Reviewing the Little Note: A Fixed Daily Rule
How often should a person go back over the little note, and how should he read it? And what should he learn before the most private moment of married life? R’ Elimelech makes both into rules, and sets them down with unusual force.
Name a tzaddik: tap for who he wasTitle a sefer
- Reishis Chochmah, Shaar HaKedushah, ch. 16, on the holiness of marital union; ch. 17, on what blemishes the covenant and how it is repaired. ↩
- Editor's note: He does not say which practices he means. It seems he may be referring to one of the written collections of the Arizal's conduct (hanhagos), perhaps its rules for the holiness of marital union. ↩
Item 14 sets two fixed rules. The first is daily review: at some point in every day and night a person goes back over the Tzetel Katan and explains each word to himself in Yiddish, the language he speaks. The second is preparation for marital union: before it he learns chapter 16 of Reishis Chochmah’s Gate of Holiness and the practices of the Arizal, and, with time to spare, chapter 17 as well. He gives no reason here; he says twice that each is a rule never to be broken. In his scheme, the list lives only if it is read and understood daily, and the holiness he asked for at the moment of pleasure in item 3 is prepared for by learning beforehand.
Read the little note every day, explaining each word to yourself in the language you speak, and prepare for the most private moments with learning on holiness, for R' Elimelech makes both a rule that never lapses.
Learn this in the merit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. His yahrzeit and life ›
English translation, notes and summaries © Zechusam.