Reb Natan's Prayer for Likutey Moharan Lesson 12
The Fiftieth Gate Likutey Tefilot Volume 1, Prayers 1-20
By Reb Natan
Breslov Research Institute
Prayer 12 for Likutey Moharan Lesson 12
I have wanted to type out the prayer from our last lesson in Likutey Moharan.
Torah Study for its own sake/ Attachment to the true Tzaddik
Regardless of the depth of our spiritual exile, Torah Study has the power to elevate us to ever higher levels of Teshuvah and connection to G-d, but only when we study the Torah for its own sake - “to learn, teach, observe and perform the will of G-d and to give G-d pleasure. Some of the strongest opposition to the true tzaddikim comes from Torah scholars who study for the motives of self-aggrandizement. However, the true Tzaddik has the power to lift up the “fallen Torah” of such scholars and restore it to its holy source.
The entire Oral Torah – the Mishnah, Gemara, Midrashim, Halakhah, Kabbalah, Chaddisdut, ect., - was revealed and transmitted by generations of Tzaddikim. Through intense study for its own sake, we can bind our soul to that of the departed Tanna (Mishnah Teacher) or Tzaddik who originally revealed the teaching we are studying. The intimate spiritual communion that comes from mouthing of the words of the Tzaddik’s teachings is called ‘kissing.”
Hashem!
How can I approach You after all the love and kindness You have shown me?
You have given us the Torah of truth and planted eternal life among us. The kindness You have shown us is for all eternity. HaShem: Arouse Your love for me. Just as You had mercy on us and lovingly gave us Your holy Torah—that hidden treasure, that daily joy—so now help me and bring me to constantly immerse myself in Torah Study for its own sake.
Let me pay no attention whatsoever to the vanities of this world. Let my only desire be for Your Torah. Let me meditate on Your Torah day and night. Let me conduct all my studies in holiness and purity, and let my only motive be to study for the sake of Your great and holy Name, and to cause You delight.
Bring me to study, teach, guard, practice and fulfil all the teachings of Your Torah in love. Let the light of the holy Torah Shine upon me. Let my study and contemplation of the Torah take me from darkness to light and bring me to repent and come to perfect Teshuvah. As our Rabbis said:” The radiance of the Torah has the power to bring people back to good.”
Please, HaShem: Let my Torah study be an elixir of life. Let my learning bring me back to You in genuine, perfect Teshuvah. Let it restore my youth like the eagle, and give back the time I have spent in such intense darkness
From now on, let the merit and power of the holy Torah shield me and protect me from every kind of sin and transgression and from all wrong-doing, both when I am actually engaged in my studies and at times when I have to interrupt them. Let the merit and power of the Torah give me constant protection and save me from every kind of sin and wrong-doing, just as You have informed us through Your holy sages, who said that “The Torah shields and protects both while one is engaged in it and at times when one is not.”
Let my Torah study bring a flow of holiness and purity into me, and from now on let me sanctify and purify myself the way You want me to—for my own good.
Please, G-d of love: Have pity on me and on all Your people Israel. We have fallen very low at this time, and we have no-one to help or support us. The enemy hand is ever stronger, and there is no one to lead us and save us.” We have nothing to vitalize and uplift our downtrodden souls except the study of Your Torah, whose holiness, purity and perfection enlightens all eyes and restores the soul.
You have promised us in the Torah that even at this time, at the end of days, despite the intensity of the “concealment within the concealment: --- when the very fact of G-d's concealment is itself hidden from us ---- even then, the Torah will not be forgotten: it will not cease to be heard from our mouths and the mouths of our children and descendants.
It is written; “I will surely hide my face from them” --- a concealment within a concealment ---”and this song” --- the Torah ---” will give testimony before the People as a witness, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their descendants.”
Well, the first part of prophecy -- “I will surely hide” -- has already come true: You have hidden Yourself from us behind countless veils upon veils, as You know, HaShem.
Arouse Your great love for us and have mercy on us. Do not hide Your face from us anymore. Turn to us. Be kind to us and shine Your face upon us. Fulfil Your holy promise to us that “this song” -- the Torah --” will give testimony before the People as witness, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their descendants” -- it will not cease to be heard on our lips.
Loving G-d: Help us learn and meditate on Your holy Torah constantly, day and night, in holiness and purity – both us, our children and our children’s children, and don’t let us ever forget the Torah. Don’t let the Torah ever cease to be heard on our mouths or the mouths of our descendants.
Let the prophecy of Isaiah be fulfilled in us: “And as for Me, this is My Covenant with them, says HaShem” My spirit which is upon You and My words which I have put in Your mouth will not depart from Your mouth or the mouth of Your children and Your children’s children, says HaShem, from now and forever.”
Through our study of the holy Torah, help us come back to You in sincere Teshuvah and repent for all our many sins and transgressions and rebellions. From now on, let us carry out everything the Torah teaches in love.
Connection with the Tzaddik through intense Torah Study
Arouse your love for me. Shine Your holy spirit upon me. Bring me to learn Torah – both the Written and the Oral Torah – with such holy intensity that when I am studying, I will have the power to connect my soul with the soul of the Tzaddik who first revealed the teaching or lesson I am learning. Help me come to the level I am learning. Help me come to the level of spiritual communication that is referred to as “kissing.” Let me attach my soul to the soul of the Tzaddik with such intimacy that it will be as if I am “kissing” the Tzaddik or the Tanna who first revealed this teaching.
May my study give the Tzaddik or the Tanna profound pleasure. Let me cause the Tanna or Tzaddik supreme delight by studying his words in extreme holiness, so that even there in the grave his very lips will be gently whispering. And by studying the Torah in great holiness and purity, let me lift the Shekhinah up from the dust and out of exile.
Please HaShem, loving G-d: Our spirit is so crushed. Have pity on us. Protect me and my children, my descendants and those of all Your people, the House of Israel. Keep me well away from those who have gone astray from the true path. Compassionate G-d: Don’t ever let my Torah study turn into a fatal poison, G-d forbid. Don’t allow the least hint of opposition to the true Tzaddikim ever come into my heart as a result of anything I study. Don’t let me ever study for my own self-aggrandizement or in order to chide, especially when studying the Oral Torah – the Gemara and it's commentaries, and the Law Codes.
HaShem, G-d of love: Save me from even the least hint of pride or arrogance. Don’t let me ever be sly and over-clever in any way. Let me never harbor doubts or questions in my heart about the true Tzaddikim of the generation, and certainly never let a single insolent word against them leave my mouth. Let me never insult their honor in any way, G-d forbid.
On the contrary, let my studies bring me to a close bond of connection with the true Tzaddikim. Let me accept their authority, believe in them, and subordinate myself to them. Let me embrace the dust of their feet and drink their holy words thirstily all the days of my life – and so too my children, my children's children and those of all Your people the house of Israel, from now on and forever.
Let me come close and bind myself to the outstandingly great, true Tzaddikim who have the power to bring all the twisted words of slander spoken against the true Tzaddikim back to their holy source and to use them to reconstruct the original Torah laws from which these evil words of the enemies of the truth developed. For they used their study of the Oral Torah to twist the words of the living G-d, to give themselves an opening to speak out insolently and contemptuously against the Tzaddik. Loving G-d: Through the power of the true Tzaddikim, let me become genuinely sanctified and purified until I too can attain this wisdom and know how to sift through these twisted words, and transform and elevate them back to their holy root, so as to turn them into genuine Torah laws.
Help me lift up the Shechinah from her exile and bring her to rejoin her Beloved in love, brotherhood and friendship, “embracing,” “kissing” and perfectly unified. Help me humble and break all those who have set themselves in opposition to the truth, and let me take their prey from their mouths. Put truth and faith into their hearts, and let them realize the truth. Let them come back to You genuinely and whole-heartedly.
Reveal the truth and spread it throughout the world, and fulfil the verse in the Psalms: “Truth will blossom forth from the earth and justice will be seen from the heavens.: Let peace reign among all the members of Your people Israel for ever. Let me serve You happily at all times. Help me be one of those people who bear insults without returning them, who do not answer even when they hear themselves abused, who act of love and rejoice in their suffering.
Grant us All holy wisdom understanding and knowledge. Let us come to learn the Holy Torah for its own sake at all times. And return to You truly and sincerely. Let abundant blessings flow down to us from the source of blessings, and let us do Your will in truth all the days of our lives – we, our children, our descendants, and all Your people the House of Israel, from now and for ever. Amen. Selah.