Musar zu Ijow 28:20

In this world the merit of the patriarchs is helpful to the sons; the reverse is true when one's parents have passed on into the world to Come, where the sons still on this earth are able to stand them in good stead by such merits as they accumulate. The reason that the father's merit can exert a favorable influence on the fate of the son is that the cause always influences the effect. In other words, the effect is mystically connected with its source even after it has parted company with it. There is an original common cause to both similar to the common raw material of the physical universe, the raw-material commonly known as hiyuli. This material is referred to in the Torah as תוהו. Nachmanides explains this at the beginning of his commentary on the Book of Genesis. The hiyuli in our world corresponds to a נקודה in the Celestial Regions which is called אין, nought. This is what Job (Job 28,12) referred to when he asked (rhetorically) והחכמה מאין נמצא? This verse is to be understood as a statement rather than as a question. In other words: The source of חכמה is אין. Bereshit Rabbah states that the universe was created for the sake of the אבות, i.e. for he sake of fathers. Now we can understand the sequence in the prayer under discussion. מה נאמר לפניך, "What can we say before You in view of the cessation of the merit of our patriarchs? Even assuming that the merits of our patriarchs had not expired, what did their accomplishments ever do for us except help us in this present world? Their influence was only centred in the Hiyuli. What are we going to do in the World to Come?