A person who is driven away and hated, that person brings Moshiach

“In the merit of him being placed in the pit, he merits, and all the generation merits together with him’.

Eleven years’ ago, Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, gave over the following inspiring words as part of a shiur (Torah class) he delivered to mark the yahrtzeit of Rav Natan of Breslev, in 5766. Despite the fact that the Rav, shlita, devoted his whole life to serving Hashem with every drop of his strength, the following excerpt shows that he was still yearning for the moment when he could start serving Hashem from a place of maximum mesirut nefesh, or self-sacrifice.

Here’s an excerpt of what the Rav said, more than eleven years’ ago in 5766:

“A person who is driven away and hated, that person brings Moshiach ben David. He will enter Gan Eden with his body, like Avraham’s servant, Eliezer, like Yosef HaTzaddik. Yosef HaTzaddik - he was driven away, he was hated. He spent 20 years in Mitzrayim without seeing another [Jewish] soul, without seeing a Jew, alone. A Jew needs to dance. He used to dance by himself.

“It’s written about Yosef: ‘A successful man' (Bereishis 39), the midrash explains 'A successful man is a jumping guy’ (Midrash Raba 86:4). Says the Rebbe: He who is always happy is successful. What is a ‘jumping guy’? A man, a person who dances all day long is called a jumping guy. What is a successful man? It’s someone who all day long dances, dances, dances by himself, he dances all day long, he dances and sings. He sings melodies to Hashem all day long, all he does is dance, dance, dance, dance.

“Says the Rebbe, ‘I achieved the [soul level of] yechida, on it's highest most elevated level[1].’ The Rebbe reached this level of yechida, on the highest possible level, where there’s no ‘world’, there’s nothing, there’s no people, nothing exists, yechida, on it's ultimate highest level. The Rebbe’s soul was drawn down from a place where there were no breakages.[2]

“There’s a level yud in the world of Malbush (lit. garments) which is above all of the worlds, above the world of Tehiru (lit. purity). And from this yud, the soul of Rabbenu was drawn down, and the soul of Rav Natan.

“These were souls that didn’t contain any breakages. Wherever you’d put them, even in prison among criminals, wherever you put them - like Moshe Rabbenu, who grew up in Pharoah’s palace, wherever you threw him. Avraham grew up with Terach. Ok, so then Yitzhak grew up with Avraham, and Yaakov grew up with Yitzhak, but Avraham [himself] grew up with Terach.

Moshe was in the house of Pharaoh, David was tossed into the sheep pen, and called a mamzer (a child produced by a marriage or encounter that was illegal according to the halacha). Until he was 28 years’ old, his father called him a mamzer. ‘A stranger I was to my father’[3], what does it mean, ‘a stranger I was to my father’? It means they called him a mamzer. So, the father of David called him a mamzer, and everyone else also called him a mamzer, all his brothers called him a mamzer. He didn’t have anyone to encourage him, he just sat, and played his music, and sang to Hashem.

“Yosef sat in prison for 12 years. His brothers sold him, and he spent 12 years dancing in the prison. He was simply the ‘jumping guy’. He spent those 12 years in prison filling them up with dancing. He would say: ‘Remember me! Remember me! Fulfill this. So what, that I’m in the prison, Hashem can also be found even in the prison, Hashem is everywhere! For as long as you’re alive, you need to dance and sing.

“Yosef was certain that his father had sold him. How could he not have notified his father [That he was in Egypt]? Because, he said to himself: ‘Could they really have sold me without my father’s agreement?!

He loved his brothers so much, he judged them so favorably, that he said to himself: ‘it’s impossible that my brothers could have sold me without my father’s knowledge. For sure, Abba made a halachic ruling for them to sell me, and Abba sent me to Shechem in order for them to sell me. How is it even possible that Abba didn’t know? It’s because I said that Abba and Imma would bow down to me, so midda kneged midda, he sold me now to be a slave. I hinted to him that ultimately he would be my servant, that he would bow down to me, so now, he said ‘a turn for a turn’, and he sold me to be a slave. And that’s what I deserve.’

“Truthfully, if a person knew that he deserved everything he got, he wouldn’t have any difficulty [accepting it].

“According to Rabbi Yehuda, Chonio (Onias IV)  said ‘I deserved it’ (being persecuted and sent away), so that’s OK, but according to Rabbi Meir, Chonio was a Tzaddik, so ‘I didn’t deserve it’. ‘I don’t deserve it’ - so he was completely crushed (and he ended up serving idolatry). When a person knows ‘I deserve everything’, whatever you do to me, I deserve it, whatever you do to him, OK! That way, he can withstand all the things in the world, all the persecution and all the insults, because ‘I deserve everything!’ On the contrary, a person should think they’re giving me too little, I deserve a lot more [insults and persecution].

“One should always know that ‘I deserve it’, whatever you’re doing to me, this or that, and that way a person can stand up in the test, and he can continue to live his life. The Rebbe lives through him (misaber bo)[4], Rav Natan lives through him. All these things that we’re going around the yahrtzeit (of Rav Natan), it’s because we want Rav Natan to live through us.

“Yehoshua ben Nun attended to Moshe Rabbenu, and Rav Natan attended to the Rebbe. The Rebbe is from the aspect of Moshe, he is seven times Moshe, he merited to have double than Moshe[5], because Moshe [continued] to go up spiritual levels. When we travel to the Rebbe, and travel to Rav Natan, then Rav Natan lives through us mamash.

“The moment that someone undergoes such persecution, like Rav Natan, and such humiliation, like Rav Natan, so Rav Natan lives through him. He becomes like a part of Rav Natan, he’ll receive Rav Natan’s mind, he’ll receive Rav Natan’s heart.”

[1] I.e. Rebbe Nachman achieved ‘yechida’, which is the highest of the five levels of soul, in its purest form. Each level is composed of the other 5 levels. So Rebbe Nachman said he achieved Yechida of Yechida to the highest ultimate level.

[2] Referring to the kabbalistic term describing the original ‘breakage’ of some of the spiritual vessels designed to contain Hashem’s light. All of our souls and all of creation are a turnout of this breakage, but there are some very unique souls who escaped those levels before the breakage took place.

[3] A line from Tehillim.

[4] Literally, he’ll ‘become pregnant’ with the Rebbe. This is the kabalistic term of ibur in which a soul of a deceased tzaddik can enter a person who merits it by his thoughts and actions and the deceased tzaddik thereby "lives through" the person.

[5] As Rebbe Nachman teaches from the verse about Elisha getting two times the level of Eliyahu his Rebbe that if a student merits he can receive two times the level of his Rebbe because the Rebbe himself lives through him and he himself went up another level. So it is in each generation Moshe Rabeinu enters the body of the tzaddik of that generation (Zohar and Arizal) and he himself constantly multiplies his own level.