ב

May it be Your will, Hashem our G‑d and G‑d of our fathers — Who hears the prayer of His people Israel with mercy — that Your mercies and lovingkindnesses be stirred over us for Your sake, and that You prepare our hearts to pray before You with all our heart and soul, and that our prayer be fluent in our mouths always, and that there be no hindrance or impediment or confusion in our prayer. Master of the Universe, O Shepherd of Israel Who leads Joseph like a flock, Who is enthroned upon the cherubim — shine upon us through Your abundant mercies the light of Your holiness, that holiness and purity be drawn down upon us, in such a way that we may be able to bend and subdue and break our evil inclination, and we may merit through Your abundant mercies and Your great lovingkindnesses that all of us — we and our offspring — be guardians of the holy covenant [brit kodesh]. And help us always, and save us through Your mighty mercies and great lovingkindnesses from all manner of blemish of the covenant, G‑d forbid — whether in thought, whether in speech, whether in deed; whether unwittingly, whether deliberately; whether under compulsion, whether willingly; whether through the sense of sight, whether through the sense of hearing, whether through the other senses. In all of them may we be holy and pure in the holiness of the covenant, without any blemish or lustful thought whatsoever. For through Your abundant mercies You have chosen us from all the nations, and raised us above all the tongues, and set us apart from all their impurities and all their abominations, as You have written for us in Your Torah: "And I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine" [Leviticus 20:26]. And You have called all of us by the name of tzadikim [righteous ones], as it is said: "And Your people — all of them — are tzadikim" [Isaiah 60:21].

Please, through Your abundant mercies, do not make Your holy Torah a falsehood, G‑d forbid — for Your word is truth and stands forever. Therefore deal with us in Your lovingkindness, and help us to truly be included among the tzadikim — by granting us merit to be among the guardians of the covenant, through which alone it is fitting for us to be called by the name tzaddik [righteous one], as You have informed us through Your holy sages: that none is called by the name tzaddik but one who guards the covenant. And so, just as You helped Yoseph [Yosef Joseph] Your righteous one at the hour when he came into trial and You saved him and gave him the power to overcome his evil inclination — so too, may Your innards be stirred and Your mercies be moved over us, and grant us merit through the merit and power of Yoseph the tzaddik, and give us intellect, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and the power and might of holiness, so that we may be able to be saved from all manner of blemish of the covenant, and be able to overcome our evil inclination. And may we merit that our thought be bound and cleaved to Your holiness always without a moment's interruption — so that through this we may have the power to arrange our prayer before You fittingly, without any hindrance or impediment or confusion; in such a way that our prayer be received before You, and Your mercies be stirred upon us and You turn Your face toward us. And may You hasten and speedily redeem us and bring us our righteous Messiah, and do it for Your sake and not for ours. And help us that our prayer be properly arranged, and place in us intellect and knowledge that we may weigh our words with discernment and not stumble through the utterances of our mouth, and that we not deviate in our prayer right or left from the straight and true path. And grant us merit through Your abundant mercies to give tzedakah [charity] to worthy poor people, and arrange for us money in abundance and worthy poor people through whom to gain merit. "And the strength of the King loves justice — You have established equity; judgment and righteousness in Jacob, You have done" [Psalms 99:4]. For everything is from You and from Your hand we have given You. O You Who performs acts of charity with all flesh — do charity with us, and grant us merit through Your mercies to be among the doers of charity, and remove the evil of our hearts, so that we may merit to give charity with joy, with a pleasant countenance, and that our hearts not begrudge when we give. We shall surely open wide our hand to him, to give the poor and destitute according to his need. And we shall pour out our soul to the hungry and cover the naked with a garment. And through this thing may You bless us, Hashem our G‑d, and help us to arrange our prayer before You in the utmost perfection; and may our prayer be pure and fitting, without any extraneous thoughts — so that there be no screen that separates between our prayer and You.

And behold, we direct our prayer and bind all our prayers to all the tzadikim of our generation. And You, through Your abundant mercies, stir the heart of the true tzadikim of our generation, and give them the power to receive our prayers and to bring them up before You. And even if our prayer is not as it should be and is mixed with much dross, and there is not in our prayer even a single word or a single letter that is pure and clean, and my speech is greatly stammering and my tongue is full of blemish — for I do not speak with knowledge, and the word is far from the thought — even upon all of these, may Your mercies and Your lovingkindnesses prevail, and give power to Your true tzadikim that they may be able to raise up and lift up and exalt all our prayers, to purify and cleanse them from all dross and blemish, in such a way that they may be able to ascend before You for favor, and from them may they build up the stature [komah] of the Shechina [Divine Presence], to establish her and support her and raise her up from her exile, and raise up the fallen sukkah [tabernacle] of David through our prayers. And restore Your Shechina to Zion, and shine Your face toward us. "Turn to me and be gracious to me" [Psalms 86:16] — for not in my bow do I trust and my sword shall not save me; only in Your Name alone have we trusted. In G‑d have we praised all the day and Your Name forever shall we thank, Selah. And stir our righteous Messiah that he receive our prayers and bring them up before You — and all our prayers and the prayers of Your people the House of Israel shall be in his hand as a double-edged sword, as a shelter and a shield, to fight our fighters and to plead our cause. May he have pity on the poor and destitute, and save the souls of the needy. "Hold the shield and buckler and arise to my help; gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, Your glory and Your splendor" [Psalms 35:2, 45:4]. And do it for Your sake and not for ours. For even the few good deeds we have, and all our righteous acts and our prayer — all of it is from You, for all is from You and from Your hand we have given You. As it is written: "Who has preceded Me that I should repay him?" [Job 41:3]. "Not to us, Hashem, not to us, but to Your Name give glory — for Your lovingkindness and for Your truth" [Psalms 115:1]. "In Your lovingkindness sustain me, and I shall keep the testimonies of Your mouth" [Psalms 119:88]. And fulfill for us the verse that is written: "For My Name's sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it for you; for My own sake, for My own sake will I act — for how should it be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another" [Isaiah 48:9,11]. "He magnifies the salvations of His king, and shows lovingkindness to His anointed — to David and to his seed forever" [Psalms 18:51]. Amen, Selah.