Rectification of Matchmaking (Zivugim) • A Prayer by Rabbi Eliezer Berland

Today is the yahrtzeit of the Tanna Yonasan ben Uziel, who is buried in Amuka. His holy gravesite is known for bringing wondrous salvations—especially in matters of zivugim. Below is a prayer written by Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a to be said at his holy gravesite:

Master of the World, Who is all-powerful: as I stand before the holy and awe-inspiring tziyun of the awesome and fearsome Tanna Yonasan ben Uziel—who was the greatest of the students of Hillel the Elder; who was worthy that the Shechinah should rest upon him like upon Moshe Rabbeinu; and who was worthy to cause the sun and the moon to stand still—please, Merciful and Gracious One, grant me the merit to “make the sun and moon stand still,” like Moshe and Yehoshua, and through his merit to attain the unification of sun and moon—which is the unification of Chochmah and Binah. And through this, let me merit Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, and Yechidah. Atone for me for all my sins and for the blemishes of my bris, and may I never again damage my bris forever—not in thought, not in sight, not in speech, and not in deed. And may I merit, through the merit of this Divine Tanna who dwells here—before whose holy tziyun I stand with dread and awesome awe—to pour down tears like water, as it is written: “Streams of water run down from my eyes, because they do not keep Your Torah.” And may I merit to hear the roaring of Hashem over the hind that has distanced itself from Him, as it is written: “He shall surely roar over His abode,” and how He strikes through three hundred and ninety firmaments and brings down boiling tears like fire into the Great Sea. And from the power of these tears stands and endures the ministering angel of the sea, who is called Rahav—who was appointed over the shamir worm—and he delivered it to the duchifat 520, the secret of ten times Eliyahu HaNavi, may he be remembered for good—who will be revealed speedily in our days, amen.

Master of the World: with trembling and quaking, fear and dread—my whole being shaking from fright, my knees knocking one against the other—how can a worm and maggot like me come before the Divine Tanna, the head of Hillel’s students, who is comparable to Moshe Rabbeinu, and who has the power to make the sun and moon stand still? And I, with my many evil thoughts and my disgraceful deeds, dare to stand before the splendor of his holiness. Yet I lean upon Your endless compassion, and I know there is no end to Your mercy—especially toward a sinner and transgressor like me, for there is no greater transgressor than I in the entire world and in all generations. And just as he merited that every bird that flew above him would be burned—so too, grant me the same: that all my evil thoughts should be burned and vanish completely, and that all my evil and disgraceful deeds should be transformed into merits—through the merit that I now accept upon myself at his holy tziyun a true thought of teshuvah: not to sin anymore from now and forever, and to guard my eyes and my thoughts with the utmost vigilance.