Class at the Home of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a for the Students of Yeshivas Chochmah V’Daas — Night of Thursday, 5 Adar II 5782

A class at the home of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, for the third-year students of Yeshivas “Chochmah V’Daas” ■ Using time well: prayer with kavanah and in-depth Gemara study ■ Singing: “It is a great mitzvah to sharpen the mind always”

The third-year students of Yeshivas Chochmah V’Daas, under the leadership of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, were privileged—on Monday, 4 Adar II—to enter “into the inner sanctum” for an especially strengthening class for these precious young men. Sitting alongside The Rav, Rabbi Berland shlit"a, were the Rosh Yeshivah, HaRav M. M. Ashlag shlit"a, and the director of the institutions, the chassidic Rav R’ Natan Chananyah shlit"a.

In the class, The Rav began by saying that if we want to build the Beis HaMikdash, we must take hold of the Gemara with our own hands—and in this way the Beis HaMikdash will be built. After that, The Rav strengthened the students regarding learning and reviewing Gemara, bringing the learning to the point of aliba d’hilchasa (clear practical halachah), studying the Ketzos HaChoshen and the commentators on the Gemara with depth, and connecting the sugyos—just as Rebbe Nachman writes in Torah 105.

Afterward, he moved to Torah 62, where Rebbe Nachman writes that “it is a great mitzvah to sharpen the mind.” The Rav began to sing together with the students: “It is a great mitzvah to sharpen the mind always…” With fiery intensity for about five minutes, all the precious students sang together with The Rav shlit"a.

Then The Rav continued from Torah 62, explaining that through Torah a person can pray with enthusiasm, and that whenever someone does not feel desire for prayer, it is because he is not learning Gemara and halachic rulings with depth.

After the class, which lasted about forty-five minutes, The Rav blessed the students that they should rise higher and higher in Torah and yiras Shamayim.

The excited students left the home of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, and went straight to Ma’ariv prayer in the courtyard of the prayer hall.

[caption id="attachment_49836" align="aligncenter" width="618"] The precious third-year students during the class.[/caption]