Gentlemen: I hope everyone is having an excellent Elul zman. Remember that the shaarei tefilla are swung wide open from Rosh CHodesh Elul through the end of Chag Sukkot. All our tefillos are accepted. Let us daven to the Aibishter in our own way: Ribono shel Olam, in this time of favor, I, a man of weak resolve, raise my tefillot to You in Your Awesome Holiness, and beg of Avinu Malkeinu to please forgive our many aveiros in gilui arayos. We have failed so many times to resist the temptation of the Yetzer Harah, and succumbed to our passions to look at forbidden images, we have aroused ourselves and fantasized about forbidden relations, and we have even brought ourselves to shichvat zeira l'vatala, chas v'shalom. Please accept our sincere apologies and regrets. Now, looking back we are disgusted by our lustfulness, we are sickened by our failures, and we are saddened by our actions that distanced us from Your Presence. Now we are standing before You in Elul, before the Yom HaDin. This year and every year, we beg of you for forgiveness and pledge that this year will be different. We resist for a period. We take the inspiration that you gave us during this zman, and we run with it for awhile. But before long, we are back to our old evil habits, and looking at things we know we should not. And before long, we have sunken again. Ribono shel Olam, make it so that this year is truly different for us. Make it so that we are able to withstand the temptation. Help us to truly achieve deveikus with You. Help us to complete a teshuva shleimah, and become true servants. Help us to grow in Torah learning and yiras Shamayim. Help us to never stumble in these aveiros ever again.
