Nefesh HaChayim, An Introduction by the Author's Son

(And I have been punished two-fold via my children for this mortal sin. First, the following year, on the fourteenth of Sivan 5582, the day that my father (OBM) passed away, a son was born to me, and I entered him into the covenant via circumcision. He was named after the Neffesh Ha-chayyim. And he is no longer with us for God-Elohi”m took him on the third day after his circumcision. And this year, on the fifth of Kislev, on the holy Shabbat, parsha va-yeitzei, my splendor left me70Paraphrasing Eikhah 1:6, an eight-year old son, handsome, lovely and beloved. He already knew how to give and take about G’mara like an adult: Simkha Naftali Hertz71His name. “God is righteous, for his words I have disobeyed.”72Eikhah 1:18 “And nevertheless, He is merciful and is forgiving of iniquity.”73T’hillim 78:38 “And they will not continue to agonize any longer.”74Yirmiyahu 31:11)