Many times we pray, but do not “feel it.” In this regard, there were many optional prayers written by many of our great scholars who saw a need to originate special prayers for various occasions!
Aside from Tikkun Chatzot, Psalms and the General Remedy, Rebbe Nachman also emphasized the importance of other special and very beneficial prayers. These include the Yom Kippur Katan service recited as part of Minchah on the eve of Rosh Chodesh. Because it is the last day of the preceding month, the eve of the New Moon is particularly propitious for aiding anyone who wants to repent for wrongs committed over the course of the entire month. There is also the Tefilah Zakah, a prayer written by Rabbi Avraham Danzig of Vilna, author of the Chayey Adam, to be recited on Yom Kippur Eve, just prior to Kol Nidre. In addition, we find that our Sages composed their own special prayers which they recited daily (Berakhot 16bff).
Many times we pray, but do not “feel it.” We are distant from the prayers, or perhaps, we don’t find the way we feel expressed by the prayers. In this regard, there were many optional prayers written by many of our great scholars who saw a need to originate special prayers for various occasions. These can be found in Sha’arei Zion, Taktu Tefilot and other similar works. Rebbe Nachman greatly valued these optional prayers and recited them many times himself (Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom; His Praises #10).
Rebbe Nachman also teaches: It is also very good when you can make prayers out of your studies. Whenever you hear or study the words of Torah, make a prayer out of it. Ask God to help you be worthy of fulfilling whatever it is you just learned. A wise person will understand how to go about forming these prayers. Although hitbodedut is in itself very great, this aspect of hitbodedut (turning Torah into prayer) is extremely great. It causes enormous delight Above (Likutey Moharan II, 25).
This lesson provided Reb Noson with his major impetus for composing his own book of prayers, the Likutey Tefilot. This work contains over two hundred magnificent prayers on all topics and circumstances in life. Focusing on the concepts and advice found in Rebbe Nachman’s lessons, Reb Noson wove them into prayers of great longing and holy desire. A two-volume work, the Likutey Tefilot is based almost entirely on the Likutey Moharan, with a few prayers centered on some of the Rebbe’s conversations in Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom. Rabbi Nachman Goldstein of Tcherin, a disciple of Reb Noson and author of many important works in Breslov literature, followed Reb Noson’s path and authored Tefilot v’Tachanunim, with prayers on Likutey Moharan, Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom, and Tzaddik. Reb Naftali’s son Reb Efraim, wrote his own prayers under the title, Tefilot HaBoker, and other Breslover Chassidim have also composed various supplications based on the Rebbe’s teachings.
Rebbe Nachman also teaches: It is also very good when you can make prayers out of your studies. Whenever you hear or study the words of Torah, make a prayer out of it!
As we’ve said, the idea is to take the Torah subjects we study about and translate them into prayer, beseeching God to help us fulfill our learning to the fullest extent possible. For example, when studying about the sacrifices, though we cannot bring offerings into the Holy Temple today, we can still pray to God that our studies be considered as if we had brought those sacrifices (cf. Menachot 110a). Furthermore, we can say: “God, just as I’ve studied these laws, let me fulfill them in the Holy Temple, speedily and in our time. Amen.”
Similarly, when studying the laws pertaining to tefilin, tzitzit, Shabbat, Pesach, lulav, shofar, matzah, etc. (the mitzvot which do apply today), we should certainly ask God to help us fulfill the mitzvah to the best of our ability and with a wealth of joy and happiness.
When studying the laws pertaining to damages, we can pray that we many never be involved in an accident, neither as the cause nor as the victim (as in the Traveler’s Prayer, in which we ask that we come to no harm on the road). There are even ways to formulate prayers for those laws which might not seem applicable, as in the case of the happily married man who studies the laws of divorce. “God, help me so that I never have to get divorced. And, above all, let me never be divorced from You. Always let me come ever closer to You.” If we truly desire, we can always find a way to pray for something close to home.
Although hitbodedut is in itself very great, this aspect of hitbodedut is extremely great. It causes enormous delight Above!
LIKUTEY TEFILOT
Reb Noson said: Now that the Likutey Tefilot has been published, people will have to give an account for each day they failed to recite these prayers (Kokhavey Or, p. 77). (An English language translation is available under the name: The Fiftieth Gate – Reb Noson’s Prayers.)
People ask if there is Ruach haKodesh (Divine Inspiration) in these prayers. They are even higher than Ruach haKodesh, for they emanate from the 50th Gate of Holiness! (Kokhavey Or, p. 77).
There are many people who have merited entering Gan Eden by reciting the Likutey Tefilot (Kokhavey Or, p. 77).
Reb Noson once said about the Likutey Tefilot: The day will yet come when there will emerge a nation that will pray with these prayers (Kokhavey Or, p. 77).
(Taken from the book – Crossing the Narrow Bridge: A Practical Guide to Rebbe Nachman’s Teachings, chapter 8, Prayer)
