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Hallelujah! Praise ye the Eternal, ascribe honor unto Him for evermore; exalt Him, ye nations, and sing of His glory, and His marvelous deeds. Like unto a tent He spread out the firmament over endless waters, and called it “Heaven.”[1] Genesis 1:8. That Heaven declareth the Omnipotence of its Creator, though “not by speech nor by language.”[2] Psalms 19:4. From yonder impenetrable heights He looketh down into the heart of every man, whose innermost thoughts He knoweth; ordaineth the steps of every human being; and rewardeth and punisheth the high as well as the low, the superior as well as the inferior, the rich as well as the poor. From yonder heights He compassionates the oppressed here beneath, and lifteth up those that are humbled down. O Lord! may this thought continually be present unto my mind, that I may never, even when I stand on the summit of prosperity, allow myself to be beguiled by vanity, pride, or eagerness for dazzling show; that I may never deny assistance to any one in need thereof, but follow Thee, O benign Father, who art ever near to him, and helpeth him who calleth upon Thee in truth. For art Thou not the God that loveth humility but hateth pride? Art Thou not the Lord who said “the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word?”[3] cf. Isaiah 66:1-2. Strengthen me also then, O merciful Father, in my resolve to support the fallen, and relieve the oppressed at all times, to the utmost, according to my means and powers, in order that I may render myself worthy of being numbered among the בני רחמנים “the children of the compassionate,”[4] Sefer HaḤinukh haRokeaḥ 44:1, 498:2. Cf. Talmud Bavli, Beitzah 32b: ואמר רב נתן בר אבא אמר …כל המרחם על הבריות בידוע שהוא מזרעו של אברהם אבינו וכל מי שאינו מרחם על הבריות בידוע שאינו מזרעו של אברהם אבינו a name which ever distinguished Israel. Amen.
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