73.
Master of the World, may I always merit to perfect repentance, especially during the holy days of the month of Elul which was when Moses our teacher, of blessed memory, opened up for us a paved roadway to repentance. This road is made up of two types of expertise — ‘running’ and ‘returning’ and of two Holy Names — the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) and Ehyeh. It includes the two holy points, the upper and lower, which are the essential perfection of repentance — the aspects of repenting and afterwards repenting for one’s original repentance, the aspect of repentance in This World and repentance of the World to Come. Therefore let us merit, during these holy days of Elul, to complete repentance. Let us merit to draw upon ourselves the holiness of Elul throughout the whole year, until we merit to always be in complete repentance before You and all the days of our lives to progress in perfection along all the paths of repentance. In Your bountiful mercy and great loving—kindness, accept all the aspects and levels of our repentance with great love and affection. Fulfill in us the verse which says: "We will search through and review our ways and return to God." "For Your right hand is outstretched to accept those who repent."
‘How many degrees of beneficence has the Almighty bestowed upon us? such that we’ve merited, really merited, to bountiful loving—kindness and great mercy, the faithful acts of loving-kindness of David... You sent us a saviour and teacher, "the annointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel"; he is ‘David, the King of Israel, who lives and remains for ever,’ who wrote for us the holy and awesome Book of Psalms, five books, corresponding to the Five Books of the Torah. How great is the good You did for us. "How can I repay the Lord for all His favours towards me.” In Your bountiful mercy, You revealed to us that by reciting Psalms one merits to repentance, for You desire loving-kindness and want the wicked to repent, not that they should die. Therefore You preceded the cure to the affliction and granted us this holy Book of Psalms, which opens for us all the gateways of mercy, all the gateways of repentance. There are Fifty Gates of Repentance, corresponding to the Fifty Gates of Wisdom (Bina). Master of the World, Merciful Father, in Your bountiful mercy, grant us merit to engage in reciting Psalms all the days of our lives. Help me and all my family, along with the community of Israel, Your Nation, so that they and I merit to recite many Psalms every single day, with truly great spiritual arousal and sincerity. May I merit to set my heart to the content of the verses, to let my ears hear that which I speak out, in such a way that I merit to find myself, at whatever spiritual level, within the verses of the holy Psalms which are made up of all the souls of Israel and from all the spiritual levels in the world, from the most sublime down to the depths of the Pit. All those who have fallen or become distant (from God) to the utmost degree can all find themselves in the Book of Psalms. Every individual can arouse his heart in complete repentance by the reciting of Psalms, in order to return to the Holy One, may He be blessed. Everyone can arrive to his own gate of repentance, to that location which corresponds to his letter among the forty—nine letters of the names of the holy Tribes. These forty—nine letters correspond to forty—nine of the gates of Repentance through which we have to return to God, until, by this, we merit to have the Holy One return to us in complete repentance (so to speak) and that He will have compassion upon us, in bountiful loving-kindness and great mercy; He will help us and support us at all times to always come closer to God from wherever we’ve fallen and to return to Him in complete repentance, always repenting on the previous repentance.
Please, please, my Father, merciful Father, You know that I’ve blemished very much all the paths of Your advice which You revealed to us by Your true tzaddikim. However, I know and believe, with perfect faith, that really it is impossible to spoil Your advice in any way in the world. Therefore I still stand firm and wait expectantly every moment for a complete salvation, that You will bring me closer to You and return me in perfect repentance before You by way of all the paths and the wonderful, awesome, pure and simple pieces of advice which You revealed to us by Your true tzaddikim, in such a way that I will merit from now on to always be as is Your good desire.
Master of the World, let me merit to consistently recite many Psalms every day with great devotion and wonderful enthusiasm, with sincere intent of the heart, until I merit by this to feel the pain of my sins and to repent perfectly. May I merit to great happiness by the reciting of Psalms and to arouse upon myself all the ten types of melody with which the Book of Psalms was composed and is recited. They are a cure for ‘the princess’, who is the Community of Israel. You, who are full of compassion, let me merit to leave the exile of Egypt and all the exiles of the soul and body that are all referred to as the exile of Egypt. Grant me the merit to purify, refine and reveal the Forty—Nine Gates of Repentance by the reciting of Psalms which include all "the names of the Children of Israel who come to Egypt" There are forty-nine letters in the names of the Tribes which correspond to the Forty-Nine Gates of Repentance. By this, take me out of the Forty-Nine Gates of Defilement and let me enter into the Forty-Nine Gates of Holiness. Remove me from the distress of the throat, so that my throat not be parched, for I have already called You very much from distress, from the restrictions of the throat.
Take me out of the confines of Egypt to a spacious place; raise me from the aspect of the land of Egypt, from the distress and confines of the throat, until I merit to open wide my mouth. Then fill it with all that is really, eternally good (words of Torah and prayer) in such a way that I merit to come closer to You and return to You in perfect, sincere repentance, with all my heart, all my body and all my possessions. “Turn to me and I will return, for You are the Lord, my God." Our Father, return us to Your Torah; our King, bring us closer to Your service. Return us in complete repentance before You, for You look and wait for the wicked and desire his being found righteous. You desire repentance, for You do not desire the death of the wicked, rather You desire that he ‘turn from his ways and live.’ Until the day of his death You will wait for him; if he repents You will immediately accept him. "You turn a person to destruction (much suffering)" until deep depression, “and say, ‘Return you sons of man.’ ” "Return us, O God of our salvation and cause Your anger towards us to cease.” "Return us to You, O Lord, and we will return; renew our days of as of old."
Master of the World, "this is my comfort in my affliction”; the true tzaddikim strengthened and encouraged us with all sorts of reason and revealed to us that ‘there is no despair in the world at all’! On this alone I relied for support; on their great strength I depended. I still await salvation from where I am now. Therefore, You who are full of mercy, I will ask You at all times to save me by all the forms of holy advice that You revealed to us through Your true tzaddikim. Every single piece of advice has the power to help and save me also! Even if I’ve spoiled them all by my many transgressions, I know and believe that You still have much compassion and many ways of saving; You have ways of salvation and wonderful advice, which You revealed only to them and they, the tzaddikim, haven’t yet revealed them in the world. I still have some hope that by that advice I’ll merit to return to You and start anew, to fulfill all Your holy advice, with love and fear, in such a way that I merit to rectify everything, very speedily, in my lifetime, as is always Your good desire.
You, who are full of mercy, let me merit to recite whole-heartedly many Psalms, with great devotion and wonderful enthusiasm until I merit that You bestow upon me at all times a radiance and great holiness from the Fiftieth Gate of Holiness which includes all the Gates of Holiness. In this way, remove me very speedily from all the Fifty Gates of Defilement and bring me into all the Fifty Gates of Holiness, for, our Father in Heaven, we have no one to rely upon except You. There is no place in which You are not present! Please, please help us from now on; grant us a complete salvation as is becoming to You, in such a way that I merit to be entirely renewed, so that I leave my bad ways and bad thoughts completely and never return to folly. “Create in me a pure heart, O God; and renew a true spirit within me." May I merit very soon, by the reciting of Psalms, to come to and reach the letter and Gate of Repentance belonging to my soul, corresponding to the root of my higher soul in the forty-nine letters of the Lord’s Tribes. By this, may I truly return to You whole-heartedly and serve You sincerely, with fear and love, with happiness and good-heartedness stemming from abundance. "Turn to me and I will return, for You are the Lord, my God."
Master of the World, let me merit to regularly recite many Psalms every day with great devotion, wonderful enthusiasm and sincerity until I merit by this to feel the pain of my sins and to repent completely over them. May I merit to great happiness by the reciting of the Psalms and to arouse upon myself all the ten types of melody with which the Book of Psalms is said. They are a cure for the princess who represents the community of Israel.
You, who are full of compassion, grant me merit to get out of the exile of Egypt and from all the exiles of the soul and body which are also referred to as the exile of Egypt. Grant me the merit to purify, refine and reveal all the Forty-nine Gates of Repentance by the reciting of Psalms that include all the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt. There are forty-nine letters in the names of the Tribes which correspond to the Forty—nine Gates of Repentance. By this, take me out of the Forty—nine Gates of impurity and help me enter the Forty-nine Gates of Repentance. Remove me from the distress of the throat, so that the throat be not parched, for I have already called You very much from the narrow confines of the throat. Take me out of the confines to a spacious place; raise me from the aspect of the land of Egypt, from the confines of the throat, until I merit to expand my mouth and then You will fill it with all that is really eternally good (words of Torah and prayer) in such a way that I merit to come closer to You and return to You in perfect, sincere repentance, with all my heart, all my body and all my money.
Master of the World, please remember the wonderful and awesome loving—kindness that You did for us in bringing us out of Egypt with great strength and with a strong arm. You revealed to us the truth of belief in Your Divinity by a great, wonderful, pleasing light. You performed great and awesome signs and wonders in order to reveal Your Divinity, Your Oneness and Dominion, which extend over everything. Since then, You brought us close to You as a holy nation. You took us out of the Forty-nine Gates of Impurity and entered us into the Forty-nine Gates of Holiness which are the Forty—nine Gates of Repentance that are comprised of the forty-nine letters in the names of the Tribes of the Lord. In Your bountiful mercy, You commanded us to count forty-nine days of the Omer to correspond to this, in order to purify the souls of Your Nation, Israel, from their filthiness, so that we merit by this counting of the Omer to get out of the impurity and to reach purity, to leave the Forty-nine Gates of Impurity and to enter the Forty-nine Gates of Holiness.
Master of the World, full of compassion, in Your tremendous loving-kindness let us merit to perform the commandment of counting the Omer with great holiness and wonderful and awesome spiritual arousal, so that we awake by the holiness of this awesome commandment and really return in repentance to You; let us merit to leave all our impurity and remove from within us all sorts of impurity and filth that has become attached to us through our bad deeds. Master of the World, Master of the World, deliver me by all kinds of salvation for You know the power of each commandment, how great its power is to extract us from the places into which we have fallen because of our many iniquities. Bring us closer to You. This is especially true of this commandment of counting the Omer, which is a preparation for the receiving of the Torah. which is the beginning of Israel’s coming closer to their Father in Heaven. You gave us this holy commandment in order that we get out of the Forty-nine Gates of Impurity and enter the Forty-nine Gates of Holiness. Grant me merit, from where I am now, to perform this commandment in absolute perfection, as much as is possible for someone such as myself to perform this commandment. Be full of compassion for me; help me and save me by this; extract me from impurity very quickly and bring me to holiness; bring me from the mundane to holiness, from sorrow to happiness, from servitude to redemption, from darkness to a great light, such that we merit on the holy Festival of Shavuot, on the fiftieth day, to have You return to us and open for us the holy Fiftieth Gate. Bestow upon us Your good from the Fiftieth Gate, with great mercy and sublime loving-kindness, so that we merit to rectify everything and always truly return to You… "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before Your Countenance, O God, my Rock and Redeemer.”
Amen and Amen.
74.
Purim is a preparation for Pesach. By the mitzvot of Purim which we perform we merit to be protected from chometz in Pesach.