"For Us, Humiliations Are Only Praises" • The Daily Lesson from the Gaon and

Presented before you is a summary of topics from the daily lesson as delivered by our teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – yesterday after the Maariv (evening) prayer, Monday night, the 2nd of Kislev, Parshas Vayetzei:

"Your lips drip honey, my bride" – once, all women were prophetesses; in every generation, there were sixty prophetesses. Serach bat Asher sang, "Joseph is still alive." Everyone is traveling tonight to Joseph the Tzaddik (Joseph's Tomb); there is an entry with the army, but the brigade commander there doesn't believe the talk about the Tzaddikim. For us, bizyonos (humiliations) are nothing but praise; "and in His temple, everyone says Glory" – the one who slanders, all his curses are transformed into blessings. Just like in the curses in the Torah portions of Bechukotai and Ki Tavo, which together add up to the count of 148 – the Gematria (numerical value) of Nachman; only Rebbe Nachman turns the curses into blessings. All women will be prophetesses; a woman has a million times more intellect than a man. The woman is from the Sefirah (Divine attribute) of Chochmah (Wisdom), while the man is only from half of the Sefirah of Binah (Understanding). If a man does not study, he eventually falls into gambling and loses all his money, but the Tzaddik can rectify (tikkun) everything. The Gemara (Talmud) in Bava Batra says that for a woman one receives two hundred and for a man only a maneh (one hundred); this is literally true. The Shelah HaKadosh explains that after the Sin of the Golden Calf, this was reversed and the woman became more important than the man, because the men tore the rings off with the ears, therefore the women received Rosh Chodesh (the New Month) as a holiday; today was Rosh Chodesh, and it was forbidden to do laundry. We must protect the youth here so they do not deteriorate; otherwise, the police have a plan to take everyone to closed institutions from which they will emerge as criminals. We must save them; therefore, every avrech (married Torah student) should dedicate himself to this matter, and through this, we will merit the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, Amen!