“God, Do Not Be Silent” — Prayers for the Salvation of the Jewish People, Part II

October 26, 2023

In light of the war of the ‘Iron Swords’ currently occurring in the Holy Land, we are bringing the second part in a series of prayers that Moreinu HaRav, Eliezer Berland, Shlita wrote a few years ago to read and instruct us:

Prayer over Jewish blood spilled like water, Rachmana Litzlan

Please Hashem, King Who is full of mercy, Who hears the scream of the Jewish people crying out to You from the depths of the heart over Jewish blood which is spilled like water in the city streets, over souls comparable to fine gold given over to trampling, murder, and destruction with no one saying a word. Please, pity and have mercy on the widows and orphans who are multiplying, Rachmana Litzlan (May the Merciful One save us), from day to day, and see their agony which has no comforter, and the blood of their loved ones which has no avenger. Place their tears in Your flask, and let Your mercy overwhelm Your [other] attributes and see their terrible pain in their beloved and desired one being taken away, and they are unable to save.

Please, our Father in Heaven, hear our cries and listen to our sighs, for how can we be silent, and how can we be quiet when more families are bereaved of their children, widows and orphans walking about dazed in the city streets and refusing to be comforted. Please have pity, have mercy, and say to the destroyer, “Desist, for you have already been wondrous in your blows, wonder upon wonder,” and we have turned into a source of ridicule and mockery in the eyes of those who seek our destruction, who drink our blood with thirst, with joy and singing, and we have no redeemer or savior except for You, and only to You alone do we raise up our eyes for salvation and redemption.

Ribono Shel Olam – Master of the World, You know the terrible grief and pain of families bereaved of children, widows and tender and innocent orphans, whose eyes shed tears day and night, with no interruption to their distress, and there is no comforter for their agony. You know the terrible humiliation at the time that our enemies are rejoicing and happy, and the wicked are celebrating and delighting that their evil plan succeeded.

Merciful and Gracious Father, we will not deny to You, for we know that the guilt is with us, we know our distance from prayer with intention, from holiness and purity, from learning Torah for its own sake, and from performing a commandment with joy and goodness of heart. We know our Father that the guilt is only with us, for with each blemish, we create a terrorist; with each impure thought, we create a destroying angel and a damaging angel, may the Merciful One save us, and draw vitality to the wicked of Israel and to the gentiles of the world.

Also You, God Who is full of mercy, that there is no end to Your mercy and no comprehension of Your greatness. You are the One who truly feels the suffering and pain of the bereaved parents and orphaned children. And You are the One Who feels and understands the agony of their families, and the depth of the pain of the children of Your people who still have a Jewish heart. You surely knew, for the beloved of Your people are wrapped in grief and agony, with no rest for their soul, until they will see the salvation of Your people, for how can eating and drinking be pleasing to them, while still seeing the blood of the martyrs of Your people flowing like water, and how can their sleep be pleasing to them when their land is sold to foreigners and their heritage to murderers.

Please Merciful Father, have pity on us and redeem us from the hand of the harsh unclean force [klipah] which rules over us, from the hands of the wicked kingdom, a kingdom without a crown, from the hand of the brazen dogs who lead Your flock. Please draw us out from the evil waters of the strange culture which threatens to drown us, may the Merciful One save us. Save us from the hand of our destroyers and despoilers from whom they came out, who are unjustly called Jews, and who seek to erase the name Israel from the world, who sell us without money into the hands of murderers who ambush our souls at every moment, at every step and corner.

Please, may our souls be precious in Your eyes, and rescue us to life from the hands of those who seek our destruction. Please, God of Vision, Who sees the tears of the exploited, please redeem their tears from the hand of their exploiters, that they have no comforter. Have compassion on the boiling of their tears and the agony of the cries of the children of Your people, on all those who are called by the name Israel, and say to their distress, “Enough!”

Ribono Shel Olam — Master of the World, please do not act with us according to our sins, and do not pay us back according to our iniquities, for You Hashem are good and forgive all, and [You show] abundant kindness to all who call to You. Please, see the insult of the insulted who are being diminished from day to day, and whose children are given over to plundering and trampling by the legs of savages.

Merciful and Gracious God, our Redeemer, Living and the Last, rise up from the dust, Who desires the survival of the world, and more than anything, the success of His children and the eternalness of the Jewish people, see how they are blaspheming us, those who blaspheme Your great and awesome Name which is called upon us. And our enemies [are] the enemies of Your Name and the destroyers of Your world. Please rescue us from their hand, and abolish their faith and religion, in whose name they decree upon us death, and say to us all day “Where is your God?” Please, sever the culture of these sinful people, who seek to annihilate us from under the heavens of God and to erase from the world Your Name which is called upon us, and to distance us from our land and to walk us like a detested tree shoot into swamp waters.

You saw Hashem our twistedness – judge our case, and do not hide Your face from us, and do not conceal Yourself from our supplications. May Your kindness comfort us. Before we call to You, answer us! Before we speak, may You hear! Merciful One Who answers the poor, answer us! Merciful One Who answers the broken-hearted, answer us! Merciful One Who answers the humble of spirit, answer us! Merciful One, answer us! Merciful One, have pity! Merciful One, redeem! Merciful One, save! Merciful One, have mercy on us! Say to the destroyer, release your hand and return its sword to its sheath. May Your mercy and graciousness be aroused with love and abundant compassion on Your holy people Israel, and help and save everyone, that all the families of Israel shall live – fathers and sons, mothers and their children in calmness and serenity, each one, until their years will be filled with long and properly rectified lives, with an influx of wealth and honor, Torah learning, and fear of God, and may everyone merit to raise their sons and daughters amidst joy and expanded consciousness, to Torah, the wedding canopy, and good deeds, length of days, and good years, and may everyone see from their sons and daughters grandchildren and great-grandchildren and descendants of descendants, and may they all grow up and live amidst calmness and serenity, joy and expanded consciousness. And may they merit to bring their sons and daughters into the wedding canopy and see from them great rabbis of Israel. And may they sow fields and plant vineyards and produce a yield. And may they not see again any grief at all; rather draw onto all of them life and length of days from the source of life, and each one may merit to reveal his soul root, and to reach the complete rectification which You designated for him, amidst calmness and peace, Torah learning with joy, and the performing of mitzvot with pleasantness. And may we all merit to happiness and to rejoice all day in Your unique Name which is called upon us, and that we shall place Your Name in front of our eyes at all times, and not look anymore at the vanities of the world, which are vanities and delusions, vain burdens and temptations which were to our destruction in all the terrible tragedies which visit us each day.

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Please, have mercy on the congregation of Yeshurun, and forgive and pardon their iniquities, and may the binding of Your servants – the slaughtered and butchered, stabbed and killed every day — appear before You, and may the cries of bereaved families and the tears of widows and orphans ascend to Your holy sanctuary, to have mercy and to pity us, until we shall see the salvation of Israel from the hands of their enemies from within and without, and give them [our enemies] heartbreak and bring Your curse upon them, pursue them with anger and annihilate them from under the heavens of Hashem, and may You see us happy and joyous in the building of Zion Your city and the comforting of Jerusalem, the city of Your Temple.

Alas – the gold is dimmed! The finest gold is changed! Sacred stones are scattered at the head of every street! The precious children of Zion, who are comparable to fine gold – alas, they are now treated like earthen jugs, work of a potter. How can this have happened to us? How can we have turned into a source of ridicule and mockery in the eyes of all who see us, the wicked of Israel, who fill their mouths with laughter at our incapacitation. Please, Merciful God, see their thoughts about us, the lips of my enemies and their thoughts are against us all day; their sitting and rising, we were the butt of their taunts. The children of Your people have become cruel like ostriches in the desert. Look and see, [those who were] purer than snow and whiter than milk, their appearance has become darker than soot, and their blood is spilled in the streets.

Ribono Shel Olam – Master of the World, in the sins which have multiplied, You have finished off Your fury in us, and have taken from us all our beloved; also babies who have never tasted the taste of sin have been killed because of our iniquities, to atone for us. Without Tzaddikim to stand in the breech, You have taken young goats who are pure from any taint of sin. And the wicked live in tranquility, and our enemies celebrate with all sorts of festivities. You have enveloped Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have slain, You have not shown mercy. You have wrapped Yourself in a cloud that prayer cannot pierce. You made us filth and refuse among the nations to annihilate us. Wo to us that they have found a place to walk amongst the destroyers of our people, the uprooters of Israel who are happy to sell us, and rejoice at erasing every remnant of Judaism from the world.

Ribono Shel Olam – Master of the World, You have taken from us precious and beloved souls, suckling babies who have not sinned, young children who have not rebelled, schoolchildren who through their breath sustain the world and all that is in it. Because when we do not merit to the aspect of “Like a suckling child at his mother’s side, like the suckling child is my soul” [Tehilim 131:2], and we do not ascend through this to the aspect of Atika Kadisha [The Holy Ancient One], that there all the judgments are sweetened, then suckling babies who have not sinned are taken from us, schoolchildren who have not rebelled, and the Shechinah (Divine Presence) takes pride, “See what a child I have come to You with – See with what children I come to welcome You,” that they are babies that have no sin in them, and pure and pristine souls, who merit to die for the sanctification of Hashem’s Name. That when Tzaddikim do not know how to unify and bind the worlds, it is Your praise and Your beauty to make awesome unifications through the souls who merit to ascend in a whirlwind to heaven. However, You revealed to us through Your awesome Tzaddikim, that You can make these awesome unifications through every single person who learns Torah for its own sake, and who merits to pray every single word with intention, and who rises at the midpoint of the night and spills out his heart like water before You, in the aspect of, “God, do not be silent, do not be deaf, and do not be still, God,” until the letters of “Do not be silent – al dami” turn into the letters “Elokim – God,” the Dalet [of dami] becomes filled and turns into a “Heh,” Chametz [becomes] Matzah, and then “Rebuke the beast of the reed,” and then is fulfilled the verse: “The first ones to come to Zion [will announce], ‘Behold! They are here!’” “Kanei – reed” turns into “Hinei – behold,” the reed of straw, upon which the Roman empire arose, will turn into, “Behold! They are here!” [The leg of the Kuf of Kanei is broken, and the Kuf turns into a Heh]. And we will see with our eyes how saviors will arise on Mount Zion to judge the Mountain of Esav, and the kingship will belong to Hashem.

Ribono Shel Olam – Master of the World, You know that also the heretics who want to destroy us still have hope, as long as the name “Israel” is still called upon them, for through their blemishes and the blemishes of their fathers, they were born without a heart, and we, through prayer with intention, can sweeten them and create for them a new heart and a new spirit, until all of them will return in complete repentance, and return to their roots and to their mother’s bosom.

Have mercy on the congregation of Yeshurun. Have mercy, have mercy, Merciful Father, Father of Compassion, Father of Forgiveness, Father of Kindness, please have mercy on a silent dove like us today, for there is no one to stand up for us; only Your great Name will stand for us at a time of distress; pity us and all the Jewish people with Your great mercy, and do not pour out Your rage upon us, for Your Name is called upon us. Do not leave us alone, do not abandon us, do not cast us away. Arouse Your inner yearning and Your mercy upon us, and do not turn to our wickedness, and do not hide Your face from us, and do not conceal Yourself from our supplications. Please, may Your kindness be a comfort to us. Please do not be angry, lest you annihilate us, for we are Your children, the children of Your compassion, like the eyes of servants unto their masters’ hand, like the eyes of a maid unto her mistress’s hand, so are our eyes unto Hashem our God, until He will favor us. Favor us, Hashem, favor us, for we are fully satiated with contempt. Our soul is fully satiated with the mockery of the complacent ones. We have been [a source for] nodding of the head amongst the gentiles, rebuke amongst the nations. Our pursuers have been lighter than eagles of the sky; they have chased us on mountains, in the desert have ambushed us. The breath of our nostrils, Hashem’ anointed, was caught in their traps; he, under whose protection, we had said, we would live among the nations. May it not befall you, all who pass by this road. Behold and see, if there is any pain like my pain which befell me; which Hashem has afflicted me on the day of His burning wrath. From on high He sent a fire into my bones, and it overcame them. He spread a net for my feet; He hurled me backward. He made me desolate; sick throughout the day. The burden of my transgressions was accumulated in His hand; they were knit together and thrust upon my neck; He sapped my strength. The Lord has delivered me into the hands of those I cannot withstand. The Lord has trampled all my heroes in my midst; He proclaimed a set time against me to crush my young men. As in a winepress the Lord has trodden the maiden daughter of Judah. Over these do I weep; my eye continuously runs with water because a comforter to restore my soul is far from me. My children have become forlorn, because the enemy has prevailed. Zion spreads out her hands; there is none to comfort her. Hashem commanded against Jacob that his enemies should surround him; Jerusalem has become as one unclean in their midst. Hashem is righteous, for I disobeyed His utterance. Listen, now, all you peoples and see my pain; My maidens and my youths have gone into captivity. I called for my paramours but they deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city as they sought food for themselves to restore their souls. See, Hashem, for I am in distress; my innards burn! My heart is turned over inside me for I rebelled grievously. Outside the sword bereaved, inside was deathlike. They heard how I sighed, there was none to comfort me. All my enemies heard of my plight and rejoiced, for it was You Who did it. O bring on the day You proclaimed and let them be like me! Let all their wickedness come before You, and inflict them as You inflicted me for all my transgressions. For my groans are many, and my heart is sick. Out on the ground, in the streets they lie, young and old; my maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword. You slew them on the day of Your wrath; You slaughtered them; You showed no mercy. Pay them back their due, Hashem, as they have done. Pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Hashem. Your iniquity is expiated, O daughter of Zion, He will not exile you again; He remembers your iniquity, daughter of Edom, He will uncover your sins. You, Hashem, are enthroned forever, Your throne is ageless. Why do You ignore us eternally, forsake us for so long? Bring us back to You, Hashem, and we shall return, renew our days as of old.

Our Father, Our King, where will we turn – our salvation is far from us. We have nothing other than Your great mercy, the Thirteen Attributes of Your Mercy, which only on them do we rely, and in them we are certain, for Your mercy has not ceased, and Your kindness has not run out, for no plan is withheld from You. Who will tell you, “What will You do and what will You accomplish”? Reveal to us the hidden intellect, which turns the whole world over, which sweetens all decrees and brings to us salvation as a free gift. Illuminate Your face and return Your face to the Jewish people, for all our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us, and we – our eyes shed streams of water over the ruination of our people, flowing and not ceasing, without relief day and night, for no rest has been found for our souls, until Hashem looks down and takes notice from heaven. He will return us to Him, heal us in two days; give all of us the merit of prayer with intention, that we will not be like a body without a soul. Please Merciful and Gracious God, blow into our spirits a living soul and blow into our bones from Your spirit of holiness, that the dry bones will live and clean and pure blood will flow in our arteries. Distance us from false grandeur, so that we will not give more vitality to the wicked and idolaters. Please Merciful and Gracious Father, pour out upon us a spirit from on high and fill our hearts with Your fear and love until we sweeten all the decrees and will be saved and redeemed a complete redemption speedily in our days, Amen.

Reveal to us the hidden intellect which is above every concept and reason, which solves every mystery and is above every vision, which will turn over the world without firing a single explosive, and on this the redemption is dependent, for every soul [there will be] rest, and every single man will dwell in the shade of grapevine and fig tree, and the entire would will unite under one Messiah, and the wolf will dwell with the sheep and the sheep with the young goat together, and the cow and bear will graze, and a young child will lead them. They will neither harm nor destroy in all my sacred mountain, for the earth will be as filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the water covers the sea.