A Prayer for the Poor - Lag BaOmer by the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Master of the World, full of mercy, open for us Your treasury and bestow upon us a new light on this holy and awesome day, in which the soul of Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai) shines with a new light, opening all the heavens for us and drawing down for us Divine perceptions for the entire year. This is the day when the soul that merited to perfectly rectify the sin of Adam HaRishon (the first man) is revealed, to the point that it was said of him: "Let us make man—was said for your sake." Rashbi merited to return all the lights to their source—the hidden, concealed, ancient, pure, and polished light, which are the five Partzufim (Divine Personas) of Adam Kadmon (Primordial Man), which he rectified perfectly. Even Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) needed him, for when he ascended to the heights to the chamber called "Marom" (Heights), where the holy Tablets were hidden, the soul of Rashbi was impregnated within him during his battle with the angels of the heights, in the aspect of "You ascended to the heights, you took captive the Sh'B'Y'" (an acronym for Shimon Bar Yochai).

Master of the World, great in counsel and mighty in deed, our mouths are full of songs of gratitude for the wonderful day You brought down to Your world, which is the Hillula (anniversary of passing) of Rashbi, in which there is joy and gladness in all the Palaces, and life for all the worlds. It is a day in which all the angels of on high rejoice and are glad in the revelation of the new and wonderful lights. It is a day that all the Seraphim, Arelim, and Tarshishim (classes of angels) look forward to with longing eyes, waiting for the revelation of the new and renewed lights that have been blocked and hidden since the sin of Adam HaRishon. For Adam HaRishon was meant to add humility and lowliness, submission and shame, awe and fear, more and more from moment to moment, and to sing, thank, and praise from the hour of his creation until the onset of the Sabbath, as it is said: "It is good to thank Hashem and to sing to Your Name, Most High," so that he would merit with the onset of the Sabbath the opening of all the sources of light, until "the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun," thereby rectifying the Shevirat HaKeilim (Shattering of the Vessels), and drawing the light into all the depths and darkness. But he did not do so; rather, he tried to soar to the skies and draw the light without prayer and supplication, without song and praise. This was the aspect of the Tree of Knowledge, the aspect of "and they were not ashamed." Through this, he caused an interruption between the Chokhmah (Wisdom) of Adam Kadmon and the Hidden Wisdom of Atika Kadisha (The Holy Ancient One). Since the breaking of the Tablets, there was no one to rectify this until the holy and awesome soul of Rashbi was emanated, which revealed the Seventy Tikkunim (Rectifications), which are drawn from the Seventy Faces, in which all the hidden lights from the Keter (Crown) of Adam Kadmon are included, and in them is the complete nullification to the Ohr Ein Sof (Infinite Light), in a way that man knows nothing of himself at all.

Master of the World, have pity and mercy on us and illuminate for us the awesome light of the Sitrei Oraisa (secrets of the Torah) on this holy and awesome day, the day of Lag BaOmer, in which the soul of Rashbi is revealed anew with even greater strength and might. For as the generations descend, so the soul of Rashbi continues to ascend without end and without limit, in order to draw out from the treacherous waters those who are about to sink into the miry depths.

Please my Father, have pity and grace me through the power of Rashbi, the unique one of the generations, who merited to complete the form of his Divine image in ultimate perfection. Help me to disconnect and break, to uproot and destroy all the iron chains I am bound in; merit me to be released from all the shackles in which I have become entangled and trapped, which grow and climb upon my neck from day to day and from moment to moment, more and more. For every hour, the evil thoughts that wash over my heart and mind grow stronger, and the floodwaters submerge my entire being. Please save me from their hand, lest all the high mountains be covered, lest there not remain in me even one point that has not yet been washed away by the treacherous and terrible floodwaters. "I have sunk in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, and the flood overflows me." Please, my Father in Heaven, save me from the evil thoughts that surround me from all directions; give me advice on how to escape them. For all the advice I have found until now has helped me only for a short time, and afterward, the thoughts swooped down upon me even more, until they did not let me catch my breath. "Waters have come up to my soul... I said, I am cut off... You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps." I have fallen into the lowest depths where no man has ever fallen. "As when one plows and cleaves the earth, our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave." I have split the entire earth with my falls, and the abyss with the multitude of my sins; I have sunk lower than Korach and his assembly, and the Gehenna (hell) gaping beneath me wraps around me from all sides. I am like a brand still in the fire, and the flames surround it from every side.

Please, Merciful and Gracious God, You know that I am empty and void of everything, and all my support and trust is in the power of the true Tzaddikim and their immense merit. On this day, I rely and lean on the power of the holy Rashbi, who merited to see from one end of the world to the other, from the beginning of creation until its end, who enters and exits the upper Palaces, knows all their secrets, and knows the wisdom to sweeten all the judgments, until he said: "If my son Elazar and Yotam the King of Judah were with me, I could rectify the entire creation from its beginning to its end." His words are faithful and true, living and enduring forever and ever. And certainly, the true Tzaddikim are in his aid, standing at his right hand to rectify the entire world, from its beginning to its end, and in this is all my hope. I wait and hope that even for one as lowly and despised as me there will be a Tikkun (rectification), even for one who has blemished the Covenant (sexual purity) like me there will be redemption and rescue, even for a sinner like me—in sins between man and God and between man and his fellow—a way for atonement and forgiveness will be found. For even though I am not worthy of forgiveness, as I continue to harm and defame, to revile and blaspheme, to condemn and despise Tzaddikim, God-fearing people, and upright men in secret and in public—who are tens of thousands of times better than me—and to spill their blood like water every day and every moment, of which it is said: "Anyone who shames his fellow in public has no portion in the World to Come"—nevertheless, I am full of hope that Your true Tzaddikim like Rashbi will draw upon me from their grace and kindness, until my heart is transformed to love all Your creatures, especially those who fear You and do Your will, and through this, I will merit complete Teshuvah (repentance) and total forgiveness.

Please, my Father in Heaven, give me a heart to cherish and love all Your worthy people of Israel; give me a pure heart to connect and draw close to the simple and God-fearing; give me a clean and pure heart to love them with a fierce love, especially Your Tzaddikim who sanctify Your Name in the world. Merit me on the day of the Hillula of Rashbi to be rectified and purified from the blemish of the students of Rabbi Akiva, who did not act with respect toward one another. For this sin is great and awesome and is very much hated before the Omnipresent, for because of it, supreme holy ones were punished with extreme severity; because of it, twenty-four thousand students perished for a blemish as thin as a hair, which we have no way of grasping or understanding.

Please my Father in Heaven, give me from the grace and kindness of the true Tzaddikim; merit me to the love and affection of Rashbi who said: "We depend on love"—until I am included in the Divine honor of the Divine Tanna (Sage of the Mishnah), who rectified the blemish of those who did not act with respect toward one another. Merit me to cleave to the great light of Rashbi, which is revealed on this special day; merit me to the light that redeems the world from the darkness of baseless hatred and the despising of friends, through whose power Rashbi opened all the heavens and revealed secrets that were never revealed, until the entire Heavenly Host, and Ra'aya Meheimna (the Faithful Shepherd - Moses), and Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the Prophet), and all the other Tzaddikim of the generations descended to hear his wonderful revelations, and all the rectifications of the Idra Rabba and Idra Zuta.

Merit me, Gracious and Merciful God, to connect to the Tzaddik and hold onto him, for Rashbi brought down all these lights to the world in order to rectify all the souls that would hold onto him. For anyone who mentions his merit, the holy Tanna will intercede for him before the Throne of Glory to take him out of the lowest depths, to lift him and raise him from wherever he has fallen. My Father, my Rock and my Redeemer, behold You are all-powerful, and no wisdom is withheld from You to save me, for there is no wicked person in the world whom You cannot rectify through the power of the true Tzaddikim, even a wicked person like me, who has acted more wickedly than all mortals, and has tunneled terrible tunnels beneath the lowest depths, and has become liable through his severe blemishes and sins to excommunication and banishment tens of thousands of times. For no path is withheld from You, even down to the low descent of one who blemishes the Covenant in speech and thought like me, for You are ready to atone and forgive all these blemishes if only I perform true Teshuvah from the depths of the heart, if only I regret with a real regret, if only I become like one who immerses in a Mikvah without an impure reptile in his hand. You will then take me out of the lowest depths and place me before the Throne of Glory. For at every moment, it is possible to merit true Teshuvah that reaches the Throne of Glory, and especially when You Yourself are ready to assist sinners to reach this Teshuvah in the merit of true Tzaddikim like Rashbi and the holy Patriarchs. This light of Teshuvah descends especially on the holy and awesome day of the Hillula of Rashbi, on the day that all the House of Israel looks forward to all year long, lighting bonfires and torches in honor of the Tzaddik, the glory of the generations, the day when Jews from all over the world yearn to come and prostrate themselves on his holy Tzion (gravesite), and to pray for their souls and the souls of their household and for the souls of all Your people, the House of Israel, spiritually and physically. For Rashbi can intercede for every single Jew and help him, wherever he may be. For Rashbi is included of all the six hundred thousand souls of Israel in all generations, fixed in the heart of every Jew, and engraved in all his 248 limbs and 365 sinews like the "Lawgiver" Ra'aya Meheimna. The entire world was created only for this, for the perfect man, for the Tzaddik—"for this is the whole of man"—"and the entire world was created only to accompany him." For man was created only to glorify and exalt the greatness of the Creator, may He be blessed, which is revealed in the world in all its beauty and splendor by the Tzaddik Yesod Olam (Tzaddik, Foundation of the World) through his revealed and hidden Torah teachings. We must, therefore, tell of the honor and greatness of the Tzaddik, study his holy books, and publicize them to the entire world. We must magnify the Torah and make it glorious, to illuminate, shine, and warn with the light of the Zohar and the Seventy Tikkunim and the awesome Idras, around which all the books of the Etz Chaim and Pri Etz Chaim revolve, and from within them, they spread the knowledge of the inner dimension of the Torah to the entire world. All the books of Kabbalah in the world draw from the flowing stream of his awesome teachings, from the river that flows from Eden, which never ceases, to innovate awesome insights at every moment. And there is no person who will not be awakened to Teshuvah when he reads the words of the holy Zohar and the Seventy Tikkunim, for Rashbi merited that the arrow of his words would pierce the liver of the S"M (Samael/Satan). And this is the secret of the drawing of the bow and arrow, practiced by all the House of Israel on Lag BaOmer. This custom comes to say that Rashbi merited to shoot arrows into the heart of the Sitra Achra (the Other Side), to kill it and to inherit the King's daughter.

Master of the World, give us the strength to shoot arrows at the Sitra Achra, until the arrow pierces the liver of the terrible S"M that surrounds us from every side. For in every direction we turn, we see him standing against us, threatening to kill us with all kinds of difficult and strange deaths, until we were like a ball that turns over and like a wheel that always spins on its axis, like a wheel that turns around itself, always remaining in its place, and even if it spins much, it will not move from its place by a hair's breadth; so too we were spinning on our axis and did not move from our evil deeds even by a hair's breadth. And all the paths and advice we acted upon did not help us to erase the Inclination that burns within us day and night, giving us no quiet or rest, neither when we sit nor when we rise. And in all this, we are the guilty ones, and especially I, the worst of all, who have drawn the Evil Inclination upon myself since my youth, for from the day I reached maturity until this day, I have still not performed any service from the depths of the heart, nor have I fulfilled any advice with a whole heart, and even for my errors, I have never truly regretted with a real regret. I conducted everything like a commandment of men learned by rote, and I was like Doeg and Achitophel whose Torah and service were only from the lips outward, for Doeg, who was the chief of the shepherds, and Achitophel, whose advice was like asking the word of God—did not fight their Evil Inclination until they fell dead in its net, its deceits, and its schemes. If a flame has fallen among the cedars, what shall the hyssop on the wall say!

But nevertheless, I do not despair at all, for I am like the hyssop on the wall, supported and leaning on the cedars of the world, whom no fire can ever dominate (whereas Doeg and Achitophel disagreed with Shmuel and David. Had it not been for this, they could have, like Shaul, merited atonement and been like him in the company of Shmuel). We believe with complete Emunah (faith) in the Tzaddikim of the generation, and especially in the Glory of the Generations, of whom it is said: "You are the Sabbath of all days" (the word ShaBbaT with the kollel is the numerical value of Shimon Bar Yochai). And Tzaddikim are greater in their death than in their lives; the Tzaddik who dwells here shines like a sun that never sets, and even when it departs, it continues to shine in the moon and in all the stars. So too, Gracious and Merciful God, continue to draw upon us from his light, and merit us to complete Teshuvah from love on the day of the holy Hillula.

Please, Merciful and Gracious Father, show me an opening for rescue, reveal to me the light of the Tzaddik who can save me and show me the way of Teshuvah, reveal to me the light of Rashbi, who knows the badness of my situation and all that has passed over me, from the day my soul was emanated through all the worlds and all the generations until I was created by Divine Providence specifically in such a body, with such parts of Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshamah (levels of the soul), with the parts of the brain that I have today, which I have not merited to bring from concealment into revelation. Please reveal to me the light of the Tzaddik who will assist me in fulfilling the advice of the Tzaddikim, through which it is possible to reveal the intellect from its concealment and to push away all the evil thoughts from my mind, for no two thoughts can dwell in the mind at one and the same time. The moment the intellect is revealed from its concealment, every foreign thought is pushed away, especially through the study of Shas (the Talmud) with depth and understanding, through which the main revelation of the intellect occurs, which partitions and pushes away every evil thought from the mind. Woe is me, for I have abandoned the advice of the Tzaddikim, and I have defiled my 248 limbs and 365 sinews with every impurity in the world, until even the ashes of the Red Heifer could not purify me from my terrible thoughts that wash over my mind, for I have not moved from the mundane to the holy even by less than a hair's breadth, and I do not know any advice on how to reach true regret from the depths of the heart, and true Teshuvah, and to be like one who immerses without an impure reptile in his hand. Therefore, I have taken all this trouble, and I have wandered through all kinds of wanderings, and I am denying sleep from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids, in order to reach the holy Tzion of Rashbi, through whose merit You can redeem me, take me out of the lowest depths, and especially on this awesome day of the Hillula, on the day that Rashbi ascends to new heights that have never been before. For through the power of his awesome and immense ascents, You can help even one as weak in strength and lacking in knowledge as me, even one as bad as has never been before. I said to the mountains, cover me, and to the hills, fall upon me, from the greatness of my shame and regret, until despair almost seized me, for I have already been crying out for days and years and have still not been saved. But since I know that I have never once cried out a true cry, a light of hope sparkles within me, for if I had done so, I would certainly have been saved immediately, raised above the treacherous waters, and begun to be purified from my difficult thoughts.

Master of the World, what shall I do, for I do not know how to reach even the first cry, the cry that is the beginning of all cries, and I do not know how to cry a proper cry that would truly be from the depths of the heart, after which a person cannot lift his body, as our Sages of blessed memory said: "A sigh breaks half of a person's body." For with one true cry, a person merits to break half of his desires, and with a second true cry, he breaks half of what remains. Would that I might merit those true sighs and cries and erase every trace of desire and evil thought from myself. Behold You know, Father, Merciful Father, that I have tried and toiled to reach this true cry, and it has still not been achieved by me. But I believe with complete Emunah that specifically today it is possible to reach a cry from the depths of the heart and a sigh that breaks a person's body, and to merit through this to leave all my evil desires and my lowly traits. For on this day, Rashbi receives new powers to bestow and help those lacking strength and void of knowledge, who are empty of everything, to put into them intelligence and intellect and to draw for them an abundance of knowledge from the river that flows from Eden, from the Supernal Eden from the Supernal Pleasantness, in a way that the Sitra Achra will be completely nullified, and all foreign wills will be transformed into the will of Hashem, until we all merit the pleasantness that the wonderful Tzaddikim merited, the unique ones of the generations, whose place of concealment shines with that same wonderful pleasantness that existed before the sin.

Master of the World, please merit me to this wonderful pleasantness in the merit of Rashbi, who merited to reach the level of Adam HaRishon before the sin, of whom it is said "Let us make man." Please, Merciful and Gracious God, draw upon me in the merit of this Tzaddik from that same wonderful pleasantness, which pushes away every imagination of the pleasantness of the Sitra Achra, whose end is bitter as wormwood. Woe, Father, Merciful and Gracious God, redeem my soul from the trap of the Sitra Achra, which succeeds in enticing us with its imaginary pleasantness, which even at its beginning one feels the bitterness hidden within it, until even the greatest fool in the world, when he reflects for a brief moment with settled mind, immediately realizes the shame of the lie, the impurity of the forgery, and the bitterness of the disappointment that the scheme of the Sitra Achra's imagination hides within it. But I, the worst of all, despite knowing all this, have been led astray after my Inclination and enticed after every shameful and disgusting thing, and have brought upon myself terrible shames; shame has broken my heart, and I cannot catch my breath, and I have no face to come and ask anew for redemption every single year; I have no face to be like a dog that returns to its vomit, and like a fool who repeats his folly.

My Father in Heaven, give me complete Emunah in Your great power to save me from the net of the Sitra Achra through Your Tzaddikim who find merit for all those who are far and cast away; give me complete Emunah in the power of the Torah of true Tzaddikim to purify the intellect and refine the blood. Please draw upon me a radiance on this day from the light of Rashbi, lights of pure and refined intellect, which will spread through all my 248 limbs and 365 sinews, pushing away the arrows stuck in me, the evil thoughts that wash over my mind, and will purify and refine all my murky blood, until the liver is refined and begins to produce new blood, coming from a pure and refined mind, spreading through all the arteries and sinews, drawn from the Supernal Holy Pleasantness, in the aspect of "He leads me beside the still waters." Please, Merciful God, refine all the murky blood and turn it into still waters, and all the stormy winds blowing within me into a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and fear of Hashem.

Master of Mercy, have pity on a poor and destitute person like me, draw upon me all the spirits from the place where the spirit of life is drawn for Mashiach (from the Nukva de-Pardashka), of whom it is said: "Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace." Merit me to the spirit of life that will purify and refine all my blood, until I stop hating righteous, worthy, and simple people who walk in their integrity, and merit true love of friends. For as long as murky blood still flows in me, I fail every time anew in baseless hatred, and true Tzaddikim are like thorns in my eyes, "for men of blood hate the innocent," and as long as I fabricate libels and lies against worthy and upright people who are better than me, my blood continues to be murky and I cannot purify it, for "it is impossible for a person to speak a lie until he murkies his blood." And now, Father, what shall I do, for I have sinned and transgressed so much in this matter, and I have attached infinite falsehoods to Your creatures, from the day I reached maturity until now, and my entire being, deeds, speech, and thoughts are but a lie all day long, flattery, impression, and publicity. And I think of my own honor at all times, putting on a face at every moment and deceiving people. How shall I lift my face to You, and how shall a youth lacking knowledge like me, who is submerged in all the vanities of the world, merit grace? For I have already lost the Divine image and descended to the lowest level, lower than that of a harmful serpent. Woe is me, for I have despised and reviled righteous and upright people, holy and pure, who walk in their integrity, who never did anything to me, and I was even ungrateful when I also harmed the honor of those who bestowed goodness and kindness upon me.

Master of the World, I am still holding onto You, and I do not fall in my mind at all, and I do not despair of myself, God forbid, for You revealed to us that specifically in these days of the Sefirah (Counting of the Omer), it is possible to rectify the blemish of love of friends. Therefore, I will now come before the high level of the awesome Tzaddik who dwells here, and I will ask for grace for all that I have done and failed in through my murky blood; I will ask for forgiveness for having despised people and mocked friends, and especially all the upright and simple ones who fulfill the advice of the Tzaddikim with simplicity and straightforwardness. For indeed I know that the mercy of the true Tzaddikim is without end, and their desire is only to intercede for us before the Throne of Glory and to ask for mercy for us from the Most High God. I know that they will not spare any power or effort and will try very hard to save even a lowly person like me, who gives himself over to be trampled by desires and bad traits. Therefore, I lean my support on the greatness of the Tzaddik's mercy, and I come to ask him truly and sincerely to transform me from bad to completely good, and to refine me in all the inner parts of my heart, limbs, senses, and sinews—not from the lips outward, as I have been until now, but to truly awaken me from the depths of the heart with a deep, true regret for the past, and with a resolution to be cured of all the evil for the future, to distance the leaven from my borders entirely, so that it shall not be seen and shall not be found, neither in thought nor in deed.

Master of the World, full of abundant mercy and great and awesome kindness, You revealed to us through the Zohar and its Tikkunim and the books of the Arizal and his students the awesome greatness of Rashbi, that he is worthy to be relied upon in times of trouble and distress, in all kinds of falls and descents. For he can intercede for us and awaken us to rise from all descents, until we merit complete Teshuvah in the ultimate perfection after which there is no perfection, for his merit is sufficient for all generations, for all falls, and for all descents. And may there be fulfilled in us what he promised us, that he can exempt the entire world from judgment from Adam HaRishon until the end of the generations—everyone who comes to his holy Tzion and mentions his name and his merits.

Please, Merciful and Gracious One, redeem me and save me from the hand of the unjust and the sour, for You are full of mercy and kindness without end or limit, which reach even a sinner and transgressor like me, who wallows in a defiled path in all kinds of sin and iniquity, suffering from all kinds of despair, sadness, and brokenness. Until it seems to him that all hope is lost and he is given over into hands from which he cannot rise. In the bitterness of my speech, I said there is no one who will raise me from my descent, no one who will wake me from my slumber, for all my days and years have passed in nothingness and vanity, in blemished thoughts and forbidden sights, which have blemished the Nefesh and Ruach and distanced from me the living and unique Neshamah. "Deliver my soul from the sword, my only one (Yechidati) from the power of the dog. Many bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They gaped upon me with their mouths, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."

My God and God of my fathers, please do not abandon me, hasten to my aid, for in this I have strengthened myself—"Hashem said, from Bashan I will bring back (A'shiv), I will bring back (A'shiv) from the depths of the sea," for through the sayings (I'mrei) of Shimon Bar Yochai (A'shiv is an acronym for I'mrei Shimon Bar Yochai), through his merits and sayings, it is possible to be saved from the depths of the sea, and even from a hard Klipah (husk of evil) like the King of Bashan, and from all the descents and falls in the world. And even though my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws, and You have brought me into the dust of death—I do not fall into despair, for it is in Your hand to save me through the aspect of the dust and ashes of the Tzaddikim, through the aspect of the dust of Rashbi, who was hidden for thirteen years in the dust, until his body became rusty and his skin peeled off him, and through this, he merited to leave the skin of the serpent in ultimate perfection, until Ra'aya Meheimna and Eliyahu HaNavi were revealed to him with the Heavenly Host, and they revealed to him all the secrets of the Torah, the secrets of the upper and lower worlds, the angels and the Seraphim, the Arelim and the Chashmalim, until no secret was hidden from him, all the secrets of the souls were clear before him, their roots and their reincarnations from the creation of the world until the end of all generations. Everything that would pass over each person and how his Tikkun would be, and how he would be saved from all that comes upon him spiritually and physically.

Master of the World, now I have come to his holy Tzion to pour out my supplication before You, and my roarings are like water before You, to save me in the merit of the Tzaddik from all that passes over me spiritually and physically. I have leaned my support on his holy Tzion, and I believe that his merit will wake me from my slumber, awaken me from my sleep, raise me from my descent, and lift me from my fall.

Master of the World, please merit me in these holy and purifying days of the Sefirah, in the days of Teshuvah that prepare every Jewish soul for the receiving of the Torah, to perform Teshuvah like Rabbi Akiva, who even though at his beginning he said, "Who will give me a Torah scholar that I may bite him like a donkey"—he merited to perform a supreme Teshuvah, to enter in peace and exit in peace, and to reveal on every single crown (of the letters) heaps upon heaps of laws. And behold, this is the secret of the holy days of the Sefirah, the secret of Sefirat HaOmer, an Omer for every head (Gulgolet), for the Gulgalta (Skull) of Atika, of which it is said: "And the hair of his head was like pure wool (Amar Naka)," that anyone who reflects on true Teshuvah in these days, and especially on this holy and awesome day, is promised that all his hairs will shine with precious lights, in the aspect of "and the hair of his head was like pure wool," and with immense Mochin (intellects), and he will merit to be crowned with the Mochin that descend on the night of the Seder, are revealed in the 49 days of the Sefirah, and are completed in the holy Sefirah of Hod of Hod, the Sefirah of the awesome Hillula of Rashbi, until he merits the Fiftieth Gate on the day of the Giving of the Torah, when the Higher Radiance (Zihara Ila'ah) that disappeared from Adam HaRishon returns, returning in the days of the Sefirah and resting on the hairs of the head, in the aspect of "for the crown of his God is upon his head," until he merits that all the Higher Radiance, in the aspect of an Omer for the head, will penetrate the Gulgalta of the head. (Therefore, one must be careful not to cut them until the eve of Shavuot, for they are the secret of the Tikkun that was revealed to Rabbi Akiva like all the secrets that were revealed and will be revealed until the end of the generations, of which it is said "a law given to Moses at Sinai"—which are revealed in their perfection on the fiftieth day, on the day of the Giving of the Torah, and they descend during the days of the holy Sefirah; they are perceptions of heaps upon heaps, radiances that are revealed by sweetening the ten names of Eloki"m (Taltal), which are the sum of all the Gevurot (severities), which the students of Rabbi Akiva needed to sweeten through love of friends and to merit that the Torah of Atika Setima'ah (the Hidden Ancient One) would be revealed to them in its perfection in order to bring the complete Redemption).

Master of the World, merit me to be included in the wonderful Tikkun of the students of Rashbi who, through their supreme self-sacrifice which they received from their teacher, through their wonderful love of friends, and through their nullification to one another with a whole heart—merited to transform the fire of their Gevurot (severities) into a pillar of fire, until a pillar of fire surrounded them whenever they engaged in Torah, and they rectified through this perfectly the blemish of the students of Rabbi Akiva.

Please merit me to be included in their wonderful level of total nullification of the body, for they too, like their teacher—who merited the spirit of a living and unique Neshamah by having his body consumed in the cave for thirteen years—merited that their bodies were nullified, they rose to the level of Neshamah and became like angels, they carried their souls before the Throne of Glory on high and merited the aspect of death by a kiss.

Master of the World, save me please from the terrible sin of baseless hatred and the despising of people; purify my heart to love You and all Your creatures, and especially in these days, the days of the Sefirah, in which the students of Rabbi Akiva perished because they blemished this, and You were strict with them and made their punishment severe, even though their blemish was as thin as a hair. For being in the aspect of "Ayyeh" (Where?), their Gevurot were not included in one another, and they did not merit to include the light of the perception of the crowns (Tagin) in the letters which are the aspect of bodies. They did not merit to sweeten the Gevurot through the perception of heaps upon heaps (Eloki"m), and to draw the light of the Chashmal, which is drawn from the light of Rabbi Akiva (Chashmal in the Al-Bam cipher). Please merit us to reach the level of Rabbi Akiva who entered in peace and exited in peace, by overcoming his traits, and through this, he was answered immediately when he said: "Our Father, our King, we have no King but You; Our Father, our King, for Your sake have mercy on us." For he was above any body, until his flesh was combed with iron combs, and his soul ascended to the hidden places on high, and with his body, he cut off all the thorns and took vengeance on the nations. Please Hashem, merit Your beloved children to be saved in his merit and in the merit of the Ten Martyrs of the Kingdom, and all the holy ones who were bound and burned in all generations, that if we walk in their light, we will immediately merit a Temple of fire, and all the bonfires into which they jumped in dance—will turn into clouds of fire and glory.

Please, Merciful and Gracious Father, Who chooses His people Israel with eternal love. Loving and compassionate Father, Who cherishes every single Jewish soul more than anything precious, Who takes pride in everything called by the name of Israel, even if he is among the transgressors of Israel, for from the Throne of Glory he was emanated. How great is Your compassion for Your people Israel who try to walk in Your ways, who believe in Your Tzaddikim. In Your compassion, You revealed to true Tzaddikim wonderful rectifications, to create hearts for lost children, to create a mind and heart through prayer with the intention of the heart, and through the study of Torah with love and awe. You gave them the power to raise every soul to its root, and to draw for it from there a radiance, until it returns in complete Teshuvah. And indeed, if we listen to the advice of Your Tzaddikim, Your wonders will be revealed to us, great and hidden things will be revealed before pure eyes; he who guards himself from hearing evil and idle speech will hear the song of the angels in melody and praise, proclamations and upper voices, Heavenly Voices from the suffering, and the Ten Commandments from the mouth of the Mighty God. And through the guarding of speech and a guarded mouth, we will be able to sing before You like Your Arelim and Seraphim. And when no man lifts his hand or foot without You, the entire universe will skip and dance before You.

For You revealed to us through the awesome Tzaddikim, Rashbi, the Arizal, the Baal Shem Tov, and their students, that the rectification of the entire world depends only on us, and through supreme love of friends, we rise above every body, for only the "bodies are divided," whereas the souls are "one." They all emerge from Your unique Name, they are all tied to the point of the letter Dalet of "Echad" (One). And the point of the Dalet is the soul of Rashbi, and in it are included all the souls of the Tzaddikim, all the souls from Adam HaRishon until the end of all generations. And if only we would focus on the Dalet of Echad with self-sacrifice in the nullification of the self, and even accept upon ourselves the four deaths of the Beit Din (Rabbinical Court)—then the entire creation would immediately return in Teshuvah and ascend to its root, and all selfhood would be nullified, and a new world of spirituality would be revealed, and oppressed souls would ascend from within the Klipah (husk of evil), and the wicked and the Hellenized would perform Teshuvah, and those who forgot the Rock of their source would return to the bosom of the faith of their fathers, to the merciful Patriarchs and the Seven Shepherds, and all the Gevurot and disputes would be nullified through Yitzchak-Yischak (Isaac-Laughter), in whom the secret of the Redemption is hidden, who transforms the Gevurot into joy and gladness, who points with a finger and shows Hashem to their eyes, and says: "You Hashem are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your Name."

For there is none besides You, and there is nothing but You, and there is no movement without Your Tzaddikim, for we are all like a pen in the hand of the scribe. And if only we would give our hands to the redeeming Tzaddik, he would do with our hands and our minds whatever he desires, and a new heart would be created for us instead of our cruel heart, which is like Amalek, Ammon, and Moab, for even we do not greet with bread and water, we eat our bread alone, secluded in our houses, and hiding from every eye, until God forbid we made the Eye above as if it does not see, and yet "these seven are the eyes of Hashem, they range throughout the whole earth"—the eyes of the Male (Dikhura), "and Hashem's eyes range throughout the whole earth"—the eyes of the Female (Nukva).

Please, Merciful and Gracious God, through the holiness of the eyes of the Tzaddikim, and especially of the holy and awesome Tzaddik Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, merit us to "upon one stone seven eyes," help us to return to their root the eyes of Hashem that range to punish and destroy, and let them return through the guarding of the eyes to the seven eyes in the Foundation Stone (Even HaShetiya) in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, of which it is said: "Upon one stone seven eyes; behold, I will engrave its engraving, says Hashem of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, says Hashem of Hosts, you shall call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree." In the merit of love of friends in the aspect of "we depend on love"—may we merit to sit under the fig tree to rectify the sin of the fig tree, the sin of the Shattering of the Vessels, the complaint of the moon that two kings cannot use one crown. For behold, this is rectified in the Sefirah of Hod of Hod, for then all the Sefirot are included in one another, and each one merits to see every glory (Hod) that is in every single person, and especially in his friends and those close to him, in whom is the main test of the stormy wind, until we merit that all the Gevurot will be transformed into mercy through the song of the Levites in the Third Holy Temple. And then even Kohanim (priests) will turn into Levites, and will engage mainly in melody and songs, for this will be the main service for the days of Mashiach—to transform all the Gevurot of fire and storm into a pleasant spirit of joy and gladness, and of the study of the Torah drawn from the oil of the Menorah, the golden Menorah, which comes to sweeten anger and severity, for then we will merit the "Gullah" (bowl/redemption) upon its head, and its seven lamps upon it, seven and seven, and the light of the moon shall be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold the light of the seven, and the sun shall emerge from its sheath, a healing for the Tzaddikim and a fire for the wicked, and the sun of judgment shall be included in mercy, and Tzaddikim will merit the SuN (ChaMaH) which is the GaRden (GaN) of roses, the secrets of the 53 (GaN) parshiyot will be revealed to all creatures, and from the Torah of Atika Setima'ah the entire Torah will be blessed and the secrets in every letter and crown will be revealed.

Therefore, our Redeemer, Living and Enduring, illuminate for us the secrets of the Torah on this holy and awesome day, reveal to us the Torah of Atika Setima'ah, and then we will merit the eternal Redemption, to the Temple of fire from the heights.

Master of the World, behold nothing is hidden from You, You are all-powerful, and no scheme is withheld from You, please merit us on this day to the Torah of Atika Setima'ah, in the secret of "Open my eyes that I may behold wonders from Your Torah." For on this day, which is "Hod of Hod," the time when "feet touch feet," which is the secret of the Redemption—one can merit to rectify all the aspects of the feet, until all the descents turn into ascents, and all the failures into successes, and all the sins into merits. For Rabbi Shimon rectified the sin of Shimon, who threw Yosef into the pit, during the thirteen years he was inside the dust in the pit, and he rectified the sin of Achiyah HaShiloni who failed with an unworthy student in Yerovam ben Nevat, by turning his body into a torch of fire in the cave, and from him was made a pillar of fire that surrounded his students day and night, protecting them from an unworthy student.

Please merit me to be among the worthy students, who prostrate themselves on the graves of Tzaddikim and their Tzionim, engaging in their holy Torah teachings and sayings, reflecting on them nights and days. Please Master of the Worlds, our Father, Father of Mercy, help me to engage in the Torah teachings and sayings of the one who dwells here, the mighty Tanna among the mighty, to engage in all the wonderful revelations, the secrets of the Torah of the Arizal, the Baal Shem Tov, and the other Tzaddikim. May their words not depart from my mouth forever, may they be fluent in my mouth and engraved in my heart. And put mercy for me in the heart of Rashbi, that he should not let go of me nor abandon me forever, and that he should draw me close to his ways, and open my heart to his Torah teachings, and reveal to me all his mysteries and secrets, which he merited and shared with his students.

Please Merciful God, merit me to be among his worthy students in this generation, and merit my descendants and the descendants of all Your people the House of Israel to walk in his ways and to be counted among his worthy students. Merit me to be included in his soul and in the soul of the Patriarchs, and in the soul of all the Seven Shepherds and all the Tzaddikim who were in all generations, and may I merit to sweeten all the Gevurot and all the stormy blood within me that boils in all my 248 limbs and 365 sinews—blood of anger, jealousy, and baseless hatred, desires and bad traits. Please merit me that all this bad blood will be refined in the days of the Sefirah with ultimate refinement and holiness, and will be swallowed within me and turn into blood of pleasantness and calm, of pleasantness and holiness, until I merit to rectify all the bloodshed I caused in the world through the stormy blood within me. May I merit to rectify the blood I spilled of righteous, simple, and upright people from the day of my birth until today, and to rectify all that I harmed in all reincarnations. For through my evil deeds, I caused bloodshed in the entire world, and especially in Jerusalem the Holy City in the aspect of "they have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them," for in all this I was the guilty one, and "because of me this great storm is upon you," for every day the blood of Israel is poured like water in the streets and markets, and no one opens his mouth or chirps, "for I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed, and to perish," woe is me for my bitter portion in all this. I know, my Rock and my Creator, that the guilt is mine alone. For I failed in blemished thoughts and forbidden sights, which are the root of evil and the source of the blood spilled every day. Woe is me, for I still do not feel properly that the guilt is mine. For if Eliyahu HaNavi refrained for three days from visiting Yehoshua ben Levi as was his custom—he who merited the stones of Kadkod and the secret of the Leviathan, the secret of the light that will be revealed in the future—because of one man who was torn by a wild beast in his territory at a distance of three parasangs—what shall we say after him? Now what shall I say, I who am poor, destitute, and needy, corrupted in every way, while the blood of Israel is poured around me every day? Therefore, I come before You, Master of Mercy, and cry out, pleading and asking for atonement, forgiveness, and pardon for my part in all this. Please save Your people Israel and say to the destroying angel, "Enough!" Have pity and mercy, atone and forgive all my sins, iniquities, and many transgressions that have gone over my head. "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off. You have laid me in the lowest pit... my transgressions are bound into a yoke by His hand; they are knit together and come up upon my neck; He has made my strength fail; Hashem has delivered me into hands from which I am not able to rise. For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should restore my soul is far from me; my children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders perished in the city," and the hand of the Hellenized has prevailed over us, in our many iniquities; they do not spare the infant or the suckling, and all the delights of the eye they trample under their feet, and women and children, infants and elders, their blood is spilled like water in the streets and markets, until "my eyes fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city."

There is no one to request from Your hand on our behalf, there is no one to extract us from the trouble, except for the Tzaddik hidden here, Ra'aya Meheimna and the Seven Shepherds; only they can save us from the curse of "your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth from you," for we have no comforter; all our enemies have heard, they have rejoiced, they have been glad, for from our midst have arisen our destroyers and wasters, and they sell our people for no wealth, with flattery and deceit for the sake of the honor of the image. Woe is me, for I myself am the guilty one in all these, for all my Torah and my prayer and my good deeds—they are blemished with interests and motives of flattery and publicity. And You revealed to us through Your true Tzaddikim that everything depends on our deeds, whether they are good or bad, and the tipping of the world depends on us, for merit or for guilt.

Master of the World, please have pity and mercy on me to rectify all that I have twisted, all that I have blemished and spoiled; merit me to perform complete Teshuvah, to guard my mind and my eyes, to reflect on the Torah my days and my nights, and to add knowledge and holiness every day, in the aspect of "days shall speak and multitude of years shall teach wisdom," for this is the secret of the days of the Sefirah, which are capable of drawing down Mochin (intellects) for the entire year. Day unto day utters speech, every day appears with a new wisdom, in riddles and songs, with added holiness and melodies, every day with a new radiance comes to true regret from the depths of the heart, with a new song of cleaving to the Creator of the world, which has never been before—the root of all wisdoms, the root of knowledge and understandings. Every day is renewed with a melody from the Ohr Ein Sof with a new power to hope and yearn, which nullifies all the Mochin of smallness (Katnut) and includes them together in the Mochin of greatness (Gadlut).

Please, Merciful Father, merit us through this great light, which is renewed every single day of the days of the Sefirah, to a wonderful settled mind in gradual measure, until we merit a wonderful cleaving, and we will not be in the aspect of "they mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths," and we will emerge from the stormy wind that comes through blemished speech, Lashon HaRa (evil speech), and baseless hatred, which raises us to the heavens and brings us down to the depths, to sharp ascents that are not in order, and afterward to steep descents. For even at the time of my study and my prayer, I descend lower and lower, for thoughts of "I and nothing else" fill my mind and heart. Please, Merciful and Gracious God, behold You revealed to us that it is impossible to break pride, which is in the aspect of "Abimelech," which distances from the true Tzaddik, except through drawing close to true Tzaddikim, who are in the aspect of the "head of the spear," through the aspect of the Omer of barley, in the aspect of "and he took a bundle of wool and washed it in water," the secret of the feet, the secret of the streams of water, the secret of the willows of the brook, the feet of a person are his guarantors, the secret of Mordechai and Esther, in the aspect of hands and feet, clapping of hands and dancing. For it is impossible to break pride except through the spirit in the heart that comes from the true Tzaddik, which is in the aspect of the spirit of joy and dancing, for only through this is pride nullified, which is idolatry, and with it all the judgments and the burning anger are nullified.

Please, my Father in Heaven, remove from me all thoughts of pride; merit me to pure prayer and to Torah for the sake of Heaven, and through clapping of hands and dancing—let the foot of pride not come against me, until I merit the aspect of "wash your feet," to "my foot stands in an even place," and to the aspect of "the sure mercies of David."

Master of the World, in these holy days of the Sefirah, when we ascend to the aspect of an Omer for the head, the Gulgalta of Atika, to the aspect of pure wool (Amar Naka), the secret of the supreme cleaving, until we ascend to the aspect of "Where (Ayyeh) is the place of His glory," to the level of requesting and searching—please merit us to seek You, to request You, to search for You very, very much at all times and in every place; merit me to ask and seek Your glory, may it be blessed. I know that even if I am as I am, worse than all, if only I merit to seek and search for You with all my might—You will stretch out Your hand to me from the hole, especially in the days of the Omer through the true Tzaddik, who wears garments of blue and white (Chur), of whom it is said: "Your handful (Kometz) came and pushed away the ten thousand talents of silver," for through the Omer of barley that we connect to the true Tzaddik, it is possible to push away all the decrees in the world, it is possible to push away even those that are in the aspect of "ten thousand," whose blemish reached up to Arich Anpin, which is in the aspect of tens of thousands. For as long as the seal is of clay, as long as the blemish is only in the angels in the aspect of Metat-ron, as long as we have not yet blemished the Name E-k-y-e-h which is in the aspect of "be silent (Dom) for Hashem," as long as shame has not departed from us, and we are still ready to humble ourselves to the Tzaddikim who merited this level—it is still possible to sweeten all the decrees in the world, and to nullify bloodshed from Israel, and especially here at the holy Tzion of Rashbi, at whose entrance stands Eliyahu HaNavi, who merited the spirit of Nadav and ascended to Yesod, merited to be the Angel of the Covenant—the Angel Sandal-phon, and to rectify all the Gevurot of Cain which are from his root, until he turned them into a chariot of fire and horses of fire.

My Father in Heaven, Master of all worlds, shine Your face upon me and grace me; please merit me also, my Father, in these days to rectify the root of Cain, the root of the Gevurot that are stormy and boiling within me and do not let me catch my breath, until the flax, the root of the Gevurot (ten times Eloki"m = the numerical value of flax/Pishtan)—is transformed into "linen (Pishtim) tires shall be upon their heads, and linen breeches shall be upon their loins," and all the Gevurot will turn into crowns upon our heads and into garments of mercy, which will surround our bodies in a Temple of fire from heaven, and fire will be included in water, and the water will shine with precious light, like stones of Kadkod and precious stones, and all the cities of Judah will shine like pearls and gems, and Jerusalem will be wrapped in sapphires.

Master of the World, Master of the entire universe, who is like You, Father of Mercy, who is like You, Who bestows much good, who is like You, mighty to save, Master of forgiveness and Master of Mercy. In these holy days, which are the days of the Sefirah and especially on this day of the holy Hillula, please do it for Your sake and forgive us, pardon us, atone for us. Master of the World, have mercy on me and on all the people of Israel in these days, in which twenty-four thousand students of Rabbi Akiva perished; remove from us the difficult judgments that rest upon us in these days of judgment, for even now in our days, worthy and simple Jews walking in their integrity are being slaughtered and butchered every single day. Please purify and cleanse my iniquities that cause all this killing and loss. For I too spill the blood of people who are worthier and more righteous than me, "and the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth." Please have mercy on me, full of mercy, with great and wonderful mercy, known only to You, in the merit of the awesome Tzaddik who dwells here; in his merit and in his righteousness, take me out of all the places I have descended to and return me to You with a whole heart truly and sincerely, and may I merit anew to unify and connect all the 49 holy Sefirot, which are the root of all the Mochin for the entire year and for all of life. Please have compassion on me in Your kindness and teach me Your ways, and merit me to hold onto Your holy traits and the ways of Your goodness and mercy, which are drawn from the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. With which You conduct Yourself with all Your creatures, until I too merit to walk in Your ways and to have mercy on Your creatures with true compassion, with all kinds of compassion included in the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, and may I merit to be good to all, to merit to bestow charity and goodness and kindness to all who walk in Your ways, to truly worthy poor people, in a way that I merit in these days to awaken all Your mercy drawn from the 49 days of the Sefirah, which correspond to the 49 faces through which the Torah is interpreted, which are drawn from Your thirteen good, holy, and pure attributes. May I merit to awaken Your mercy upon me and upon all Israel to forgive us on this holy day, for it is said: "The death of Tzaddikim atones like the Day of Atonement." Please forgive me on this day for all my iniquities and all the iniquities of Your people the House of Israel; take us out of this bitter exile and redeem us from the hand of the Hellenized, who have abandoned our spirit, soul, and body to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. Remove from us this difficult evil in the merit of the Teshuvah that I will perform, for behold, because of my many iniquities that have risen and knit together upon our neck—this great trouble has visited us.

Please guard me and save me from now on from all kinds of sins, iniquities, and transgressions, whether unintentional, intentional, under duress, or by will, and return me to You in complete Teshuvah, until I merit to be according to Your good will truly and sincerely, I and my offspring and my offspring's offspring from now and forever, and be my help and save me so that I may merit to merit others as well, that they may walk in Your holy ways and hold onto the ways of Your goodness and mercy to have mercy on creatures with all kinds of compassion and kindness, included in the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, and may there be fulfilled in me the verse that is written: "I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall return to You."

Full of Mercy, You know how far I am from true compassion, how far I am from having proper mercy on creatures, for I am poor and destitute, lowly and corrupt, and I have not merited to have mercy on creatures and to bestow kindness upon them even one part in a thousand or ten thousand of what is proper to have mercy on them. Moreover, I acted cruelly toward them with all kinds of cruelty and ignored them and their needs with total concealment and transgressed "you may not hide yourself," and even natural compassion has already been corrupted in me, which You planted in me from the day of my birth, because of the multitude of the murkiness of my mind and my spoiled deeds, and now from where will my help come? Therefore, I have leaned my support on the merit of the awesome Tzaddik who dwells here, that You should not turn me away empty from before You; return to me the trait of compassion and help me to rectify all that I have erred, spoiled, and corrupted.

Master of the World, have pity and mercy on us, for Your sake do it and not for ours; see our standing, poor and empty; Doer of righteousness with all flesh and spirit, do not reward us according to our evils; may Your mercy quickly meet us, for we are very low, and we have no power to awaken Your compassion upon us, neither through our prayer nor through our compassion for others. Please have mercy on us, full of mercy, and remove our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes, and pardon and forgive and atone for us for all our many spoilings, and let no trace of them remain at all; only transform them for good, in a way that all our failures will turn into vessels of a broken and contrite heart, so that we may be able to receive Your infinite patience, and all our iniquities will turn into merits, as it is said: "In those days and in that time, says Hashem, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none," as if we had performed a truly complete Teshuvah. For not upon our righteousness do we cast our supplications before You, but upon Your abundant mercy, which was revealed in the world through the power and merit of the true Tzaddikim, who drew the ways of Your goodness and mercy into the world, and revealed to us that there is no end to Your kindness, no limit to Your mercy, and in every situation, You are ready to have mercy on us anew, as if we were born just now. For in their great and awesome power we have trusted, to come to You, and to prostrate ourselves before Your holy splendor, and to plead for Your infinite mercy, and You do what is good in Your eyes, "for we are the clay, and You are our Potter, and we are all the work of Your hand. Remember Your mercy, Hashem, and Your kindness, for they have been from of old. Do not remember against us former iniquities; let Your mercy quickly meet us, for we are brought very low. You, Hashem, will not withhold Your mercy from me; let Your kindness and Your truth continually preserve me. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You, Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Master of the World, merit me to holy speech, to the level of a truly holy human being; merit me to ascend every time from level to level, until I merit to ascend and be included in the aspect of the Higher Man, through whose throat the Shechinah (Divine Presence) speaks. Merit me to all this in the merit of the holy and awesome Tzaddik, in the merit of Rashbi who dwells here, who merited the level of a truly holy human being, and of whom it was said: "Let us make man." Indeed, I have asked a difficult thing, but according to the greatness of Your mercy and Your grace, nothing is far or difficult before You. For truly I know that according to the lowliness and baseness of my level, I have no mouth to speak and to ask even for the smallest of small things, and there is no holy thing in the world that is not immense and exalted, elevated and distant from me with the ultimate distance, which cannot be explained. But we have already heard from afar of Your greatness and Your loftiness, Your mercy and Your abundant kindness without value or measure, and a little of the much I have seen with my eyes; therefore, I am full of hope and I have an opening of the mouth to ask and seek even for the greatest of great levels. For nothing is withheld from You, and nothing is hidden from You; behold You can do everything, and no scheme is withheld from You, and for this alone You created Your world—to show Your goodness and Your mercy and Your kindness to all who desire and yearn to receive them.

Master of the World, have pity and mercy on the poor and destitute, the lowly and despised like me, for the more I am distant and guilty—the more will be revealed, specifically through this, the abundance of Your goodness, Your kindness, and Your grace. For this is the main part of Your greatness, for the awesome wonders of Your goodness and the greatness of Your kindness will not be revealed by Your bestowing kindness and goodness upon those worthy of it, upon true Tzaddikim who serve You truly all the days of their lives with true self-sacrifice, for they merit what they merit through their good deeds. But in a man like me, the ways of Your goodness and kindness will be revealed in a great and awesome light. And Your awesome and wonderful compassion and grace, which are beyond all intellect without measure, value, or number, will be revealed specifically when You draw close to You one as distant, blemished, and guilty as me. "The righteous shall crown me because You will deal bountifully with me. Rejoice the soul of Your servant, for to You, Hashem, do I lift up my soul. I will be glad and rejoice in Your kindness, for You have seen my affliction; You have known my soul in adversities. You shall make me hear joy and gladness; the bones which You have broken shall rejoice. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and let a willing spirit uphold me. And let all those who put their trust in You rejoice; let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; let them also that love Your Name be joyful in You. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your Name, O Most High. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. My soul shall make her boast in Hashem; the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Let them shout for joy and be glad, that favor my righteous cause; and let them say continually, Let Hashem be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. Let all those that seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let such as love Your salvation say continually, Hashem be magnified. And let the righteous be glad; let them exult before God; and let them rejoice with gladness. Will You not turn again and quicken us, that Your people may rejoice in You? Satisfy us in the morning with Your kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein You have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; and let them say among the nations, Hashem reigns. Serve Hashem with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Let my meditation be sweet unto Him; I will be glad in Hashem. Glory in His holy Name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek Hashem. Remember me, Hashem, with the favor that You bear unto Your people; visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the good of Your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance. The upright shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Let them curse, but bless You; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let Your servant rejoice. They that fear You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your word. Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King."

Master of the World, full of mercy, Master of joy and gladness in Whose dwelling is joy, and before Whom there is no sadness at all, as it is written: "Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and gladness are in His place." Merit me in Your abundant mercy and Your immense kindness to be in joy always, as You revealed to us through Your true Tzaddikim, that joy is the side of holiness, and sadness and melancholy are the side of the Sitra Achra (the Other Side), and the Holy One, Blessed be He, hates it exceedingly. All the holiness of a Jewish man is specifically through joy, and all our distancing from You and all the strengthening of desires are all through sadness and melancholy. But behold You know how much I have blemished joy and how far I am from it, for I have blemished and spoiled very much. Therefore, I have come before You, full of mercy, on this holy and awesome day in the merit of the Divine Tanna, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who is the joy of all Israel, who draws joy upon all of us, that You should be my help and make me rejoice in Your salvation and illuminate within me and reveal to me the ways of Your true advice and teach me and instruct me to be in joy always in the merit of the holy and awesome Tzaddik who dwells here, who instructed us that only through joy is it possible to sweeten the judgment and to nullify every evil decree, until I merit to transform all kinds of sorrow and sighing into joy and gladness, and there shall be no power for the Sitra Achra to put into me any sorrow or sighing, God forbid, even the slightest bit. Rather, on the contrary, may I merit at all times to strengthen myself and prevail with such great joy, and I will not let sadness, sorrow, and sighing take hold of me at all; only all the sadness, sorrow, and sighing, God forbid, that they want to put into me because of the multitude of sins, transgressions, and immense iniquities that I have committed and blemished very much without measure—may I merit to transform into joy. For nevertheless, Hashem, may He be blessed, had compassion on me and placed my soul in life and did not let my foot slip and merited me to be among the people of Israel, and did not make me a gentile, and merited me to fulfill every single day great and immense Mitzvot (commandments)—to wrap myself in Tzitzit and to put on Tefillin, to recite the Shema and to receive the Sabbath and the Festivals, to hear the sound of the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah and to fast on Yom Kippur, to sit in the Sukkah and to take the Four Species, to eat Matzah on Pesach and to count the Sefirat HaOmer. Especially this holy and awesome Mitzvah, whose value and greatness we have no mind or intellect to estimate—to come to the holy Tzion and to pray in this awesome and holy place and to ask in the merit of the Tzaddik for mercy before my Maker, my Former, and my Creator, for even the lowest of the low and the least of the least, who merits to come to this holy Tzion and to ask for mercy in the merit of the Tzaddik who dwells here, from the depths of the heart truly, and to plead for his soul truly, that he may merit to return in truly complete Teshuvah—You will certainly receive his prayer and his Teshuvah. How great is Your goodness that You have done with us, "How precious is Your kindness, O God! You have done many things, Hashem my God, Your wonders and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to be compared unto You; I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But You have saved us from our adversaries, and have put them to shame that hate us." How great and how many, how immense are Your mercy and Your kindness toward us, for behold You have crowned us with such holy crowns, with such wonderful Mitzvot, and despite the intensity of our exile and the greatness of our distancing from You through the multitude of our transgressions against You—Your love is still tied to us, and You merit even me to do several Mitzvot every single day, and certainly it is proper for me to increase the joy at all times, and to transform all sorrow and sighing into joy, for on the contrary, this is my joy—that one as distant, blemished, and sinful as me merits to touch such holy and awesome things, for which we must sing with song and dancing day and night.

And some say that Meron is Kadesh, a city of refuge, a city of the Levites, who with their song and melody would return everyone in Teshuvah. They merited to revive anew even an accidental killer, whose vitality was lost and who was cut off from his root, through songs and dances, from which comes all forgiveness of sins. Through the song of faith, new every morning, they drew new souls to the cast away and broken, and in their love and cleaving to the Creator, they drew close to Him every erring one and sinner; therefore their cities were chosen to restore cast away souls. Please, merit us in the merit of Me-ron and the one who dwells in it, to exult and to sing (Ron), and to nullify all burning anger, through friendship and brotherhood, and Teshuvah from love.

Therefore, Rashbi, I have come to your holy and awesome Tzion so that you may restore my soul with a new Neshamah, and all those who come to your Tzion and wander themselves to take refuge in your shadow—please save them all through your merits and breathe into them a new Neshamah. Behold you can turn into a watered garden all those who believe in you; their bones shall be strengthened, and they shall flourish like grass, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail, so may you bestow from your spirit upon us, and then our light shall break forth as the morning, and our healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before us, the glory of Hashem shall be our rear guard. Then we shall call and Hashem will answer, we shall cry and He will say, "Here I am," and our light shall shine in the darkness, and our soul shall sing, and our heart shall exult, for our gloom shall shine like the noonday with new and doubled souls. Therefore, I will strengthen myself very much from now on and be strong in joy, and I will not let any sadness or despair touch me from now on, and I will say to my heart—on the contrary, this is my joy, my gladness, my strength, for I have trusted in the Rock of my salvation, Who will never leave me forever and ever, in the merit of true Tzaddikim, who revealed Seventy Tikkunim, more precious than gold and pearls, which have the power to save the cast away souls, and even me who am distant from everything, for I too merit to come to the Tzion of Rashbi and to touch such awesome holiness. Would that my deeds reach the deeds of my fathers, and I merit to touch their merits even with the slightest touch. I have awakened and I am still with You, and I still believe that there is hope even for a sinner and transgressor like me who flees to the city of refuge, to the Tzion of the Rashbi. And at all times that I am for my Beloved—my Beloved is for me, for I have held him and I will not let him go, I will seek him and I will also find him, I will not let go of you, Rashbi, forever and ever, and as long as my soul is within me, your Torah shall not depart from my mouth, until I merit supreme joy among the supreme like one of the "Bnei Aliyah" (those of the high level), and my joy shall rise and grow more and more like one of the Patriarchs, until every trace of sorrow and sighing departs from me, and sadness is nullified from me with an eternal nullification through awesome joy and gladness, until I merit to perform all the Mitzvot with great joy and immense gladness.

My Father in Heaven, in the merit of this joy, return to me in Your abundant mercy, and build my ruins; return to me and build my palaces, and may my castle stand on its foundation, and my intellect on its place, and my knowledge on its judgment shall sit; may all the parts of my soul return to me in true holiness and great purity in truth and complete faith, in gladness and joy that do not cease forever. In the merit of Rashbi, may I merit to ascend quickly and speedily from level to level and from degree to degree, until I merit in Your mercy all the Nine Higher Palaces (Tesha Heichalin Ila'in) that Rashbi revealed, which are not lights nor spirits nor souls, and no one can stand in them, and they are not attached nor known—for all the yearning of my spirit and soul day and night is for these Palaces, for that is why I was created, to merit Palaces that are above every root and idea, which no intellect or logic can contain. "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? How lovely are Your tabernacles, Hashem of Hosts! My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of Hashem; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God," until I merit even in this world while I am alive to know and recognize You truly, and I merit to ascend to all the upper levels of holiness until the ultimate upper level, to all that it is possible for a Jewish man to ascend and perceive in this world until the ultimate perfection after which there is no perfection, for that is why the soul descended into this world from the height of levels, to ascend to the Rock of its source, and even above the root of its creation, higher and higher, with even greater strength and might.

Master of the World, merit us to rise and be elevated in the days of the Sefirah, which are a preparation for Shavuot for "and Israel encamped there" as one man with one heart, as at the time when they merited "the appearance of the glory of Hashem was like a devouring fire on the top of the mount." May we merit their wonderful level of finding grace and the nullification of one person before his fellow with a whole heart, which turned all their Gevurot (severities) into a flaming fire, into voices and lightnings and the sound of the Shofar, for as their nullification grew greater—so they heard the sound of the Shofar growing louder and louder, until the Ten Commandments were heard from one end of the world to the other, "and all the people saw the voices," for they are the voices of the souls included in one another. And with every word, all the souls flew out, in the aspect of the brothers whose souls flew out from the greatness of yearning and nullification when they saw Yosef, for the Ohr Ein Sof was revealed to them, the light of Yosef, the Supernal Pleasantness. So too merit us also, our Father, even now as we come to the holy Tzion, for it would be proper for our souls to fly out as during the Ten Commandments, for through the holy Tzion the Commandments are heard, and their voice goes from one end of the world to the other. For it would be proper to be all day in yearning for the Infinite, for the light of the Tzaddik that shines from one end of the world to the other; it would be proper to long and yearn until the expiration of the soul and body, until we do not know of ourselves, we do not know of our spirit and our soul, and we ascend above all souls to worlds that are longed for, yearned for, and hidden, which are revealed in the holy days of the Sefirah, which are in the aspect of Chol HaMoed (intermediate days), with Pesach before them and Shavuot after them, and especially on this day, which is the Sefirah of Hod of Hod, the day of the Hillula of Rashbi, who merited the "Yechida" (highest level of the soul) in the ultimate upper level.

Our Father, Holy and Awesome God, Exalted, Hidden, and Sublime, please merit us also, to reach this holy level of Yechida, the level of the Tzaddikim who merited Yechida in the ultimate upper level, so that we may know that there is none but You, nothing besides You, and You are unique in the entire world, and without You no man lifts his hand or his foot, to do from good to bad. Merit us to serve You with supreme self-sacrifice like the holy Rashbi, until we reach the nullification of all feelings and selfhood, and are included in the Ohr Ein Sof in ultimate perfection, and the ten names of E-k-y-e-h will be included in the ten names of M"H, which are the secret of the lowliness of lowliness, the nullification of nullification. May we merit to be included each man in his fellow in ultimate nullification and lowliness, until we merit to be "receivers from one another," and all the Mochin (intellects) that are in our friends will shine for us; may we merit to be included in Rashbi and in the Tzaddikim who are included of six hundred thousand souls, who merited all the six hundred thousand Mochin, and through this received Torah from the mouth of the Almighty, and heard every single day the Ten Commandments and the sound of the Shofar growing very strong, emerging from the beautiful body (Gufa Shapira), for all bad loves were nullified, and they merited the sparks of love. They nullified the leaven in the heart, which investigates after Torah scholars and the Tzaddikim of the generation, in the aspect of "their heart is divided" to say this is pleasant and this is not pleasant.

Please, Merciful and Gracious God, reveal to us the light of the eyes, of David who had beautiful eyes, which is revealed in the light of the fourteenth (the numerical value of David), and continues to shine in all the days of the Sefirah until the day is established, until reaching Lag BaOmer, which is the aspect of "Open my eyes that I may behold wonders from Your Torah," and then the heart is inflamed with sparks of love, until it turns into a heart of flesh, which hears the "sound of the Shofar growing very strong," in the aspect of the Giving of the Torah on the holiday of Shavuot, which is merited after Lag BaOmer, in which is the revelation of the secrets of the Torah through the true Tzaddik. Please merit us in the merit of the Torah of Rashbi to leave the bitter exile—"through this work, which is the book of the Zohar, they will emerge from the exile." And in the merit of the Tanna Rabbi Shimon, who is alluded to in the verse: "A Watcher (I'r) and a Holy One (V'Kaddish) descended (N'chit) from (M'n) Heaven (S'hmaya)" (the first letters of which spell Shimon), may we merit the revelation of the Torah of Atika Setima'ah, and may Mashiach ben David be revealed, "his eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk, beautiful of eyes and good to look at," who sees in his lowliness only the good points in every single person, and brings with his beautiful eye the complete Redemption.

Master of the World, full of mercy, I stand before You in awe and fear, on the day when the soul of Rashbi rises to upper Palaces and to new worlds, and I ask and plead before You, Who graces and gives man understanding, please illuminate for us the holy Torah of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, open our minds and our hearts to the secrets of his Torah, through whose power he shot arrows at the lower serpent and at the upper serpent—at the lower serpent, which takes hold of the Malchut (Kingship) of Malchut, which brings us down to the lowest depths and beneath them, and at the upper serpent, which takes hold of the Binah (Understanding) of Malchut, in the aspect of "and he defiled the sanctuary of Hashem," through which the Temple was destroyed.

Our Father, Merciful Father, just as You brought down the soul of Rashbi after the Destruction so that it would draw for us the rectifications of the Redemption, so illuminate upon us in Your kindness even now in our bitter exile these rectifications that are drawn in the days of the Sefirah. For in these days Rashbi shoots at the Sitra Achra, with the bow and the arrow, with the sling and the spear, until the days of the Sefirah are completed, and then "the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea." And when the fifty days of the Sefirah are completed, the Sitra Achra is nullified, and we merit to see the Supernal Chariot and to hear the Ten Commandments.

You are the Master of the Sling (Ma'arei de-Kirta), the Shepherd who goes with the flock because of the bears, wolves, and evil beasts that come to eat the flock. Arise, take the sling in your hand; you are the holy sling of the Holy One, Blessed be He, into which three holy stones, precious stones, were cast, which are the three Patriarchs. You are the one of whom it is said: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone," and you are the one of whom it is said: "And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house," which is the holy Zohar, which is the cornerstone for every book in the world. And of you it is said: The stone that struck the image and became a great mountain and filled the whole earth; of you it is said: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness (Zohar) of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars," the wise—these are those who know how to throw this stone until an arrow pierces the liver of that upper and lower serpent, and whoever kills the serpent is given the King's daughter, who is the only daughter. And that stone reached a place that no one knows its place, and holy angels ask concerning it: "Where is the place of His glory to revere Him," for no one knows its place, and even though it is small below—above it has no end. Who can wage war in the place where you are? By the small stone that you threw, the heavens were shaken without end, and angels without limit, and all the masters of the academy were all shaken. And if by a small stone all this happens, how much more so when Rabbi Shimon descends with the sword and the spear—and a sword You have drawn from its sheath and unsheathed against Your enemies, of whom it is said: "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand," which is the Shema and "Blessed be the Name." For there are in them 49 letters corresponding to the 49 days of the Counting of the Omer, and the two times "Shema Yisrael" which have fifty letters—corresponding to the holiday of Shavuot.

Arise Rabbi Shimon, gird yourself with your weapons of war, with the arrow and the bow, with the sling, with the spear and with the sword, for behold all the upper and lower worlds, the upper angels and the highest of the high and all the masters of the academy are in your aid, for of you it is said: "And David took five smooth stones from the brook," which are: Gedulah (Greatness), Gevurah (Might), Tiferet (Beauty), Netzach (Victory), and Hod (Splendor). In Hod of Hod, which is the day of your Hillula—and in it you praise the Holy One, Blessed be He, and say "Yours Hashem is the Greatness and the Might and the Beauty and the Victory and the Splendor," and you take them from the brook, which is Yesod, the Life of the Worlds, and when you place them in the sling, which is the holy Malchut (Kingship)—they become one, and it sank into the forehead of the Philistine and killed him. Those five stones—are the letters of "Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem," and when he placed them in the sling, which is your lip, they must all be made "One" (Echad). With them the Holy One, Blessed be He, conquers all the nations of the world, and then the verse will be fulfilled: "For then I will turn to all the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the Name of Hashem, to serve Him with one accord," and then all the nations of the world are destined to be enslaved under the hands of the King Mashiach and to crown the Holy One, Blessed be He, over them, as it is said: "And His kingdom rules over all."

Master of the World, full of mercy, merit us to reveal the secrets of the Torah found in the soul of every single Jew, and through this all the secrets of the Torah will be revealed, until we are in the aspect of "and what are we," in the aspect of "and the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the face of the earth," until we merit like Moses the Faithful Shepherd to hear and to make heard the Ten Commandments. In the merit of the perfection of fear and shame, in the aspect of "Bereishit" (In the beginning) which contains the words Fear (Yira) and Shame (Boshet), to the level of searching and seeking of Moses, in the aspect of "Where is the place of His glory," as he always searched for Your glory, which is hidden in all the worlds, and which is hidden and concealed in the heart of every single Jew, until he merited to hear and to see, to make heard and to show the voices and the lightnings, the fire and the torches, that break forth from every single soul.

Master of the World, Who bestows good upon the guilty, merit me to cleave to the level of Rabbi Shimon and his students, whom fire surrounded from the intensity of the love and brotherhood between them, from the light of the gladness and joy in their love for one another, through their toiling and laboring to find the secrets of the Torah in each and every one, until the soul of Rav Hamnuna Saba was revealed to them. And Rashbi testified about them that secrets were revealed to them that had not been revealed since the time of the standing at Mount Sinai, and it was a wonder in his eyes how they were not burned. He lifted his hand to his head and said: And what of Rav Hamnuna Saba, the light of the Torah, you have merited to see face to face, and I have not merited it, until he called them Peniel, as it is written: "For I have seen God face to face." And Rav Hamnuna Saba informed them of the secret of the resurrection of the dead, the Malchut (Kingship) of Adam Kadmon, when feet touch feet, the secret of Malchut in Malchut, which has no life at all. For before the completion of the Tikkun it is impossible to draw any radiance there, only when the Yechida of Yechida is revealed, and nevertheless Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Abba merited such a revelation, for they merited to draw a radiance from the Yechida of Yechida until the Malchut of Malchut.

Please, Merciful and Gracious One, merit us on this day, which is thirty-three days from the day of Haman's hanging—to receive the Male Mochin (intellects) of Zeir Anpin, and after another thirty-three days on the 23rd of Sivan to receive also the Female Mochin of the Sefirah of Malchut, for on this day Queen Esther nullified the evil of Haman the Agagite and on this day the Congregation of Israel hears a Heavenly Voice: "And you write for the Jews as it seems good to you in the King's name and seal it with the King's ring." For then the Male and Female Mochin are completed, and the Sitra Achra no longer has any control, "for the fear of the Jews fell upon them," all the Mochin were completed by the Tzaddik, who "seeks the good of his people and speaks peace to all his seed."

Please merit us with these Mochin to merit the radiance of the Tzaddik who dwells here, who connects and joins at all times "Where is the place of His glory" with "the whole earth is full of His glory," and rectifies thereby the blemish of the students of Rabbi Akiva, for whom the aspect of "Ayyeh" (Where?) hid from them the secrets of the Torah, which are the inner greatness of each and every one. Please merit us also to rectify this blemish perfectly, and to reveal the secrets of the Torah in every single Jew, until we are worthy of the revelation of all the secrets of creation, from a small gnat to a mighty lion among the beasts, and the secrets of the Zohar and the Etz Chaim and other hidden and concealed secrets will be clear before us, which have not yet been revealed to any person in the world, all of which are in the aspect of everything that a veteran student is destined to innovate was given to Moses at Sinai, secrets that are revealed only through the revelation of the inner dimension of the secrets of the Torah found in every single Jew.

Master of the World, merit me to cleave to true Tzaddikim like Rashbi, through whose power the Torah will never be forgotten from our mouths (for 'it shall not be forgotten from the mouth of his seed'). For his immense revelations and his hidden secrets penetrate to the depth of the soul of every Jew wherever he may be, warming his heart, elevating his soul, and preserving him in his Judaism and his holiness.

Merit me to be warmed by the light of the supreme holy ones like Rashbi, whose soul is a flaming fire, hewn from the Sefirah of Binah (Understanding), in the secret of Moses the Faithful Shepherd (who merited the embodiment of Moses in a way that no Tanna like him merited). Rashbi merited that the voice of his Torah would go and pierce all the heavens and break all the screens, cutting off all the thorns and nullifying all the judgments. The scents of the Garden of Eden of pleasant sayings spread across the skies, until they reached the Ancient of Days (Atik Yomin). The angels of on high were silenced before him, and from saying song they ceased, at the time he made his Torah teachings heard, at the time his secrets broke through above; the entire creation shone in his radiance, and was awakened by the intensity of his holiness; even the birds of the sky were awakened as if from a slumber, and were speaking wisdom. His face was shining like the sun in its radiance, and a pillar of fire constantly surrounded him. Rashbi is a lion among lions and not like other lions. "A lion has roared, who will not fear?" In the roar of his prayers he nullified every decree, without fasting and affliction, out of joy and supreme cleaving.

Master of the World, full of mercy, assist the true Tzaddikim in their war and in their struggle with the accusers. Behold You know the intensity of the war waged from the days of Pesach until the holiday of Shavuot, between true Tzaddikim and the camps of the S"M and all their hosts, who want to hide the prayers of Israel that were blemished by sins and foreign thoughts, while the Tzaddikim toil to transform them into wonderful vessels, through which there can be the giving of the Torah anew, and each and every one will be able to hear the Ten Commandments again. Please, Merciful and Gracious God, assist them to collect the pure and refined points scattered among all the prayers of Israel into a complete stature, and they will build from them the Holy Temple, just as Moses established and built the Tabernacle. Please merit us to the secret of the ladder that Jacob was promised in his dream, when he saw angels of merit fighting against angels of guilt to raise the prayers of the generation, and prayers ascending and being accepted and prayers being rejected and falling, until Hashem stood over him, and promised him that he himself is destined in another twenty years to merit the letter Kaf, to the Keter (Crown) of Existence, to a soul from Keter in Zeir Anpin, and he himself will merit to struggle and fight with the S"M and to raise the prayers of his generation and all generations, which have not yet merited to ascend to their root and to perform their action.

Master of the World, Who does great things beyond investigation, miracles and wonders beyond number, You have done a wonderful kindness with us, and commanded Rashbi to be revealed and to compose the holy book of the Zohar, so that we may reflect on it day and night, and know that he is the Tzaddik of the generation who raises the prayers of those who take refuge in him and their Torah teachings to their root, purifies them and refines them from every dross and blemish. And now, God full of mercy, Merciful and Gracious, You have given us thirty-three days from Pesach until the holy day of the Hillula of Rashbi, which are the thirty-three days of the purification of the woman who has given birth, after we merited the birth of the Mochin (intellects) on the night of the Seder for the entire year, and You commanded us "thirty days and three days she shall sit in the blood of her purification," to purify us and refine us from every dross and blemish and to take us out of all the defilements and impurities, so that the Mochin we received on the night of the Seder can be settled in our minds and spread through all our 248 limbs and 365 sinews. For they do not settle in the mind and spread through all the limbs of the body except when the mind is clean of every dross and blemish, and the 248 limbs of the body are pure and refined from every impurity, and until then "she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary." For we have no touch in the holy Mochin and in the Palaces and in the surrounding lights until the days of purification are full, until we merit to be purified and sanctified with the ultimate refinement and holiness.

And now Hashem my God, full of mercy, from where will my help come? For in order to be purified and refined, we need the starting point, and we have still not moved from the mundane to the holy even by a hair's breadth, and we are swallowed within the serpent, which is the S"M. "Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off; You have laid me in the lowest pit, imprisoned and I cannot go out," and I have no support or hope except on the merit of the Divine Tanna who dwells here, who shoots arrows and spears into the very heart of the Sitra Achra, the master of true compassion, who searches with all kinds of searching for good points in Israel, a searching drawn from the light of the fourteenth, of which it is said: "In that day I will search Jerusalem with candles; the candle of Hashem is the soul of man, searching all the inner parts of the belly." Rashbi is the candle of Hashem that searches in every Mitzvah and Mitzvah and in every Torah teaching and in every prayer for some good point, in the aspect of "if there be for him an angel, an intercessor, one among a thousand." For he can raise our prayer before the Throne of Glory, to intercede for us, and to sweeten all the difficult and awesome decrees that are decreed upon us every single day. Especially to sweeten the terrible accusations in these days that are before the Giving of the Torah, for then they strengthen themselves most to pick off the stragglers, in the aspect of the war of Amalek which was before the Giving of the Torah, so that their prayer would not be accepted and they would not merit the Ten Commandments. Therefore we have come now before You, our Father in Heaven, that You should remove from us the accusations that prevent the Giving of the Torah in the merit of the soul of Rashbi, which even Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, was assisted by, in the aspect of "You ascended to the heights, you took captive the Sh'B'Y'."

Therefore I have come before You, full of abundant mercy, see my affliction, and remember my lowliness, and receive the words of the intercessor for me and for all of Israel. Heal me of all my blemishes, just as You healed the people of Israel at the Giving of the Torah, and just as the eyes of the blind were opened to see and the ears of the deaf to hear, so open my eyes and ears to see and hear, to understand and to comprehend the words of Your holy Torah. And in the merit of the fifty days of the Counting of the Omer, cut off in the blink of an eye all our enemies, and throw them from the high roof to the deep pit (A'gra R'ama L'bira A'mikta - an acronym for A'm'e'r'). As You answered in these days the prayers of Mordechai and Esther and nullified the decree, and hanged on a tree of fifty in the merit of fifty. Like the morning light the sun shall shine—the sun of Rashbi, which sweetens all the judgments, starting from the thirty-three days preceding Lag BaOmer and until the thirty-three days after it, which are twice thirty-three days of purification for the son and for the daughter, until the Holy One, Blessed be He, in His glory and by Himself extends the golden scepter, which is the radiance of the Sefirah of Chokhmah (Wisdom) through the Sefirah of Binah (Understanding), and says: "And you write for the Jews as it seems good to you." All the blood is purified and all the judgments are sweetened through the radiance of Chokhmah—"and many of the people of the land became Jews."

"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands. I stretch forth my hands unto You; my soul thirsts after You, as a weary land. Selah. I will remember the deeds of Hashem; for I will remember Your wonders of old."

Master of the World, our heart is awestruck before Your wonders, humming in a song of silence to You for the greatest wonder in all of creation, for the souls of the Tzaddikim that You emanated which preceded the creation, mighty souls, with whom You consulted in the creation of the worlds. Like Rashbi, the holy Patriarchs, and Ra'aya Meheimna, who were drawn from the Higher Radiance of Adam Kadmon, and in them You included every soul, and You revealed to them all Your secrets, how to sweeten the severity of Your judgments. They merited in their lives to ascend to hidden Palaces, and to hear from Your mouth the words of the living God, until in every single word that emerged from their holy mouths, even in mundane matters, there was the aspect of the Shechinah speaking from their throat, and their mouth was like Your mouth, in the aspect of "mouth to mouth I speak with him." In every single word that emerged from their mouths they merited the general redemption (Pidyon), they sweetened all 24 courts of judgment, and joy, gladness, mercy, and kindness they drew upon Israel and upon all creatures; they nullified all the concealments and the concealments within the concealments, so that we may merit to see You eye to eye, when Hashem returns to Zion, Jerusalem.

Master of the World, "A Watcher and a Holy One descended from Heaven" to illuminate the secret of the inner dimension of the Torah, to ascend from the crowns (Tagin) to the secret of the vowel points (Nekudot), from "Where is the place of His glory" to the revelation of the place of His glory, to see You and to show You to the eyes of all, to adorn the Congregation of Israel with the words of Your Torah and Your faith like a bride toward a groom, until You emerge and are revealed to us in the aspect of face to face, and You gladden our sick and suffering soul in the Sefirah of Hod of Hod through thanks and acknowledgments, songs, dances, and melodies, which are capable of the forgiveness of sins. Please merit us to all the secrets of the holy and awesome Zohar, merit us to walk in its great light, in the light of the inner dimension of the Torah which is the secret of the vowel points, "points of silver" for the four hundred worlds of longing.

I will then rejoice without end, I will be glad and exult without limit, I will skip and dance from evening until morning, until in the merit of the song and the dance I merit to draw the bow, the bow of the Covenant, and to shoot arrows into the heart of the Sitra Achra; I will merit words of prayer, joy, and faith, which will fly like an arrow from a bow, until an arrow pierces the liver of the S"M, until all the conquered good hidden in the heart of each and every one is revealed, even in the heart of the nations of the world, and many converts will be added to the people of Israel like Ruth the mother of the kingdom. With whose light (Zo-ha-rah) we open the days of the Sefirah, and sweeten the bitter herbs (Maror) with lettuce (Chas-rut), with Ruth who sweetens all bitterness, the bitterness of the people of Israel, with the sweetness of the pleasantness of the sweet singer of Israel, and with the perfection of the Mochin of Ruth, and we finish with the reading of the Scroll of Ruth.

For it is impossible to receive the Torah except through the five books of Psalms (Mizmorim) corresponding to the Five Books of the Torah, for the ten kinds of melodies correspond to the Ten Commandments, and only through them do the partitions depart and the judgments are sweetened, and the hidden faces of the King are revealed, His hidden treasures, and His concealed secrets, which will yet merit us to hear the voice of God, in a perception of face to face.

Full of Mercy, there is none besides You to redeem, forgive the one who dwells in the grave, for he will much request and ask, and let it not be difficult in Your eyes that I have asked a difficult thing, for behold I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised of the people, but You revealed to us that the holy Tanna who dwells here is the Tzaddik of the generations alluded to in "and he rolled (Vayagel) the stone from the mouth of the well," he is the one who can roll the stone from the heart of stone to melt our heart, and to turn it into a well of living water, in the aspect of "a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon," from the whiteness (Levuna) of the brain, and to draw for us living water from the Supernal Well, in the aspect of "upper springs and lower springs, the stream of God is full of water. You prepare their corn, when You have so provided for it. You water the ridges thereof abundantly; You settle the furrows thereof; You make it soft with showers; You bless the springing thereof. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

Master of the World, Master of the entire universe, may it be Your will before You, Hashem my God and God of my fathers, that You merit me to cleave to the words of Your Torah, and especially to the words of the Torah of Rashbi, in the sayings of the holy Zohar, and open my heart and my knowledge, until I merit to hear and to understand well in my heart all the words of Your holy and pure Torah, Your perfect Torah that restores the soul, makes wise the simple, enlightens the eyes, and stands forever. And may I merit to feel well the wonders of the pleasantness of the sayings of Your Torah, the sweetness of the innovations of Your Torah, which are very holy and awesome, which all the true Tzaddikim revealed who give life to all the worlds, and may I merit to delight in the light of Your secrets and to enjoy the radiance of Your face, until I loathe and despise the life of this world and its desires and its vanities, and all the life of this world will be completely nullified for me through the intensity of the enjoyment and the delight and the playfulness in the words of Your holy and awesome Torah, and especially in the words of the holy Zohar. For all their words are living and enduring, faithful and desirable forever, "more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," as every single word ascends without end and descends without limit, connects and joins and includes all the worlds together, and gives wonderful advice to all the dwellers above and dwellers below, how to recognize You, may You be blessed, and to cleave to You in truth, "How great are Your works, Hashem! Your thoughts are very deep." And if we merited to incline our ears and our heart well and to hear well even one word from Your holy Torah, which You revealed to us through Moses Your servant, and through all the true Tzaddikim who were in every generation until this day—we would be nullified in existence.

Would that we might hear and pay attention, incline our ear and listen to the voice of the river that waters the garden, which is the voice of Your holy Torah. Would that we might listen to the voice of the words of the holy Zohar, whose pleasantness has not been since the time of the second Tablets. Would that we might cleave to the light of the Tzaddik, who with the sweetness of this pleasantness illuminated all the darkness and removed all the concealments, broke for us all the heavens and returned to us all the parts of the soul that we lost in this reincarnation and in other reincarnations from the sin of the Tree of Knowledge until this day. Would that we might cleave to the Tzaddik who by the power of his mighty sparkings from the Fiftieth Gate bestows kindness and mercy upon the people of Israel and the entire world. Would that we might connect to the Tzaddik who collects all the parts of Ruach and Neshamah from all the worlds and from all the generations, to show us eye to eye the Divine Providence that is present at every single moment.

"I lift my eyes to the mountains, from where will my help come? My help is from Hashem," Who draws me close to the Tzaddikim who merited the level of "Ayin" (Nothingness), like the holy Patriarchs who merited the levels of dust and ashes, like Ra'aya Meheimna who said "and what are we," Who draws me close to Rashbi who was covered in dust for thirteen years in the cave, and merited through this to reveal the Thirteen Attributes of Your mercy, which are drawn from the Thirteen Rectifications of the Beard (Tikunei Dikna). My help is from Hashem, Who draws me close to the Tzaddik who merited to be the point of the letter Dalet of "Echad" (One), to the Tzaddik who merited to reveal and to illuminate to all the inhabitants of the world in all generations that Hashem is the God, (and the name Shimon Bar Yochai = 1115 + 3 words: Shimon Bar Yochai = 1118, which is the numerical value of: Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad). And he sweetened through this all the 24 courts of judgment, which judged to death the 24 thousand students, who blemished the lower unification of the 24 letters of "Blessed be the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever," which are alluded to in the verse: "Let not the oppressed (Dach) return ashamed."

Please, Father of Mercy, have mercy on one who is in pain and suffering, on one with a broken heart like me, standing before You on this day like a poor man at the door, like the eye of a maidservant toward her mistress, like the eye of a servant toward his master, and like the eye of the captive and the guilty one who asks and pleads for his soul. Have mercy on the one standing now before You with a broken and contrite heart, pleading on the day of the Hillula of the holy Tanna who dwells here; please have pity and mercy on me, and make a complete partition between me and the Sitra Achra, that it shall not approach nor come near to me at all anymore. Please remove from me the sadness, and banish it from within my borders with the ultimate banishment and distancing, and may there be fulfilled in it the verse "from before my mistress Sarai I am fleeing," let the maidservant flee from before the song of Sarah, the song of the body and the soul, from before the song and the dance, the melody and the dancing. I will rejoice and be glad with all my heart, I will skip and dance with all my might, until You establish a heap (Gal) between me and the sadness in the aspect of "witness is this heap (Gal)," and You Yourself will warn the Evil Inclination and caution the Sitra Achra, that they should not speak with me anymore from good to bad, until I merit to be saved from their hand perfectly, and I can confess before You on the day of the First Fruits in a Temple of fire, and thank You for having redeemed me, from the Aramean who sought to destroy my father, who pursues me at all times.

Master of the World, full of mercy, merit me to the light of the Tzaddik of the generation and to his wonderful rectifications; merit me to cleave to the Tzaddik, the aspect of Boaz, who was winnowing during the days of the Omer the floor (Goren - numerical value of Gerim/converts) of barley, clarifying souls from chaff and straw, turning burden (Sibolet) into flow (Shibboleth), and raising from barley to wheat, returning the souls of Israel in Teshuvah, and converting converts from the nations of the world. By the power of his prayers, which were in the aspect of "for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples," which is the Holy Temple of which it is said: "Peoples shall call to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness." And had we merited such a prayer—the holy sparks, which were scattered in the world from the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, would come of their own accord to glean in our fields, like Ruth the Moabitess who built the kingdom of the House of David.

But in our many iniquities, the flow (Shibboleth) has become a burden (Sibolet), for "you have not called upon Me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of Me, O Israel." Woe to us for we have given a stubborn shoulder, until clear and wonderful paths leading to the ears (Shibbolim) of wheat (Chittim), which rectify the sin (Chet) of the Tree of Knowledge and sweeten the double letters of MaN-Tze-Pa"Kh (the numerical value of hair/Se'arah), paths and ways that reveal new measures and dimensions, which draw all the holy Mochin—have turned into crooked ways of burden and suffering; the flow has become a burden.

Please, Gracious and Merciful Father, merit me on the day of Lag BaOmer, of which it is said: "And she uncovered (Vatigal) his feet (Margelotav)," to receive the six measures of barley, which are all the wonderful traits of David the Mashiach: "skillful in playing; a mighty man of valor; a man of war; prudent in speech; a man of good form; and Hashem is with him"; (that the law is like him in every place).

Master of the World, merit us on the day of the holy Hillula to skip and dance with all our might, and I will lift my feet and hands in song and dance, until feet touch feet and all nations say song, and the Mount of Olives shall be split, the voice of the herald shall be heard, and the great Shofar shall be sounded, and the Holy Temple shall say song, and Tabor and Carmel, Hermon and Sinai shall break forth in melody, and all the peoples shall sing with gladness, "And nations shall walk by your light, and kings by the brightness of your rising." The bow of the Covenant shall then be revealed in all its glory, and the Sitra Achra shall vanish like smoke in a flaming fire, in the fire that burns in the hearts of Tzaddikim, and like straw (KaSh) shall be all the rebels through the four hundred worlds of longing.

"And the sons of foreigners shall build your walls, and their kings shall set your gates with stones of Kadkod, to the Holy One of Israel because He has glorified you. Your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night, until you see that they are all gathered to you, the wealth of the nations and the multitude of the sea shall come to you, the ships of Tarshish and Eiphah, gold and frankincense from Sheba, they shall bring the praises of Hashem, your sons in their bosom and your daughters on their shoulder, kings and princes shall fall down with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet, and all they that despised you shall break forth in the praises of Hashem. Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall throb and be enlarged, violence shall no more be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for Hashem shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. And the mountain of Hashem's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it, and kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto Hashem out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, wrapped in sapphires. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Your spoilers shall be for a spoil, for you shall be a delightsome land. It shall no more be said of your land, 'Desolate,' nor of Jerusalem, 'Wilderness,' for you shall be called 'My delight is in her' and Jerusalem 'Praise'," and by the Name of Hashem you shall then be called, and in the light of the Tzaddik called Leviathan your light will shine from one end of the world to the other, every wall shall shine in you,

And in the fire of the Tzaddik every heart is burning.