Likutei Tefilot, Volume I 24/ליקוטי תפילות·חלק א כ״ד

1Joy of the mitzvot / Spiritual perception / Glimpsing the Infinite LightThe more the spiritual seeker develops his soulpowers, the more exalted the levels of Godliness that he can perceive. However, the Infinite Light, the Infinite God Himself, is beyond the creation, and therefore beyond the grasp of the nefesh, ruach and neshamah. Nevertheless, a person who has actualized these levels of his soul to perfection can gain passing glimpses of the Infinite Light. The first step is to carry out the mitzvot joyously — this elevates the holy life force that animates this world from its exile amid the forces of unholiness. Each mitzvah we do has the power to bring blessing into all the worlds. The spiritual seeker should aim to receive the blessings of wisdom and Godly knowledge, and to deepen his faith. He must also develop his power to order and settle his mind. The tendency of the mind to stray outside the bounds of the holy must be held in check. As long as we guard the purity of our thoughts, it is the very interplay between our ability to direct our minds on the one hand, and the race of our thoughts to the limits of what is knowable on the other, that opens us to fleeting perceptions of the Infinite Light.How fortunate are we! How goodly is our portion, how pleasant our share and how beautiful our heritage! How fortunate are we that, through Your vast compassion and kindness, we have received Your holy Torah and can fulfill Your precious mitzvot, which are “more desirable than gold, even an abundance of the finest gold.”

2I have come to plead with You, HaShem my God and God of my fathers, to help me carry out all the mitzvot with the utmost joy. It is certainly fitting to rejoice and delight in You, HaShem our God, whenever we have the privilege of carrying out a mitzvah. For every single mitzvah is bound up in Your unity, and through performing each mitzvah we are able to become attached to You and merged with You, HaShem.

3How good You have been to me in making me a Jew and not a gentile, and in lifting up someone as lowly and needy as myself from the dust and dirt. Each day and every moment, You have given me the privilege of carrying out such precious, lovely mitzvot.

4Compassionate God, You are the source of joy. Draw happiness upon me and let me be truly joyous when I am privileged to do a mitzvah. Help me do many mitzvot every day with great joy and tremendous delight. In Your vast compassion and tremendous kindness, protect me and save me from sadness and depression. Let not the least hint of sadness even begin to enter my heart.

5Take away all my grief and sorrow. Be my help and salvation. Help me speak to You each day and express everything that is in my heart. Each day let me confess all my sins and transgressions before You.

6May I sincerely and completely repent for them with all my heart and soul. Let me plead with You and beg You for forgiveness and atonement with a truly broken, humbled heart, as You want me to.

7Let me make a firm commitment not to sin anymore and not to go back to my foolishness. “If I have done evil, I will not add to it.” For Your part, arouse Your kindness and have mercy on me. Forgive me for all my sins and transgressions. Remove my sadness, grief and depression.

8Help me come to great joy after my confession. Let me be happy at all times.

9Especially when I’m learning Torah, praying and performing each mitzvah, let me never be depressed about any of my sins. Even more so, let me never have the least worry or anxiety about how I’m going to make a living or other worldly concerns.

10When I’m learning Torah or doing a mitzvah, help me put my entire past up to that moment totally out of my mind.

11Let me experience perfect joy while carrying out each mitzvah. “I will rejoice in HaShem; my soul will delight in my God.”

12Bring me to a level where I will perform every single mitzvah and everything You want with perfect joy and delight.

13Through performing the mitzvot with joy, let me elevate all the sparks of holiness that have fallen into the realm of unholiness as a result of my sins and transgressions, whether in this incarnation or another. May my joy elevate all these sparks, just as the eleven ingredients of the incense-offering have the power to release the sparks of holiness from their exile. Help me extract all the vitality from the realm of unholiness, until all the forces of impurity will disappear entirely and be rendered into nothingness. Help me elevate all the sparks of holiness to their root, so as to perfect the Shekhinah.

14Compassionate God, help us raise the Shekhinah out of exile by performing the mitzvot with great joy.

15May Your kingship be revealed to everyone in the world, and may everyone submit to the yoke of Your kingship. Rule over them speedily and forever.

16Have compassion on me, my Father and King. Fill me with holiness and purity, and put power and strength into every mitzvah I do so it will go forth into all the worlds and arouse them all to serve You and fear You.

17May all the worlds and everything they contain be stirred to serve You: inanimate matter, the vegetative realm, the animals, and human beings; fire, air, water, and earth; “from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop in the wall”; from the tiniest worm in the sea to the horns of the buffalo …

18“The kings of the earth and all the nations, princes and all the judges of the earth”; great and small, sons and daughters, old and young;

19“the earth and everything in it, the seas and all they contain”; the heavens and heavens of the heavens, and all their hosts …

20The Worlds of Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriah and Atzilut and all they contain; the lowliest creatures, the celestial spheres, angels, spirits, forces, seraphim, ophanim and holy chayot ... From the central point of the World of Asiyah to the innermost point from which Creation emanated at the start of Atzilut.

21Let each of the mitzvot I do go forth and arouse them all to Your service. Let all the worlds and all they contain return to You, and in this way, may blessing spread through all the worlds. Fulfill the verse, “Open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” In Your vast compassion, spread goodness and blessing throughout all the worlds.

22Extend Your right hand of mercy from the heavens to sustain me, and help me direct my heart, my mind and my will to draw down the blessing of Divine wisdom. Fill me with Your holy spirit and grant me knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

23Help me drive out all folly and confusion from my mind. In Your vast compassion and tremendous kindness, grant me holy wisdom and perfect, holy knowledge of God, in accordance with Your will.

24Help me come to true, perfect faith. Let me not rely on human reason at all, not even when You inspire me with true and holy wisdom and intelligence. Let me not depend on reason alone, but always fill my mind with faith. As I develop greater wisdom and understanding, so let my faith grow. May my essential wisdom be to have complete faith in You. Let me constantly deepen and strengthen my faith. Help me always to believe in You, Your holy mitzvot and Your true tzaddikim with simple, honest, perfect faith.

25Compassionate God, help me settle my mind and bring order into my thoughts. Inspire me with a spirit of holiness and purity from the Supernal Crown, so that I will be able to develop the power to bring order and clarity into my mind and soul.

26Grant that I should always be calm and clearminded, and that I should always direct my mind to You in truth, perfect faith, holiness and purity.

27God, You are full of compassion. Rise up and help me! Save me! Don’t let my mind race with lustful thoughts and fantasies, doubts or atheistic ideas.

28Let me keep my faculties of wisdom, understanding and knowledge under control, and never entertain any alien thoughts whatsoever. Let my mind be pure, clear and holy at all times. Help me rise constantly from level to level, step by step, by performing Your holy mitzvot with joy. Let my thoughts always race only toward You — in holiness and purity, calmly, truthfully and with perfect faith.

29Work amazing wonders with me! Save me and help me so that my thoughts constantly race to apprehend the Infinite Light, the light that is beyond even the nefesh, the ruach and the neshamah. Satisfy my soul with clear, radiant flashes of the light of Your countenance. “One thing I have asked of HaShem, this is what I seek: that I should dwell in the House of HaShem all the days of my life, to behold the pleasantness of HaShem and frequent His Sanctuary.”

30Shine on me with the light of the Supernal Crown and give me the power to order and settle my mind so as not to stray beyond the bounds of holiness, God forbid.

31Let my thoughts race out to apprehend the Infinite Light, “running and returning,” “reaching yet not reaching,” “chasing yet holding back,” on the strength of ordering and settling my mind with complete faith.

32Help my powers of thought ascend and merge with the “nine supernal palaces that are neither lights nor spirits nor souls, which no one can stand in, and which cannot be grasped or known.”

33HaShem, You alone know the bursting longing in my nefesh, my ruach and my neshamah at their supernal roots to attain such perceptions. This was the whole reason I was created. “My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When will I come and see the face of God? How lovely are Your dwelling places, God of Hosts. My soul longs and pines for the courtyards of HaShem. My heart and flesh will sing out joyously to the God of my life.”

34But my sins and transgressions have caused Your face to be hidden from me, because I have allowed my mind to race with lustful desires, doubts and evil thoughts. I have damaged all the chambers of my holy intellect and all the pathways of my mind.

35I have severely impaired my wisdom, understanding and knowledge, as well as my power to order and settle my mind, the power of the Supernal Crown.

36I have greatly damaged all of them because of my many sins and transgressions against You, HaShem my God.

37Therefore, I plead with You, merciful and forgiving Master, to pardon me, forgive me and give me atonement for all my sins and transgressions. Use Your amazing, awesome power to rescue me and lift me out of the depths of the sea.

38Heal and restore my mind and my soul. From now on save me from all evil, alien thoughts, all doubts, and all lustful thoughts and desires for the things of this world.

39Purify me and sanctify me with Your supreme holiness. Take away my grief and sadness, and rid me of depression. Bring me to perfect joy. Let me perform Your mitzvot with the utmost joy and delight.

40Restore and rebuild my ruins. Rebuild the sanctuaries of my mind on a firm, true foundation, in great holiness and purity, truth and perfect faith.

41Help me ascend quickly from level to level, step by step, until I reach a perception of the nine supernal palaces that I have mentioned. Even in this world, let me genuinely know and recognize You.

42Help me rise to the most exalted levels of holiness. Bring me to the ultimate level a Jew can reach in this world.

43It was for this reason that my soul descended into this world from such exalted heights: in order to return and rise up to the source from which she was hewn, higher and higher, with greater strength and power, in the merit of the good deeds she does in this world.

44Have mercy on me the way a father shows mercy to his son. Grant me a true share in Your great goodness. For You are good and do good to all. Your desire is to benefit Your creatures and reveal Your Godliness to them, which is the ultimate possible good.

45Have pity on me! Be kind to me! Put it into my heart and help me to genuinely return to You, so that I will have the true satisfaction of experiencing Your goodness. Let me genuinely know and acknowledge You.

46Let my thoughts race constantly to glimpse the Infinite Light in great purity and holiness, truth and perfect faith, until I reach the highest possible level of holiness.

47Arouse Your compassion for us and redeem us speedily. Restore and rebuild our ruins. Rebuild our glorious Holy Temple, and rebuild and repair all the holy structures and palaces, physical and spiritual.

48Bless us with great joy at all times. Raise up the Shekhinah from her exile among the forces of unholiness, and extract all the holy sparks from their domain.

49Cast down, subdue, destroy and eradicate all the unholy forces. Let them all bend and fall, and give honor to Your Name.

50Help us leave our exile, physical and spiritual, speedily and with great joy. May all the nations submit to Israel, and may they all recognize the great holiness of Your nation, the Jewish people, the holy ones whom You have chosen. May the verse be fulfilled, “All your brothers of all the nations will bring an offering to HaShem on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules and camels to My holy mountain, Jerusalem, says HaShem, just as the children of Israel will bring the offering in a pure vessel to the House of HaShem.”

51Joy will increase throughout the world, as it is written, “Then they will say among the nations, ‘HaShem has done great things for these.’ HaShem has done great things for us; we were happy.”

52And may the verse be fulfilled, “You will go out in joy and arrive in peace. The mountains and hills will break out in glad song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” And it is written, “For God will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her ruins. He will make her desert like Eden and her arid places like the garden of HaShem. Gladness and joy will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song!”