I not take care in all my deeds that nothing I do should not contain the attainment of the final ultimate purpose — I even did the very opposite, and I performed deeds that cause one to distance himself very greatly, G‑d forbid, from the ultimate purpose; and I blemished greatly and distanced myself from the true ultimate purpose with the utmost distance. And now, my Father in Heaven — what use to me is a life like this, a life of such suffering, such a bitter and wretched life? Is this called living? Are not a thousand deaths better than a life so bitter — if I do not merit in this life to attain the true ultimate purpose?

Master of the Universe, Master of all worlds — He Who revives the dead with abundant mercies, Life of all lives — give me life that I shall live and not die; give me true life, eternal life, good life, long life — a life in which we merit at every time and every moment to the attainment of the final true ultimate purpose, for the sake of which You created all the worlds and for the sake of which we came from the supernal world, from the heights of heights, to this lowly world. Have pity and compassion upon me and give me hope that I shall not be lost; and strengthen me and encourage me that I merit from now to have mercy upon myself — to distance myself and to turn from evil completely, and to do nothing more that does not contain the attainment of the final true ultimate purpose. Have compassion upon the work of Your hands — and grant me merit to return to You in truth, until I attain the true ultimate purpose: to lift and to elevate and to include the ultimate end of the deed within the first thought [sof hama'aseh b'machshavah techilah].

And through this may we merit to stir Your true mercies and lovingkindnesses upon us — upon a poor and destitute people as we are today; upon a people dragged and stripped, scattered upon the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd [Numbers 27:17], like scattered sheep with none to gather them. And may You overturn Your anger from us — and may You sweeten and nullify the burning of Your wrath from upon us; and may Your innards churn and Your mercies overflow over Your attributes [cf. Jeremiah 31:19] and may You turn Your face toward us. And may You have compassion upon us through Your great compassion — and may You send us true tzadikim, true leaders of holiness, who will lead us with mercy and will instill within our hearts and minds the attainment of the final true ultimate purpose; until we merit through them to pursue and to run all our days to attain the true ultimate purpose; and may we cast all the desires of this world behind our backs; and may we set all our aspirations and all our desires and all our yearning and all our labors and all our toiling only for the sake of the final true ultimate purpose — as You truly desire.

Master of the Universe — You alone know the full extent of the compassion resting upon us now in this generation — upon all Your people Israel in general and in particular, upon every single individual of Israel. For all desire to fear Your Name; all yearn and long and look forward and wait to draw near to You in truth. And every person who knows the affliction of his own heart looks forward and waits for a faithful healer — a true leader — who will draw him near and heal the sicknesses of his soul and his pains. And there is no one who stands up for us — for You have taken from us the delight of our eyes: all the true tzadikim and true leaders. And You have hidden Your face from us; and we have neither a true leader nor a true guide who can lead us to draw near to Your service in truth. Master of all worlds — You know our suffering; You have heard our cry in the face of our oppressors [cf. Exodus 3:7]. Arise to our help in this time of distress — in the footsteps of the Mashiach [ikv'a d'Meshicha], in the force and bitterness of the exile of the soul and the body. For we have no mind or knowledge at all of how to please and appease You, or how to call to You so that You turn Your face toward us. Our Father in Heaven — have compassion upon us; our Father in Heaven — do not hide Your face from us; Ruler over all, King over all the earth — send us a true and holy leader who can lead us with mercy, as a nursemaid carries a nursing infant [Numbers 11:12] — to draw us near to Your service in truth. Give us a true leader like Moshe Rabbenu, peace be upon him. For Israel were sunk in Egypt in the forty-nine [mem-tes] gates of impurity — and it was impossible for them to leave there except through Moshe Rabbenu. And You had compassion upon them and decreed that Moshe go and redeem them — even though Moshe Rabbenu in his great humility was hiding his face and did not want to accept the dominion and the leadership. But You had compassion upon Your people Israel and decreed that he go against his will — and You were with him always until he merited to redeem them. And behold — now through our iniquities we are sunk in an exile deeper than the exile of Egypt; and You know that there is none who can help us except a true leader who is of the aspect of Moshe Rabbenu, peace be upon him. Therefore have mercy upon us for Your Name's sake — and break and overturn Your anger from upon us; and send compassion into the heart of the true leader that he have compassion upon us and turn his face toward us, and accept the leadership and the sovereignty, and lead us with his mercy, and draw us near to Your service in truth.

And grant us merit through Your abundant mercies to complete faith in truth — to the holy faith; to believe in You and in Your true tzadikim with complete faith in truth. And may You save us through Your abundant mercies from false beliefs, from the beliefs of foolishness and vanity — and we shall have no false belief at all; and we shall not believe in anything that is of the ways of the Amorites [darchei ha'Emori]; and we shall not walk in their ways and their practices; and we shall not incline our hearts after their foolishness and their falsehoods. Rather may we merit to the holy faith in completeness — to pure and clean faith in You, Hashem our G‑d, and in Your true tzadikim, and in Your holy Torah — both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah — and in the entirety of Your people Israel the holy, in truth and with a whole heart.

And therefore have mercy upon us and guard us and save us through Your abundant mercies from false leaders, from cruel leaders, from providers [parnesim] who lord it over the community not for the sake of Heaven — who pursue honor for their own benefit and hang their pursuit upon compassion, as if they wish to have compassion on the world by leading them; when in truth they are far from this and cannot lead even themselves — let alone others — and Heavenly greatness has not been granted to them at all. Have mercy upon us through Your abundant mercies and save us from them and from their multitudes — and may You nullify and break and subdue their greatness and dominion from the world.

And help us through Your abundant mercies. And save me and my offspring and all Your people the House of Israel from this evil desire — the desire for positions of leadership and authority [ta'avas parnesus u'manhigus]. Guard me and save me and deliver me — that there arise in my heart no desire or craving whatsoever, and no thought at all, of positions of leadership and authority and headship and self-elevation; and I shall never pursue honor at all. And help me through Your abundant mercies for Your sake — and grant me merit to return to You swiftly in complete teshuvah in truth and with a whole heart. And place in my heart the will to do Your will — and bend my inclination to subjugate itself to You; and give me the strength and the holy might to conquer my inclination and to break my evil desires, and to draw myself only toward the true ultimate purpose; and may I merit to adorn myself and to adorn many others — to draw them near and to bring them into holiness, to bring them near to the Torah and to the true service as You truly desire. And grant me merit through Your abundant mercies to the love of true sages [ahavas chachamim amitiyim] — and may I merit to honor them with all kinds of honor and glory, and to give my very soul on their behalf. And give me the strength to seal the mouths of all speakers of falsehood who shame and revile them — and help me to overpower them, to defeat them and break them and humble them and subdue them to the dust. Have pity and compassion upon me — and grant me merit to soon attain all that I have requested before You; and may I merit speedily and quickly to reach the true ultimate purpose — the eternal true good. And from now may You be with me to help me — that I do nothing more that does not contain the attainment of the true ultimate purpose; and may I spend all my days and years only for the attainment of the final true ultimate purpose. And may You grant me merit to attain it in truth — while I am yet alive in this body of mine, before I depart from this world. And save me — that I not need to be reincarnated, G‑d forbid, in another body in order to attain this ultimate purpose; rather may I merit to attain it myself in this world while yet alive — through Your abundant mercies and Your great lovingkindnesses, for Your sake and for the sake of the true tzadikim, and not for my sake at all. And may I merit through Your mercies to the life of the World to Come — without any suffering of Gehinom or the beating of the grave [chibut hakever]. And may You be gracious to me through Your mercies with good and long life — with eternal life, with a world that is entirely good and entirely endless. "According to Your lovingkindness give me life, and I will keep the testimony of Your mouth" [Psalms 119:88]. "You will make known to me the path of life — the fullness of joys in Your presence, the pleasantness in Your right hand forever" [Psalms 16:11]. "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You, Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer" [Psalms 19:15].