ג

May it be Your will, Hashem our G‑d and G‑d of our fathers — Who chooses David Your servant and his seed after him, and Who chooses songs of melody — that You remember through Your mercies and Your great lovingkindnesses the Shechina [Divine Presence] of Your might, who has wandered from her place like a bird that wanders from its nest. "You will arise and have mercy upon Zion, for it is time to be gracious to her, for the appointed time has come" [Psalms 102:14]. And raise up and exalt the congregation of Israel [Knesset Yisrael] from its fall. And help us through Your abundant mercies that we merit to lift up the voice of melody [zimrah], so that we may have the power to arrange before You songs, hymns, and praises [zemiross, shirross, v'sishbochoss] with a voice of gladness and joyous song, and we shall play our melodies [n'ginossaynu n'nagen] all the days of our lives with a sweet and pleasant voice as You have loved. And help us to engage in Your holy Torah lishma [for its own sake] always, day and night. And just as You transmitted Your holy Torah to Moshe Your servant — teaching him in the daytime the Written Torah, and at night the Oral Torah — so too, help us through Your abundant mercies to learn and to meditate in Your holy Torah always; that we merit to learn the Written Torah and the Oral Torah day and night.

Master of the Universe, grant us merit through Your abundant mercies that we have the power to overcome sleep, that we may be able to banish sleep from our eyes to study each night always sixty tractates with the holy Gemara — to learn, and to teach, to guard, to perform, and to fulfill, to engage in them lishma. "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches" [Lamentations 2:19]. And through this may a thread of lovingkindness be drawn down upon us: "By day Hashem commands His lovingkindness, and at night His song is with me — a prayer to the G‑d of my life" [Psalms 42:9]. And help us through this that hearing the sound of song [zimrah] and melody from any person in the world shall not harm our service — and even the blemished voices that come from birds caught in the snare, let them have no power to harm us and to confuse us from our service, G‑d forbid; rather, grant us the power to raise them up and to sort them and to restore them to holiness, and raise up the fallen sukkah of David. And through Your abundant mercies stir the rose of Sharon [chavatzeles haSharon] to sing with a sweet voice of gladness and joyous song. And may You reign, Hashem, speedily alone over all Your works. And may the verse be fulfilled that is written: "Sing praises to G‑d, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises — for G‑d is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a {S("maskil")}" [Psalms 47:7-8]. And remember Your people Israel who have been scattered among the nations, and Your Temple that lies desolate without a dweller. "Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself — where she has placed her young — beside Your altars, Hashem of Hosts, my King and my G‑d" [Psalms 84:4]. And restore the Kohanim [priests] to their service, and the Leviim to their platform for their singing and melody, and restore Israel to their habitations. And give us intellect and holy wisdom, that we merit to draw upon ourselves the yoke of Your Kingship always, and to reveal Your Kingship and Your Lordship to all who come into the world, and speedily establish the throne of David — swiftly, hastily, speedily bring us Mashiach ben David, the sweet singer of Israel [ne'im zemiross Yisrael]. Then shall our mouths be filled with laughter and our tongues with joyous song. And then shall we sing and chant and jubilate before You all our days. And may the verse be fulfilled that is written: "Hashem is our salvation, and our melodies we shall play all the days of our lives in the House of Hashem" [Isaiah 38:20] — speedily in our days, Amen.