"And You Shall Take a Bunch of Hyssop" (Exodus 12:22) - Parshat Bo by the Holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"Through the hyssop, which is the lowliest of trees, He redeemed Israel" (Midrash Rabbah Bo 17)

The essence of a person's greatness is only humility and lowliness, for only one who dwells in the dust will rise at the resurrection of the dead and merit eternal life, as we say in the Shemoneh Esrei prayer "and maintains His faith to those who sleep in the dust." The more a person is in lowliness, in humility, the more he will merit the resurrection of the dead, eternal life, and the more we gather points of lowliness every day, the more we will merit eternal life, the delight of the World to Come, as it is written "Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust" (Isaiah 26).

In every disgrace a person receives, he gathers more lowliness. The more a person is humiliated, the more he should rejoice in it. If you know someone will disgrace you in the street, it is worthwhile to immerse in the mikvah beforehand, because through disgrace such a great light comes, so it is worthwhile to immerse to have vessels to receive this great light. Through disgrace, such a great light comes to a person that no mitzvah in the world can bring, the disgrace turns the person into "nothing," and through it, a person merits such divine light, such a great light, an infinite light, a light above all worlds, encompassing all worlds, surrounding all worlds. By gathering as many points of lowliness as possible, we will merit more divine light, more infinite light.

King David says in Psalms "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" - Purify me with hyssop! I want to be hyssop, I want to be humbled, for everyone to trample on me, for everyone to laugh at me, to humiliate me, only this is true teshuvah (repentance). I need to know that I am the worst of all, I have committed more sins than anyone, I have corrupted more than anyone, I only ask "Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." I want to be hyssop like the wall hyssops, hyssop that everyone tramples on, humiliates, I want to be hyssop all my life.

There are two levels in teshuvah. There is a level in teshuvah where a person is humiliated and remains silent, and this is called "those who are insulted and do not insult back, hear their disgrace and do not respond" - they are humiliated and remain silent, they do not answer, "and Aaron was silent." But there is a level of "acting out of love and rejoicing in suffering," where one merits to ascend to a higher level, where they are humiliated, and degraded, and all day they are joyful, singing and playing music, accepting the insults with joy, with love, with songs, every disgrace is ointment for wounds, healing for wounds, when they are humiliated they feel as if ointment is being applied to their wounds, their whole body is a wound and bruise "from the sole of the foot to the head there is no soundness in it," they feel that every disgrace is healing for their ailments, every disgrace is pure water – "and I will sprinkle pure water upon you, and you shall be clean."

Lowliness and humility are boundless, when a person is given disgrace, they are turned into infinity, they are turned into boundlessness - into nothingness, now when they are boundless, they can feel the divine light, it is said about them "this person is nothing, they are worthless, they are a liar, they are a hypocrite," and whatever is said, they become more nothing, and then all the successes and all the abundance come to them. A person receives one disgrace – it is a million successes, after the disgrace the successes do not end and the abundance does not cease, they become a provider for all the people of the land, they merit infinite abundance "and Joseph was the provider for all the people of the land," Joseph became the provider for the whole land, because after they sold him and disgraced him, he became nothing and all the abundance passed through him, so the more a person receives disgrace, the more abundance and success they have.

Sometimes when a person is disgraced, they say – "I am being disgraced because I am a tzaddik!, because I serve Hashem" this is pride, one should not receive pride from the disgrace, but truly think I am being disgraced because I deserve it, because I am not a tzaddik nor a chassid, I do not learn Torah properly, I do not guard my eyes, I am truly wicked! One must acknowledge the truth. If someone tells you that you are wicked! You should think Baruch Hashem they told me the truth, a person must acknowledge the truth, when someone comes and reminds me who I am, I should kiss them, kiss their feet, for they told me the truth. There is a saying 'hate the lover and love the hater,' - you should love your haters, a person should have as many people as possible talk about them, disgrace them, the lovers are just! You should hate the lovers, your lover is just flattering you, blurring you, they are deluding you that you are a tzaddik, that you are okay, - 'hate the lover'! But 'love the hater' the one who rebukes you, who disgraces you, love them! You should put them on your shoulder, so what if there is one who tells you the truth? What have you gained from friends who honor you and flatter you?

The Rebbe brings in Likutei Moharan in Torah 200 that through self-sacrifice, unifications are made, and when there are no tzaddikim making these unifications when there is no one rising at midnight, no one crying at midnight, and no one serving Hashem with true self-sacrifice, then there is no choice but to make the unifications through souls that are killed, through killings. But there is another way to make these unifications and that is by receiving disgrace with love. A person who receives disgrace with love saves the generation from killings, every time a person receives disgrace with joy, they should know they are saving a Jew from being killed. And the more famous, the more important they are, and yet they are disgraced and spoken about and they accept it with love, the more they save the generation from killings. And there is a tzaddik who does this intentionally, seeking various tricks to have people speak about them, disgrace them, the Rebbe says "they do it willingly and knowingly" through this they make the highest and greatest unifications, this is called sacrificing oneself for Kiddush Hashem, they sacrifice their name, because the name is the soul, and everyone speaks about them things that never were and never existed, and thereby they save all of Israel from bloodshed, because by having their blood spilled every moment and every second and accepting everything with joy and love, they save Israel from all the decrees, from all the calamities that are supposed to come upon them God forbid. Therefore, every person who sees that they are being disgraced, should simply accept it with love because who knows from how many decrees they are saving Israel.

Rabbeinu said (Sichot HaRan 2:65) "the opponent, I cannot hate him" – I cannot hate any opponent, any hater, how can one hate an opponent? They do me such favors, such favors they do for me, and I see with my own eyes the favors they do for me, because when they oppose me and speak about me, such lights open up for me that I really want to kiss them, hug them.

A person receives disgrace at that moment they received a million dollars. It is told about Reb Zusha and Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk that they arrived at an inn, there were some drunkards there who started kicking each other until they saw Reb Zusha, he was more inside than Rabbi Elimelech, and they started hitting Reb Zusha, kicking him, almost breaking all his bones, and then the "Noam Elimelech" said to Reb Zusha – my brother, you are taking everything, you are taking all the hits for yourself, I also want hits, disgrace, I also want the World to Come, what about me, am I not a person, don't I deserve a little? I also want to merit, give me a little too! What, everything for you? For a whole hour he pleaded with him, crying before him to switch places – finally he convinced him. The "Noam Elimelech" went inside so they would hit him and Reb Zusha went outside and as they switched, the gentiles said, the drunkards said, enough hitting one, let's hit the other outside! And they hit Reb Zusha again, - Reb Zusha said to Rabbi Elimelech, you see everything is meant for me, no one touches what is prepared for their friend even a hair's breadth.

With one insult, a person's sins of thousands of reincarnations are atoned for, with one insult a person's endless sins are atoned for, with one insult that a person receives, they can merit what they would not merit with thousands of labors, every disgrace is worth thousands upon thousands of fasts, thousands upon thousands of mortifications, this instead of entering into the fire, instead of entering into fiery furnaces, a person does not know what these rectifications are - "No eye has seen, O God, besides You."

Courtesy of the Tzama Nafshi bulletin 052-763-9126