When God Takes Pride in Us, He Grants Us Providence / When a Person Deserves God’s Pride, Whatever He Looks at Attains the Level of the Land of Israel / One Should be with the Tzaddik on Rosh HaShanah / A Person Who has Tasted the Land of Israel Can Know If Someone was with a Tzaddik on Rosh HaShanah God’s pride in the souls of Israel creates a spiritual equivalent of tefilin for Him. That enters and blazes through His eyes and creates His providence, as it were. When Jews are far from God, He cannot take pride in us, and the tefilin on His head and arm are damaged. Then God’s Presence cries out, “My head is heavy, My arm is heavy!” (Sanhedrin 46a). But when a Jew comes close to God and he is joined by another Jew, and more and more people want to serve God and come close to Him, God’s pride in the Jewish people increases. That pride manifests itself as His tefilin and His providence. God’s providence is particularly intense and constant upon the Land of Israel. That providence makes the Land holy and gives its atmosphere the property of dispensing wisdom. When a person sees God’s pride in the Jewish people, he attains a beautiful state of mind, which becomes his own set of spiritual tefilin. Such tefilin enter into him and break out through his eyes. Then his own eyes are on the level of the eyes of HaShem. As a result, whatever he looks at attains the level of the Land of Israel. In order to see God’s pride, a person must see the true Tzaddik, a person who brings others to serve God. That Tzaddik himself constitutes God’s pride in His people, since it is through him that all of their closeness to God and His pride in them exist. When Jews gather together with the Tzaddik to hear the word of HaShem — in particular, on Rosh HaShanah — God’s pride is exceptionally great. Then the loveliness of the true Tzaddik is increased, for he himself is God’s pride. Then whoever looks sincerely at him gains access to God’s pride and to the mindfulness associated with tefilin, and his eyes are on the level of the eyes of HaShem. Then whatever he looks at attains the level of the Land of Israel. When someone else, someone who desires the Land of Israel — in particular, if he has already experienced the taste of the Land of Israel — meets an individual who was in the company of the true Tzaddik on Rosh HaShanah, he senses the taste of the Land of Israel, for that individual spreads the atmosphere of the Land of Israel. The Land of Faith and Wisdom “My eyes are always turned to HaShem, for He will extricate my feet from the net.” “I have lifted my eyes to You Who dwell in the heavens.”

“Behold, like the eyes of slaves turned to the hand of their master, like the eyes of the maidservant turned to the hand of her mistress, so are our eyes turned to HaShem our God until He will be gracious to us. Be gracious to us, HaShem. Be gracious to us, because we have suffered much contempt.”

My Father in Heaven, filled with compassion, vast in lovingkindness and doing much good to all, You have compassion on all of Your works — compassion on the earth and compassion on people.

Master of the entire world, You created Your world in accordance with Your good will for the sake of the Jewish people, Your nation, in order to take pride in them in every generation.

In Your great goodness, You chose the Jewish people, Your nation, from all nations, and the Holy Land from all lands as the inheritance of Your nation of Israel.

You know that the Land possesses the holy atmosphere that bestows wisdom. It is the place that is prepared for the holiness of the Jewish people, so that they may attain true wisdom there and recognize You with wondrous awareness and complete faith.

Master of the world, Lord of all the earth, God of all creatures, what shall I say? How shall I speak? You know the value of the Land of Israel and its infinite, endless holiness.

I am despicable and abhorrent. I have willfully sinned so much before You. I have blemished and damaged a very great deal.

As a result of the multitude of my acute and willful sins — in particular, as a result of all of the blemishes to the covenant that I have brought about from my beginning until this day — I have disordered my awareness and blemished my consciousness. Even the trace of an impression that remains of my consciousness is confused and murky.

Yet despite all that, this slight impression of my true awareness gazes at holiness from afar, peering through the cracks as it recalls the words of Your holy Torah that You graciously gave us in Your vast compassion, until I understand from a distance the extraordinary, dear holiness of the Land of Israel, beyond measure and evaluation.

As we have heard from the mouths of the true Tzaddikim and read in their holy books, all of a Jew’s holiness depends on the Land of Israel.

I have undergone many experiences from the beginning of my life until today. I have lived through many passages of cause and effect, chains of events whose purpose has been to bring me close to You and restore me to You in complete repentance.

But I still have not properly, completely repented. More than that, I have brought about a very great many blemishes at every moment.

And now, after all this, I do not know of any way — of any counsel or stratagem — to reach a house of refuge.

But my spirit peals within me. The voice of my Beloved still pulses within me, arousing me and urging me through His holy Torah to travel to the Land of Israel.

Perhaps I will return from my foolishness and blemished deeds. Perhaps I will begin to live a genuine life. Perhaps You will have pity. Perhaps You will have compassion.

You know the teeming multitude of immeasurable questions that I have regarding this. These constitute my principal obstacle, together with issues such as expenses, travel distance and many other challenges.

In truth, I admit to You Who examine the heart and the core of every person, that the basic barrier is in my mind. I have various doubts and confusions that cloud my mind and prevent me from strengthening and encouraging myself to prepare my way to travel to the Land of Israel.

In Your vast compassion, You hint to me at every moment to yearn to come to the Land of Israel, keeping me from growing stale and comfortable but inspiring me to yearn to go and reach the Land of Israel.

I know that Your compassion does not cease. Please allow me to get there in peace, and truly draw the holiness of the Land of Israel onto myself.

May I grow wise from now on and act intelligently. May I burn away the evil within myself, nullify my spirit of foolishness, and truly attain complete repentance.

This is all that my spirit yearns for. I have longed and pined so deeply to return to You.

You have revealed to us Your great compassion and mighty graciousness at every moment, and Your vast goodness in every generation. You hope and desire that the wicked person will make himself worthy.

You do not desire his death, but that he will repent and live. You wait for him until the day of his death. “You press a man down” until his spirit is crushed.

Master of the world, have compassion on me. I am like a mute dove. Have compassion on me, I who am so unaware, so despicable and abhorrent.

I am completely abhorrent (despicable and abhorrent) in my own eyes — not because I am humble, but because of the grimy, abhorrent nature of my evil deeds, my grievous sins and my innumerable blemishes.

Please, Unique Lord, compassionately fulfill my requests. May I reach the Land of Israel quickly. May I pass and leap over all sorts of obstacles. May I travel and arrive quickly, swiftly, in peace and without harm. And once there, may I generate holiness and purity so that I will come back to You and truly come close to You, and no longer return to my foolishness, from this moment and forever onward.

Master of the world, we rely on the merit of all of the Tzaddikim who revealed the holiness of the Land of Israel, and on the merit of all of the Tzaddikim and worthy people who came to the Land of Israel — after measureless and tiring obstacles, as You know — where they brought about what they brought about.

In their merit — in the merit of their holy Torah and in the merit of their good deeds — may I, lowly and reprehensible as I am, proceed and arrive in the Land of Israel quickly, swiftly and speedily.

My Father in Heaven, You recompense me with lovingkindness and many benefits at every moment. In Your compassion and lovingkindness, You have made it possible for me to pray to come to the Land of Israel.

Recompense me, Your servant, with more and more of Your kindness and favors. Increase Your wonders on my behalf and grant me undeserved kindness at every moment.

Teach me the way of Your true counsel. Guide me on the straight and true path, so that from now on I will abandon my evil ways and blemished thoughts.

May I connect myself to You from now on, and proceed and soon arrive in the Land of Israel — this year. May I be remade entirely so that I will begin anew in serving You, HaShem, as though I had been born today.

Pride in the Tzaddikim Master of the world, please recall the pride and delight that You have received from all of the Tzaddikim in every generation, and from the totality of the Jewish people, Your holy nation.

Recall all of the pride and delight that You still receive from the totality of the Jewish people, Your nation, as well as from the Tzaddikim in this generation and their truly worthy followers, from which all of the holiness of the Land of Israel is drawn.

May I, too, possess a portion of this pride. May I return to You and truly do Your will, until Your Presence will take pride in me always, at every moment.

In Your vast compassion, You chose us from all of the nations. You take pride in us in every generation. This pride rises as a crown and as a diadem upon Your head, like tefilin. The holiness of the Land of Israel is drawn from that pride.

Because pride radiates from the eyes, the eyes of Your providence gaze upon the Land of Israel and, from that, the Land receives its great holiness.

Because Your holy eyes, which are the eyes of wisdom and knowledge, are drawn to the Land, its atmosphere bestows wisdom.

As the verse states, “It is a land that HaShem your God seeks; the eyes of HaShem your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.”

Therefore, have compassion on me and on the entire Jewish people. May the holiness of the Land of Israel be revealed to us, until we will truly yearn, long and pine for it always. May we pray a great deal on this theme to You Who are filled with compassion, until we will come to the Land of Israel quickly, swiftly and speedily.

For Rosh HaShanah Gathering with the Tzaddikim on Rosh HaShanah And in Your vast compassion and mighty lovingkindness, help us travel every year to the true Tzaddikim for Rosh HaShanah.

May I be counted among the people of Your nation of Israel who are worthy and wholehearted, and who gather to be together with the true Tzaddikim on Rosh HaShanah.

You alone know the value of the gathering of Your nation, the Jewish people, on Rosh HaShanah together with the true Tzaddikim.

You alone know how much pride and great, awesome delight You receive every Rosh HaShanah from the holy gathering of Your nation, the Jewish people, together with the true Tzaddikim.

In Your multitudinous compassion and mighty lovingkindness, may we be included in this pride and these delights. May no obstacle obstruct us, no hindrance hinder us, and no barrier bar us.

May we always, every year, come together with the holy and awesome gathering of the worthy members of Your nation, the Jewish people, who join together with the true Tzaddikim every Rosh HaShanah.

As a result of this, may You always take pride in us and always draw onto us the holiness of the Land of Israel.

Help us look at the beautiful loveliness of the glory of the face of the true Tzaddikim, who are the totality of loveliness.

These Tzaddikim are composed of all of the pride and delights of the totality of the Jewish people, which You receive through these Tzaddikim as a result of their acting always to bring the Jewish people close to You.

In Your vast compassion, enable me to truly look at their faces always — in particular, during the holy days of Rosh HaShanah, which is the principal time of that pride, when their faces shine brightly with the light of the totality of the pride and delight of the entire holy gathering that converges to be with them.

Please, HaShem, in Your vast compassion, enable us to truly look at the pride of the glory of their holy and awesome faces, so that as a result, we will receive and draw onto ourselves a wondrous illumination from this pride.

May the holiness of the holy tefilin always be drawn onto us, and their beautiful holiness blaze from our eyes.

May every place that we look and gaze at be sanctified with the sanctity of the Land of Israel.

Then whoever has experienced the quality of the holy Land of Israel will feel its holiness when he meets us. He will recognize us, knowing and realizing that we have been in the company of the true Tzaddikim on Rosh HaShanah.

Master of the world, You Who are filled with compassion, have compassion on the outcry of Your Presence in this world — which, because of our evil deeds, calls out with a bitter outcry, “My head is heavy, My arm is heavy!”

Who can bear the sound of her bitter outcry? You alone know the anguish of this terrible and bitter outcry.

Have compassion! Have compassion! From this moment onward, guard me and rescue me from engaging in evil deeds and indulging in evil thoughts. In the merit and power of the true Tzaddikim, help me truly return to You.

May Your Presence take pride in us from this point onward, receiving great delight and much pride from every one of us at every moment.

Help us. Enable us to repent completely and to swiftly rectify all that we have blemished before You with our eyes, from our youth until this day.

We have willfully sinned in this regard a great deal, gazing with our eyes beyond the boundary of holiness. As a result, we have committed many terrible transgressions and sins, and we have incurred many blemishes. We have done that which is evil in Your eyes.

Woe to us, for we transgressed. We caused blemishes with our holy eyes that come from Your eyes, HaShem, with which people can look at Your pride, HaShem, and at the Tzaddikim, and draw the holiness of the Land of Israel onto every place they look at.

In our great foolishness, we took our holy and awesome eyes and used them to look at what we looked at, until we came to what we came to, for our many sins.

You Who are filled with compassion, teach us how to rectify all of this. Help us and save us so that we will beseech You, so that we will search for and find true Tzaddikim who are connected to the root of our souls, and always travel to them.

In particular, on the holy Rosh HaShanah, which is the principal time of the holy gathering, may we be counted among the totality of Your worthy nation of Israel who gather with the Tzaddikim. As a result, may we truly return to You in complete repentance.

May we look at their holy faces and, as a result, rectify all of the blemishes that we incurred with our eyes from our youth until this day. Draw onto us the light of the holy pride that is incorporated into their holy faces.

As a result, may we draw the holiness of the Land of Israel onto every place that we look at, until all of the places where Jews live will be sanctified with the holiness of the Land of Israel.

You Who are filled with compassion, have compassion on us for the sake of Your Name. In Your great compassion, have pity on us.

May our hearts truly be aroused to turn to You. May we clearly feel and know the awesome sweetness of the holy and wondrous taste of the Land of Israel.

From now on may we yearn, long, be fervent and passionate about the Land of Israel. May we engage in a great deal of prayer, and intensify our search for Your compassion.

As a result of our impassioned pleas to You, may we come quickly to the Land of Israel in peace and without harm.

God of our salvation, help us for the sake of Your Name, because our eyes are raised to You alone. Compassionately fulfill our requests for the good. Help us quickly attain all that we have requested of You.

Be gracious to us and answer us. Hear our prayer, because You compassionately hear the prayer of every mouth of Your nation, the Jewish people.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before You, HaShem, my Rock and my Redeemer.”