A Lesson for the Residents of Emanuel at the Residence of the Gaon and Tzaddik

Last Monday, the night of the 22nd of Iyar, during the week of Parshas Behar-Bechukosai, a lesson was held at the home of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a for the residents of the city of Emanuel in the Shomron (Samaria), lasting for nearly an hour.

Before you is a summary of the topics about which the Rav shlit"a spoke during the lesson:

David's betrothal to two sisters. How is it possible that David betrothed Merav with "great wealth"? Anyone who attends a wedding merits to be blessed with children (to be nifkad) and all types of salvations. When a chuppah (wedding canopy) is made, all enemies are destroyed—the word chuppah is related to the word "kallah" (meaning both bride and to consume/finish). Iyov (Job) boasted that he was eyes for the blind and legs for the lame, and that he helped orphans and widows, but the truth is that he should have acted so that there would be no orphans and no widows—like Moshe Rabbeinu, through whom all the blind were healed and all the lame grew legs, and people did not die. Torah 6 (of Likutey Moharan) teaches that the essence of teshuvah (repentance) is to hear one's humiliation, stay silent, and be still; the more one accepts humiliations with love, the more merit one gains. If Binyamin (Benjamin) had accepted all the blows with love, he would have received the entire Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple), as it is written: "and He dwells between his shoulders." The same applies to the mekalel (the blasphemer), who should have accepted all the humiliations. Kayin (Cain) was divided into three—the Nefesh (soul level) went to the Egyptian, the Ruach (spirit level) to Korach, and the Neshamah (higher soul level) to Yisro (Jethro); therefore, Yisro did teshuvah because he possessed the Neshamah. Kayin brought flax to rectify the souls of the Gevuros (severities). Nachum Ish Gamzu accepted suffering upon himself because he told a poor man to wait; his students said to him: "Woe to us that we see you in such a state!" He replied to them: "Woe to me if you did not see me in such a state." Calculations of the borders of the Land regarding Shmita (the sabbatical year) and Ma'asros (tithes), and the status of Eilat in this regard, as well as the laws of mixed marriages and the limits of who could be married, as brought in the chapter "Asara Yuchsin" in Tractate Kiddushin. "I will command My blessing"—Hashem says that you will have abundance in the sixth, seventh, and ninth years, just keep Shmita! The women in Tzippori would fly to the Beis HaMikdash out of their intense desire to pray there, and they would manage to return before the sun shone on the tops of the fig trees, and the daughters of Lod would manage to return before the dough had risen. There was a story about two people who walked for several months in the desert and finally reached a remote village and found a woman there who had been in a foreign land for several months, and in that merit, she returned to her roots. Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Yossi both looked and saw two people who met a man in the desert; one gave all his food and one refused to give food. The woman elevates all the prayers; while the man is immersed in his phone in the middle of prayer, the woman is entirely tamimus (innocence/simplicity). Today is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of Rabbi Chaim Alfandari, who said to give a stipend to Rabbi Yisrael Ber Odesser in Teverya (Tiberias). With Hashem, there is no difference where a person is; like the story of a man who came to a Rebbe and said he ate a fattened chicken every day but had lost his wealth, and the Rebbe refused to give him such a delicacy, but truly that same day his sister arrived and brought him a fattened chicken, and in that merit, he brought it to him every day. And returning to the story of Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Yossi: that same person who gave all his food was already close to death and lay under a rock, and a snake came to bite him, and then Rabbi Yossi said, "Now the miracle will happen," and suddenly another snake came and ate the first snake—and in the merit of the chesed (kindness) that man performed, he was saved from the snake!