Prayer for the Month of Elul from The Rav

Master of the World, Omnipotent One from Whom no scheme is withheld, merit me in this awesome month, the month of Elul, in which terrible dread and fear fall upon me, and my whole body trembles, and my knees knock together from the magnitude of its awe. Merit me that I may merit to pray all my prayers within it with immense intent, word for word, letter by letter, and that no letter shall go forth from me without intent.

Please, Merciful and Gracious One, merit me in this month and throughout the entire year, that I shall not see any forbidden sight, Heaven forbid, and I shall not speak any Lashon Hara (evil speech) about any person in the world, and I shall not envy any person. And even if they humiliate me with all the humiliations and insults in the world, merit me even then to rejoice in them with very great joy, as our Sages of blessed memory said: "Those who are insulted but do not insult, who hear their disgrace and do not reply, who act from love and rejoice in suffering, of them the Scripture says, 'And those who love Him are like the sun going forth in its might.'"

And may I merit in this awesome month of Elul to attain the level of Deborah the Prophetess, the "Woman of Lapidot" (Torches), that at the time she was prophesying, torches were seen above her tent as at the Giving of the Torah.

Merit me through the teshuvah (repentance) of this month—which is the beginning of the forty days that are the preparation for the Second Tablets, to receive them on Yom Kippur—to be especially careful regarding the commandment of "Do not commit adultery," and to do complete teshuvah for all the forbidden sights that I saw and looked at, whether inadvertently or intentionally, whether under coercion or willingly. And merit me that I will no longer stumble in any forbidden sight until the end of my life, and I will sanctify my eyes with the ultimate holiness and purity. And let me not envy any person in the world, and may I merit to be like Rav Achai bar Yoshiyah, who, by the merit that he did not envy anyone, his bones did not rot, and he merited that his body remained whole even after his passing. And may I merit what Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi merited, who, by the merit that he learned Torah with everyone and drew every person in the world close, entered the Garden of Eden with his body. So too, may I also merit, by the merit of the teshuvah that I will do in the month of Elul, to enter the Garden of Eden with my body.