Dear Friends:  Here is Reb Zalman’s translation of this beautiful prayer from Shalosh Se’udos formatted along with the Hebrew.  Happy Shavuot.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

From Reb Zalman’s 1994 Elat Chayim shiur, “The Next Rung,” Reb Zalman discusses the Patah Eliyahu which you will find below along with Reb Zalman’s translation. Happy Lag B’Omer! Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor.

“The Patah Eliyahu is taken from the Tikuney Zohar and is the first point in that book which references the ten S’firot. The Sefer Y’tzirah talks of ten S’firot, but they are a different set than the one here in Patah Eliyahu. So this is the first source of the ten S’firot to which Kabbalah makes reference.

“The author of the Zohar has heard the secrets from the prophet Elijah of how God emanated ten S’firot. The implication is that if one hears it from the prophet then it is a transmission of truth. 

“In any Siddur which has been influenced by Kabbalah, the Patah Eliyahu may be found in a T’filah Kodem Hat’filah / a preparation for prayer in the beginning of the book, and/or before the Minha service on Friday afternoon.

“Once the S’firot are seen in the body, one understands them. As an idea alone, there’s no understanding. In the body, it becomes clear how a thing is held.”
 

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Based upon the traditional Hanukkah text which gets inserted into the tefillah / the eighteen benedictions and birkat hamazon / Grace After Meals, Reb Zalman has composed the following update, which can be used in its stead:

Happy Hanukkah.  Gabbai Seth Fishman (BLOG Editor)

From Reb Zalman’s book, Integral Halachah: Transcending and Including, available from Aleph. 

“Really important in Psycho-Halachic work is to keep in mind Reb Ahrele Roth’s, a”h, 32 mitzvot hat’luyot b’lev / 32 obligations that depend on the heart for fulfillment.  They are mitzvahs one strives to do continually, in every moment. 

“Years ago I would give my friends a little bell to hang in the car as a help in this practice.  Each time they heard the bell when the car went over a bump in the road, the bell was to remind them:  ‘Nu?  Think of one of these mitzvahs.’  E.g., Aha!  I love You G-d!  You are One!  I respect You!  I place my faith and my trust in You!  I ask You to help me live a good life!  I called it the Nu-bell – a pun, like Nu-bell prize.  I would say that if holila v’chas / God forbid I’d have to die in an automobile accident, then I would hear the bell and instead of going out, ‘Oh sh..,’ I’d go out saying, e.g., ‘Echad, Yachid um’yuchad’ / ‘One, only one, altogether one.’

“These are the kinds of affirmations we can make. The whole point is to accommodate one’s mind so that an awareness of G-d is always in the background whatever we’re doing, and to keep these installed in the background.”

Here are the 32 affirmations of Reb Ahrele Roth as it appears in Reb Zalman’s “An English Siddur for Weekday,” available from Aleph.

Reb Ahrele Roth, a”h, wrote a list of 32 mitzvot whose fulfillment is completed in the brain, the heart and the mouth.

A good preparation and a bridge for the shema and its blessings section of the shacharit service as you enter into the world of B’ri’ah is Reb Ahrele Roth’s list of Mitzvot one can do with consciousness alone. 

The Hebrew alphabetical equivalent of 32 is ל”ב, the letters of which spell the Hebrew word, lev / heart.

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Reb Zalman says (from “The Space Within” and “Integral Halachah: Transcending and Including” both available from Aleph): 

“When I ask myself, ‘What should I do?  Should I write some more finesses in Kabbalah or should I translate another piece of Siddur / prayerbook that people will need?’ And the answer is, I want to translate the Siddur instead.  

“How many people have Jewish names, Jewish ancestry and have no current connection to their Jewish spirituality.  And if they could, they would like to do a something, but it’s not the something that’s connected with shul, or with the people with the black hats and so on and so forth. 

“Imagine for a moment a picture drawn by Norman Rockwell, (Saturday Evening Post, you know?),  a Jewish family at the breakfast table all with their kippahs on, not yet eating because papa is saying, ‘Avraham.  You read us this chapter from the Psalms, or from the Scriptures beforehand,’ and then, ‘A little bit of the sedra today we are reading from rivii of this sedra.  Read that little stickele.’  And people discuss it at the table.  And then they make those prayers that they want to do for the day.  ‘I’m going to be writing a quiz today.’  ‘Yes.  Dear God, help Johnny to be able to write the quiz well.’  They pray around the table.  Can you imagine that?  

“I feel that that sense of the American Judaism hasn’t quite yet gotten the tools and so I felt that you had to do something with the freeze-dried stuff.  But I tried to already give you not just freeze dried but canned.  But you still have to warm it up yourself.  So in this way, if you will take the material and look at those words that are there:  ‘Dear God:  Just like my parents – you helped them to live life so they could serve your purpose – please help me also.’

“When you say it in this way, you don’t need any more stuff; you just need to have the feeling.  That’s why we go back to the focusing part.  If I can say it from the place where I’m  hurting, I can say it from the place where it’s real for me, then I don’t need to put more hot water in there.

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Thanks to Reb Zalman for composing this insert to birkat hamazon / Grace After Meals and thanks to blogger Tania Josefa for translating.  After your Thanksgiving day dinner, please insert it at the same point where you would add for Chanukah or Purim.  Gabbai Seth Fishman (BLOG Editor)