הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל עָלַי | A kavvanah to love your fellow as yourself, before prayer

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Yitsḥak Luria

Shared on:

20 December 2017 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Birkhot haShaḥar, National Brotherhood Week, Davvening

Tags:

Openers, כוונות kavvanot, 16th century C.E., 54th century A.M., school of the ARI z"l, Leviticus 19, fellowship, love your fellow as yourself, love

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
נכון לומר קודם התפלה (דשחרית):	It is proper to say before morning prayers:
הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל עָלַי מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ.	I hereby take upon myself the mitsvah, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^[1] Leviticus 19:18
לאחרי התפלה יאמר:	It is proper to say after prayer:
אַךְ צַדִּיקִים יוֹדוּ לִשְׁמֶךָ יֵשְׁבוּ יְשָׁרִים אֶת פָּנֶיךָ.	Indeed, the righteous will extol Your Name; the upright will dwell in Your presence.^[2] Psalms 140:14

Rav Yitsḥak Luria, circa 16th century, on Leviticus 19:18, recorded in Minhagei ha-ARI z”l Petura d’Abba, p.3b by R’ Ḥayyim Vital:

קודם שהאדם יסדר תפילתו בבית הכנסת…
צריך שיקבל עליו מצוָת ואהבת לרעך כמוך
ויכוין לאהוב כל אחד מבני ישראל כנפשו.
כי על ידי זה תעלה תפילתו כלולה מכל תפילות ישראל
ותוכל לעלות למעלה ולעשות פרי
ובפרט אהבת החברים העוסקים בתורה ביחד.
צריך כל אחד ואחד לכלול עצמו כאלו הוא אבר אחד מן החברים שלו…
ואם יש איזה חבר מהם בצרה צריכים כולם לשתף עצמם בצערו
(דרושי השחר א, ע”ב)..

Before one arranges their prayers in the synagogue…
they should take upon themselves the mitsvah to love one’s neighbor as one’s self,
and direct themselves to love all of the children of Yisra’el as if each were one’s own soul.
Through this, one’s prayer is raised up to be included amongst all the prayers of Yisra’el
and [the prayer] can raise up to the heights where it can bear fruit.
And specifically [this is like] loving friends who study Torah together.
Each and every one of us needs to include ourselves as if we were but one limb from the body of friendship …
and if any of one’s friends are in trouble then we all need to share the sorrow together.

Many thanks for R’ Tyson Herberger’s help with this translation. Please comment to improve upon it.

Source

[gview file=”https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Before-and-After-Prayer-Lubavitch-Youth-Organization-ca.-1990.pdf”]

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Leviticus 19:18
2	Psalms 140:14

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“הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל עָלַי | A kavvanah to love your fellow as yourself, before prayer” is shared by the living contributor(s) with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Yitsḥak Luria

Yitsḥak Luria Ashkenazi (1534 – July 25, 1572) (Hebrew: יִצְחָק בן שלמה לוּרְיָא אשכנזי, English: Isaac ben Solomon or Yitzhak ben Shlomo Lurya Ashkenazi), commonly known as "Ha'ARI" (meaning "The Lion"), "Ha'ARI Hakadosh" [the holy ARI] or "ARIZaL" [the ARI, Of Blessed Memory (Zikhrono Livrakha)], was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah, his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah. The works of his disciples compiled his oral teachings into writing and spread his fame which led to his veneration and the acceptance of his authority. Every custom of the Ari was scrutinized, and many were accepted, even against previous practice. Luria died at Safed on July 25, 1572 (5 Av 5332). He was buried in the Old Cemetery of Safed (from wikipedia)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established."–Psalms 90:17