17.
May it be Your will O Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers that You help us and in Your loving-kindness grant us merit to welcome Shabbat with great happiness and joy, with gladness, song gaiety and rejoicing. Protect me and save me so that not sadness or melancholy, sorrow or sighing or worry come to my mind on the holy Shabbat. Rather may I merit to be happy with all my might on Shabbat, with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my possessions, with a happiness that has no end, just as it is fitting to rejoice on such a holy and awesome day as Shabbat. May we arouse might, gladness and phenomenally great happiness beyond measure in the worlds, as is brought in the holy Zohar and other holy books describing the intense happiness and joy on Shabbat.
Master of the World what shall I say, what shall I speak? However much I start to pray and plead for it, I certainly know how far I am from this happiness. According to the greatness of the virtue of this commandment and holy attribute and according to its usefulness for all the things associated with holiness, so, to the same degree, is the immensity of my distance from it, to the ultimate degree. I am especially far from the happiness of Shabbat, upon which nearly everything is dependent, for it is the primary means of coming closer to You. However, You knot the tremendous number of obstacles to this and how very greatly they overcome and challenge me each time, preventing me, Heaven forbid, from the happiness of Shabbat. Father in Heaven, have pity upon me, my Father, merciful Father. Always gladden me in Your salvation. Help me and save me and let me merit to rejoice a lot, with great happiness, every single Shabbat. Let it be a hard and fast law. May I merit to be happy all the day, from the moment it enters until the time it goes out, such that I draw the happiness f Shabbat to the six work-days, and until I always rejoice during the weekdays with true happiness. May my eyes really see Your Salvation such that my heart rejoices and my soul is glad. May I merit, by the happiness of Shabbat, to raise the attribute of fear to holy perception so that I have perfect fear of You with perfect perception, without any folly whatsoever.
Master of the World, Frightening and Awesome One, help me, save me and grant me very speedily the merit to fear of Your greatness, to holy fear with perception, drawn from the happiness of Shabbat. You, who are full of mercy, Redeemer, Saviour, Freer and Rescuer, redeem me and save me; bring me out of servitude to freedom, from slavery to redemption. Let me merit to happiness of Shabbat and in Your bountiful mercy and great loving-kindness, let me merit to welcome Shabbat in great happiness and in great wealth and honour and a minimum of iniquities. Help me to honour Shabbat with all my might; with all sorts of happiness and joy.
May I merit to have many delights of Shabbat through all sorts of pleasures, whether it is by having many types of food and delicacies and drinks or whether by fine clothes, that is, by trying to merit to beautiful clothes in order to honour Shabbat. The main thing is that You have mercy upon me, that You help me and save me to merit to be happy with all my heart on Shabbat, with a truly great happiness and joy such that I merit by the happiness to go from servitude to freedom, from slavery to redemption and such that, by the happiness and freedom of Shabbat, I merit to perfect and make greater my perception, to the ultimate degree of greatness and perfection as is truly Your good desire.
By this, may I merit to perfect fear, that my fear by with perception, without any foolishness at all. Help me and save me so that by holy perception I can life up and raise to You alone, O Holy One, all the fallen fears, so that I have no ‘fallen’ fear and will not be afraid or have fear of any creature in the world, nor minister or lord, nor any person or evil animal or robbers, nor anything in the world; rather, from You alone I will truly fear and be afraid. May fear of You be on my face so that I do not sin.
Master of the World, let me merit to truly perfect fear, to fear of Your awesome and glorious Name; the Lord, our G-d my a fear Him alone and trust Him. Let me not be afraid of anything in the world. Fulfill in me the verse which states: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” It says, “The Lord is mine; I will not fear: what can man do to me?” And it says: “In G-d I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do to me.” And it says: “Behold, G-d is my salvation: I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord G-d is my victory and song, and this has been my salvation. Therefore draw water joyously from the wellsprings of salvation.”
Master of the World, You, who are full of compassion and who does good to all, let me merit to really taste the flavour of the delight of Shabbat. Let me merit to the happiness and freedom of the holy Shabbat, to nullify all the servitude of the weekdays and to have complete calmness of mind, without any confusion of the mind at all. May no thought of any business, work or trading, nor any worry or bother at all enter my mind on Shabbat. Rather, in my eyes, may it be as if all my work is completed. May I really merit to the tranquility, delight and happiness of Shabbat; the calmness of love and generosity, the calmness of truth and belief, the calmness of peace and tranquility, quiet and security, the complete calmness that You desire on this day. “Gladden the soul of Your servant; for unto You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.” In your bountiful mercy always gladden me, especially every Shabbat and on the Festivals. There is no one who can gladden my soul other than You alone; I am gladdened only by Your tremendous loving-kindness and hidden compassion and by the merit and strength of Your real tzaddikim, who at all times, are the aspect of Shabbat. “Sanctify us in Your commandments and grant our portion in life to be in Your Torah’ satisfy us from Your bounty and gladden our souls in Your salvation; purify our hearts in order to serve You sincerely. In Your love and favour, O G-d, our G-d, let Your holy Shabbat remain our inheritance and may all Israel, who sanctify Your Name, rest thereon.” “You will show me the right path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” May it be Your will that the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing before Your countenance, O G-d, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Master of the Universe, it is Your way to be patient with the wicked and the good. You always incline towards loving-kindness. You desire only to look at the good that You find within us. I rely upon Your glancing at and taking notice of the very small, good points within me. As a result, subdue and nullify the great evil within me. Give the little good within me the strength to overcome the evil so that I merit to really return in complete repentance before You. Do this out of Your great love for us. Do not hold back good from me from now on. Have mercy over me and all Jews. Grant me perfect, holy knowledge such that I can cleave to Your holy ways. Let me never look at the bad in any Jew in the world.
I do not want to notice any bad deeds or attributes in other Jews. Merit me to judge every individual Jew to the side of merit. In Your bountiful mercy, open my eyes and mind. Grant me holy knowledge in such a way that I can search for and find merit and good in every Jew, even the worst of the worst of them. Have compassion and mercy upon me and upon all Jews for Your Name’s sake, for the sake of the true tzaddikim and for the sake of Your holy Torah. Do it for Your sake, not for ours; do it for Your sake and redeem us so we can return in complete repentance before You. Have mercy on my soul, for years have already passed by. It is near thee nd of the day so do not desert me, my G-d and Redeemer. Lord come quickly to my aid and save me.
18.
It is a great danger to be famous and to lead the public. This goes without saying if he is not fitting at all and wears a tallit which is not his; but even real servants of G-d, among the greatest rabbis of the generations, they face awesome dangers in leading the public, for in leading the public and in their Torah innovations they can actually break the prohibitions against stealing, fornicating and killing, on every occasion, at every moment, Heaven forbid.