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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my Prayers for Holy Sleep way that a person wishes to go, he is led.” Therefore,
heart be acceptable to You, Hashem, my Rock and my help me set aside time to meet with You every day, and
Redeemer. Amen and amen. to have intent and to make my request.
Hashem Wants You to Pray
From Prayer 54: Prayer and all service of Hashem begin from this point.
Now that you understand that all that Hashem wants of you is to
Help and save me so that I will get up every night at set aside time to pray, I will present some passages of prayer that If, inspired by this chapter, you reduce your sleep by only ten
exactly midnight. May I never sleep through a midnight, will sum up this chapter and help everyone pray every day. I have minutes a day, that is already worth everything. In 50 years that
but may I wake up every night at exactly midnight all the divided the prayers as follows: prayers for the time of the work will add up to a profit of 3,000 hours! Just think what you can
days of my life, forever, without fail. May I then rise in of the will, and more specialized and focused prayers to be said accomplish with 3,000 hours—which is 125 days.
strength like a lion to truly engage in learning Torah and before going to sleep. It is always possible to recite all of the prayers
serving You. “Awaken, my soul, awaken, lyre and harp, before going to sleep. But since there are so many, I did not want
to burden the reader before sleep. The prayers to be recited before
I will awake the dawn” (Psalms 57:9).
going to sleep are more intense than those meant to be recited
From Prayer 33 (Part 2): at the time of the work of the will, because at the time of sleep a
person is truly in danger.
Have compassion on me, You Who are filled with It is very important to underscore that although you may utilize
compassion, vast in kindness and truth, You Who grant these prayers in the work of the will, in order to receive inspiration
so much benefit, You Who have such great forgiveness and ideas for your own words, do not view them as a substitute
for transgressions and pardon for sins, You Who act for your personal prayers in your own words. During the half hour
righteously on behalf of all creatures composed of flesh devoted to the work of the will, do not read prayers from a text,
and spirit. Help me in Your tremendous kindness. Help but speak to Hashem in your own personal words that come from
me, save me, strengthen me and bolster me in Your the heart. And the main thing is to pray with a great deal of will.
wonderful ways, so that from now on I will get up every
night at exactly midnight and recite Tikun Chatzot— Some of the following prayers are taken from Likutei Tefillot,
mourning, lamenting and weeping a great deal over the but most are personal prayers that were composed based upon
the teachings discussed in this chapter. These prayers sum up this
destruction of the Temple, the house of our holiness and book, because they are a living model of the work of the will, a
splendor, the house of our life and length of days, our living model of how to transform Torah learning into prayer, and
dear house, our beautiful meeting place, the apex of our a model of how learning inspires prayer. And the prayers before
might, our loveliness, our radiance, our splendor and our sleep provides a living model of Chapter Six: Cause a New Light
holiness, over what has happened to us: that with our to Shine on Zion, which teach that when a person prays, he must
sins we brought about the destruction of our Temple, the feel as though he is hanging from a precarious wall, suspended
site of Your mighty Presence, the site of the Torah and between life and death, with the faith that Hashem wants to save
prayer, the site of the revelation of Your Divinity, where him.
we were able to draw onto ourselves the attainment of
Your Divinity, to know and recognize You even in this
physical world, and may we cling to You forever.