Likutei Etzot
Introduction
Who is the man who desires life? Who will choose eternal life? Who truly cares about his soul? Who is for the Lord? Attend carefully to what you find in this work. It is small in size but rich in quality. See. Gaze. Wonder. Great things did He do in their days, when awesome and wonderous counsel, pathways old and new were revealed - founded upon pillars of fine gold, planted by flowing water, gushing from the spring that comes from the House of the Lord. Deep waters are the counsel in the heart of man, waters drawn by a man of understanding.
Come and see the deeds of God. Pay attention to these words. They are words that stand at the summit of the universe, the words of the Living God, King of the World. They are words to revive all souls, from the smallest to the greatest, from the soul at the peak of all levels to that on the lowest of levels. There is no true guidance or holy counsel that you will not find in this book. Nothing that your soul asks will be withheld. Prick up your ears and hear. Open your eyes and see. Understand and see the absolute truth. Turn away from crookedness of heart, from the paths of mockery and falsehood. Cast away all vain sophistication. Take pity on your soul and direct your understanding and all your thoughts to the truth alone. If you err from the truth, who will you be deceiving? Only yourself.
Take this book, and examine it. Do its words contain even a hint of dishonesty, God forbid? Have its footsteps strayed from the path of righteousness and truth that our fathers of old walked? I trusted in God. I shall not be ashamed of these words, not in this world nor in the World to Come. I shall acknowledge the Lord greatly with my lips. Among the multitudes will I praise Him. For He stood by the right hand of one poor as myself and gave me the strength and courage to gather these precious flowers and the power to bring lasting healing. They are the life of the soul, fountains of living water drawn from the wellsprings of salvation. All that flows from them is founded upon the words of our fathers and teachers, of blessed memory, in the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, in the Scriptures, the Babylonian Talmud, the Jerusalem Talmud, the Midrashim and the books of the Holy Zohar and the ARI, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of blessed memory. These are the sources for all the teachings set forth in this precious volume. To dwell upon their praises would be to detract from the many curtains that conceal their depth. But anyone who examines them through the eye of truth will see for himself the preciousness of the glory of their greatness.
The truth will testify for itself. The Lord God of truth will give truth to Yaakov, He will send His light and His truth and ever lead us in the path of truth. He will incline our shoulders to bear the yoke of His service all the days of our lives in truth and to love peace and truth until the throne of David will be established and he will sit upon it in truth, speedily in our days. Amen
