Every Day - The Secret of Consistency in Redemption • Shabbat Lesson Parashat Va'era

A lesson delivered at the Kiddusha Raba of Parashat Va'era by the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – on the power of consistency, rectifying desires, and the path to redemption.

Here is the full lesson:

The maid switched the babies, like Batya the daughter of Pharaoh who went every day. Why did she go every day? Was she crazy? Every day she went to search for Moshe Rabbeinu - why every day?

Also with Mordechai it is written: "And every day Mordechai walked [before the court of the women's house, to know the welfare of Esther and what would become of her]" (Esther 2:11). Why every day? Let him go once a month, once every two months - why every day? And this is the worst place in the world, a place of immorality. Every day he goes - so what if it's his wife? I go to my wife once a month, he goes once a year - why every day?

And this goes on for several years, because in the third year of King Ahasuerus' reign they hanged Vashti (Esther 1:3). Were you there? And in the seventh year Esther was taken (Esther 2:16), and in the twelfth year the decrees were made (Esther 3:7). So how long is that? From seven to twelve - five years. Five years Mordechai goes every day - what, did he go mad? Every day he goes to his wife?

Rabbi Shmuel Shapira would go to his wife once a year. So the Ari says he would go every day to teach her the explicit Name, to remove the demon from her, to separate the demon from her. All desires - that's a demon. The person himself doesn't want any desires, it's only the demon.

Our Rebbe says: Who forces you? The person himself doesn't want any desires, he doesn't want to commit sins. Everyone wants to fast on Yom Kippur. They say: on Yom Kippur - who needs to eat, and on Tisha B'Av - who can eat [translation: on Yom Kippur who needs to eat, and on Tisha B'Av who can eat]. Who can eat on Yom Kippur? Dovale brought me ten to drink on Yom Kippur, and the Rebbetzin also brought me ten to drink, but who can eat at all on Yom Kippur? After Yom Kippur some jump on the rugelach, but the person himself doesn't want anything - only the person's demon wants the desires.

A young man gets married. Until the wedding, he knows that the woman is Satan, the evil inclination. They see a woman - they cross to the other side. We were young men in Haifa, we would see a woman - we would cross to the other side of the sidewalk. At first, I thought it was just me, then the guides came and shouted, so I understood it wasn't just me - everyone does this.

There is no difference between before the wedding and after the wedding. After the wedding, they go to study - they go to study for half a year. Then one envies the other, so he wants to get married. One must work on jealousy. But immediately after the wedding, they go to study for half a year. They leave the house, go to study. In the yeshivas of the Chafetz Chaim, they would go half a year after the wedding to study, and they would go on foot. And therefore there is the bein hazmanim, because they would close the yeshivas on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, and it took two weeks to walk home.

Like the son of the Tosefet Yom Tov - he walked from the yeshiva on foot from Metz (France) to Prague (Czech Republic). That's a thousand kilometers. A thousand kilometers he walked on foot - completely crazy. So he walked on foot with the shoes in his hand, so the shoes wouldn't wear out, because there were no other shoes, there was no factory. So they would walk with the shoes in hand.

And when he arrived in Prague, they told him there was a decree on his father that they were going to kill him, and they transferred him from Prague to Vienna (Austria) to get a stamp on the decree, because everything there was organized. He needed to get a stamp - not like in Shuvu Banim, where everything was organized. And he sat for several months in prison. All the righteous sat in prison. Rabbi Natan sat in prison. On Thursday I had a hearing, I don't know what came out of the hearing, but all the righteous sat in prison. And he walked with the shoes in hand - he had no shoes.

Like with Yosef the righteous, who was sold for a pair of shoes, because they walked without shoes. But what was until then? Reuven was already twenty-three years old. What - twenty-three years he didn't walk with shoes? Because Yosef was seventeen, and Yosef was born when Reuven was six.

In the future - as soon as a woman is remembered, she will immediately give birth. It is written: "She conceived and gave birth together" (Isaiah 66:7). That in that second a woman will give birth.

So why did the brothers walk without shoes only then they needed shoes? And why sell a brother? Didn't they have a lamb to sell? It is written in Parashat Vayeitzei that a million and two hundred thousand dogs were just the shepherds of Jacob's flock, and each flock was a million sheep. So a billion sheep. So let them sell a lamb! Who sells a brother for shoes? There was no such thing in history. I read a thousand books about the Holocaust - you don't find such a thing that they sold a brother!

Pelach HaRimon says that until then they didn't walk with shoes in the Land of Israel, because it was in the holiness of the Holy of Holies. All of the Land of Israel was the Holy of Holies until the sale of Yosef. This is the land where the forefathers - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - wandered. They didn't need shoes. Until they blemished with the sale - there were no shells here. There was supposed to be redemption, resurrection of the dead. And therefore they didn't understand the dream that the sun and the moon and the stars bow to Yosef (Genesis 37:9).

But they didn't understand, because there were no shells. There was supposed to be resurrection of the dead. One must know how to move the sun. There is such a remote control that you can move the sun. The sunset today is at five and four [17:04] - one must know how to move the sun!

The Gemara says in Tractate Sukkah page 28. Hillel had thirty students who knew how to stop the sun. Shuvu Banim against Tractate Sukkah, but it is also written in Bava Batra.

Do you know Bava Batra? Babushka Batra? You don't know Babushka Batra? What do you call your babushka, your grandmother? There is some Baba, one grandmother, they call her Baba Batra.

This was in the Beilis trial. Did you know Tuvia Beilis? We had a neighbor in Bnei Brak, on Rashbam Street. Tuvia Beilis - you didn't know him? Sukkot you surely remember him. We lived on Rashbam 23, and he lived across, on Rashbam 7 or five.

They called him Tuvia Beilis. He was a righteous convert, who converted because he worked on the Beilis trial, and he was so moved that he converted, and called himself Tuvia Beilis after Tuvia Beilis.

But after a few years, he returned to America. There was no Shuvu Banim yeshiva or something to hold him, so he didn't hold on - he returned to America.

But he converted because he worked on the Beilis trial, and from so much excitement - he converted.

Then there was the priest in Tashkent in the Beilis trial, because they said that the Jews need blood for matzot. The mother of the child they found was called Vera, and he had forty-nine stabs. So they said it must be the Jews, and this is according to Kabbalah - forty-nine stabs.

Nikolai said: I know not all Jews use blood, but there is a part that does put blood in the matzot. Not all, but part - definitely put blood.

And there was one, they called him Yankel Prank. So he said that it's even in the acronyms of Dtzach Adash B'achav. There are many acronyms. A book needs to be printed on all the acronyms of Dtzach Adash B'achav. Rubinstein needs to be told to print.

Yankel Prank said that it's an acronym: "All need blood - for what our fathers did - in that man in Jerusalem."

So there was the trial. And then the rabbi of Russia arrived, maybe it was Rabbi Maze. The priest arrived, who said he knows all the Talmud, and he knows it is written that blood needs to be put inside the matzot.

Then the rabbi asked him: Do you know all the Talmud? Then maybe tell me - who is Bava Batra? Babushka Batra - do you know her? Do you know who it is?

Then he said: Who could it be? Maybe Sarah's mother? No. Maybe Rebecca's mother? Also no. Maybe Rachel and Leah's mother? We don't know what she was called.

Then he didn't know who Bava Batra was. So they told him: If you don't know what Bava Batra is, then how do you say you know all the Talmud? Then you don't know all the Shas. And they canceled the trial.

So the argument between the brothers - why did they sell the brother? Because they argued who would make shoes for the Shechina, because the righteous are the shoes of the Shechina. Every mitzvah that is done - we make shoes for the Shechina.

Going up to the foot - making shoes for the Shechina. "How beautiful are your feet in shoes" (Song of Songs 7:2). A person arrives on foot from Meron to the Temple, and he goes with a sacrifice - a lamb, with an animal. Suddenly the sheep runs away from him, and he searches for it. They ask him: What sacrifice is this? Then he says: A sin offering. They tell him: Why are you bringing a sin offering? And he is embarrassed, and he says: I tilted the candle - like Rabbi Yishmael who tilted the candle, and he recorded in his notebook that when Mashiach comes he will bring a fat sin offering.

So a person goes on foot - from this shoes are made for the Shechina. And this is the argument between the brothers - who will make shoes for the Shechina, who will sew shoes for the Shechina.

There was the story that they hid the package inside the shoes. Now I read the story with Yehuda Sheinfeld, that there was one who hid the package inside the shoes of his son. The package of Santa Claus - they distribute packages on this holiday.

And this goes that if there are ten children - they buy five. If there are two children - they buy one. Because they don't have to buy for everyone. And if he doesn't have at all to buy - they wait for Santa Claus to come, and knock on the door, and distribute gifts.

He comes, he knocks on the door, you open the door for him. He had two children, and he bought one package, and he hid it in the shoe of one of the children. And the second child found it inside the shoe, and then they started fighting between them - to whom it belongs.

Because he claimed it belongs to him, because a person's courtyard acquires, and his shoe acquired it by the law of courtyard, in the acquisition of courtyard. And the second said: What suddenly - it's mine, I found it.

And then they started fighting between them - murderous blows. And the mother said: I will buy another one. But the father said: What suddenly - hit him, dismantle him, break his bones, crush him, make him into tomato paste, until there is blood - like in Shuvu Banim. In Shuvu Banim they don't calm down until they see blood. After that, the mother didn't recover from it for half a year.

Now - this is the parasha of redemption, the exodus from Egypt. And there is a contradiction in the verses: in Genesis it is written four hundred years (Genesis 15:13), and in Parashat Bo it is written four hundred and thirty years (Exodus 12:40). This is a serious mistake - the Chumash needs to be printed anew, to talk to Blum to print anew and correct the mistake.

So it is necessary to see to print this anew and correct the mistake. How long were they in Egypt - four hundred years or four hundred and thirty years?

So the answer is: that in Genesis we count from the birth of Isaac - which is four hundred years. And in Parashat Bo we count from the Covenant Between the Parts - so it is four hundred and thirty years. Because Abraham at the Covenant Between the Parts was seventy years old, so it is another thirty years until the birth of Isaac, and it comes out to four hundred and thirty years.

Which is in gematria - five times cup, five times Elohim. Because now we read about the four expressions of redemption: "And I will bring you out, and I will save you, and I will take you, and I will redeem you" - corresponding to this we drink four cups on Passover, corresponding to the four expressions.

And there is the fifth cup, which corresponds to "And I will bring you" - so together it is five cups. And five times cup - eighty-six. Gematria four hundred and thirty.

Or that the sons of Yosef - Menashe and Ephraim - were born five years before Jacob arrived in Egypt. And Yosef gave them names, because "God has made me forget" - that he was happy he forgot his father, forgot his family, happy he forgot his father's house. Exactly the opposite of Benjamin: Benjamin gave ten names - all in the name of his brother Yosef, to remember Yosef.

And Yosef gives names to forget his family, because Benjamin was not Shuvu Banim - he was organized. He gives names in the name of his brother. But Yosef was Shuvu Banim - so he gives names to forget his father.

The Bnei Yissaschar explains this, but it is already written in Likutei Moharan. Our Rebbe already brings this in Torah 97. The Bnei Yissaschar was after our Rebbe, so apparently he saw this with our Rebbe.

And he says he gave names because he forgot his father's house, because he served Hashem as if he had no lineage. He served Hashem as if he had not prayed yesterday - as if it was the first time he was praying. He did not take pride in his service of Hashem, that he prayed yesterday and the day before. Every prayer was for him as if he was praying anew, as if it was his first time.

Our Rebbe brings this in Torah 97. Do not study Torah 97 - it's not worth it for you, I tell you. So our Rebbe says he prayed every day anew, as if he had never prayed.

And now - this is the parasha of redemption. Ten plagues are given, and in their merit, we will merit the building of the Temple speedily in our days.

Another seven and a half hours - Mincha. Everyone should learn seven pages of Gemara. The daughters will say Tehillim twice, and everyone should learn with his wife the laws of gratitude and such.