Shalom Friends! My teacher, Rav Ebn Leader, just put out a piece on Substack on the second Introduction to Tikunei Zohar, the Patah Elihayu, which you can read here.

I went back to listen to what Reb Zalman said as an introduction to this piece in his Baumann lecture from 1993 which you can hear here. A transcription of the audio follows and Reb Zalman’s translation of Patah Eliyahu was previously published here.

If you look in a Hasidic Siddur, any Siddur that’s been influenced by Kabbalah, you will find this statement, Patah Eliahu, in one of two places. The first is, some Siddurim will have right in front, at the beginning, a Tefilah kodem hatefilah. (Have you seen it? A prayer before praying.)

There is a beautiful Tefilah kodem hatefilah written by Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk where he says:

Riboyno shel olam / Master of the world, I’m about to do this impossible thing, to pray and talk to You! Please help me! Clean my heart and let me not feel any anger toward anybody. Let me feel joy with them and love.

Then he talks about what is worthy and what is unworthy in prayer and pours it all out to God.

Usually that’s printed on one column in tinier letters because it’s a longer thing than the Patah Eliyahu which appears alongside in slightly bigger letters on the other column with a line dividing in between, as you’ll see in those Siddurim and it will say Patah Eliyahu.

The other place where you could find Patah Eliyahu in a Hasidic Siddur is right before Mincha on Friday evenings.

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Dear Friends:

Professor Hava Tirosh-Samuelson has graciously shared her presentation from the recent Edinburgh International Center for Spirituality and Peace event honoring the life of Reb Zalman with us. You can view it below: