Tefillah al HaSimchah — The Prayer for Joy

A Prayer for Joy

How blessed are we — how good is our portion, how pleasant our lot,

how beautiful our inheritance.

How blessed are we that we have merited, through Your great mercy and Your precious loving-kindness,

to receive Your holy Torah

and to fulfill Your precious commandments,

"more desirable than gold and the finest gold."

And so I have come to seek Your face, Adonai my God and God of my fathers,

that You grant us grace through Your great mercy and Your vast loving-kindness,

and help us to perform all the commandments with very great and mighty joy —

as it is fitting to rejoice and exult and delight in You, Adonai our God,

at every moment when we are worthy to fulfill and perform any commandment,

for every single commandment is a manifestation of Your oneness,

and through it we are worthy to cleave to You and be gathered into You, Adonai our God,

through the performance of each and every commandment.

How great is Your goodness that You have done for me —

that You have granted me to be of the seed of Israel, and did not make me a gentile,

and You raise the poor from the dust, from the ash-heap You lift the needy — one such as me.

And You grant me merit each day and at every hour

to perform the precious and beloved commandments.

Help us through Your great mercy

that great joy be drawn down upon us

from the One in whose dwelling joy resides,

that we may truly rejoice with all our hearts

at the moment when we are worthy to perform a commandment,

until we are always worthy to perform many commandments every single day

with great joy, immense gladness, and very mighty delight.

Shield us through Your great mercy and Your vast loving-kindness,

guard me and save me from sadness and black melancholy,

so that no sadness or black melancholy shall rise up, come, or enter my heart whatsoever,

and remove from me grief and sighing through Your great mercy.

Be my help and save me,

and grant me to pour out my speech before You each and every day,

and all that is in my heart I shall speak before You,

and I shall be worthy to confess each day all my sins, my iniquities, and my transgressions

that I have sinned, done wrong, and transgressed before You,

and to return from them in truth with all my heart and soul

in complete repentance,

and to seek and to plead before You

for pardon, forgiveness, and atonement

with a truly broken and crushed heart, as is Your good will,

and to take upon myself a firm and true resolve

that I will sin no more, and will not return to my folly.

"If I have done wrong, I will not do so again."

And You will stir Your loving-kindness

and fill me with compassion,

and You will pardon and forgive me

for all my sins, my iniquities, and my transgressions.

And You will remove sadness, worry, and black melancholy from me.

And You will help me to come afterward to great and mighty joy in truth,

so that I may be worthy to live in great joy always,

and especially during the time of Torah study and prayer.

At the time of performing each and every commandment,

may I merit that no sadness or worry rises in my heart over any sin or iniquity,

and certainly that no worry or sadness rises in my heart

over matters of livelihood and the affairs of this world, God forbid —

but I will then set aside from my mind and wholly forget

everything that has passed over me until that very hour

when I am worthy to engage in Your Torah and to perform a commandment.

And I shall be worthy to draw upon myself complete joy at the time of performing every commandment:

"I will greatly rejoice in Adonai, my soul shall exult in my God,"

until I am worthy to perform each and every commandment

and everything that is Your will

with complete joy and great gladness, truly, as is Your good will.

Until, through performing the commandments with joy,

I may be worthy to clarify and elevate all the sparks of holiness

that have fallen among the husks through me,

through my many iniquities and transgressions

that I have sinned before You — whether in this lifetime or in another,

to clarify them all through the joy of commandment-fulfillment,

in the mystical secret of the eleven spices of the incense offering.

And may we be worthy to draw out all vitality from the husks

until they are all entirely nullified,

and become as nothing and emptiness.

And may we be worthy to raise all the sparks of holiness back to their root,

to restore through them the full stature of the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence.

Have compassion upon us and be our help,

that we be worthy to raise the Shekhinah from exile

through performing the commandments with great joy,

and Your kingship will be revealed over all who enter the world.

And all will accept the yoke of Your sovereignty,

and You will reign over them swiftly, forever and ever.