With Our Holy Speech, We Can Return to God / The Universal Spirit of Holiness When God created the world, He constricted His sovereignty within it in the realm called “speech,” which is associated with the Divine Presence. God then brought down the souls of the Jewish people so that they might draw that sovereignty to themselves. Today, however, the Divine Presence is in exile, and so the light and power of God’s sovereignty are diminished. However, there is a positive aspect to this. Because God loves the Jewish people, His Presence — or holy speech — accompanies each individual Jew even into the filthiest place, like a mother accompanying her child wherever he goes. And so no matter how low a person falls, with holy speech, he can recall God and take strength in Him. One way that a person can return to God through speech is to confess his sins to Him. Also, one can rectify the realm of speech by learning Torah, reciting the words of the prayer service, and engaging in his own prayers to God. When a person learns Torah or prays, he clothes his body in the holy letters of Torah and prayer. As a result, he protects his body from the fire of his heart — whether that fire is for the sake of holiness or for the sake of the things of this world. God Himself is at present “clothed” within the worlds that He created. But when the holy spirit of life drawn down by Torah and prayer will one day grow universally accessible, we will recognize God as transcending all worlds, without any garment or image. Holy Speech HaShem, my God and God of my fathers, help me always sanctify my speech. Every day, may I speak many holy words of Torah and prayer, making requests of You and praising Your great and holy Name. Moreover, may all of my words relate to Torah and prayer.

May I use my speech to confess my sins to You every day. May I engage in a great deal of my own prayers to You, until my holy words will attract Your positive attention to me and help me return to You with all my heart.

Do not forsake me in those low places to which I have fallen and where I was trapped because of my many sins. Remember me and bring me forth from there.

Think of me with love, as in the verse, “Ephraim is a precious son to Me, a child of delights; every time I speak of him, I recall him more; therefore, I yearn for him; I will surely have compassion on him, says HaShem.”

Have compassion on Your Divine Presence, which dwells with us in exile. In particular, have compassion on the holiness related to speech, which has gone into exile because we have not spoken holy words. Help us bring that speech forth from exile by never saying a single word that is not in accordance with Your will.

May we never say anything that stains our speech. Rather, may we sanctify our speech by learning Torah, praying and using our words for holy purposes.

Reducing an Overwhelming Passion for Holiness Compassionate Father, bring me close to Your holy Torah. Help me study Your Torah day and night until I mitigate my passions. My heart burns for You with great flames, a blazing inferno. “Mighty as death is love, harsh as the grave is jealousy — its flashes are flashes of fire, a torch of God.”

That fire has gone so far beyond the proper measure that it might devour my body.

As a result, my mind is confused and my heart begins to burn for the things of this world like a fiery flame, “like an oven heated by the baker,” until my desires threaten to consume and burn my body and soul.

I do not know where to flee in order to hide from this great fire. I wander in a desolate land but I gain no rest from my pursuers. “I have been diligent, but I remain like a bird alone on the roof.” I am like a ship foundering in the heart of the seas, rising to heaven and descending to the depths, because there is no order to my ascents and descents — “like a drunken man, a man whom wine has overcome.”

My mind is befuddled, and all of my wisdom is swallowed up.

I wanted to implement plans and ideas that would outsmart the enemies of my soul, but none of them succeeded.

HaShem, You know everything that I have gone through from my birth to this day. “HaShem our God, You are our Father. We are the clay and You are our Maker, and all of us are the work of Your hand.”

I am in Your hand like clay in the hand of the potter. I have no wisdom, understanding or counsel. All I can do is cry out to You alone, until You will graciously bring me close to You, for Your sake alone.

A New Heart Help me find refuge in the words of Torah and prayer that I speak every day. May the Divine spirit of holy speech hover over me, protect me and blow upon my heart to extinguish the fire of my desires, until all of my lusts will be eradicated forever.

In addition, as a result of my study of the holy Torah, may I constrict my holy fervor for You so that it will always be measured, in accordance with Your wishes.

In the merit of my holy speech, part of which is the utterance of the words of Torah, rescue me from every sort of sin and lust. Chase the spirit of foolishness away from me and instead — by means of the rope of holiness, which is holy speech — help me connect myself to a spirit of life and holiness.

As You have promised, “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit in your midst. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My spirit in your midst and cause you to obey My ordinances and keep and perform My laws.”

May we raise Your holy sovereignty from its exile. May every member of Your nation, the House of Israel, reveal the Messianic holiness rooted within himself.

Give us a good and long life. More than that, give us eternal life, so that we will rise at the time of the resurrection of the dead together with the Tzaddikim and all pious and wholehearted Jews.

Proclaiming that God is King HaShem, our God and God of our fathers, help us keep Your laws and commandments in this world. Then may we live to experience and inherit goodness and blessing at the time of the Mashiach and, following that, during the life of the World to Come.

May we magnify, elevate and glorify Your sovereignty throughout the world, revealing and publicizing Your holy sovereignty to all people. May we raise Your sovereignty to its root, so that there will be brought about, with love, friendship and warmth, a perfect unification of Your transcendent holiness with Your Divine Presence.

“May my mouth be filled with Your praise, the entire day with Your glory.” “I will bless HaShem at all times; His praise is always in my mouth.” “May my mouth speak the praise of HaShem, and all flesh bless His holy Name forever and ever.” “We will bless God from now and forever, Halleluyah.”

May I learn Torah in such a way that “this book of the Torah will not leave your mouth, and you shall study it day and night.” And “as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says HaShem. My spirit that is resting upon you and My words that I have placed in your mouth will not leave your mouth or the mouth of your offspring, or the mouth of the offspring of your offspring, says HaShem, from now and forever.”

May we recognize You Who are higher than all of the worlds.

May the verse quickly be realized, “He will give power to His king and elevate the horn of His anointed one.”

“HaShem’s is the sovereignty and He rules the nations.” “Saviors will arise on Mount Zion to judge Mount Esau, and HaShem’s will be the kingship.” “Then HaShem will be King over all the land; on that day, HaShem will be One and His Name will be One.”