A Prayer by the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

A wonderful prayer for the Tomb of Rachel Imeinu, by the Admor, the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit''a.

"Master of the World, full of mercy, as we travel to Bethlehem-Efrat, to the holy and awesome marker which is the grave of Rachel Imeinu, about whom it is said, 'Rachel weeps for her children; she refuses to be comforted.' Rachel Imeinu does not cease praying for even a moment or a second for us and for all our troubles. Right now, we are all in terrible troubles and under terrible decrees, and every day, moment, and second, we are visited by strange and varying illnesses, and dangerous diseases that have almost no hope."

"Now we have come to you, Rachel Imeinu, to pray before you regarding all our troubles, and all the troubles of the House of Israel, [during the Three Weeks one adds: specifically during the time of the Three Weeks] that our Holy Temple was burned, our city was destroyed, and regarding the nations, 'Servants rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hand.' Therefore, we have come to you, Rachel Imeinu, to pray before Hashem, that you may elevate our prayer before Hashem with mercy and favor, until we merit, in your merit, to be saved with an eternal salvation, and may the Holy Temple be built in the blink of an eye, yet in our days, Amen."

"Master of the World, as I travel now to the grave of Rachel Imeinu to prostrate myself upon her holy and awesome marker, please merit me to cling to her holy attributes (midot). Merit me to weep day and night over the destruction of the Holy Temple and over the destruction of the Nation of Israel just like her, as it is written, 'Rachel weeps for her children.' Merit me to be included in her holy tears, to feel the pain of each and every Jew, and to weep day and night over the spilling of the blood of Your holy and pure children. Please, Merciful and Gracious One, All-Powerful, from Whom no plan is withheld, please merit me to be like Rachel Imeinu, who gave everything she had to her sister. She abandoned herself completely in every way for the sake of her dear sister, giving her all her worlds in this life and the next. Through this, she merited that she will bring the Geulah (Redemption), and Mashiach will come first to her holy tomb. Please merit me to persist in traveling to her day and night without cessation, and to always prostrate myself upon her holy marker, and to pour out my heart like water upon her holy marker, until I merit to be completely included in her holy soul. Master of the World, merit me to be like Rachel Imeinu, who weeps day and night over the destruction of the Holy Temple and the blood of Israel that flows like water."

"Master of the World, merit me to be holy and pure, myself and my wife, like Rachel Imeinu. Out of her immense holiness and purity, she handed over all her signs to her sister Leah, and she gave up her portion in the World to Come and all the life of this world for her sister. She merited to sacrifice her soul (mesirus nefesh) for her sister with a whole heart. So too, may You merit me to sacrifice my soul for each and every Jew with supreme self-sacrifice. Through this, may I merit to connect all the letters of Your Holy Name, Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, in their full spelling, and to fulfill 'By You alone will we mention Your Name.' Only then may I merit that Your holy and awesome Name, Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, will be before my eyes at all times, unceasingly, day and night, without a pause of even a single second. Please, Merciful and Gracious One, just as Jacob our Patriarch merited to work for Rachel for seven years, so too, merit me to honor and cherish my wife day and night. Give me the mindset (mochin) to cherish and honor her without a second's pause, and to always run toward her and serve her with all the good in the world, until, in the merit of the seven years Jacob worked for Rachel, the verse 'A righteous one is the foundation of the world (Tzaddik Yesod Olam)' will be revealed to me—'The sign of the Holy Covenant is forever, the wellspring of blessing, a Tzaddik Yesod Olam; You are the Tzaddik, Hashem.' May I merit to roar with terrible roars over the destruction of the Holy Temple and the blood of Israel that flows in the streets of the city day and night without stop, as it is written, 'Hashem shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall mightily roar because of His fold.' Let me raise a voice of lamentation and weeping day and night over the shattering of the daughter of my people, like Rachel Imeinu who does not stop weeping for a second over the killing of our people—brothers, parents, grandparents, and school children—as it is written, 'Thus says Hashem: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.' May I and my wife merit, in ultimate perfection, to be included in the soul of Rachel Imeinu, and through this, to draw down the soul of Mashiach, who will merit to guard the Holy Covenant (Bris Kodesh) in the height of perfection, just as Rachel Imeinu merited to draw down the soul of Joseph, who merited to withstand all the tests in the world, until he merited to sanctify the entire void of the world, to the point that minor sacrifices (Kodashim Kalim) are eaten in his portion by anyone who sees [the Temple]."

"Master of the World, All-Powerful, from Whom no plan is withheld: In these holy and awesome moments, as I prostrate myself on the holy and awesome marker of Rachel Imeinu, merit me in Your abundant mercy and Your endless kindness, that I may merit like her to shed tears day and night over the spilled blood of Israel, a holy nation, whose blood flows like water day and night in the streets of the town and the city squares, and there is no one to open their mouth or chirp [in protest]. Please, Merciful and Gracious One, I know that all the terrible suffering passing over the Nation of Israel is solely because of my terrible sins, and the endless flaws of the Bris (p'gamei habris) in which I have stumbled from my youth until this very day. Please, Merciful and Gracious One, merit me to be like Rachel Imeinu regarding 'Thus says Hashem: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.' Please, Merciful and Gracious One, merit me to raise a voice of lamentation and a voice of weeping day and night, especially at Chatzos (midnight) until the morning, over the shattering of the daughter of my people, and over all the slain of my people, old and young, whose blood is spilled day after day—and it is all solely because of my terrible flaws of the Bris."

"Master of the World, in the merit of Rachel Imeinu who took up the spindle of silence—who saw her gifts [being given] to her sister and remained silent—so too, merit me to attain the attribute of silence in perfection. May I merit to fulfill in perfection, 'But Hashem is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence (Has) before Him.' May I merit to give everything I have to everyone in the world, and may I be like Rachel who dwells here, who gave everything she had to her sister—both this world and the World to Come. In this merit, may I merit to be a throne for the Shechinah (Divine Presence), and to enter the Palace of the King (Heichala d'Malka), and to merit being among the children of Rachel's palace, which shines with precious light from one end of the world to the other. May I merit the 'Awesome Ice' (Kerach HaNora) which is above the Chayot (angels), and may I merit to be entirely like the Awesome Ice, like Rachel who merited Jacob who said, 'By day the heat consumed me, and the frost (kerach) by night.' In this merit, may I merit to burn with the sparks of her flames, and for twenty-four hours may I burn with sparks of the flame of Yah toward You, may You be blessed, until I merit through this to be included in the Supernal Abba and Imma (Father and Mother). May I merit, like Rachel Imeinu, to draw down the soul of Mashiach ben Yosef to the world, who will redeem the Nation of Israel.

Prayer for Kever Rachel - For Women:

Master of the World, All-Powerful, from Whom no plan is withheld: With trembling, quaking, fear, shuddering, awe, and reverence, we stand here before the holy and awesome marker of Rachel Imeinu, peace be upon her, who was burning and blazing with the fire of a holy flame day and night toward You, Hashem, and therefore her candle never goes out forever."

"May it be Your will, Hashem our God and God of our fathers, that this fire of a holy flame which burned in Rachel Imeinu day and night shall burn in our hearts in the aspect of 'A fire shall always burn on the altar; it shall not go out.' May it be engraved in our hearts until we merit to be a flaming fire in the chain of generations of holy and pure matriarchs who went out in dance upon the pyre of the altar. May we merit, like Rachel Imeinu, to draw down to the world the soul of Mashiach ben Yosef, and like her, [to have] a son like Benjamin, in whose portion the Holy Temple was built and will be built speedily in our days. May we merit to pray for Mashiach ben Yosef, that he not fall into the hands of wrongdoers. And by the power and merit of Rachel Imeinu, who stands day and night with weeping and roaring for the rescue of her children, as it is written, 'A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not' (Jeremiah 31:14), 'He shall mightily roar because of His fold' (Jeremiah 25:30). Therefore, Rachel chose to be buried 'on the way to Efrat, which is Bethlehem,' on the main road, so that we could always approach her with prayer, request, and outcry, and pour out the whisper of our hearts upon her holy and awesome marker."

"Please, Merciful and Gracious One, in the merit of Rachel Imeinu, peace be upon her, have mercy on Your sons and daughters who are slaughtered every single day in the city streets. Death has come up into our windows, physically and spiritually; 'We have almost become like Sodom, we are like Gomorrah.' All the walls of morality, holiness, and modesty have been breached, and we are left like orphans without a father or mother, 'Like a mast on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.' For all the Tzaddikim and righteous women who existed since the days of old have left us; 'They have traveled to their rest and left us to sighing.' Now, the duty of the day has fallen upon us to be the connecting link between Rachel Imeinu, the holy Matriarchs, and the coming generations, and to pass on the torch of fire of Torah, holy Emunah (faith), purity, and modesty that burns in our hearts day and night. In the merit that we shall merit to pass the torch of fire to all our generations coming after us, may the fire burn in our hearts double and double again, thousands and myriads of times more and more, until we merit to be like the holy Matriarchs and the holy Prophetesses, Miriam the Prophetess and Devorah the Prophetess, who at the time of their prophecy saw torches of fire above their tents. Until we merit that some spark from the holy and pure Rachel Imeinu will be impregnated within us, and we too shall merit the spirit of prophecy, as it is written, 'And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke' (Joel 3:1-3). And may the verses be fulfilled in our days: 'Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not know You, and upon the kingdoms that do not call upon Your name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation.' 'Why should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the vengeance of Your servants' blood that is shed be made known among the nations in our sight' (Psalms 79:6-7, 10). 'Sing aloud, O you nations, of His people; for He avenges the blood of His servants, and renders vengeance to His adversaries, and makes atonement for the land of His people.' May Rachel's roars, weeping, and cries awaken the light of the Geulah, and may we merit to see, in the merit of Rachel Imeinu, peace be upon her, the complete Geulah and the building of the Holy Temple, speedily in our days, in the blink of an eye, Amen, Netzach, Selah, Va'ed."