Tzettil Katan

The Small Note of our Master, the Rav, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, of blessed and holy memory.

These are the things a person shall do and live by them:

Alef. At every time and moment when he is free from Torah study — and especially when he is sitting idle alone in a room, or lying in his bed unable to sleep — he should meditate on the positive commandment: 'I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel.' He should imagine in his soul and picture in his mind as though a great and terrible fire blazes before him reaching to the heart of heaven, and for the sanctification of God's name he breaks his own nature and throws himself into the fire for the Kiddush Hashem. And a good intention, the Holy Blessed One accounts as a deed — and so he is not lying or sitting idle, but fulfilling a positive commandment from the Torah.

Bet. During the first verse of the Shema and the first blessing of the Amidah he should meditate as described above, and he should further intend: even if all the nations of the world were to torture him with every harsh torment and flay the skin from his flesh in order to make him deny, God forbid, the divine unity — he would endure all the suffering and would not capitulate, God forbid. He should picture in his mind and thought as though they were actually doing this to him as described above, and through this he fulfills his obligation of Shema and prayer as required by law.

Gimel. Also during the act of eating and marital intimacy he should direct his intention as described above. When he begins to feel physical pleasure, he should picture in his mind as described above, and immediately say aloud and in his heart that he has far greater pleasure and joy in fulfilling the positive commandment of 'I shall be sanctified' in the way described above than in feeling this physical pleasure, which belongs to the filth of a serpent's skin. And he should say it. And proof that this is so — that he would indeed have greater pleasure and joy in the fulfillment of 'I shall be sanctified' as described above — is this: even if murderers were to seize him in the middle of eating or intimacy to inflict harsh torments upon him, he would gladden himself over the sanctification of God's name more than over this physical pleasure. However, he must be careful to speak the truth in his heart, and that it should truly be engraved on the tablet of his heart, in the inward and innermost part of the heart, with complete and genuine sincerity — and he must not deceive himself by defrauding the mind of the Divine, God forbid.

Dalet. In all things in the world — whether in Torah, whether in prayer, whether in practical commandments — he should accustom himself to say in this language: 'I hereby do this for the sake of the unification of the Holy Blessed One and His Shekhinah, to give pleasure to the Creator, blessed be His name.' He should accustom himself to say this in the inward part of the heart, and in time he will feel a great illumination in saying it.

Heh. When a bad trait begins to stir in him, God forbid — from the bad traits to which he is accustomed, such as stubbornness, the shame-born pride, laziness, and the idleness that brings on dullness, and the like — he should say immediately, with full force, in this language: 'The Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite!' — and he will be saved. He should accustom himself to restrict his gaze so as not to look beyond four cubits, even when he is in his own home, and especially in the synagogue and the room where he studies and along the road as he walks outside. When a woman comes before him — even his own wife — or his young children, and the like, he should picture before his eyes the Name: Adonai. And if there comes upon him, God forbid, an evil thought of immorality, he should say several times: 'And you shall guard yourself from every evil thing,' and he should then call to mind the teachings of the Sages who interpreted this to mean that a person should not let himself have improper thoughts by day lest he come to impurity at night. He must not allow the evil thought to dwell in his mind, God forbid, lest he defile the supernal intellect.

Zayin. When there comes before him, God forbid, an evil sight — such as an animal or beast or bird mating, or a handbreadth of flesh exposed on a woman in a place of nakedness, and the like — he should immediately say the verse: 'And you shall not stray after your hearts,' and he must not defile his intellect, God forbid.

Chet. He should accustom himself not to begin speaking with any person except for a great and pressing need, and even what is necessary he should speak in very brief words, sifted through thirteen sieves, so that his speech contains no falsehood, God forbid, no flattery, no evil speech or gossip, no shaming of another person, and no displaying of his deeds before others. He should accustom himself to the general principle that the Sages stated: 'Train your tongue to say: I do not know.' When other people speak to him who are not careful about speaking idle words, he should slip away from them with all his strength and by every possible means. When it is impossible to slip away in any manner, he should at least be very brief in whatever he is compelled to answer them.

Tet. He should accustom himself to say immediately upon waking from sleep: 'Modeh ani lefanecha, Melech chai ve-kayam, she-hechezarta bi nishmati be-chemlah rabbah — emunatecha.' ('I give thanks before You, living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with great compassion — great is Your faithfulness.') And he should say, even in the Yiddish vernacular, with a joyful heart: 'Blessed is the God on High who has given me the commandment of these fringes by which I am surrounded, and the commandment of the morning washing of the hands to remove the spirit of impurity and the harsh shell from both of my hands.' He should see to it that his heart is filled with joy in saying the above, and he should accept upon himself the boundary of limited speech described above in letter Chet.

Yod. He should be very careful to maintain continuous study at fixed intervals immediately upon rising from sleep. After reciting the Midnight Repair-Service (Tikun Chatzot) and the Tzettil Katan, he should not stir from the book he is studying even for a single hour. Each time he sits down to study, and after he recites the prayer of Ha-Shav that begins 'Ana Hashem...' and the prayer of the Torah Scholar that begins 'Hineini rotzeh lilmod,' he should try with all his strength not to make any interruption, even a single other thought apart from the thought of learning and the thought of the Tzettil Katan which is before his eyes — for the light within it will return him to the good path.

Yod-Alef. He should accustom himself to pray with all his strength, in a voice that arouses intention, cleaving his mind to his words, with his face to the wall, within the prayer book, morning and evening, and he should not glance to the sides from the beginning of prayer to the end. During the cantor's repetition of the Amidah he should follow along in the prayer book to answer Amen with full strength after every single blessing. During the Torah reading he should incline his ear to every single word spoken by the reader, as one reads the Megillah. He should conduct himself as though mute in the synagogue, even before and after the prayer, until he departs for his home.

Yod-Bet. He should always picture in his mind — and especially during the reading of this Tzettil Katan — as though a person is standing close beside him and arousing him with a great and thunderous voice to fulfill all these practices. He should not let any matter fall to the ground, not even a small point. When he accustoms himself in this way, in time a great awakening will come upon him from the side of his soul: the burning coals of the flame of God.

Yod-Gimel. He should recount before his teacher in the way of God — and even before a faithful friend — all the thoughts and evil impulses that run contrary to our holy Torah, which the evil inclination raises up into his mind and heart, whether during Torah or prayer, whether as he lies in bed, or in the middle of the day. He should conceal nothing out of shame. And it is found that through the telling of these things — by bringing them from potentiality into actuality — he breaks the power of the evil inclination so that it cannot overpower him so greatly the next time. In addition to this, there is the good counsel he can receive from his friend who walks in the way of God — and this is a wondrous remedy.

Yod-Dalet. He should be very, very, very careful to return to this Tzettil Katan repeatedly throughout every full day, and he should explain every single word of it in the Yiddish vernacular. This shall be for him a firm statute, never to be transgressed: to study before marital intimacy chapter sixteen of Reishit Chochmah and the practices of the holy Ari. If time remains, he should also study chapter seventeen of the same Reishit Chochmah. This too shall be for him a firm statute, never to be transgressed.

Tet-Vav. Before washing the hands for a bread meal he should recite the prayer of Ha-Shav of our master Rabbenu Yonah of blessed memory. After eating the bread of the blessing he should say in this language: 'For the sake of the unification of the Holy Blessed One and His Shekhinah — I am not eating for the pleasure of my body, God forbid, only so that my body shall be healthy and strong for His service, blessed be His name. And let no sin or transgression or evil thought or physical pleasure impede the unification of the Holy Blessed One through the holy sparks of this eating and drinking.' He should direct his intention — when he eats something — that the taste he feels in his mouth during chewing and during swallowing is the inner holiness and the holy sparks that dwell in that food or drink, and that through eating and grinding with the teeth and through the stomach, the inner holiness is refined from the food so that no residue remains to nourish the outer shells. His soul then draws pleasure from the inner holiness; the waste becomes residue and is expelled toward the outer shells. He should then resolve in his mind that immediately when he feels the need to relieve himself, he will not delay the waste within his body — lest it defile, God forbid, his mind, or cause his soul disgust by retaining the excrement and urine within him even for a single moment. He should also picture before him during eating the letters Mem-Alef-Chaf-Lamed (ma'achal, 'food') in Assyrian script, and reflect that they sum numerically to ninety-one, the value of the Divine Name Havayah combined with Adonai.

Tet-Zayin. A person was created in this world only in order to break his nature. Therefore he should hasten to repair his character traits precisely at the age of eighteen, as I shall explain. For example: one who was born with a nature of stubbornness should break his nature for forty consecutive days by doing specifically the opposite of whatever rises in his mind. Similarly, one who is by nature lazy should accustom himself for forty consecutive days to do every single thing with alacrity — whether going to lie down in bed, or rising in the morning from his sleep, or in swiftly dressing and washing his hands, cleaning his body, and going quickly to the synagogue immediately after rising from his book, and the like. Similarly, one whose nature is bashful from a part of bad shame should accustom himself for forty days to pray specifically with a loud voice and with the power of bodily movement, fulfilling 'all my bones shall declare,' and to bless over the Torah with a loud voice, until Heaven helps him to remove the bad shame from him. Similarly, one whose words do not emerge well and in order due to the habit of his nature and his organs of speech should accustom himself for forty days to incline his ear to the words that come forth from himself, whether in everyday matters or in sacred matters, whether during study — for the habit of any matter becomes its master. Similarly, one who by nature does not persevere in his studies should also accustom himself for forty days and study more than his habit, and look each time before studying in my Tzettil Katan — and from then on, Heaven will help him to continue adding in the breaking of his bad traits until they are finished entirely.

Yod-Zayin. At every time when he is free from Torah and from prayer, he should teach himself by heart the things he needs — such as the Tikun Rachel and the Tikun Leah, the prayer of Ha-Shav, the Blessing of the Moon, Berikh Shemeh, Al ha-kol, and the Modim of the Rabbis. And he should meditate on the positive commandment of 'I shall be sanctified' and so forth, as written above.