For My House is a House of Prayer • A Recognition Gathering for the Partners of

On Tuesday night, the eve of the 28th of Shevat, a recognition conference was held for the donors of the "Shuvu Banim" synagogue. The conference took place in our Beis Medrash (study hall) with the participation of our teacher, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days).

At the beginning, emotional songs and niggunim (melodies) were sung, and the rabbis spoke about the greatness of donating to the Beis Medrash. Afterward, our teacher, the Rav shlit"a, entered the event and delivered a lesson for about fifty minutes on many topics. After the lesson, the Rav shlit"a blessed the donors and even granted, with a radiant countenance, a blessed apple to each and every one of the donors who passed before him—an apple capable of (a segulah for) abundance, protection, and blessing.

Before you is a summary of the topics our teacher, the Rav shlit"a, spoke about during the lesson:

When snow falls, all sins are forgiven. In the merit of (b'zechut) your donations to this synagogue, one merits the forgiveness of all sins, for the Rebbe of Tosh said that today, when the Kotel (Western Wall) is in the hands of the Zionists, the Shuvu Banim synagogue is the highest place, and from there all prayers ascend. Purim is "Yesod Abba" (a high Kabbalistic level of Divine wisdom), which is higher than Yom Kippur. If Saul had waited for Samuel, he would have received eternal kingship. After the age of 20, everything a person eats is only out of boredom; a person should receive vitality only from the letters of the Gemara (Talmud). In blood libels, they would say that "Detzach Adash Beachav" (the acronym for the ten plagues) meant "we all need blood" (dam tzarichim kulanu), in the way the Sages in Jerusalem acted toward "that man" (Jesus). Haman did not agree for it to be like Pharaoh and Antiochus, where there would be many days of Purim, so he said "on one day." But he did not succeed, because this year Purim can start from the 11th (the first day for reading the Megillah) and end on the 17th. For the sake of the three steps that Nebuchadnezzar ran, he merited eternal kingship. Every step a person takes, they merit eternal kingship. And this was the argument between Vashti and Ahasuerus: in whose merit does he rule over 127 provinces? Vashti could not come because it was the yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of her father, Belshazzar. Eli did not understand why Hannah was praying but her voice was not heard. The Zohar says that Ahasuerus did not touch Esther. Likewise, Sisera did not touch Yael. For Rebecca, the pitcher jumped to her on its own and was filled with water. The Rambam (Maimonides) brings that if a person slaughters even two "signs" (the trachea and esophagus), it does not become ritually impure like a corpse and can be used for sanctification. Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua went to their student Rabbi Akiva because he would expound upon the most miracles; a person should tell as many miracles as possible all day long.