Our teacher’s first complete lesson, our master, the holy tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, immediately upon his release. Today, 11 Tevet 5782, from the balcony of his home—an abode of holiness—through the kindness of Hashem! A blessed day of redemption.

“You will add days to the king’s days; his years will be like generation after generation”

“The Tenth of Tevet is essentially Yom Kippur—now, after Yom Kippur. The Tenth of Tevet overrides Shabbat, and therefore the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Natan never falls on Shabbat—because Rabbi Natan is the Rebbe himself. And these are the miracles of Rabbi Natan and the Rebbe, because he is the Rav and the student for whom they waited from the creation of the world.”

“Adam HaRishon, before he sinned—before he even thought of sinning—the neshamot (souls) of the Rebbe and Rabbi Natan took flight. And they bring about all the miracles (meaning, they act with Hashem) that will be until the end of all generations—they bring them about, and they brought about the release! The opposite! ‘And it was turned about, that the Jews ruled over their enemies!’ (The tzaddik bursts into song together with the thousands in the crowd).”

“Now, Yechezkel chapter 24 verse 2: ‘This very day’ (‘Son of man, write for yourself the name of the day, this very day: the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem, this very day’). What is ‘this very day’? What is special about this day more than all days, that on this day the Holy Temple began to be destroyed, and the Third House must be built? So it is written: ‘On this very day Avraham was circumcised, and Yishmael his son’ (Genesis 17:26). In Chevron they said they would not allow there to be a brit, they would not allow it! Like now—may their names be erased—on the televisions they began to incite, to say: What is this, cutting an eight-day-old child?! Because there was nothing like this in the world for two thousand years, because Yitzchak was born in 2048, Avraham was born in 1948. For two thousand years they did not see britot! Noach was born circumcised, Chanoch circumcised, but a brit?! To cut an eight-day-old child?! Pieces, pieces??! This is only a revelation of the holy Torah! According to intellect and nature there is no such thing as cutting an eight-day-old child.”

“Now the scientists discovered that only at this age the blood clots immediately! And specifically at eight days the baby does not feel any pain. And the babies do not cry at all (and if they do cry it is because they are startled by the commotion. The Rav in lessons)—on the contrary, they are happy, delighted! He is only waiting for this moment!”

The full lesson from the day of our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a’s release (begins at 8:50)

“‘And from the womb, by Your Name, they are circumcised’ (piyyut ‘Yom LaYabashah’)—from the womb, from pregnancy, he is already waiting for this moment, that they will remove this terrible shell! Only the tzaddik can remove it; only Rabbeinu can remove it! So they said that if Avraham makes a brit here, they will immediately slaughter him, they will put him on the stake! So Aner and Eshkol said: We will be first. Because why didn’t he travel to Kever Rachel?”

There is a terrible question: a brit that he would do at Kever Rachel, or in Shuvu Banim that he would do a brit at the Cave of Machpelah, in Meron—why by Mamre?! Who is this Mamre?? An elder who rebels?! They make the feast there? What does he have to do with Mamre? Why is he friends with Mamre?! Rather, what does Rashi say? ‘Mamre gave him advice about the circumcision.’ Advice? Does Avraham need advice from someone?? Whether to do it or not? Hashem told him to do circumcision—immediately he does it! Hashem told him to bind Yitzchak—he binds Yitzchak! Yishmael said to Yitzchak: I am greater than you! They did my brit at age 13, I already have understanding, I felt terrible suffering! Because at 13 it is the most terrible suffering in the world. At eight days you didn’t feel pain at all! Yitzchak said to him: If Hashem tells me to bind myself, and to slaughter me, I will go with joy! (And immediately Hashem commanded the binding).”

“Yaakov Galinsky was in a house with a mohel (in Russia, when it was forbidden to circumcise), and suddenly a KGB agent came in and said that he wants to circumcise his son—that he should come to such-and-such address; he will see a lady with a purse leaving; he should enter the apartment and the baby will be in the cradle. And the mohel immediately ran out the door—there was another door there. In Russia you must have two doors in every apartment. Like today, you must have two doors in every apartment: if they come from this door, you already escaped from the second door, and whoever has one door is lost.”

“The mohel returned and said to him: It’s a trap! What did you tell him—that I’m a mohel?! He said: I promised we would come; we must! He told me: Go up to the third floor; a lady with a purse will come out. Enter the apartment; the child will be in the cradle. Fine—they went, went up three floors, saw a lady with a purse leaving, entered the apartment and found a baby in a cradle. They circumcised him; Yaakov Galinsky was the sandak. He has a will that at every brit they should tell this story.”

“There were 12 loaves of bread and 12 eggs (payment for the circumcision, which in those days was considered a tremendous fortune). He said to the assistant: Bring me coupons! You’re KGB—you don’t have a problem; how will I walk around with this in the street? They’ll think I robbed a bank! That I robbed a supermarket. Someone walking with such a thing in Russia…”

“One day he is walking in the street and suddenly the KGB agent passed by and recognized him, and said to him: Thank you for circumcising my son! Today the Jews are down, but I know that the Jews will return to the top one day! It will be good for the Jews; soon everything will turn over! The darkness will turn into light!! And then we will see the light! I want to already have a circumcised son!”

“Now we are speaking about the first brit in the history of humanity. To cut children?! So now they say on the televisions—may their names be erased—Yair Lapid and all his crowd. They want now to uproot the brit! They don’t know that people will jump off rooftops in order to circumcise their son! The people of Israel will never give up the brit!”

“And Avraham Avinu needs to circumcise his son in Chevron; everyone hates him with a deadly hatred, waiting for some tiny mistake and they slaughter him! Parshat Vayera, first verse—everyone will read this at home (‘And Hashem appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day’). Aner comes—they circumcise him first—boom, immediately he faints and dies! They pour three buckets of water on him and he doesn’t wake up! So Eshkol says: Now circumcise me— they circumcise him—Baruch Hashem, he passed away! He went up to Gan Eden. Two go up to Gan Eden; police arrive, KGB: ‘Avraham is slaughtering people, slaughtering children!’ Two already died—why? Because they didn’t truly want the brit; they did it because of social pressure. Then this Mamre comes—what does he say? Circumcise me now! I am the third; now it’s my turn! They circumcise him—everything passes with joy; all the angels arrive! Now they circumcise 100,000 converts. A river of blood flowed in Chevron. All of Eretz Yisrael converted.”

“And now, in the merit of this release, all of Eretz Yisrael is converting! They will be Breslov, they will be Shuvu Banim! And we will merit the complete redemption and the Third House speedily in our days, amen!”