י

In the year 5565 mentioned above, close to Rosh Chodesh Nisan, his son — may he rest in peace — Shlomo Efraim zichrono livracha was born. And Rabbainu zichrono livracha honored me with the mitzvah of priah [the second stage of circumcision] by him, and Rabbainu zichrono livracha himself was the sandak and the mohel [the one who performed the cutting]. And what would have come to pass had this holy infant survived — it is impossible to explain, and something of a hint to it is written among our materials in only the most allusive way.

And we came to him immediately, the very day after the holy infant mentioned above was born, and we were there for Shabbos and the entire week until he was circumcised — and even afterward until the third day following the circumcision. And during that time we heard from him much Torah and wondrous and awesome conversations on the topic of the evil inclination — that there are many aspects of the evil inclination and so on, and how one must constantly strengthen oneself anew against it to subjugate it and so on. Some of these were written down and printed. Then on that same Shabbos, while we stood before him, he said to me witty words concerning my shoe, which was very badly bent and crooked before him. And he said: "Your shoe resembles someone who has been slapped in the face."