Prayer Before Hisbodedus

Master of the world, grant me the merit to do Hisbodedus with tremendous and very great yearning—without any drowsiness or sleepiness. And let me sing every kind of song in Hisbodedus: songs of deveikus and teshuvah. Master of the world, Who dwells in the highest heavens, enthroned above—You see all my hidden places and every thought of my heart. Please purify me to serve in truth, for this is all I want. I have no other desire and no other thought. All I want in this Hisbodedus is only to draw close to You with a whole heart. And You revealed to us that at the time when we do Hisbodedus before You with a whole heart, then we save the entire world from every kind of awesome decree. Then it is possible to save the world so that no Jew will die and no one will be killed at that time—no person in the world. For at the time of Hisbodedus, when it is done with a whole heart, then judgments are sweetened throughout the entire world, and then Hashem, blessed be He, has no “possibility,” as it were, to decree any decree in the world at all. Therefore, please save us, Master of the world, so that we will be able to do Hisbodedus before You for the full hour, with all our heart and soul—with mighty crying and with wondrous joy.

Please, Compassionate One—by the power of our holy Rebbe, and by the power of the Seven Shepherds who occupied themselves all the days of their lives with Hisbodedus, and especially Moshe Rabbeinu, who merited to do Hisbodedus day and night from age 20 until age 80—who engaged only in Hisbodedus, and in songs and praises, in the mountains and valleys, in the fields and in the wilderness places. Nothing ever interrupted him. He never dozed and never fell asleep; he did not eat and did not drink until he refined his body so much that he no longer needed to eat at all, from the abundance of deveikus and love of Hashem. So too, grant me the merit to do Hisbodedus before You with tremendous and wondrous yearning—with flames of love, מתוך שפלות אמיתי, and I will merit to feel my nothingness, like Avraham Avinu who said, “And I am dust and ashes,” and like King David who said, “And I am a worm and not a man,” and like Moshe and Aharon who said, “And what are we?” And I will not let my mind be distracted during Hisbodedus from You, even for a small moment. I will have compassion on my youthful years and on the few days of my life—which are only 120, and they fly by like a bird in flight, and like a dream that flies away. Therefore, during Hisbodedus I will seize every second and every moment. I will not doze off at all, and I will know the state of my great lowliness—that nothing can save me except the hour of Hisbodedus, when You, behold, turn from all Your affairs, and You have mercy with all heart and soul on the wretched souls like me, and You turn to them with the might of Your compassion, and You raise them from the lowest rung to the highest heights. So too, with Your abundant mercy, raise me as well from the lowest levels to the highest heights—without end and without limit. Do wonders with me that You have not yet done with any person, ever. And may I merit to return in complete teshuvah, and to bring all of Am Yisrael back in teshuvah. And may we all merit the complete Geulah, and the coming of Moshiach ben David, and the building of the Beis HaMikdash, and Techiyas HaMeisim, speedily in our days, amen.