Nefesh HaChayim, An Introduction by the Author's Son

And it’s understood that his heart/mind witnessed much wisdom47Paraphrasing Kohelet 1:16, and he enlarged the Torah48Paraphrasing Yeshayahu 42:21 and contributed effort. As a result of his many actions, his wisdom was expressed49Heb.: chokh-ma-toe nit-ka-yeh-met, paraphrasing Avot 3:11: “Anyone whose fear of sin has priority over his wisdom, his wisdom will endure.” in every field of knowledge, to create novel understandings of Torah in G’mara, RaSh”Y’s commentary and Tosafote that are sweeter than honey (and this is despite that in the fragments that his students recorded they wrote that he wasn’t comfortable authoring a book that wasn’t related to applied Halakha). And he responded generously, from his youth until his old age, to all of the great rabbis of our nation and the geniuses of our time, and they were all accepted as applied Halakha. (And it’s due to our sins that most of the responsa that he stored away were destroyed by fire— due to our sins—in the fire that was sent from heaven on Wednesday, the 14th of Iyar in the year 5575, and nearly half the city was burned—may the Merciful save us—and his home was among those that the fire claimed. And only his teaching hall50The Volozhin Yeshiva—God’s mercies flamed within the fire that consumed around it and at its edges—and it remained, like a brand saved from the fire51Paraphrasing Z’kharya 3:2. And the books also survived—blessed be He who performed a miracle in this place. However, many of them remained with the students who were copying them for themselves, and many are scattered around the world52Presumably with Rav Chayyim’s respondents.. May God assist those who collect and compile them.)