Shuvu Bonim

   During the Three Weeks everyone sits on the floor and says Tikkun Chatzos and cries. A person can cry even in the middle of the day. He can sit on the floor and say Tikkun Chatzos. During the Three Weeks, everyone sits on the floor, puts ashes on their foreheads, and cries like babies.
   If a person would know what the Beis HaMikdash is, he would cry and mourn all night long at Chatzos, all year long and not just during the three weeks. But almost no one feels the lack—almost no one needs the Beis HaMikdash. Everyone has cake at home—he’s got plenty of good food. He has a house full of Coca Cola. He doesn’t need the Beis HaMikdash. Baruch Hashem, everyone feels good (until 120). But there are those that do feel the lack of the Beis HaMikdash and cry every night and say Tikkun Chatzos.
   Fifty years ago, everyone in Jerusalem would get up for Chatzos. This was like a rule that you just didn’t break. But now, people are weak and it’s hard for them to say Tikkun Chatzos every night. But the real problem is that they influence others who do want to get up for Chatzos to be weak, and this is the tragedy! Are you weak? Then keep your mouth shut! Step aside! Let your sons get up for Chatzos. Let your students get up for Chatzos! Shut up! Don’t tell anyone that you are weak and can’t get up at night for Chatzos.
   The goyim, from time immemorial have been trying to annihilate the nation of Israel. There are evil decrees being planned all the time and we have no understanding or strategy to save ourselves from them other than through Tikkun Chatzos. We need the cries of Chatzos, as it is written, “His roaring over his lodging, He shouts” (Yirmiahu 25:30) just as we say in the words of Tikkun Chatzos, “roars out a shout.” This casts fear on all the nations of the world and on all the evildoers that they shouldn’t do us any damage. There are 370,000 lions in heaven and those people who say Tikkun Chatzos awaken these heavenly lions. There are such roars in heaven that even the greatest evildoer cannot do anything against us. All the evildoers shake from fear. With each and every roar, a tremendous fear falls on them all. With each and every roar, the evildoers are violently shaken up, and they stand frozen in fear and cannot move a hand or a foot.
   A person needs to awaken the upper mercy, to begin to awaken mercy on his soul. He should cry to Hashem, “What will be with my G-dly soul?” A person needs to awaken the mercy for the fact that he has disconnected himself from the Shem Havayeh (the holy four letter name of Hashem), may it be blessed, from the fact that his soul has fallen into the 10 Crowns of the 10 Sefirot of the Side of Evil. And now the animals which came from his pegam habris (sexually related sins), from his unsavory speech, and from his forbidden speech now empower palaces of the Sitra Achra. Through his evil thoughts and sins, he gives power to the tumah—giving life to terrorists and murderers and Nazis. He causes the Shechina (Divine Presence) to go into exile, as it is written, “Your King is bound in Naziritic tresses” (Shir HaShirim 7:6). A person doesn’t realize that he is in the 10 Crowns of the 10 Sefirot of the Side of Evil. He has no idea that he needs to start having mercy on his soul. He feels comfortable with all his desires and his evil thoughts. He thinks it is great—it’s fun. He doesn’t even feel bad about it. He isn’t even trying to get out of there. So how does he start having mercy on his soul? He sits on the ground and puts some ashes on his forehead, and he says Tikkun Chatzos and cries to Hashem. We say, “The crown of our heads has fallen” (Eicha 5:16). By “the crown of our head” we mean the soul. How has the soul become imprisoned by soldiers of tumah and the Sitra Achra? How has the body imprisoned the soul? How has the body overpowered the soul? We cry for the soul which has fallen to the depths of the klippos, “The crown of our head has fallen; woe to us for we have sinned.” You aren’t slighted by the fact that the G-dly soul which was hewn from the Thrown of Glory which is from Hashem’s very being is imprisoned within a body with base desires and lowly intentions. Each person according to his own ability will begin to grasp the situation and feel bitter over it. “Where am I holding? How can I be thinking about such garbage?” If a person will say Tikkun Chatzos with utter brokenness of heart and submission and kavannah, then this Tikkun Chatzos will bring him an influx of life to all his 248 limbs and 365 sinews.
   When you hear that a Jew has died, chas v’shalom, you should cry out that very instant! If a Jew is badly hurt, a person should say a few chapters of Tehillim. Maybe you will be able to revive him. Every Jew is a soul from the Thrown of Glory. From every Jew can come 600,000 Jews. Why should any Jew’s life be cut short? A person should cry about this every day, especially at night at Chatzos. But the most important thing is to know that my sins caused this. I am the one who made a joke of everything. I made a joke of the service of prayer. I made a joke of getting up for Chatzos.
   A person needs to know that “Rachel cries over her children” (Yirmiahu 31:14). If mother Rachel cries, then I need to get up for Chatzos and cry together with her. I need to join her crying. Our mother cries for the 6 million that were killed in the Holocaust. Our mother cries over everyone who dies every day. Our mother cries over all the souls that they should come back in teshuva. How can you know that mother Rachel is crying at Chatzos and do other things at this time? Rachel is the holy Shechina! Isn’t it only fitting that you join Rachel. It isn’t convenient for you to join in on her crying? A person needs to have at least a fragment of a Jewish heart, a drop of feeling. He needs to say Tikkun Chatzos, to feel the cries of Rachel, the pain of all the generations, of all those who were murdered. We have a mother that can achieve anything. Rachel can do everything. Everything is in her hands. She lives and exists and she can bring us out from galus this very second. She just wants to see people crying with her.

Prayer

Please, Merciful and Compassionate One, have mercy on me and help me to have the privilege that I should not miss out on the holy and awesome moment of Chatzos, and that from now on and forever, I shouldn’t waste my days on emptiness and my years in stupidity. Please, Merciful and Compassionate One, have such mercy on me that even I should merit feeling the revelation of G-dliness that is revealed at Chatzos when the Holy One Blessed Be He with all the upper beings come out and journey in the eternal world with all the tzaddikim who are in Gan Eden and and with all the tzaddikim from this world that are awake at that hour.

B’Ohr Pnei HaMelech

It is very bad for a person to have “ayin ra’a,” (a bad eye, jealousy and resentment), for then Hashem’s light, the G-dly point in him, cannot be illuminated. When a person has a “bad eye,” that is when his troubles begin, because then the “bad eye” of others can damage him. Yosef had a “good eye” and so no one’s “bad eye” could harm him. But when he had a little bit of a “bad eye” regarding his brothers, then he was thrown into the pit. When a person is attached to Hashem and he doesn’t look to other people for his salvation, he doesn’t need them to speak well of him and he isn’t looking for honor nor jealous of anyone, then other people’s “bad eyes” aren’t able to touch him, for each type attaches itself to the same type. If a person is clean, he just believes in Hashem and that everything is from Hashem—that whatever Hashem gives me is good and whatever Hashem doesn’t give me is also good. I will ask Hashem to give me and I won’t feel: “Oy! I don’t have what this other guy has. Why did I end up with such a lot?” When a person has a “good eye,” then someone’s “bad eye” will not affect him. But since everyone has a “bad eye,” then everyone can be damaged by the “bad eyes” of others. A “bad eye” starts from haughtiness, because when a person is full of pride, then he thinks that he has everything coming to him. “How can it be that someone else has more than me?” If a person compares himself with others, then he will always have a “bad eye,” because if he has one thing, then he is missing another, and if he has this one thing than there is something else that he doesn’t have. So he always has someone to be jealous of because he will always be missing something that someone else has. A person should aspire to reaching the level of not being dependent on others. I am not concerned with others—not with their money, and not with being honored by them, not from what they think of me, and not from what they do or do not have. “I don’t have any need for them for my soul—I only need Hashem. I honor others and I value them. I work with people and I encourage them. I get strength from other people and I learn from other people—everything. But I don’t need them—I need Hashem. I don’t compare myself to others.”
However, this is a difficult level to achieve! That is why so many people die from a “bad eye.” And truly, having a “good eye” is the tikkun (life’s work) of this world. David Moshiach had beautiful eyes, such good eyes. Shaul pursued him—many others pursued him—but he didn’t harm them and he didn’t blame them. He was able to accept the most difficult things, and he stood up in all the tests and always looked at others with his “good eye.” And even though only Moshiach will complete the fixing of the “bad eye,” no one is exempt from doing whatever he can to merit having a “good eye.” For when a person has a “good eye,” Hashem gives him an unlimited abundance.