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.

Some people say hodu ladonai ki tov, the Psalm about the thanksgiving for the people who have crossed the sea, come out of jail, been sick or escaped death, that Psalm 107, which describes the four kinds of people who have to bentsch goymel.

This is where goymel bentshen comes from namely these people have experienced the greatness of God, how God helped them cross the sea.

Those who crossed the sea in ships. They went down to the ships and crossed the sea over the strong waters. They have seen the miracle of God. Down the abyss and they saw the ways of God, His greatness. There was a storm that arose and the storm drove them very hard. And then finally they cried out! vayitzaku el Adonai batzar lahem, and they cried out to God in their oppression and He calmed the winds and the seas were calm and He led them to the place of their desire. When they arrived, they gave thanks to God for He is good.

And also people who were imprisoned and released, people who were sick:

yoshvei choshech v’tzalmavet, asirei ani uvarzel ki himru imrei el vaatzat elyon na’atzu / Some — captive in gloom and misery, imprisoned by privation or from iron shackles, having provoked the word of the Almighty, etc.

It’s a very powerful Psalm.

And after that Psalm comes the Patah eliyahu which is taken from Tikkunei Zohar in which the Tikkunei Zohar talks about the ten Sefirot. This is the first place where, in the Zohar, these ten appear. (Remember? There were ten that the Sefer Yetzirah talked about which are not the same ten as these here. And so when you read it here, know that this is the source of the ten Sefirot.)

Now instead of saying: “So let me tell you! God emanated ten Sefirot…,” it has that secret taught not by any plain human being, but by Prophet Elijah. And if you hear it from prophet Elijah then you know (RZ singing):

lomed Torah hu mipi mipi Eliyahu

He studies Torah, he hears it from Eliyahu! It must be true! This is a true transmission!

So how does Eliyahu teach about God’s ten Sefirot? It would be a shame if he were to talk about God in God’s presence in the third person. How could a person talk about God in the third person as if God weren’t here? Notice that in all the philosophy and theology when we talk about God in the third person and it creates such a wrong attitude.

How could we talk about You in the third person, You’re always here!

Do you see what a difference it makes when you put it in the second person and the Presence is invited. In the third person, the Presence is ignored.

So here is how beautifully the Tikunei Zohar has this text!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Deep Ecumenism, Hasidus, Reb Zalman says. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.