A New Letter from Our Teacher the Rav shlit"a for the Dates 6-8 Tammuz 5776

With the help of Hashem.

A letter from the holy Gaon, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, regarding the days of 6, 7, and 8 Tammuz.

The terrible days of 6, 7, and 8 Tammuz are the holy and terrible days of the martyrs of Uman in the year 5528, four years before the soul of our holy and terrible Rebbe descended to the world. This was supposed to be a year of Geulah, as explained by Reb Noson in Hilchot Chovel B'Chaveiro 3. These three days, in which thirty thousand souls were killed for the sanctification of His Name, blessed be He, in the most bizarre deaths in the world, the likes of which had never been seen since the dawn of time. Every time there is supposed to be a revelation of the terrible Shechinah and Geulah for the people of Israel—at which time the spirit of life from above descends, and it is a time of favor for the revelation of the glory of the Shechinah—the opposite suddenly happens, in the aspect of 'their spirit shall be added, they shall perish' (Torah 66). For the Tosafot in Bava Metzia 114b reveals to us the revelation of Elijah the Prophet, remembered for good, to that widow, regarding whom it is said, 'I have commanded a widow woman.' The holy Zohar asks in Pekudei 250: When did Hashem command her? Rather, before the soul descends to the world, Hashem commands it regarding all the paths and routes it must traverse, and whom to bless with children, and whom to support. Therefore, it is written 'tat' (give) and read 'titen' (you shall give). The holy Zohar says that in the merit of her giving Elijah the Prophet half of her last handful of flour, Hashem gave rain upon the face of the earth, and thereby everyone cried out, 'Hashem is the G-d, Hashem is the G-d.' Nadav and Avihu received their tikkun, for which they were intended—to bring down fire from heaven—only that they were consumed a moment before the time of their revelation. They said, 'When will these two old men die?'—something that Datan and Aviram did not say; they only said, 'Why do you exalt yourselves?' but they did not dream, Heaven forbid, of the death of Moses and Aaron, especially since Moses and Aaron were the father and uncle of Nadav and Avihu.

The Aseret Ma'amarot explains in the essay 'Chakor Din' that what Nadav and Avihu said, 'When will these two old men die?' (Sanhedrin 52a), refers to the verse at the end of Mishpatim 24:1: 'And to Moses He said, "Ascend to Hashem, you and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and bow from afar. And Moses alone shall approach Hashem..."' After the Heavenly Voice went out, 'Elders of Israel, up to here; Nadav and Avihu, up to here,' Nadav and Avihu saw that Aaron was going with Moses, and they were certain that Aaron would ascend with Moses to the heavens, to the highest firmament (Megaleh Amukot 99). And who is the one who will ascend to heaven and descend? For aside from Elijah the Prophet, no one merits to descend from heaven. If so, Nadav and Avihu understood that Moses and Aaron were now ascending to heaven and would presumably not descend again.

For Moses merited three times, after forty days, to descend, and Elijah the Prophet, regarding whom it is said in the Zohar, Ki Tisa 190, that Hashem said to him, 'What are you doing here?' Elijah the Prophet expounds in the Zohar in Parshat Nasso: 'What are you doing here (poh)?' Do not read 'poh' (here) but 'peh' (mouth). If you want the mouth of Moses our Teacher, peace be upon him, you must go to all the circumcisions and be in the aspect of 'like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul.' For it is impossible to receive the Divine light, which doubles itself every single second, unless a person merits, every moment anew and every new second, to be in the aspect of a new child, as our Rebbe explains in Torah 219, 'B'tza'a imrato' (He tore his purple garment), regarding which it is said, 'Hashem is King, He has donned majesty; Hashem has donned, He has girded Himself with strength.' For the garments of Hashem's splendor are renewed every moment and second with greater intensity and greater strength. They can only be attained if 'a man hides in secret places and I do not see him.' Only when a person becomes 'not complete' can 'I see him'—'When shall I come and appear before G-d?' Only then can he see the majesty of Hashem in His garments of splendor. For in the place of His greatness, there you find His humility. And as much as Hashem becomes great and exalted, so too, every moment and second, a person must become more and more nullified from existence. This is the secret of all the terrible killings in every generation. For in every generation, Hashem reveals Himself more and more with greater intensity and greater strength, and for this, a person must become more and more nullified to the light of the Infinite (Ein Sof). For the light of Hashem, blessed be He, doubles itself every moment and second, and so it will be until the end of all generations. In the resurrection of the dead, there will be true nullification, for anyone who has pride in him, his dust will not be stirred for the resurrection of the dead. For in the resurrection of the dead, they will reach true nullification, which is the secret of the Red Heifer. The passing of the tzaddikim atones like the Red Heifer. This is what we read before 6, 7, 8 Tammuz, regarding which it is said, 'And he shall slaughter it before him.' The Midrash Rabbah says, 'And Elazar shall take'—this is Nebuchadnezzar, who fulfilled the role of the High Priest to burn the heifer, the entire people of Israel, in the aspect of 'They have given the carcasses of Your servants as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of Your pious ones to the beasts of the earth.' Therefore, the highest level is that of the frog, which says (Proverbs 25:21-22), 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you are heaping coals upon his head.' And the flesh of Rabbi Akiva was sold in the marketplace; the Arizal says this was the flesh of demons. But Rabbi Akiva himself, who then merited the secret of the tefillin of the head (Megaleh Amukot 72, 173), and 'all precious things his eyes saw,' for things that were not revealed to Moses were revealed to Rabbi Akiva (Midrash Rabbah 19). For Moses only merited the aspect of 'And you shall see My back,' the knot of the tefillin, while Rabbi Akiva merited the secret of the 'shin' of the tefillin. This is through being included in the tip of the letter 'daled' of 'Echad' (One). This is what Moses wanted from the spies, 'to scout the land'—'I set my heart to scout with wisdom' (Sefat Emet)—that they should ascend from Binah to Chochmah, in the secret of 'to scout the land' (the acronym of Leah). But they went 'from Rechov to L'vo Chamath' (the acronym of Rachel) and remained in the aspect of Rachel. Therefore, it was decreed that same night that all the destructions until the end of all generations would arrive, because we do not merit to reach the aspect of Leah, the aspect of 'and the eyes of Leah were weak,' the secret of crying, which is the secret of the tikkun ('For in Your name they shall rejoice all day' is the acronym for 'bechiya' - crying). For through crying every night at midnight, a person can reach the secret of nullification and the tikkun, that every single day he will reach a completely new nullification that never existed before. Thereby, we will be able to receive the new Divine light of every single day, which is in the aspect of 'a double portion,' which is what Elisha asked of Elijah the Prophet: to merit every single day a new nullification of a double portion. Yes, until we can receive the new Divine light of every single day, which is in the aspect of a double portion. Then we will no longer need the tikkun of destructions, but we will merit every single day the aspect of the resurrection of the dead, that we will have the vessels of humility and lowliness to see Hashem face to face. And we will not need the aspect of 'tearing His purple garment,' but we will merit the eternal light of eternity, which is the light of our holy and terrible Rebbe, the light of nullification. Therefore, a person must from time to time leave the land and go abroad to receive the new light of nullification (Tefillat Arvit 4), and thereby there will be no more destructions, Heaven forbid.