Prayer For Happiness

(Composed By Rabee Natan a”h – From His Work, Likutei Tefilah)

“I will greatly praise G-d with my mouth. I will praise Him among the multitude. For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor one to save him from those who condemn his soul”. Master of the World, You who greatly pardon, He who wants repentance, teach me how to praise You now, how to gladden my soul now, in such a way that I merit by happiness to confess before You and detail before You all my sins that I have committed from when I was born until this day. Thereby may I merit to truly return to You. Master of the World, merciful Father, You know the joy wedged in my heart on one side and sadness on the other side. The greatness of the happiness and joy that I should feel as a result of my portion in life is immeasurable, beyond evaluation and beyond counting, for in Your great mercy, You granted me the merit to be born from the seed of Israel, the Chosen Nation from all the nations, and the Nation elevated above all languages.

You cherish us by all sorts of terms of endearment; You love Your people, Israel very greatly, love for ever and ever for all eternities. From Your love and compassion for Your People, Israel, You multiplied for us the learning of the Torah and the commandments, such that there is no end to the happiness that we have, for we should be happy and rejoice very greatly in every commandment for they give renewed strength to the soul and gladden the heart, as is written: “The statutes of the Lord are upright, gladdening the heart”. However, because of the multitude of my iniquities and immense willful transgressions, sadness, worries and melancholy bear down upon me at all times, “For I will declare my iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin”. You know that this sadness and melancholy does great harm to Your service, for, because of the sadness, my heart has become stupefied and my mind confused, until I cannot awaken myself to truly return to You. Even to confess before You and detail my sins and explain myself before You is very difficult and a burden, because my heart has become stupefied by the sadness and melancholy.

Therefore, I have come before You who are full of mercy, Master of happiness and joy, to ask that You have mercy upon me and teach me how to gladden my soul at all times, for, in Your great mercy, You have already taught me by the holy tzaddikim that even if a person is as he is, even if he did what he did, even so, even though he is there in the situation that he is in, he must force himself, with all his powers, to distance himself from sadness and to gladden his soul at all times, knowing that he has merited, nonetheless to be from the seed of Israel. He must also search and desire to find in himself good points from the many good deeds that he merited to perform over the years. Every single Jew has many good deeds to his credit, for even the sinners of Israel are full of good deeds, just like a pomegranate is full of seeds. In this, it is fitting that every Jew be happy and rejoice a great deal, even the least of the least and the worst of the worst. Master of the World, Master of Wonders, my Father, merciful Father, who is mighty and joy is in Your place. Come to my help and save me, so that I merit to collect and gather together all the fragments of happiness from all the commandments and good points that I have merited to, from when I was born until this day.

May all these fragments of happiness gather together in me, such that with great force they overcome the sadness and melancholy of my numerous iniquities, until I merit through this to be happy with all my might always. May I merit to always overcome and strengthen myself with happiness and joy by all sorts of ways of advice, which You taught me by Your holy tzaddikim. Help me to strengthen myself with great happiness, such that I merit to dance from happiness. Let me merit always to the happiness of a commandment, whether it is being happy in the fulfilling of a commandment, whether at a wedding, gladdening the bridegroom and bride, or whether at other happy occasions when fulfilling commandments. Always save me and help me to have at all times great joy and happiness stemming from the happiness of a commandment, so much so that I dance a great deal because of the happiness. May I merit to be happy and dance so much that I merit to traverse the entire structure of happiness and dancing which is comprised of 248 limbs and 365 sinews, for happiness is the root of the focal point of all the 613 commandments in the Torah, as it is written: “The statutes of the Lord are upright; they gladden the heart.”

In Your great mercy, let the happiness of all the truly good points that are in me from over the years be enflamed within me, in Your great loving-kindness; let the happiness shine with a great and wonderful light, such that, through this, I nullify all the darkness, obstacles, worries and sadness caused by the multiplicity of immense sins, iniquities and willful transgressions that I committed before You over the years. If they are very, very great, even so, in Your merciful eyes, virtues are considered greater and in Your great strength You can add a great light to the happiness of the commandments and good points that are in me, until they will overcome the darkness and sadness of my many iniquities and until the bad becomes nullified in relation to the good and the sadness of iniquities becomes nullified against the happiness of the commandments. May I merit always to be happy and dance a great deal through the happiness of a commandment, until I merit to really perfect happiness and to completely perfect all the structure of happiness and dancing.

Through this, may I merit, in Your bountiful mercy, to judge myself truly and confess before You at all times by speaking out the specific details of my sins. May no obstacles or delay prevent me from this. May forgetfulness not overcome me, so as to cause me to forget to specify one of my sins before You. Let nothing confuse me, rather, may I just merit to truly confess before You and detail, specifically each sin. You, who are full of compassion, be ready to help me so that I merit, by confessing to build and perfect the power of speech in the way of ultimate perfection. Through this, may the Supernal Voice join and be in complete unity with the power of speech in a way that, through this, all my sins, iniquities and willful transgressions be rectified. May I perfect all the Names that are within Your great Name, which I spoiled. Master of the World, Master of the World, who will give me now a mouth to speak and explain myself before You? How can I now find the strength to pour out my heart as water before the Countenance of Hashem?

Master of the World, You, who are full of mercy – “My King and my G-d, I will pray to You” – teach me how to triumph over You so that You bring me to truly repent completely before You. My Father, Rock, Redeemer, Deliverer, who observes in order to better my end; help me in Your tremendous mercy, in Your great saving, in Your wonderful ways of advice, such, that I merit to always be happy. “Gladden the soul of Your servant, for to You Lord, I lift up my soul.” Strengthen me and embolden me each time to overcome sadness and make happiness dominant. Strengthen me with all sorts of happiness and gladden my soul through all the paths of happiness that the holy sages taught us, in such a way that I merit always to be happy and that I not let sadness approach me in any way whatsoever; let sadness and melancholy have no strength to stupefy my heart, Heaven forbid. Let nothing confuse my mind, rather, may I merit at all times to overcome everything by great happiness and tremendous joy until I merit to speak out my confession before You with happiness and to pour out my heart before the Countenance of the Lord and to elucidate myself before You every day in a broken and contrite heart, as befits me.

Afterwards, may I immediately return to a feeling of happiness with great vigour and strength and to increase the extra happiness every time with all my might until I merit to truly repent and to serve You always, “with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things”. For upon Your great, awesome, holy Name, I relied. You can help me even now to always strengthen my happiness. I will rejoice and be happy in Your saving. “I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your Name, most High”. Draw happiness upon us from the source of happiness, from the happiness of the future which is ready to come to us very soon through our righteous Mashiach, as it is written: “For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

Hasten and hurry our redemption; comfort and gladden us and all Your Nation, Israel, very speedily in our days. Fulfill very speedily that which is written, “For G-d shall comfort Tzion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of Hashem; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” Amen and Amen.