The Prayer Before Praying
Out of love for Jews too worn by earning a living to daven with focus, Reb Elimelech meant to shorten the siddur, until visitors from another age persuaded him of a better way.
A story ofRebbe Elimelech of Lizhenskרבי אלימלך מליז'נסקProfile ›
The Saba Kadisha of Radoshitz recorded what he saw as a child in Lizhensk. He was standing outside the Rebbe's house with the older chassidim when several men of unusual height hurried past them and into the house. They had to stoop to pass through the doorway, and the Rebbe closed the door behind them. The chassidim waited to see who they were. When the visitors came out they left so fast that nobody could see their faces, only their backs, and then they seemed to vanish.
The elders went in and asked the Rebbe what had happened. He told them it had weighed on him that most Jews could no longer gather their minds in davening. The struggle to earn a living left them without time or depth, so he had decided to compose a new, shorter and simpler order of prayer that anyone could grasp.
The visitors, he told them, were the Men of the Great Assembly, who had set the wording of the tefillos long ago. They knew what he intended and had come to ask that not one prayer of theirs be changed. He had listened, and together they found another path: he would compose a prayer to be said before davening, to prepare a heart that was not yet ready.
That is the Yehi Ratzon, the Prayer before Praying, printed in many siddurim in his name.
Source: Niflaos, by the Saba Kadisha of Radoshitz, vol. 1, pp. 21–22; also retold in MiPeninei Noam Elimelech, p. 315. No English edition identified.
Reb Elimelech understood that a tired person cannot walk straight from the day's pressures into tefillah. Before your next davening, or before any important conversation with Hashem, stop for one minute. Put the phone away, take a breath, and say in your own words what you are carrying: the deadline, the worry, the noise. Then ask Hashem to help you set it down. If you want a ready text, say the Prayer before Praying. You will usually find the davening that follows is a little more yours.