A Great Righteous Person, So He Should Be Killed?

"There is a mitzvah that everyone adds - to speak lashon hara about another! He can study the Chofetz Chaim a million times, front to back, with all the commentaries, but when the yetzer hara comes to speak, he immediately recites the five conditions that make it 'mandatory.' If he doesn't, he is told there is Gehenom and no World to Come; he will lose his entire World to Come if he doesn't speak."

On Thursday, Parshat Chukat, 1 Tammuz 5755, exactly 25 years ago, HaGaon HaTzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a delivered his holy words—words that have become increasingly relevant to our era, like a prophecy of what is to come.

"A sin is only when a person adds to the 613 mitzvot. It is written: 'Which you have added (tary"d) and cast off His yoke from your neck.' If a person decides to add to the 613 mitzvot, there is a mitzvah that everyone adds: to speak lashon hara about another. This 'mitzvah' always includes five conditions under which one is 'obligated' to speak."

"There is such a massive Chofetz Chaim, with who knows how many thousands of commentaries, yet there are five conditions where one 'must' speak. The whole world operates according to these five conditions. He can study the Chofetz Chaim a million times, front to back, with all the commentaries, but when the yetzer hara comes to speak, he immediately recites the five conditions that make it 'mandatory.' If he doesn't, he is told there is Gehenom and no World to Come; he will lose his entire World to Come if he doesn't speak."

"So we see that if one does not walk with the true tzaddik, nothing will help. It is good that we study the Chofetz Chaim here—it is a reward for study, a great thing to learn words of Torah—but in order not to speak lashon hara, one needs the true tzaddik. We must know that I am zero of zeros, smaller than dust and ashes—then you will no longer be able to speak about anyone, even if you think it is a mitzvah and an obligation."

"As Reb Noson truly writes in Tefillah 144, even if it is a mitzvah, I do not want such mitzvot. I do not want these mitzvot; I do not want them. I am a person, I do not know. They gave him one sin to commit—not to speak lashon hara—and they will tell you, 'It is a sin! Why are you not speaking?' This sin I want; this sin of not speaking lashon hara is enough for me. Even if they come and tell you it is a mitzvah and an obligation and you must speak, let me embrace this 'sin'."

"Reb Noson writes in Tefillah 144—it is here in Likutey Tefillot—he says there is one sin I want to embrace: one sin, one sin I want to embrace—not to speak lashon hara. Even if they tell me it is a mitzvah, these five conditions, you are obligated: 'All Your works shall thank You, Hashem, and Your pious ones shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your might, to make known to the sons of man His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.'"

"Master of the World, abundant in kindness and truth, have mercy on me and guard me and save me from evil speech and lashon hara, so that I do not speak any evil word about any Jew in the world. Finished—I will not speak, not even about the smallest of the small, the lowest of the low, and Heaven forbid, not about the tzaddikim of the generation. Because usually, the world—the Rebbe says to judge the wicked favorably—so usually the world judges the wicked favorably, but they judge the tzaddikim unfavorably. I am one of those who judges the wicked favorably, but what about the tzaddikim? Should we not judge them favorably?"

"A person wants to be such a great tzaddik, so now we must kill him? Because he studies Gemara and Torah 24 hours a day and is awake at night, so he said something that does not fit my intellect? He does not follow my worldview? So now he is deserving of death because of that? Has a heavenly voice gone out to kill him?"

"So a person must know first to judge the tzaddikim favorably, and after that, he must judge the wicked favorably. If he can judge the tzaddikim favorably, then it is a sign that he can already judge the wicked favorably. But let us not speak about any person in the world, because usually people judge the wicked favorably, and about the tzaddikim, they speak, pouring fire and brimstone upon them. 'If he is such a tzaddik, then why did he do this and that? If he is such a tzaddik, why doesn't he understand this and that?'"

"What I understand—that I am truly a lowly person, the lowest of the low—I understand that, so how does this tzaddik not understand it? So now we must kill him for that. So, Master of the World, I, the smallest of the small, the lowest of the low, may I not open my mouth against any person in the world. Even if they tell me it is a mitzvah and an obligation, I will not. Who am I to speak about any Jew, and all the more so, not about Jews who study Torah for hours, are awake at night, and guard their eyes. What, it is not according to my worldview? So what! The tzaddikim of the generation and the kosher ones of the generation who study 24 hours a day, they are simply guarding their eyes in holiness and modesty, and thank Hashem, we benefit from them. They are the ones educating our children—what, what do we want?"

"Who says I am the tzaddik? I know nothing. I, I would like to know how to pray and study; if only I knew how to have proper intention (kavanah). And the wise and understanding person will truly see, once in all his days, to speak one word of truth. The wise one—if only one true word would come out of him, one moment before his passing."

"Now I am speaking; this is a lesson. A lesson is not words of truth. Words of truth are only in the innermost chambers. A person in the innermost chambers, there he pours out his heart before Hashem, there he hitsboded (secludes himself) under the blanket, truly—a blanket, only that is called truth. The Rebbe says what is called truth; the Rebbe says, 'All are men of truth fighting for the truth.'"

"Truth is: say a chapter of Tehillim in the innermost chambers; that is called truth. Only that is truth—a chapter of Tehillim in the innermost chambers with tears, with a broken heart, that is called truth. The rest of all the 'truths' are all a big lie. Let Hashem run the world. No one is running the world here; perhaps they are only destroying the world. He says, 'And it shall be righteousness for us, if we are careful to perform all this commandment before Hashem our God, as He has commanded us.' And one needs to have aspects of truth. When a person has already begun to be a man of truth, only that is called truth—'all are truth,' and this truth and this truth, fighting for this truth—in the end, a person will enter there, will be in the sect of pure truth, and will finish the world. What, what is truth? It is the pure truth."

"There is one Kantiber who returns from 'The Pure Truth,' ten Jews. Here, the most famous one wrote the book 'The Pure Truth.' In short, I read his history a few years ago; he hated the Jews, he wanted to kill all the Jews. What did the Jews do to him? He barely knew them! Now an article has come out."

"There is always a joke that a German was speaking with someone against the Jews. He poured out [hatred against] a million people, and in truth, it is true—50 million Jews—fire and brimstone, they are the biggest murderers, the biggest criminals, after all, they slaughtered, the Jews are guilty, it is all the Jews. Why? Because everything that happens in the world is because of the Jews, and it is truly like that. So they feel—the gentiles feel—that certainly the Jews are guilty of everything, and it is truly correct, because in truth, the Jews are guilty. If every Jew had prayed a little better, then there would have been no wars. So they are right when they shout, 'The Jews are guilty of everything,' and it is not for nothing."

"The Gemara says, 'This is what people say: everything comes from Above.' Every word comes from Above; one only needs to know its root. In short, there was some German there who poured out fire and brimstone. In the end, he says, 'Yes, but all this is except for Mr. Cohen.' Someone passes by—the Jews—and that is how they are: robbers, murderers, exploiters, charging interest, oppressing, sucking the blood of the other, 'except for Mr. Cohen, except for Mr. Cohen.' They asked him: 'And except for Mr. Cohen, do you know anyone?' 'No! Except for Mr. Cohen, I don't know any Jew.' That is the answer."

"Now I just read a story about someone who returned in teshuvah. He said he was like that; he was on a kibbutz and he loved horses. He went to California and found a horse ranch there, went and became the best cowboy there, the best stable hand. And everything was truly practical; they didn't know he was a Jew. No one knew he was a Jew, and now they need to bring him back in teshuvah. This Nazi was pouring out [hatred]; he started talking about the Jews: 'What kind of Jews are they? What kind of monsters are they, with horns, sucking the blood of the other, and taking it, and after they drink all his blood, they are not satisfied.'"

"He said, 'Listen, do you know that I am a Jew?' He said, 'Yes, so apparently, except for you, you are a good Jew.' That is a true story. And that already brought him back in teshuvah. After that, he noticed that all the cowboys there hated the Jews with a deathly hatred. No one had ever seen a Jew in their life, and it took him a process of a year or two until he grasped it."