Tefillat Rabbi Elimelech — The Prayer of Rabbi Elimelech

The Prayer of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk

 

May it be Your will, Adonai our God and God of our forefathers,

You who hear the voice of cries and petitions and listen with mercy to the prayer of Your people Israel —

that You prepare our hearts and direct our thoughts,

that You place our prayer upon our lips,

that You incline Your ear to hear the voice of Your servants

who pour themselves out before You in a cry of pleading and a broken spirit.

 

And You, merciful God, in Your great mercy and Your vast lovingkindness,

forgive and pardon and grant atonement to us and to all Your people, the house of Israel,

for all that we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and transgressed before You.

For it is revealed and known before You

that it was not out of defiance or betrayal — heaven forbid, heaven forbid —

that we defied Your word and the teachings of Your Torah and Your commandments,

but only because of the great force of the evil inclination that burns within us always,

that will not rest, that will not be still,

until it has drawn us toward the desires of this lowly world and its vanities,

and that confounds our thoughts at all times —

even at the very moment when we stand to pray before You

and to plead on behalf of our souls —

it confounds our prayer and our thoughts constantly through its schemes,

and we are powerless to stand against it,

for our understanding and our mind and our heart have grown very weak,

and the strength to endure has faltered under the weight of troubles, hardships, and the pressures of the times.

 

Therefore, O merciful and gracious God,

deal with us as You promised through the faithful servant of Your house:

'I will show grace to whom I will show grace, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy' —

and our sages of blessed memory have taught:

even one who is unworthy and undeserving,

for it is Your way to do good to the wicked and to the righteous alike.

 

For it is revealed and known before You — our groaning, our anguish, our sorrow —

that we are unable to draw ourselves close to Your service

or to cleave our hearts to You in truth and wholeness.

Alas for our souls — woe to us, greatly — our Father in heaven.

 

Now, rouse upon us, we beg You, Your mercy and Your great and abundant lovingkindness,

to drive out and uproot the evil inclination from within us,

and rebuke it so that it turns and departs from us,

that it not tempt us to be driven from Your service, heaven forbid,

that no evil thought arise in our hearts, heaven forbid,

neither while awake nor in dream.

 

Especially in the hour when we stand in prayer before You,

or in the hour when we study Your Torah,

or in the hour when we engage with Your commandments —

may our thoughts be pure, clear, refined, and strong,

in truth and with a whole heart, as Your good will desires for us.

 

Awaken our hearts and the hearts of all Israel Your people,

and the hearts of all who are joined to us,

and the hearts of all who seek our company,

to unify You in truth and in love,

to serve You with upright service,

fit to be received before the throne of Your glory.

 

Fix Your faith in our hearts always without interruption,

that Your faith be bound in our hearts like a peg that will not be shaken,

and remove from us all the screens that divide between us and You, our Father in heaven,

and save us from all stumbling and error.

Do not forsake us, do not abandon us, do not put us to shame.

Be with our mouths in the moment of our speaking,

with our hands in the moment of our working,

with our hearts in the moment of our thinking.

 

Grant us merit, our Father in heaven, O God full of mercy,

that we unify our heart and our thought and our speech and our deeds

and all our movements and our feelings,

those known to us and those unknown to us,

the revealed and the hidden —

that all of it be unified toward You in truth and in wholeness

without any unworthy thought, heaven forbid.

 

Purify our hearts and make us holy,

sprinkle upon us clean water and cleanse us

through Your love and Your compassion.

Plant Your love and Your awe in our hearts always without interruption,

at every time and in every season and in every place —

when we walk, when we sit, when we lie down, when we rise —

may Your holy spirit burn always within us.

 

And may we lean always upon You and upon Your greatness and Your love

and Your awe and Your Torah — written and oral,

the revealed and the hidden —

and upon Your commandments,

all of it to unify Your great and awesome name.

 

Guard us from self-seeking and from pride,

from anger and irritability, from sadness and from gossip,

and from all other corrupt character traits,

and from anything that ruins Your service that is holy, pure, and dear to us.

 

Pour out Your holy spirit upon us

that we may cleave to You,

that we may long for You always more and more,

and raise us from level to level,

that we may merit to attain the heights of our holy forefathers,

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

and may their merit stand for us

so that You hear the voice of our prayer —

that we may always be answered when we pray to You,

for ourselves or for any one of Your people Israel, for an individual or for many.

 

And may You rejoice and take pride in us,

and may we bear fruit above and put down root below.

 

Do not call to mind our sins,

especially the sins of our youth,

as King David, peace be upon him, proclaimed:

'The sins of my youth and my transgressions — do not call them to mind.' —

and turn our iniquities and transgressions into merit,

and pour down upon us from the world of repentance always

the stirring to return to You with a whole heart

and to repair what we have damaged in Your holy and pure names.

 

Save us from envy of one person toward another;

may no person's envy arise in our hearts,

nor our envy upon others.

On the contrary — place in our hearts that we see every person's good qualities and not their failings,

that we speak with one another in the way that is upright and pleasing to You,

that no hatred arise from one person toward another, heaven forbid.

 

Strengthen our bond of love toward You,

as is revealed and known before You,

that all of it may be a source of contentment to You —

and this is the central intention of our hearts.

 

And if we lack the wisdom to direct our hearts toward You,

then You teach us, that we may truly know the intention of Your good will.

 

For all of this we implore You, O God full of mercy,

that You receive our prayer with mercy and with favor.

Amen — may it be so.