5781 is the Year of Redemption

Pearls from the holy words of our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a, delivered from Tsalmon during the holy days of the Tishrei festivals, 5781.

“5781 is the Year of Geulah”

Now it is 5781 – the year of “Me’ashpot” (from the dunghills). 5781 is Avot (using the Atbash cipher): Tav becomes Aleph, Shin becomes Bet, Peh becomes Vav, and Aleph becomes Tav. Avot means – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are the true shepherds. And “he pastured with faith” (Tehillim 78:72); Abraham had faith, so the Egyptians would have done teshuvah (repentance). One must do teshuvah, at least to convert; everything a person comes into this world for is only to convert. Until now it was Yom Kippur, so one must do teshuvah. The High Priest enters the Holy of Holies, so everyone does teshuvah.

“Now is the Revelation of Mashiach”

Noah’s dove brought a plucked olive leaf in its mouth. The Zohar says it was from the Garden of Eden; it was the soul of Mashiach, “And I am like a verdant olive tree in the house of Hashem” (Tehillim 52:10). The work of man is to be a ‘verdant olive tree’ so that he can bring Mashiach. It is written in Likutey Halachot (Vol. 3, p. 26b) that all the dancing at a wedding is because one merits bringing King Mashiach.

Rebbe Nathan said, “I do not see Mashiach in the next hundred years”; it was delayed by a hundred. He said this in 5679. Exactly now is one hundred years later; then it was 5680, now it is 5780/5781. Now is the revelation of Mashiach, “And you shall return, every man to his possession.”

In two years is Shmita, and then on the night after Sukkot, the night after the first day of the holiday, a platform of fire will descend from the heavens, and Mashiach will descend from the heavens. They will see how he descends and sits on the platform. And then Noah’s dove will arrive. We will ask where the dove disappeared to; it is in the Garden of Eden. There is a hall called the “Bird’s Nest,” a special hall for Noah’s dove, which is why it came from the Garden of Eden. This was not the dove that was in the Ark; this was the dove that came to him from the Garden of Eden, bringing olive leaves to anoint Mashiach ben David with oil.

Every Rosh Hashanah is to draw down the two Mashiachs: Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben David. A person comes into the world for one reason: to draw down the two Mashiachs. This is the entire prayer of Yom Kippur: “A praise to those who fear You... David Your servant...”, all the prayers until we reach “The Holy King,” twice Mashiach ben David, after that “Our God and God of our fathers, may it ascend and come and arrive and be seen and be favored and be heard,” again “may it ascend and come, Mashiach ben David Your servant.”

A person comes into the world to draw down the soul of Mashiach. That is why a person comes into the world; it is possible. That is why we established this tent, to draw down the soul of Mashiach. And on the night after the first day of the holiday, we must see Mashiach descending on a platform of fire. Everyone must see him at ten [o'clock] as he descends. Everyone will be able to see at ten, Mashiach descending on a platform of fire, in a chariot of fire, on horses of fire, like Elijah the Prophet who entered the cleft of the rock. “Behold, there is a place with Me” (Shemot 33:21); what is this? The Holy of Holies is the cleft of the rock!

“The Tzaddik is Fire”

“Therefore the poets say: Come to Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and established; for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon” (Bamidbar 21:27-28), because the Tzaddik is fire. Yael is fire, Devorah is fire – “Eshet Lapidot” (woman of torches), fire of steel. Yael was fire of steel, Devorah was fire of steel, Eshet Lapidot. Devorah, from the day she was born, she was fire. Yael, from the moment she was born, she was fire. So she says to Barak: “Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men” (Shoftim 4:6). This ten thousand is the aspect of “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (Shmuel I 18:7); this is the aspect of David.

Because Saul was the greatest Tzaddik of all generations, and he went to die on the mountains of Gilboa, “You and your sons will be with me” (Shmuel I 28:19). He took his sons; such a Tzaddik as Saul had not existed since the creation of the world. And therefore Shmuel (Samuel) is the letters of “Me’Shaul” (from Saul), because Shmuel was the soul of Saul. “Moshe and Aharon among His priests, and Shmuel among those who call upon His name” (Tehillim 99:6). Shmuel was the aspect of Moshe and Aharon; he was equivalent to Moshe and Aharon.

Yael was not born of a woman; Yael was born from angels. She was entirely fire. From the day she was born, she was a flame of fire. How is it possible to take a tent peg and drive it into his temple and a person not wake up? A thousandth of a second is enough; in a thousandth of a second, you choke her and that’s it. “Blessed above women shall Yael be” (Shoftim 5:24), more than Sarah. Not like Sarah, “Blessed above women,” more than women. More than Sarah, that is already Gematria... 266, and plus Rachel 238, and plus Yael with David, because she merited to have everyone included in her: Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, and Leah.

Leprosy – Questions about Hashem and the Tzaddik

Miriam spoke about Moshe; she said, “Moshe surely committed some sin.” So Hashem showed her – she became entirely leprous, from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head, there was no soundness in her. If a person has a question about Hashem, he immediately becomes a leper; one second that a person fails.

From the moment a person is born, he questions Hashem. A person is born to fight with octopuses; today they make dolls in the shape of octopuses. A person comes into the world with octopuses; an octopus has eight arms. A person comes into the world to fight with octopuses, with lions, hundreds of lions and many leopards!

We saw hundreds of lions in Zimbabwe, hundreds of lions! If a person shoots into the air, he will get life imprisonment. To know exactly how many lions are in the forests, which lioness has been blessed with children, how many lions will be born – they announce on the radio where the lions are gathering. A lion is an animal that is all mercy, like Bar Kochba, who was such a hero, and the lion knelt before him, he said to him, “You are more than a lion.” Bar Kochba is more than a lion.

Teshuvah through the Power of Torah Study

A person must say words of Torah all day, then the Tzaddikim will be embodied in him. Because a person says 12,000 words in an hour; in a minute that is 200 words, times 60 is 12,000, times four letters is 48,000. From 7:30 until 7:30 in the evening, that is exactly 600,000, and with this, four and a half letters. So ten hours is enough; in ten hours he can already say 600,000 letters.

Everyone will do teshuvah. If Amram had not divorced Yocheved, everyone would have done teshuvah, and they would not say Hallel. The Rambam says that it is not called Hallel at all; it is forbidden to say Hallel, it is a blessing in vain, says the Rambam. Half-Hallel is not called Hallel. “My handiwork is drowning in the sea.” Because if Amram had held onto faith, he would not have divorced Yocheved, Mashiach would have come immediately, the soul of Moshe would have descended, and the Egyptians would have immediately done teshuvah. Therefore, it is written in Gilgulei Neshamot (Reincarnations of Souls) that Amram came in a reincarnation as Chizkiyahu.

It is written in chapter 19 of Isaiah that everyone did teshuvah. There is no such thing – day and night. Sennacherib saw that the Seder night had begun, Charoset, there is Matzah on the table, cups, the cup of Elijah the Prophet, they are preparing. Sennacherib went crazy; he said, “I arrived with two billion six hundred million, and Chizkiyahu says, ‘I am not preparing a bow, I am not preparing arrows.’”

Through Luz one reaches the Resurrection of the Dead

“Upon Edom I will cast My shoe” (Tehillim 60:10); this is the sole of Leah. The sole of Leah became the Tefillin of Rachel. It is written, “Rabbi Yehuda said, Rav said: A person should always sell the beams of his house and buy shoes for his feet” (Shabbat 129a). A house for five million, you will sell it? What will you buy? A pair of shoes for 100 shekels? Are we crazy? How is it possible to sell the beams of his house? I have a villa for five million, I will sell it to buy shoes for 100 shekels?

This is what the Gemara says: he should sell the beams of his house so that he will have shoes. All the words of the Gemaras are signs and hints; the entire Etz Chaim (Kabbalistic teachings) is found in the Gemara. Because a house is Rachel, the beams of his house are Rachel, shoes are Leah, who sits at the “crown of the head of the crown of his brothers” – in Luz. Every Torah 85 in Likutey Moharan is a huge Torah, the most important Torah in the world, that through Luz one reaches the Resurrection of the Dead.

Yom Kippur is the Resurrection of the Dead, and now on Yom Kippur we could have revived all the dead in the world, to sweeten the Coronavirus, it is possible to cancel all diseases. Every three days a hundred pass away; it affects everyone, it does not skip anyone. A person needs to know that when the High Priest enters the Holy of Holies, he cancels all diseases. It is written that in the First Temple there were only 18 High Priests. Let us divide the 410 years of the First Temple by twenty, so about 21 years on average for each priest. There was Yehoyada the Priest, Zechariah, the blood of Zechariah the Prophet, which was bubbling... until Yom Kippur, just like now is Yom Kippur.