The Gaon Rabbi Shimon Baadani shlit"a, Rosh Kollel of Torah V’Chaim in Bnei Brak and a member of the Council of Torah Sages, came to visit The Rav, the holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, at his holy residence on HaChoma HaShlishit Street in Jerusalem—Shushan Purim Katan 5782.

This visit is truly a moving document—a sacred conversation between two Tzaddikim, Torah scholars whose entire occupation is only with the holy Torah. During the visit, we hear Rabbi Baadani shlit"a share a new insight he discovered with The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a. The Rav responds with sources, and the conversation rises into deep study of matters of Purim and Tractate Chullin—“its sharpness comes before its whitening.”

Not to be missed

Rabbi Baadani shlit"a asks The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a: “Just now I heard a brand-new insight… I’m looking for something—I remember that once I saw it, it’s so wonderful: Hashem says to Avraham Avinu, ‘And He said to Avram: Know with certainty that your offspring will be strangers in a land not theirs.’”

“Why? What happened?… There is a very simple explanation. In the Torah it says: ‘And you Hashem took and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt…’ What is ‘the iron furnace’?”

“The Zohar says that until Har Sinai, their impurity did not cease. And how did their impurity cease? Through the crushing labor, all that filth and all that grime was extracted from them—so at Har Sinai, all the impurity stopped. I don’t remember where I saw this, but the idea is: Hashem wants His children to receive the Torah—but how can they receive it with all the filth within them, the impurity of the serpent that came upon Chavah? Therefore: ‘Know with certainty that your offspring will be strangers in a land not theirs’—meaning, you and your children will undergo crushing labor, and through that they will be cleansed from the serpent’s impurity, and then they will be able to receive Torah… If so, a convert who did not go through that cleansing would still have the serpent’s impurity, because he was not at Har Sinai. But Hashem, Who knows hidden things, saw that the soul of the convert was destined to convert, and He took that soul to Har Sinai so its impurity would depart.”

The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a, answered: “‘Those who are here with us, standing today before Hashem our G-d, and those who are not here with us today’—this is the verse from which we learn it.”

Rabbi Baadani shlit"a: “Yes—that’s the verse I was looking for.”

The Rav, Rabbi Berland: “The root of everyone is a Jewish root. All the nations have a root—of all peoples—‘All the inhabitants of the world will recognize and know…’”

And The Rav shlit"a continued: “They told Hagar, ‘You will have a child who will be a wild man’—how can you bless a person, how can you announce such a thing? And she was a poor woman like Hagar, whom Avraham sent away… He says that because Avraham sent her away, therefore: ‘When he sends away a bride, he will surely drive you out from here.’ Pharaoh drove the Jewish people out of Egypt, and they did not leave with settled composure. The Rambam brings this, and so does the Baal HaTurim: ‘And she said to Avraham: Drive out this maidservant and her son, for the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with my son, with Yitzchak.’”

“It is written in the Zohar (Shemos, page 32) that Yishmael asked: Why did he give my brother the Land of Israel—because he was circumcised? I too am circumcised. And the answer is: because Yishmael was circumcised without priah… For 400 years he prosecuted, because the Ishmaelites ruled the land for exactly 400 years. Four hundred years from when the Turks conquered the Land of Israel is exactly 400—from 1517 until 1917. They were Ottoman Ishmaelites. Hashem should help.”

“Today is Purim Katan—there is an ascent for all souls, two days of Purim Katan. In the Gemara Megillah, Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Yosi says… The Chasam Sofer says: we do not pass over mitzvos; we must fulfill all the mitzvos on Purim Katan—‘we do not pass over mitzvos.’ The Chasam Sofer says that on a Torah level one must eat something in honor of the festival… One must create joy, and also give mishloach manos… because on a Torah level one must make a remembrance—from death to life. The miracle of Purim is greater than the miracle of Egypt, because in Egypt there was crushing labor, but here there was a decree to kill, destroy, and annihilate. So the miracle from death to life is truly on a Torah level… The remembrance is on a Torah level, but the lighting of Chanukah candles is rabbinic.”

“Why did Chazal establish Purim in Adar II? Because we must connect Geulah to Geulah… The mitzvah of the Megillah is not on a Torah level—it is rabbinic—so it can be postponed to Adar II. But the joy and the remembrance, through eating something good, must be set on the choicest day—Geulah to Geulah. Therefore, on a Torah level one must do something as a remembrance in Adar I.”

Rabbi Baadani shlit"a: “Is the Rav preparing this for Purim?”

The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a: “Yes! As brought in Chullin…”

Rabbi Baadani: “Does the Rav agree with what I said on my own about the exile in Egypt—that the exile came to purify from the serpent’s impurity?”

The Rav shlit"a: “Certainly. It’s a completely new insight… Rabbah asked Rabbi Zeira—brought by the Baal HaHafla’ah—that Rabbi Zeira says: ‘its sharpness comes before its whitening.’ If a person slaughters with a knife… the Rema disagrees, but we rule like the Shulchan Aruch, like the Rambam: ‘its sharpness comes before its whitening,’ even in the blink of an eye—you must do it quickly, quickly.”

“This is the dispute between Rabbah and Rabbi Zeira… Rabbi Zeira rules in Chullin that ‘its sharpness comes before its whitening.’ This is all a teaching of Rabbi Zeira. Here, Rabbah also ‘slaughters’ Rabbi Zeira. They wanted to see whether ‘its sharpness comes before…’ how it works exactly. Rabbah took a whitened (heated) knife… This is the Baal HaHafla’ah’s insight, said as a kind of allegory… Why specifically ‘he slaughtered him’? The Shulchan Aruch brings in Yoreh De’ah, siman 9, that you must do it quickly…?”

“Rabbah arose and slaughtered Rabbi Zeira… Why on Purim? Because he knew that then he could revive him… First they heated the knife and afterward they slaughtered… And the Baal HaHafla’ah says that even though it was said in Chullin, we will learn it in its plain sense.”

“The Baal HaHafla’ah—Rabbi Pinchas of Frankfurt, who was the brother of Rabbi Shmuel Shmelka Horowitz of Nikolsburg—said this as a joke for the joy of Purim: ‘a matter of sharpness’—sharpness means one who learns a lot of Gemara; ‘whitening’ is when a person becomes inflamed with enthusiasm in serving Hashem. When a person becomes Breslov, he’s already jumping on tables, dancing in the streets—yet a person must be ‘sharpness.’ ‘Whitening’ is the excitement, the fire—‘like a coin of fire Hashem took out from beneath His Throne of Glory and showed Moshe.’ What is a ‘coin of fire’?”

“The moon must be shown, because you don’t know what size the moon is—every moment it changes. But a coin—take a 10-shekel coin—why must it specifically be shown as fire?”

“Rather, it comes to atone for idolatry and the sale of Yosef, and it hints that every Jew is fire—every Jew can be brought back in teshuvah. If we merited, we would bring all of Am Yisrael back in teshuvah. Every Jew wants to return in teshuvah—only they confuse him all day, saying the rabbis are thieves, the rabbis are this or that, presenting it as if in Meah Shearim they throw stones 24 hours a day.”

“Rabbah knew that Rabbi Zeira would die and live. He revived him the next day, and that itself is a question: how could he leave him dead for a full day? If a person passes away, they bury him immediately. Rebbe Nachman says that one shouldn’t even take a person to a cemetery—one should bury immediately. It is written that the dead person suffers that he is dead: he sees everything, he feels, he cannot bear the shame that he is dead while everyone else is still alive. He wants them to bury him on the spot—to dig under the bed and bury him.”

“The Maharsha asks: if so, Rabbah should have buried Rabbi Zeira. Rather, it was on the 14th of Adar, and he knew that the next day, on the 15th, he would revive him. He waited for the 15th, because then it is possible to revive the dead. On Purim Katan too it is possible to revive the dead. Now it is possible to revive the dead and bring all people back in teshuvah. Now it is a Sanctuary of fire—that every Jew is fire…”

“The Rambam (Hilchos Taharah) brings that even if they slaughtered a person’s two simanim… there is a practical difference regarding Kohanim—whether the Kohen must leave if someone died. There is the sefer Daas Emunah on Taharah by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky: a person does not die immediately… In the meantime, the Kohen can still bless the people, be called to the Torah—it will take another quarter hour until he dies. But it is forbidden to move; a person must have settled composure, and immediately they reattach the simanim.”

“There was a story that a soldier was shot and his two simanim were cut, and they immediately reattached them—they managed to reattach within two minutes. Someone saw them slaughter a dove and it continued to fly, because a person reattached its simanim…”

Rabbi Baadani shlit"a: “Halachah obligates the shochet to check the simanim before he throws the chicken…”

The Rav, Rabbi Berland: “Correct. The Ketzos HaChoshen in Reish-Nun says: from when is he called a goses? Even if they slaughtered the two simanim, it is nothing—he can still bequeath an inheritance, he is still lucid; it is not like a goses…”

Rabbi Baadani shlit"a: “Now the Rav must continue the activity of bringing Am Yisrael back in teshuvah… The Rambam says that Israel is redeemed only through teshuvah. There is a Rav who brings many back in teshuvah, and they began speaking against him. I got angry at them and made an assembly. I told them the words of the Rambam: What do you want—that Moshiach should not come?… I said we do not listen to this.”

Rabbi Baadani: “They don’t appreciate what it means when a person returns in teshuvah. The Gemara says he nullifies all decrees.”

The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a: “The Gemara in Bava Metzia says that one who brings others back in teshuvah nullifies all decrees…”