The Prayer of the Shlah HaKadosh, Rabbi Yeshayahu ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz

Part I: The Purpose of Creation and the Two Commandments

You are Hashem our L-rd, before You created the world, and You are He, our L-rd, since You created the world, and from eternity to eternity You are the Almighty.

And You created Your world in order that Your Divinity should be made known [=in order that Your kingship should be publicized] through the medium of Your holy Torah, just as our Sages of blessed memory said: “Bereshit” [In the beginning], for the sake of the Torah and for the sake of Israel, for they are Your nation and Your heritage whom You chose from among all the nations, and You gave them Your holy Torah, and drew them close to Your great Name.

And concerning the preservation of the world and concerning the preservation of the Torah, there came to us from You, Hashem our L-rd, two commandments. You wrote in Your Torah, “Be fruitful and multiply,” and You wrote in Your Torah, “And you shall teach them to your children.”

And the intent in both of them is one: for You did not create [the world] for emptiness, but rather to be inhabited; and for Your glory You created, formed, and even made [it], so that we, our offspring, and the offspring of all Your people, the House of Israel, may all be knowers of Your Name and learners of Your Torah.

Part II: The Supplication for Righteous Offspring

And therefore, I come before You, Hashem, the King over the most powerful Kings, and I cast down my supplication; my eyes are suspended toward You until You favor me and hear my prayer: to provide for me sons and daughters.

And may they also be fruitful and multiply—they, their children, and their children’s children until the end of all generations—for the ultimate purpose that they, and I, and all of us together, shall engage in Your holy Torah: to learn and to teach, to keep, to perform, and to fulfill all the words of the learning of Your Torah with love. Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah, and cleave our hearts to Your commandments, to love and to fear Your Name.

Our Father, the Merciful Father, grant to all of us long and blessed lives. Who is like You, Father of Mercy, Who remembers His creatures for life in mercy? Remember us for eternal life, just as our father Abraham prayed, “O that [Ishmael] might live before You!”—which our Sages of blessed memory interpreted to mean: “in Your fear.”

Because of this, I have come to request and to implore before You that my offspring and the offspring of my offspring forever should be proper offspring. May there not be found in me, in my offspring, or in the offspring of my offspring forever, any disqualification or taint, but only peace, truth, goodness, and uprightness in the eyes of the L-rd and in the eyes of man.

The Spiritual Attributes of the Offspring

And let them be masters of Torah:

·         Masters of Scripture (Marei Mikra)

·         Masters of Mishnah (Marei Mishnah)

·         Masters of Talmud (Marei Talmud)

·         Masters of the Secret (Marei Raza)

·         Masters of Commandment (Marei Mitzvah)

·         Masters of Bestowing Loving-Kindness (Marei Gomlei Chasadim)

·         Masters of Exemplary Character Traits (Marei Midot Trumiyot)

And may they serve You with love and with internal fear, and not external fear.

Material and Familial Blessings

And provide for each and every body among them the sufficiency of its lack with honor; grant them health, honor, and strength; grant them stature, beauty, grace, and kindness. Let there be love, brotherhood, and peace among them.

And prepare for them fitting spouses from the offspring of Torah scholars and from the offspring of the righteous. And they too—their spouses—shall be like them in accordance with everything that I have prayed for them, for a single remembrance ascends to here and to there.

Part III: Invocation of the Patriarchal Merit

You, Hashem, know all secrets, and before You the hidden things of my heart are revealed; for my intention in all of this is for the sake of Your great and holy Name, and for the sake of Your holy Torah.

Therefore, answer me, Hashem, answer me for the sake of the holy Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For their sake, save the children so that the branches will resemble their roots. And for the sake of David Your servant, the fourth leg of the Chariot [in your prophetic vision], the psalmist through Your Holy Spirit.

Part IV: Biblical Appendix (Psalm 128)

A Song of Ascents.

Praiseworthy is everyone who fears Hashem, who walks in His ways.

When you eat the labor of your hands, you are praiseworthy, and it is good for you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the inner chambers of your house;

Your children like olive saplings around your table.

Behold, for so shall the man who fears Hashem be blessed.

May Hashem bless you from Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

And may you see children [born] to your children—peace upon Israel.

Part V: Concluding Covenantal Verses

Please, Hashem, Who hears prayer, let the verse be fulfilled in us:

“And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, said Hashem: My spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have placed in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring, said Hashem, from now and forever.”

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You, Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer.