On Monday night, the 28th of Av, a group of our people—students of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a—who are affiliated with the Religious-Zionist community, entered the holy residence of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, to hear words of the Living G-d in a fiery, blazing shiur.

Below is a summary from the shiur, from the words of The Rav shlit"a: The Rav began with strengthening words about the sanctity of a person, and spoke about Korach’s dispute against Moshe—how there was not a single person from the congregation who supported Moshe Rabbeinu. From there he moved on to the matter of Shimon and Levi, brothers, who killed in Shechem, and he dealt with this for most of the shiur—focusing on the dispute between the Rambam and the Ramban regarding why the people of Shechem became liable for execution.

In the course of his words, the Rav spoke about the Plague of the Firstborn: the Egyptian women came to Moshe and argued before him that even those who were not firstborn were killed. Moshe told them: “Everyone who died among you was a firstborn…” And he spoke about the greatness of the Jewish firstborn. Within these points, he said that if Moshe had killed Zimri, he would have sweetened the decree that he would not enter the Land.

Later in the shiur, he moved on to speak about the “rebellious son” (ben sorer u’moreh)—who never existed and never will—and he discussed the precise conditions and safeguards required in order to execute a ben sorer u’moreh, including that a warning must be given “within the span of speech.” This is why a Sanhedrin that executes once in seventy years is called “murderous,” because if they managed to bypass the safeguards and boundaries, it is considered murderous. He also spoke about the dispute between Yosef and the brothers—whether the prohibition of ever min ha’chai applies to a bird or not. Toward the end of the shiur, he spoke about the greatness of Har Gerizim. The shiur concluded after forty minutes, returning again to the killing of the people of Shechem by Shimon and Levi, and he explained the Ramban’s view on the matter.