Back to all articles →

"All the Most Difficult Calculations are Found in the Tractates of the Shas (Talmud)" • The Daily Lesson from the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

עורך ראשי
"All the Most Difficult Calculations are Found in the Tractates of the Shas (Talmud)" • The Daily Lesson from the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Before you is the full daily lesson as delivered by our teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days) - yesterday after the Maariv (evening) prayer, Wednesday night, the eve of the 19th of Tammuz, Parshas Pinchas:

"Every girl needs to know all the calculations—geometry, mathematics, algebra. All of this is studied in Tractates Sukkah and Eruvin (Talmudic tractates). How to calculate the circumference of a circle if the width is known. If it's ten tefachim (handbreadths), it's thirty; if it's twenty tefachim, it's sixty; if it's thirty tefachim, it's ninety. The Gemara (Talmud) says 'velo dak' (it is not exact), meaning they didn't know. Shuvu Banim doesn't know how to do the calculation. 'Velo dak' means they don't calculate it like that [simply], but rather use 3.14. All of this is written in the Maharit (Rabbi Joseph di Trani), Responsa 6. He performs all the calculations that are studied over four years in universities, high schools, and colleges; he does all those calculations in five minutes—that is the Maharit. He writes 'three and a seventh' (an approximation of pi). He performs—the Maharit in Responsa 6—all the calculations being discussed. In Sukkah, how to calculate the width and circumference, and the circumference of a circle where ten is thirty, twenty is sixty, thirty is ninety [as explained above]. But that isn't [perfectly] correct; the truth is [as mentioned above] that it is 3.14. Every girl needs to know this; she now has forty days to learn until the 1st of Elul. Forty-three days to prepare all the calculations, to register for the seminar of Rebbetzin Stern—two seminars, Yedidut and Mishkanteich. Everyone is learning to be principals; every girl will be a principal over a thousand girls. A thousand girls as principals means a million girls doing teshuvah (repentance), and then the Geulah (Redemption) will come immediately. One must know the calculation, and every young man learns this in Sukkah and Eruvin; if not, there are books and booklets on it. During the 'Chofesh Hagadol' (summer vacation), they can learn all the calculations, just as Einstein learned everything during the summer vacation and afterwards he just threw klipos (impure shells) at the teachers. One teacher, he opened her head with a chair; she left the seminar, but they didn't expel him. He was a 'good boy,' they don't expel. There—among the Germans—they don't expel anyone. In the end, the principal managed to get him a medical certificate saying he needs the Alps, he needs fresh air, he has a health problem. That's how he managed to remove him from the school. He sent him to Zurich, and there they said, 'We won't accept you under any circumstances because you are a wild child, a crazy child.' He asked, 'What nation are you? Are you an Arab, a Muslim, a Christian, a Black person, what are you?' 'I am a Jew.' 'A Jew? Yalla, get out of here fast! We don't want to see Jews here, don't you dare enter this place.' Then the principal said, 'I resign.' The principal said, 'If so, then I resign,' and they had to accept him against their will. Afterwards, there is a story that this principal arrived when he was already threatened with murder, so the principal arrived and he managed to enter to see him. These are more stories. There are billions of stories; one would need to live a billion years to tell them all. Every girl needs to know all the calculations that Rashi tells us on Chapter 24, Verse 3: 'Like them and like them a hundred times.' This is 2, [4], 8, 16, 32, and after that 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024. In one second we reached a thousand. So in ten seconds one reaches a million, in thirty seconds one reaches a billion, in sixty seconds one reaches sixty times—every sixty is eighteen zeros. Every sixty, when doubling two by sixty, then the first sixty [doublings] is eighteen zeros, which is called a trillion. Then after that—after sixty there is 120, so that's another eighteen, which is exactly thirty-seven zeros. And after that, at sixty—the third time is 180, which is already fifty-four zeros; that is called 180. And after we reach 180, it is a thousand trillion trillion trillion. 200 is already sixty zeros. Because at 100 it is thirty [zeros] and at 200 it is sixty [zeros]. So we now reach a million trillion trillion trillion, and after that at 210 we reach a billion trillion trillion trillion. At 220 we reach a thousand billion trillion trillion trillion. And at 230 we already reach a million billion trillion trillion trillion, which is called sixty-nine zeros, and the fourth time that we multiply a trillion four times by itself, it is seventy-two zeros. This is the secret—this is the jug of Rivka (Rebecca). This was Rivka's intention: to nullify the klipah (impure shell) of Esau from the world. Regarding David, it is written, 'Make me know the measure (middas) of my days' (Tehillim 39:5). 'The measure of my days' refers to Goliath, because Saul was supposed to eliminate Agag; that was his entire purpose. A person has a specific purpose; if he [fails to] do it, he is removed from the kingship. This happened to Saul, whose entire purpose was to eliminate Agag. 'Agag' is the gematria (numerical value) of 'Shaul' (Saul). So how does Agag come out to 337? Because 'Melech' (King)—how much is Melech? 90. How much is 90 plus 7? 97. And how much is Amalek? That you already don't know. 240 plus 97 is 337. [It turns out that 'Melech Amalek'] is exactly [the gematria of] Shaul. This was Saul's entire purpose; if he didn't fulfill his purpose, then 'Saul [sinned] once and it cost him [his kingship], David [sinned] twice and it did not cost him.' Because this was the whole purpose—for this you were created! To eliminate Agag—337. But Shuvu Banim doesn't know this calculation, so let them learn it in kindergarten. Go to kindergarten and learn how to make 337... But with David, he came to kill Goliath; that was his entire purpose. Therefore he asks, 'Make me know the measure (middas) of my days'—who is my klipah (impure shell)? Whom did I come to destroy? Hashem said to him, 'You came to destroy Goliath.' 'Middas' (measure) is Goliath—444, or 443 with the kollel (adding one for the word itself). He studied in the Kollel, in our Kollel of Kollel Hora'ah he would study; therefore Goliath with the kollel is exactly the gematria of 'Middas' (measure), 444. This is what one must intend during the Krias Shema (recitation of the Shema) at 'Hashem Echad' (Hashem is One). At the [letter] Dalet of 'Echad,' one intends for 'Middas'—four Alephs, 1,111, which is four Alephs, which is Dalet. And with Rachel, it was 'Hayah Hayah Hayah' (was, was, was), the Name 'Ehyeh' (I Will Be) which is four times 'Hayah'. So every girl needs to know that she must know all the calculations. A young man learns this in Sukkah and Eruvin—that the width is multiplied by three, but it is 3.14. Meaning: if it is ten, it is 31.4; if it is twenty, it is 62.8; if it is thirty, it is 94.2. And if it is forty, it is 125.6. So every time one must multiply by 3.14. The Maharit says this is called 'three and a seventh.' All of this the Maharit explains in Responsa 6, and after that we are left with extracting the square root of a 'Beis Sasayim' (an area of two seahs). 'Chatzar HaMishkan' (the Courtyard of the Tabernacle)—how much is the Courtyard of the Tabernacle? Fifty by a hundred. How much is fifty by a hundred? Five thousand. What is the square root? Seventy and some leftovers. Seventy-four tefachim (handbreadths). Every girl needs to learn all of this. She now has forty days to learn this to be accepted into the seminar of Rebbetzin Stern—Chava Stern. Both Yedidut and Mishkanteich. Every girl needs to be both a principal and a teacher. And besides that, to learn every day a chapter in Joshua, a chapter in Samuel, and a chapter in Judges"‏.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Receive Torah articles and inspiration directly in your inbox