Tefillah lechodesh Elul — A Prayer for the Month of Elul

This wonderful and moving supplication, whose ancient origins lie in the Yiddish-language techine books and which was composed for women,

is recited each day throughout the month of Elul, and also on Rosh Hashanah at the time of the Torah procession, and before the blowing of the shofar;

and it is gathered and compiled from several books.

Please, Adonai! I have leaned upon Your great mercy to ask that You hear my small prayer,

which goes forth from the depths of my broken heart,

and answer my call,

as it is written in Your holy Torah: "Before they call, I will answer."

God, full of mercy, have mercy on me and receive the request that I ask of You,

and receive the confession that I confess before You:

I will acknowledge before You and be ashamed of my bitter sins,

for I have defied Your holy commandments and have not observed Your decrees which You commanded us.

Master of all worlds, before I begin to confess before You as is fitting,

I fall upon my face and implore You

that Your mercy may prevail over Your anger,

and grant me the opening of my lips to know how to confess before You,

and receive my confession in Your abundant mercy.

Deal with me according to Your great loving-kindness, and judge me according to the greatness of Your mercy.

I ask You, my Maker and Creator, receive my prayer,

for I have no righteous advocate to invoke my merits —

only Your holy Torah which You gave to Your people in loving-kindness and mercy.

I ask of You that my entire confession rise as a pleasing offering before You,

and open for me the gates of repentance.

Remember for Your beloved children the receiving of Your beloved Torah at Sinai,

and open for them as well the gates of repentance.

Receive now my bitter tears,

just as You received the tears shed by Your holy angels

at the time when our forefather Abraham bound his beloved only son,

and their tears fell upon the sword of the angel of death

and held it back from slaughtering our forefather Isaac —

so may my tears hold back the sword of the angel of death from consuming me, God forbid,

or my husband, or any of my offspring, or any of our acquaintances and those bound to us.

So I ask You to have mercy on us,

and be yourself a righteous advocate for me at the time You judge me in Your judgment,

and receive my prayer and forgive all my sins.

May Your abundant mercies be a shield for me,

for I am in awe of my many sins

and I am unworthy and do not know where to begin to ask forgiveness before You.

Therefore, receive my supplication by the merit of our holy forefathers,

as it is written in Your holy Torah:

"And I will show loving-kindness, and I will remember the merit of the fathers for the children and the children's children."

Our God and God of our fathers, comfort us and have mercy upon us, amen.

Let Your loving-kindness be to comfort us from our great sorrow,

and may there be fulfilled in us the verse that is written:

"Make with us a sign for good, that our enemies may see and be put to shame,

because You, Adonai, have helped us and comforted us" —

when You make with us a sign for good,

our enemies will see — namely the evil inclination and the accusing Satan — and be put to shame,

for You are a God who helps and comforts all who call upon You with a broken heart,

as it is written: "A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."

Amen.

Before Your judgment we stand today, for we are all Your servants;

therefore I will weep and cry out before Your holy Name:

Please answer me in loving-kindness and mercy,

and sit Yourself alone to judge my cause.

Guard us — us and our children — from harsh decrees,

and grant us the merit to raise our children in goodness,

and may all our descendants raise their descendants in goodness,

for such is Your way — to have mercy on the tender young of Your flock.

With what shall I come before You to implore and beseech Your holy Name!

I know that I have no one to advocate for me,

only the bitter tears of my eyes,

as the Sages have said: "All the gates are locked except the gates of tears."

Therefore, merciful God, receive the tears I pour out before You

and store them in Your flask,

and wash with them my soul of my sins and transgressions,

and pass from the throne of judgment and sit upon the throne of mercy, amen.

May my supplication draw near before You, my Maker,

that no accuser may come between my prayer and Your glorious throne.

Therefore I implore You:

Return Your sword of judgment to its sheath,

and raise Your righteous right hand over us and over our tender children, amen.

Turn Your ear to my prayer, God who is good and does good;

save me from shame and robbery and the dominion of any person and from all evil,

and may there be fulfilled in me the verse written in the holy Book of Psalms:

"You open Your hand and satisfy every living being with favor."

You alone will open Your generous hand and nourish us,

and we will not be nourished or sustained by flesh and blood, amen.

See my affliction and my toil from my sins and my transgressions;

receive my supplication and save me.

I know that I am unworthy to open my mouth and ask You for anything,

for I have sinned with my mouth with great sins:

I have mocked, I have spoken obscene and forbidden words.

But You, merciful God, have mercy on me and receive my supplication,

just as You received the supplication of Hannah, the mother of Samuel,

and forgive all my transgressions.

With all my heart I will call to You.

Therefore I ask You, Father of mercy and righteous one —

this is the measure with which You respond to all who call You:

just as You have helped me until now,

I implore You as a child who entreats its father,

that You answer us and have mercy on us as a father has mercy on his children —

so have mercy on us, Your people Israel, amen.

Remove from me, Adonai my God and God of my fathers, Your fierce anger,

and receive in mercy my request that I ask of You —

the atonement of my transgressions —

and that I add no more to my sinning,

but always observe Your commandments.

I ask You, my King and my God, to strengthen my heart to fulfill Your commandments

that You commanded our mothers,

and strengthen my hand to give tzedakah always

and to fulfill the commandment of lighting candles at its proper time,

and to guide my feet to walk to the synagogue to give thanks to You.

What shall I say and what shall I ask!

My soul knows all the evil deeds I have done.

Therefore I ask that by the merit of my young children

who are engaged in Your holy Torah,

You save us —

that joy may reign always in our camp,

and that grief and sighing not reign in our tents, amen.

I will thank You with all my heart, my God,

for You are good to all, You have mercy on all,

and You hear the prayer of every mouth.

You attend to the prayer of the poor,

and You forgive the sins we have sinned before You,

for You are holy and awesome.

But I ask of Your good Name

that You place the quality of mercy in the place of the quality of judgment,

and sweeten for us the judgments

and make our case straight before You, amen.

Do not rebuke me in Your anger, and do not chastise me in Your wrath,

for Your Name is called the Judge of truth, and Your judgments are truth,

and You do loving-kindness and truth and forgive our transgressions.

And in this I rejoice and am glad:

that I repent of my transgressions

and will not return to doing them,

and for this I will thank You with all my heart.

I have distanced myself from the good deeds You taught me to do

and have defied Your holy commandments.

What You kept me from doing I did,

and what You commanded me to fulfill I did not fulfill.

What You forbade I permitted, and what You permitted I forbade;

what You declared impure I declared pure, and what You declared pure I declared impure.

But in all these things I did not intend to defy Your will or provoke You,

only I did not have the strength to withstand the temptation of my evil inclination —

therefore forgive and pardon my transgression, amen.

Establish Your loving-kindness according to Your truth.

I kneel and bow before You, God of loving-kindness,

for how shall I not fear, and how shall trembling and dread not seize me

when I stand in judgment before the heavenly court,

to defend myself for my transgressions?

But You, Master of the universe, Your measure is not the measure of flesh and blood,

for before a judge of flesh and blood there is no mercy in judgment,

but You, Adonai, work wonders and show Your mercy at the time of judgment;

therefore have mercy on me and be gracious to me with long life —

for me and for my husband and for my children, amen.

Remove Your fierce anger from upon me,

and the mouth of the Satan who accuses us always —

stop it with the sound of the shofar,

and atone for our sins through the sound of the shofar.

And just as we sound the bent shofar,

so may we bend our hearts to return to You from our transgressions,

and may we merit in this year to hear the voice of the shofar of our righteous Messiah, amen.

I have clung to abominations and evil deeds.

I gave myself into the hand of my evil inclination to entice me,

and I did not reflect that my end is to stand before You in judgment —

I only followed the desires of my heart.

Master of the universe, if I wished to confess before Your holy Name for my transgressions —

my days would be spent, yet my bitter and grievous transgressions would not be spent.

For which sins shall I confess?

For those I did willingly, or for those I did unwittingly and under compulsion?

Master of the universe, may it be Your will

that just as I have bathed myself in my tears,

so may You wash me and purify me from all my transgressions, amen.

And I lift my words to You, my Father in heaven,

to seek Your loving-kindness,

and I open with awe and humility:

Woe is me!

How did I not fear before my two witnesses —

those two angels who accompany a person

and testify about their bitter sins at the time they stand in judgment,

and show them their own signature upon their transgressions?

Alas! How did I not fear, and how did I not have pity on my tender children,

who might have been taken from me on account of my transgressions?

Therefore I ask You to have mercy on me in Your abundant loving-kindness, amen.

Were it not for Your loving-kindnesses that stand ready for a person,

upon what could I lean and depend in these days — the Days of Awe —

when all creatures are accounted for,

and every human deed and act is read out before them?

To whom shall I turn for help?

I have only to lean upon Your abundant mercies,

for You created repentance from sins for Your creatures;

therefore I accept upon myself to return from all my sins

and to serve You from now on with an upright heart.

Judge me according to Your loving-kindness, Adonai my God;

Your people cries out and pleads before You,

therefore please forgive their transgressions and receive their repentance.

Awake, our forefathers, those who sleep in the Cave of Machpelah, to support us.

But we have no good deeds to justify ourselves,

therefore let us ask of our Creator that He have mercy upon us.

Master of the universe, return us to You and return to call us Your people;

may Your loving-kindnesses prevail over Your attributes of judgment,

by the merit of our holy forefathers, amen selah.

I dwell in distress from the multitude of my evil transgressions —

with what gift and bribe shall I find favor before You, my Creator, that You pardon my transgressions?

I have no way to appease You except through repentance and confession;

therefore I return and confess before You:

I have sinned before You!

Therefore I will weep and cry out: Atone for my transgressions!

For it is in Your mercy and loving-kindness that I have hoped.

Do not enter into judgment with us,

for who can stand before You in judgment?

May loving-kindness and mercy come before You to sweeten our judgment and our verdict.

May Your eyes look upon us in righteousness and in Your mercy.

Give us life, for You are our Father and we are Your tender children.

How can You bear to hear the sound of our weeping —

therefore have mercy on us and receive our request.

And be filled with mercy for Your children.

For You have called us children — have mercy on us as a father has mercy on children.

And if we are not worthy to be called anything but servants before You —

our eyes are lifted toward You until You grace us and save us, amen.

The tumult and trembling of the day of judgment — still it with Your mercy.

How long will You forget us? Remember the love with which You loved us;

therefore save us in our day, for our troubles are many;

therefore have mercy on us, amen.

May Your mercies stand on behalf of those inscribed before Your glorious throne.

And may the merit of Joseph the righteous, who honored Your holy Name,

stand for us, that we not come, God forbid, to poverty and degradation, amen.

I know in my soul that I have strayed from Your commandments and Your good ordinances.

But in Your holy Name I hope

that You will not scrutinize us with the strictness of judgment,

and may there be fulfilled in me what is written: "He passes over the first," and "abundant in loving-kindness — He inclines toward loving-kindness," amen.

At the time You sit to render judgment,

I ask You, my God in heaven,

to sit upon the throne of mercy and judge me with the quality of mercy,

and do not judge me according to my transgressions,

for I accept upon myself to repair my breaches and sin no more.

Hear and attend to the sound of our cry,

and receive now my regret — for I do repent of my crooked ways —

and may there be fulfilled in me what our Sages have said:

"Transgressions are transformed for them into merits." Amen.

In Your righteousness, wash clean the stains of my soul

that has been stained by my many transgressions.

For if You judge us according to our evil ways,

surely our inclination entices us to do only evil all the day.

And if we are found guilty in judgment,

what will be the consequences of our death or the death of our tender children, God forbid —

for "the dead do not praise God," and "from the grave, who will give thanks to You"!

Our God in heaven, You are living and enduring;

therefore have mercy on us,

and may there be fulfilled in me the verse that is written:

"Adonai is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth" —

and may He have mercy on the people who crown Him as King,

for we are Your people and the flock of Your pasture;

therefore hasten to have mercy on us

and to return Your divine presence to Zion, Your city,

and may there be fulfilled in us the verse that is written:

"A redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression." Amen selah.