מִי־אֵל כָּמֽוֹךָ Who, God, is like You, who pardons iniquity and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not stay angry for ever, but delights in loving-kindness. He will again have compassion on us, suppress our iniquities, and cast into the depths of the sea all their sins. Grant truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, as You promised our ancestors in ancient times.

מִן־הַמֵּצַר In my distress I called on the LORD. The LORD answered me and set me free. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me. He is my Helper. I will see the downfall of my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.

רַנְּנוּ Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous, for praise from the upright is seemly. Give thanks to the LORD with the harp; make music to Him on the ten-stringed lute. Sing Him a new song, play skillfully with shouts of joy. For the LORD’s word is right, and all His deeds are done in faith. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the LORD’s loving-kindness. By the LORD’s word the heavens were made, and all their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the sea waters as a heap, and places the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD, and all the world’s inhabitants stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was; He commanded, and it stood firm. The LORD foils the plans of nations; He thwarts the intentions of peoples. The LORD’s plans stand for ever, His heart’s intents for all generations. Happy is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own. From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He oversees all who live on earth. He forms the hearts of all, and discerns all their deeds. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior is delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite its great strength, it cannot save. The eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who place their hope in His unfailing love, to rescue their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our Help and Shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. Let Your unfailing love be upon us, LORD, as we have put our hope in You.

A psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s and all it contains, the world and all who live in it. For He founded it on the seas and established it on the streams. Who may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not taken My name in vain, or sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and just reward from God, his salvation. This is a generation of those who seek Him, the descendants of Jacob who seek Your presence, Selah! Lift up your heads, O gates; be uplifted, eternal doors, so that the King of glory may enter. Who is the King of glory? It is the LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them up, eternal doors, so that the King of glory may enter. Who is He, the King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory, Selah!

Master of the Universe, as we now take to our hearts our many shortcomings in Your service, and in our involvement in Your holy Torah and in fulfilling Your commands, all our bones are seized with trembling, and our hearts melt away to water. What will we answer now, what can we say, for the Adversary who works with grimy clay against us, has blackened our lives; and with them the imprisonment, as we are beaten in harsh exiles, exiles of the body and soul. Even so, it is known and revealed before You that our will is to perform Your will, and to watch outside Your doors, for “a day in Your courtyard is better than a thousand”: this is what we have chosen; and we are afraid and trembling before Your holy judgment. And so we have come to You with bowed heads, low stature, feeble of strength, to recall and awaken to Your mercy.

May it be Your will, LORD my God and God of my ancestors, God Most High, crowned with thirteen paths of mercy, that this hour will be a time of favor before You, and that the reading of the thirteen attributes of mercy that are found in the verses “Who is God like You” [etc.] may rise up in correspondence with the Thirteen Attributes, “Compassionate and gracious God” etc., that we have read before You, as if we had somehow grasped all the secrets and combinations of names that arise from them, and the partnerships of attributes that will step forward one with another to sweeten harsh judgments. Please, cast all our sins to the depths of the sea. And You, in Your goodness, awaken Your compassion and let us be clean of all impurity and filth and pollution, and let all the sparks of holiness that have been scattered rise up again, and let them be sifted and bleached white in Your attribute of goodness, God of our salvation, extending loving-kindness to a thousand generations. And in Your great compassion, grant us each a long life, a life of peace, a life of goodness, a life of blessing, a life of sustenance, a life of physical health, a life marked by reverence for Heaven and dread of sin, a life without shame or disgrace, a life of wealth and honor with which to serve You, a life in which we have love for the Torah and reverence for Heaven, a life in which our hearts’ desires are fulfilled for good. And remember us for life, O King who desires life, and write us in the book of life – for Your sake, O God of life. Tear up the evil decree against us, and let our merit be read out before You.

God full of compassion, may Your compassion whisper to You, willingly to accept our submission and the repentant thoughts that form sparks within us, even while, with our sealed and blocked and locked-up hearts, there is none among us who even knows by which way we may come to You, by which to return; who we are, and what we have come to repair. You who have great power to save, light up our eyes as You promised in Your vast compassion, “Open a pinprick’s opening for Me, and I shall open the doors of a great hall for you.” See that our power is gone; that no one is left, either bonded or free, and there is none to be gracious and none to show compassion but You, for those You show grace shall have grace, and those You show compassion enjoy compassion, as it is written, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and show compassion to whom I will have compassion.” And so, create a pure heart for us, God, and renew a strong spirit within us, and let the flames of our hearts’ awakening in love for You, and in Your Torah, ever burn and grow stronger without pause. Help us, God of our salvation, for the sake of the glory of Your name, and bring on the New Year and the blessings that it harbors. And let us merit that our hearts be strong and committed into our own hands, and let us not anger others or You. Give our hands the strength to distance ourselves from all the bad and forbidden attributes, and in particular, let us be distant from pride and anger and severity and from all kinds of arrogance. Let us be settled in our minds, and aware of our low worth and let our souls be like dust to everyone; and let us not anger ourselves or show severity. Let us love peace and increase peace, and shelter in the shadow of Your wings. Let us merit to remain at a distance from cynical laughter and lies and from hypocrisy and slander and from worldly conversation on Shabbat, and all forbidden speech. And may the greater part of our speech concern the Torah, and the order and methods of Your service, the holy service. And let us gird strength to guard our mouths against bringing our own tongues to sin.

Compassionate Father, give us strength and health and allow us the merit of distancing ourselves from any appetite for the indulgences and empty things of this world, and let us eat to satisfy our souls – and so with all our various needs; may all our actions be done for the sake of Heaven. And grant us the merit that it be in happiness that we engage with Your Torah and with Your commands, and that our trust may be habitually in You, and may we have a joyful heart with which to serve You.

Please, compassionate and gracious King, the spirit is Yours, and the body Your creation. Spare those You have formed. And so, may Your compassion whisper of us and find us worthy to complete the Tikkun of the soul, spirit and higher soul in this incarnation, and let us not die [first], Heaven forbid; and emanate an outpouring of holiness on our soul, spirit and higher soul, that we may be tenacious in our service of You, and may make Your will as ours all the days of our lives, we and all our children and their descendants, and allow us the merit to engage with Your holy Torah for its own sake, and to direct ourselves to the truth of that Torah, and spare our minds from mistakes in the law and in teaching others, and do not screen any word of truth from our mouths ever. And may we and our descendants and their descendants all know Your name and study Your Torah for its own sake, and fulfill Your commandments. Let no fault or flaw be found in us or in our descendants or theirs. And let Your name never be desecrated through us, Heaven forbid.

And see that Your nation is this great nation, the children of Your beloved ones, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Your servants, the children of those You have tested, and that throughout their exile and want and shame and oppression and hardship these several hundred years, they have continued calling Your name and believing in You and in Your Torah, and thousands and myriads have offered themselves up to be killed and burned for the sanctification of Your name. Please, Mighty One, guard like the pupil of the eye those who seek Your unity. And be filled with compassion for all our brothers, the house of Israel, scattered in the four corners of the earth, and in particular for those who live in the land of Israel and for the inhabitants of this town, and for all this holy congregation. Have compassion for us and for them, and save us from evil and famine and captivity and from all sin, and bring a complete recovery to all the sick among Your nation Israel; God, please, heal them please, and fulfill in each one of them the verse, “The LORD will support him on his sickbed; every time he is laid low, You turn his fate about in his illness.” And as for the healthy members of Your people Israel – maintain their health that they may never become ill, Heaven forbid. And save us, save all Israel, from every kind of damage, from every enemy and adversary and accuser and from depression and the nagging worries of poverty and from all the afflictions that trouble the world. And recall us, bringing healthy children, holy children, to all those who are deprived of descendants. And bring women in labor out from darkness to light, and let their babies emerge at the right time, with no trouble or harm coming either to the mothers or to their babies, and let the plague and demons and spirits and liliths never exert power on any of the children of Your people, the house of Israel, and let them grow up to Torah and to Your commandments, while their fathers and mothers yet live.

And those of Israel Your nation who go to sea – redeem them and save them from great waters and from strangers, save them from mud and do not let them drown, let them survive the surge of the waves and the depths of the sea. And those of Your children Israel who travel on land – lead them along a straight path to reach a settled town, and rescue them from any enemy or ambush on the way. And as for any of Your people Israel who are imprisoned – release their chains and bring them out to broad spaces, and bring back to the awe of You all those who have been forced by the arrogant to convert away from the faith. Grace them with the merit of ancestors and bring our judgment out to daylight, and write us in the book of life for Your sake, O God of life, and let Your face shine upon Your desolate Sanctuary, for Your sake, O LORD.

Our God and God of our ancestors, merciful God, have compassion for us. You who are good and do good, respond to our call. Return to us in Your abounding mercy, for the sake of our fathers who did Your will. Rebuild Your Temple as at the beginning, and establish Your Temple on its site. Let us witness its rebuilding and gladden us with its restoration. Bring the priests back to their service, the Levites to their platform and their song and music, and the Israelites to their homes.

And the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, of awe and of love for Your great and awesome name; Amen – may this be Your will. No weapon that is made will succeed against you, and whatever tongue may rise up against you, you will prove in the judgment to be wicked. This is the legacy of the servants of the LORD, and it is from Me that their righteousness comes, says the LORD.

For no one will do evil, they will make no devastation, anywhere on My holy mountain.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD, as water covers over the sea.

May it be Your will that through the light that the “Holy Ancient One” will shed along its paths to the “Small Face” of the “Large Face” [mystical terms for aspects of the Divine], Your compassion will wrest away Your anger, and will overcome Your other attributes; and You will deal with us through Your attribute of compassion, and grant us long, good lives, engaging with Your Torah and observing Your commands and performing Your will; Amen – may this be Your will.

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת A song of ascents. From the depths I have called to You, LORD. LORD, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to my plea. If You, LORD, should keep account of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be held in awe. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope. My soul waits for the LORD more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD there is loving-kindness, and great is His power to redeem. It is He who will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Forever, LORD, Your word stands firm in the heavens.