Musar su Osea 14:3

And the fifteenth principle is prayer: A man should pray to God and request mercy to atone for all of his iniquities, as it is stated (Hosea 14:3), "Take words with you and return to the Lord; say to Him. 'Forgive all guilt and accept the good; and we will pay with the bulls of our lips'" - this is the matter of confession. "Say to Him. 'Forgive all guilt and accept what is good'" - this is the matter of prayer. And its explanation is, "accept the good" - the good actions that we did. For they, may their memory be blessed, said (Sotah 21a), "Sin extinguishes [the merit of] a commandment." But at the time of repentance, the iniquities will be atoned; so the merit of the commandment will arise, and its merit will shine. For before repentance, its light did not shine forth. And so it is written (Job 8:6), "If you are blameless and upright, He will now awaken [your merit] for you and grant well-being to your righteous home." And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed said (Yerushalmi Rosh Hashanah 1:3), "It does not say, 'If you were blameless and upright,' but rather 'If you are blameless and upright' - since you have repented." "He will now awaken [your merit] for you" - now after the repentance that you have done, "He will now awaken" all of the righteousness that you had done before, and that which your home was wide open and you 'planted a tamarisk' for lodging, as it is written (Job 31:32), "I opened my doors to the road." But before your repentance, your righteousness did not protect you. However, after your repentance and [when] your iniquity was removed, "He will awaken [your merit] for you and grant well-being to your righteous home." "And we will pay with the bulls of our lips" - our confession will be considered like the bulls of sin-offerings, for our acceptance in front of You. And it mentions bulls, because the bull sin-offering was inside [the chamber] and they would sprinkle from its blood on the curtain and on the golden (incense) altar.

As to the quality of penitence, the reason for referring it to (the sense of) taste is that contrition and penitence are felt for what has gone before, and one denies himself different kinds of enjoyment, which are rendered possible by means of the taste, as it is said (Hos. xiv. i), "O Israel, return." The attributing also of the quality of tranquility to (the sense of) taste is seen in the saying of Sennecharib (II. Kings xviii. 31), "Eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig-tree;" and again (Jud. xviii. 7), "And they saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt in safety."

In light of these things, let everyone who fears God and trembles before Him take to heart the sublimity and glory of prayer and the importance of praying with concentration. Fortunate is he who honors his Creator with his voice, with love and with concentration of the heart, and who ascribes to the Holy One Blessed is He — unity, sanctity and blessing. Concerning this was it written, “You shall surely give to him from your flock, from your threshing floor and from your winepress” (Devarim 15:14). The phrase, “from your flock,” alludes to the reciting the passages of the sacrifices before the morning service. One should have mind the verse, “And let us pay for [the offerings of] bullocks with [the prayers of] our lips” (Hoshea 14:3), as one recites them. The next phrase, “from your threshing floor (garnecha),” alludes to the prayers, praises and songs that one offers up with one’s throat (garon). Finally, in the phrase, “from your winepress (miyikvecha),” the middle letters form an acronym for the words: “unification” (yichud), “blessing” (berachah) and “holiness” (kedushah), as is mentioned in Tikkunei Zohart (Zohar Chadash 130a).