In year 5669 (1908-1909), Baruch Meir explained the reason for keeping his diary:
Numbers and accounts are most trustworthy. You cannot have them any different - two times two must be four. Therefore all the sages agree that the number is the measure or yardstick to all that concerns a person – his body and his soul. That is why all the scholars turned to the weighing scales of statistics for their research.
I observed that my Rabbi, The Gaon and Tzadik R’ Moshe Shlomo AB”D in Ilya, had written for 35 years an account of all matters of the soul.
Therefore I prepared this notebook even before my wedding to write in it all matters pertaining to my body and soul so that I will always know where I stand and God of our fathers will guide me in the right way....
It is written in the book and there is nothing that is not important in the issues of life and soul.
| Notes: In general, Baruch Meir kept the diary in real time. The material above was, however, written retrospectively, in 1908 when he was about 50 years old. |
