To Understand God’s Intent, a Person Must be Joyful / Joy is Freedom / A Person Attains Joy When He Sees the Good Within Himself A depressed person cannot direct his mind as he wishes. Consequently, it is hard for him to attain a settled awareness regarding the purpose of life and the place of all of the lusts and aspects of this world. As a result, he remains far from God, unable to come close to Him. Only with joy can a person control his thoughts and settle his mind. That is because joy is the world of freedom. It brings a person out of exile and sets him free. And a person attains joy when he finds the good within himself — at the very least, the fact that he is Jewish. Focusing on the Purpose of This World Master of the universe, grant me the ability to settle my mind in this world, in this body, quickly, swiftly and speedily. Let me focus my mind very well on the goal and purpose of all of the desires and matters of this world.

May this apply both to bodily desires and to non-bodily desires such as the desire for honor and authority, hatred, jealousy, spite, and the like.

May I view the true goal clearly, with a truly tranquil mind, without any self-deception.

You know that we are very far from You because we do not settle our minds at all.

Who knows what might be if we were to settle our minds in regard to the bitterness of the life of this world, which is filled with anger and pain, and all of whose desires and delights are as brief as a passing shadow?

The world is adulterated with grief, suffering, torments, groans and sighs, which vastly outweigh its pleasures. The loss caused by this world is greater than its rewards, even at the moment that a person is fulfilling his desires — and, how much more, at the end of his life, when this world grows as bitter as wormwood.

This world begins with groans and sighing, and it ends in black vertigo and disorienting darkness. All of a person’s days are filled with anger and a multiplicity of pain, illness and frustration, and he gains nothing from his toil.

It is painfully obvious to anyone with any sort of intelligence that this entire world is vain and empty. As the verse states, “The days of our years come to seventy years — or, if a person is strong, eighty years. But their pride is toil and pain, for [that time] passes swiftly and we fly upward.”

And King Solomon said, “Vanity of vanities, says Kohelet; vanity of vanities, everything is vanity.”

He expresses this thought at length throughout the Book of Ecclesiastes. And other holy texts speak about the great disgrace, foolishness and madness of the vanities and desires of this world, “because everything is vanity and an evilness of spirit”

That and more grow clear to a person when he settles his mind well. As the verse states, “My son, take heed of more than [wisdom that has been written], for the making of many books [of instruction] has no end.”

Were we able to settle our minds very well, we would certainly return to You with ultimate sincerity, because even in this world we can see that everything is vanity and an evilness of spirit — and how much more clearly will we see this from the vantage point of the World to Come.

Ultimately, we must return that which we borrowed to You, its Owner. We will return to dust, to a place of maggots and worms, where we will have to give a judgment and accounting for our every deed before the King, the King of kings: the Holy One, blessed be He. Everything will be recalled at that time. Not a single detail will be overlooked.

What will we do on that day of visitation? What thoughts will we have about You, HaShem? Who will withstand Your wrath? Who will remain standing before Your furious anger? Where will we go with our disgrace? Where will we flee from You?

“Who among us will dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us will dwell with the eternal conflagrations?” O my brother, what then will we do?

The truth is that the only reason we are far from You is that we do not settle ourselves into the inner being of our hearts of ultimate truth, without deceiving ourselves at all.

Experiencing Joy In Your holy Torah, You revealed to us that experiencing joy constitutes the basic way of settling the mind. And You know how far I am from joy.

Therefore, I have come to You, HaShem my God and God of my fathers, Master of joy and gladness, Whose dwelling place contains joy. As the verse states, “Glory and majesty are before Him, might and gladness in His place.”

Please have compassion on me and on Your entire nation, the House of Israel, in Your vast, great, hidden, true and eternal compassion.

Pour true joy onto me from Heaven, so that I will be only joyful always. May I be happy and rejoice in Your salvation at every moment. “I will truly rejoice in HaShem. My spirit will be glad in my God.”

May I bind joy to my mind until I free my awareness, consciousness and thoughts, which have been imprisoned in bronze manacles of poverty in this great and bitter exile for days and years, ever since the day that I gained awareness.

Overcoming the Pain of Exile Only You know the great, intense, bitter subjugation and exile that my mind suffers at every moment because of the many evil thoughts, distractions and confusions in my heart, which are vain, foolish and crooked. They come upon my mind and heart at every moment, deeply twisting and confusing them, until “the strength of the porter has collapsed.”

The entire essence of the exile of our minds is due to the difficult, heavy and bitter depression that has overcome us from our beginning.

As a result, we cannot settle ourselves and think clearly with a tranquil mind about our ultimate, true purpose.

We cannot direct our minds in accordance with our will because of the profound effect of the exile on our mind, because of the bitterness and depression that overwhelm us at every moment.

And the fact that we do not settle our minds constitutes the essence of our distance from You, HaShem, Creator of all worlds.

Thus, we have come to what we have come, done what we have done, transgressed what we have transgressed, blemished what we have blemished, spoiled what we have spoiled, and become distanced as we have become distanced. Everyone knows in his soul how truly far he is from You, HaShem, from Your Torah and from serving You.

And these build on each other. The further we are, Heaven forbid, the greater our bitterness and depression.

And the more our depression and bitterness grow, the more our confusion of mind and its exile grow, until we cannot settle our minds at all. As a result, we become even more distanced, Heaven forbid.

And now, where will our help come from, our Father in Heaven? From where will we seek help, healing and rescue for ourselves as we are today in this generation — sick, stricken and tormented?

Gaze and see if there is any pain like ours. There is no pain like that of a soul that is far from You, HaShem, You Who are the Life of life, You Who are good and do good, You Who live forever and exist for all eternity. “Heavens, be astonished about this and storm,” for we have been consumed.

Woe to us! We have destroyed the house of wisdom, burned the palaces of the intellect, and exiled our mind to where we exiled it. Woe! What has become of us?

Master of the world, the sufferings of our heart have grown so extensive that we do not know what to say or how to speak. What shall we say? How shall we speak? How can we justify ourselves? God, You have discovered our sin. We have transgressed, sinned and rebelled before You from the day that we came into being until this day, sinning every day from early on.

The Help of the Tzaddikim At this point, we have no idea how to speak and settle our minds in this world, which passes like a fleeting shadow, in order to consider our true, eternal purpose.

But in Your vast and mighty compassion, You have considered from afar how to bring us to a good end. You prepared the medicine for our mortal wound by sending us holy, true Tzaddikim in every generation.

In their great power, they rectified what they have rectified and done for us what they have done. They have prepared balm and bandages for us, and medicine composed of various ingredients that provide precious, true and eternal life. They have instructed us in a number of ways with wondrous and true counsel so that we, too, may gladden our souls at every moment.

In Your vast compassion, You have inspired them to urge us strongly to be joyful at all times, no matter what.

We will rejoice in You, HaShem. We will be happy and rejoice in Your salvation, in the fact that You have given us the merit to be of the seed of Israel, that You did not make us gentiles. You did not make our portion like theirs, nor our fate like that of all of their multitude.

In Your mighty compassion, with wondrous and awesome miracles, You have rescued us from opposing and challenging the true Tzaddikim and truly worthy people.

“You have done great things, HaShem my God. Your wonders and thoughts are on our behalf. No one is comparable to You. If I were to tell and speak — but they are too many to tell!” “The entire day, my mouth will be filled with the praise of Your beauty.”

Blessed is our God Who created us for His honor and separated us in all ways from those who err. How shall we repay HaShem for all of His kind deeds on our behalf? How shall we give anything to HaShem? We will bow down to our God in the heights.

Even if our mouths were filled with song like the sea and our tongues with song like the multitude of its waves, even if all of the seas were ink and all of the pools quills, and human beings were scribes and tongues that give praise —

They would not suffice to thank, praise and relate a thousandth, a millionth, a billionth or even a trillionth of His awesome miracles and loving deeds that have not yet been recognized in the world, but have been concealed and hidden.

Moses, the faithful shepherd, our holy forefathers, and all of the great, true Tzaddikim who came after them strove and tunneled in order to draw forth holy matters with their great might from the supernal Master of will, the Master of all souls, the Master of all beings.

From You, God, they drew forth the ability to have compassion on those who do not deserve compassion, and to be gracious to those who are unworthy of graciousness — indeed, as we are today: lowly, contemptible and vile. As the verse states, “When they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them and not be repulsed by them to destroy them, to break My covenant with them, for I am HaShem their God.”

Until now, Your compassion has aided us and Your lovingkindness has not abandoned us, HaShem our God. You have given us strength, confidence and great perseverance to flee to You always, to trust in Your salvation and take refuge in Your shadow.

HaShem our God, compassionate Father, have even more compassion on we who are so burdened. Send us ever more kindnesses and great compassion, which are sealed among Your treasures, concealed together with You, until we attain “the vastness of Your goodness that You have hidden for those who fear You, Your deeds for those who take refuge in You.”

I still stand and look to You with confidence. I remain strong in my hope and optimism that You, HaShem, will help us from this point on to attain a truly settled mind.

Finding the Good in Ourselves Therefore, I have come before You. I stretch my hands out to You, so that in Your compassion and mighty lovingkindness, You will be gracious to me and I will always attain joy.

May I always find good points in myself easily. In Your vast compassion, You kindly gave us the opportunity to perform many mitzvot every day.

May we express with our mouths many blessings, prayers, pleas, requests, songs and praises every day — evening, morning and afternoon — and learn Your holy Torah and Your just laws that gladden the heart.

It is true that we might not perform any mitzvah perfectly and properly, or speak any holy words with proper intent.

All of our actions, prayers and Torah learning are compromised and adulterated by a great deal of dross. Nevertheless, they still possess a great number of good points.

You know what is hidden within even the least worthy and most insignificant Jew: that the inner motive driving all of his good deeds is truly a concern for Your Name alone.

Even willful sinners of Israel are filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate [is filled with seeds]. You take a great deal of pride and delight in every good achievement of the least important Jew.

Purify me, compassionate Father, so that I will go on this path, always seeking and finding many good points in myself, until I will truly attain joy.

May I soon truly focus my mind on the ultimate fate of all desires and things of this world, so that I will truly return to You from now and forever, and no longer fall back into foolishness.

If I have committed sins, I will no longer do so. May I turn away from evil entirely and always do what You approve of. “Satiate us with Your goodness, gladden us with Your salvation, and purify our hearts to truly serve You.”

Do not treat us in accordance with our transgressions. Do not repay us in accordance with our sins — neither them nor a part of them, whether a millionth, a billionth, or even a trillionth of them.

Treat us in accordance with Your lovingkindness, in accordance with Your compassion, in accordance with Your wonders. Never abandon us.

May You Who said to Your world, “Enough!” when You created it, now say to our troubles, “Enough!” Even if we ourselves are responsible for our suffering, Your compassion is very great, HaShem.

Have pity on us for the sake of Your Name. Have compassion on us in accordance with Your great compassion. “Give joy to the soul of Your servant — because, HaShem, I lift my soul to You!” “Restore the joy of Your salvation to me, and may a generous spirit support me.”

“Do not abandon me, HaShem; my God, do not be far from me. Hurry to help me, my God, my salvation.”