72.
Our Father in Heaven, Living God and King of the World, who revives the dead in great mercy, in Your immense compassion, let me merit to the revival of the dead. Help me from now on so that I be guided by my real humility which is rooted in every single limb. This real lowliness and humility is that of Moses, may he rest in peace, and is rooted in every single Jew in each and every limb. It is the principal element of the true life, the eternal life of the World to Come. However, because of my many iniquities, this lowliness is now in the state of death and I can’t feel this real lowliness, since I am so far away from You as I am. Master of the World, let me merit to all the real advice, strategies and paths of holiness in such a way that I merit to arouse and awaken and revive this real lowliness and humility which is rooted within me. You know how far away I am from lowliness and humility which is the main thing in life.
Because of my many iniquities I do not know anything about what lowliness and humility is, or that it is the principal element of the true life of each and every limb. You have already informed us that You don’t want us to be degraded and lazy, for that is improper and invalid humility. Quite the reverse, You have warned us several times to be bold as a leopard etc. However, the truth is that I don’t know any way to achieve this other than by depending on Your compassion alone, that You will help me, save me and teach me the real paths of humility. Always revive me in Your eternal life and let me merit to really true humility.
Master of the World, let me merit to holy shame so that I may always feel fear and shame before You and therefore never do anything against Your will. Even when I want to perform some commandment, may I feel great shame because of the holy and awesome commandment itself. What have I done to merit to perform a commandment, to relate to the great splendour, preciousness and awesomeness of the holiness of each commandment! The awesome holiness of each and every commandment is very, very great and sublime. Who can be bold enough to take pride in himself that he is worthy to perform a commandment before You, may You be blessed. Especially is this so considering our great distance from You, because of our many transgressions and wilful transgressions, as each of us knows in his soul. It is certainly fitting that great fear and shame come upon us and appear on our faces when we want to perform a commandment.
Who am I that I should merit to snatch the holy and awesome tefillin which are the crown of the King, and put them on my very blemished arm and head! How can I enwrap myself in the clothing of a commandment, in the clothing of the King, in the holiness of the holy and awesome tzitzit! So also with the other commandments, for each and every commandment is very, very holy and awesome. Before whom do I perform the commandment? Before the King, the King of Kings, the Holy One, Mighty, Awesome and Glorious etc.! His greatness is unfathomable. If I merited even to the slightest true perception. then great shame would certainly descend upon me and appear on my face even when performing a commandment. Even to put food in my mouth should cause me great shame for someone who eats food which is not his feels ashamed to look in the face of he who feeds him! How much more so then is it fitting that I have shame and great fear such that I never transgress or sin or blemish, Heaven forbid, for a sin has no connection to a Jew at all — all the souls of Jews in their source are completely and utterly distant from sin. A sin has no connection to the soul of a Jew at all Master of the World, full of mercy, let me merit to come close to real tzaddikim and to hear from their holy mouths new interpretations and clarifications of the Torah in such a way that, by this, great fear of You and shame before You be drawn upon me. Let fear of You be upon my face so that I never sin again, from now until eternity. May that holy fear and shame to which the Community of Israel merited at the holy gathering on Mount Sinai, at the time of the Receiving of the Torah, always be drawn upon me.
Master of the World, full of compassion, who desires our repentance, who beholds the evil person and wants him to be found righteous, in Your mercy, let me merit to really see my shame and disgrace such that, by this shame, I merit to return in really perfect repentance before You. "Return me and I will return for You are the Lord my God." Our Father, return us to Your Torah; our King bring us close to Your service. Return us in perfect repentance before You and, by repentance, let me merit to the true life, the eternal life... In Your bountiful compassion and in the merit of the true tzaddikim, grant us eternal life so that the humility of Moses, which is within each Jew and in each limb of the body, will live and guide us. For, because of our many iniquities, this lowliness and humility is obscured and hidden within us in the aspect of death.
Therefore we don’t merit to real humility and we don’t feel our lowliness really and truly as we should. In Your bountiful compassion let us merit to the real life, the eternal life, that now also the aspect of the revival of the dead be drawn upon us so that the humility and lowliness of Moses which is clothed in each person, in each limb, guide us and be resurrected. Sole Master and truly humble One, let us merit to real humility, as is Your good desire. Grant us absolutely perfect humility which is an aspect of the life of the World to Come; an aspect of the revival of the dead; an aspect of the true life and eternal life of each and every limb; an aspect of real nullification to Ein—Sof, the Infinite One, may He be blessed. May this be in such a way that even in This World we merit to taste and to flavour the aspect of the life of the World to Come, an aspect of the real delight of Shabbat.
Master of the World, our King, our God, great, mighty and awesome God, whose greatness is beyond measure, in every place where we find Your greatness we also find Your humility. Teach and guide us how to arrange prayers and requests for this, in such a way that we merit to please and appease You and that You grant us all to merit real humility, as is really and truly Your good desire.
73.
(a) Someone who wants to merit to repentance should recite Psalms regularly because Psalms have a special power to arouse repentance. There are very many obstacles to repentance. One person may have no arousal to repent and even someone who is aroused to repent can be faced with several obstacles to it. For example, there are some people for whom the gates of repentance are closed to them while others may not know how to reach the gate which belongs to them, through which they have to pass in order to return to G-d and so on, other obstacles that prevent a person from repentance. So much so that he can waste all his life and die without repenting, Heaven forbid. Against all these obstacles reciting Psalms has the power to work even for someone who has no arousal to repent; by reciting Psalms he can merit to become aroused to repent and to reach the gate that belongs to his soul; he can open this gate until he merits to achieve complete repentance. Therefore, in Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance Jews engage in saying Psalms in order to merit through this to repentance. However, throughout the entire year we have to also engage in reciting Psalms in order to merit to repentance, as mentioned.
(b) The forty- nine days of the Counting of the Omer correspond to the forty-nine gates of repentance which themselves correspond to the forty-nine letters contained in the names of the Tribes of G-d. Through these letters and gates we need to return to G-d. Shavuot corresponds to the fiftieth gate which is an aspect of the repentance of the Holy One Who needs to return to us in mercy, like it says, "Return to Me and I will return to you". To all these gates one merits to reach and to open by means of reciting Psalms, as mentioned. Therefore, during the forty-nine days of the Counting of the Omer a person has to be especially careful to recite Psalms with concentration in order to merit, by this, to reach all the forty-nine gates of repentance, as mentioned previously, for they correspond to the forty-nine days of the Counting of the Omer during which we have to purify ourselves from our filth and return to G-d so that G-d will return to us on Shavuot, an aspect of "And G-d descended on Mount Sinai."