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460 | A New Light
He sweetens all judgments.
A Prayer to Rise at Midnight
from the holy book, Likutei Tefillot 88
“At midnight, I will rise to thank You for Your righteous
judgments” (Psalms 119:62).
You Who are filled with compassion, You Who awaken
those who are asleep, You Who arouse those who are
slumbering, have pity and compassion on me. In Your
vast compassion, help me get up exactly at midnight,
every night of my life. May I wake up at midnight filled
with energy, without any lethargy and sluggishness
whatsoever. May I not be overcome by sleep and slumber,
heaven forbid. May nothing prevent me from achieving
this. In Your vast compassion and great kindness, awaken
the northern wind to blow on David’s harp at midnight.
And may that inspire me to always wake up from my
sleep at exactly midnight. “Awaken, my soul, awaken,
lyre and harp, I will awake the dawn” (Psalms 57:9).
Master of the universe, You have exhorted us
repeatedly to get up exactly at midnight, such as the
awesome warnings that appear in the holy Zohar. But
You know that many obstacles overcome every one of us
and distract us from doing so. As a result, we have wasted
most of our nights, failing to rise at midnight. Therefore,
I come to You, Master of all, You Who are vast to save,
asking You to give me counsel on how to achieve this,
on how to get up every night at exactly midnight—which
is precisely six hours after the beginning of the night,
whether in winter or summer. May I wake up at that
time with great alacrity and recite the Tikun Chatzot,
mourning and lamenting the destruction of the Temple
Chapter Nine: | 469 16
inclination to sleep. You have given that inclination the
power to vanquish me, because You want me to be in
touch with You and pray to You every day. My craving
for sleep is a daily test. There are tremendous profits to
be gained by doing the work of the will, whereas there
are tremendous deficits caused by sleeping a great deal.
The quality of a person’s sleep determines the nature
of his entire day and his entire life. Help me know that
everything depends on my prayer and readiness. Help
me understand that You want me to set aside time to
pray every day. Please help me pray every day to be
someone who is “meritorious.” May I attain all good
things in sleep. Rescue me from being someone who “is
not meritorious.”
Master of the universe, please have compassion on
me and help me clearly know that the only advice to
conquer this evil inclination and nullify it entirely is
to engage in the work of the will. Help me know that
everything depends on nullifying the craving for sleep. 16
May I know that I have no power to nullify it, but I can
only do so with the help of Your power, only with the
power of prayer. Please have compassion on me so that
I will not enter into this difficult war with the attitude of
“my power and the strength of my hands.” May I always
ask for Your help. May I know that my nature pulls me
to sleep and that only prayer changes nature. Master of
the universe, please help me, because without You there
is no one to help me and save me. Have compassion on
me, so that I will pray to You at least half an hour a day,
asking You to nullify this most difficult of evil inclinations,
the inclination for sleep, to nullify the craving for sleep.
Master of the universe, completely eradicate my entire
craving for sleep (repeat this request many times) so that
I will never in my life want to go to sleep. Please have
compassion on me so that I will have a strong resolve to