A Shiur for the Residents of Be’er Sheva at the Home of the Gaon and Tzaddik

The capital of the Negev, “Be’er Sheva,” has merited that within its city there are several synagogues of the Tzaddik’s followers—especially the students of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a—who pray in the “Breslov – Shuvu Banim” synagogue in the Ramot neighborhood of Be’er Sheva. This past Monday night, the night of 8 Kislev, those who pray in the synagogue merited to enter for a shiur delivered by The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, in his home.

Below is a very brief summary of some of the topics The Rav shlit"a spoke about during the shiur:

The Rav shlit"a opened the shiur with the weekly parashah, which—how could it not—speaks of “And Yaakov went out from Be’er Sheva.” He spoke about the special stature of the city of Be’er Sheva, which was a city of the Avos, and where Yaakov had his dream of the ladder upon which the angels of Hashem ascend and descend. On the words “its head reaches the heavens,” he said that one must know: Yaakov’s “head” (the head of the Tzaddik) is not in this world at all. The Tzaddik is not connected to this world at all! After that, he spoke about the unfolding of the Geulah and the Midrashim brought regarding the process of the Geulah. He mentioned the words of the Chesed L’Avraham that in the end only 7,000 people will remain who will merit to hold on to Emunah—and they are the ones who will greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days, amen.

For much of the shiur, he dealt with disputes between the Rambam and the Ramban, including: by what law were the people of Shechem put to death, and whether poultry is considered meat or not. Within these words, he also addressed and strengthened additional topics. Among them, he spoke about dancing, saying that specifically the hakafos should have been continued on Motzaei Simchas Torah, because the dancing sweetens all judgments. He also said that hakafos are against attacks—if there are no hakafos, there are attacks. The Rav shlit"a told of many miraculous events that occurred in the kibbutzim on Simchas Torah: about the woman who was saved in the merit of holding a Chitas, about the young man from the party who said for many hours “Na Nach,” and also about one of The Rav’s students shlit"a who lives in the community of Yakhini and merited to be saved because he listened to The Rav’s instruction to come on Simchas Torah. He also told the miracle of the rescue of “Rachel from Ofakim.” In the course of these words, he mentioned the exalted level of those who fell al Kiddush Hashem, about whom it is said that no created being can stand in their place.

After these words, he returned to the Ramban’s question: if it was correct to kill the people of Shechem, why didn’t Yaakov Avinu go to fight himself in order to free his daughter Dinah? He answered that since they accepted boundaries upon themselves and had already accepted the view of Yaakov Avinu, it was forbidden to kill them.

Toward the end of the shiur, he spoke about shalom bayis and said that aside from transgressions such as traveling on Shabbos, etc., regarding anything a wife asks, one must listen to her. A person must know how to appease his wife. With this strengthening message, he concluded the shiur after about forty minutes of Torah, aggadah, encouragement, and awakening.