We are now in the Aseret Yemei Teshuva/ Ten Days of Repentance
The Rambam tells us, in Hilchot Teshuva (chapter 2, halacha 6) that even though teshuva and crying out are “יפה לעולם -always good, nice and pretty,”
בעשרה הימים שבין ראש השנה ויום הכפורים היא יפה ביותר ומתקבלת היא מיד
On the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, it’s extremely pretty and immediately accepted, as it says,
דרשו ה' בהמצאו
To search out to God when He’s to be found, and call out to Him.
Rambam continues that most people don’t realize this, but there are two aspects to The ten days of Teshuva. One is to look for Him, and another is to call out to him when he is close. Rambam continues that this applies to the individual.
As for the masses, we always have the power to do Teshuva and cry out to God with a full heart and be answered, as the pasuk says,
כה' אלהינו בכל קראנו אלי
God is close to us whenever we call out to Him
But an individual has a special power during these ten days.
That being said, the Pele Yoetz (Rav Eliezer Papo, who was better known by the name of that Sefer), in one of the tefilot his sefer Bet Tefila, referred to his book Orot Elim, and wrote that
the Gemarah tells us that anyone who is able to pray for compassion for his friend, and does not pray, is called a sinner . You have to pray for your friend.
Furthermore, he writes, the Kohen Gadol was punished for this. Anyone that was exiled to the Ir Miklat/City of Refuge had to stay there until the Kohen Gadol died, because the Kohen Gadol should have prayed that the generation should not come to sin, and he didn’t.
Therefore, the Pele Yoetz made this prayer, which includes all the possible needs of the entire community of Israel, that no trouble arise for them.
He quotes the prayer, and says that one should say it, at the very least, during the Et Ratzon- the Auspicious Time of Aseret Yemei Teshuva.
So he wrote a special prayer, to pray for the entire Jewish people, and it is to be said during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva
It is therefore quite appropriate for those of us that are working on Ahavat Yisrael to say this prayer. It is interesting that he invokes the prayer of Kohen Gadol, for, as we said recently, when we pray on Rosh Hashanah, we are like the Kohen Gadol.
So it seems, from the Pele Yoetz, that during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, we are given the Kohen Gadol’s power to pray; but with that comes responsibilities:
We have to pray for our friends and use our power; We cannot just pray for ourselves.
The prayer is a long one and it can be said over seven days (so you can start today) or all in one sitting. Click on this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0f6o2c7ld91voq/Peleh%20Yoetz%20for%20aseret%20yemeh%20teshuva.pdf?dl=0
Pray for the Jewish people, and fulfill Ve’ahavta LeRe’echa Kamocha during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva.