Frightening: A Person Who Holds a Grudge in His Heart Is Disqualified from Testimony — The Persecution of Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

A person who holds a grudge in his heart is disqualified from testimony; it is forbidden to listen to him. And those people (the few who incite innocent, simple Jews to persecute The Rav shlit"a) were carrying a grudge in their hearts over private matters—and then, at the first opportunity, they suddenly jumped in to take part in a dispute that was not theirs. Rebbe Nachman explained very well where this comes from. Rebbe Nachman said: The Tzaddik is a mirror, and a person sees in the mirror what he himself is.

The Rav shlit"a built generations of students who fear sin, while speaking only about the holiness of the covenant, guarding the eyes and the mind, learning Torah with strength, and praying until one’s strength is spent. But The Rav shlit"a already said: Let them speak as they wish—and when we come to recite the blessing, “Blessed is our G-d Who separated us from those who err,” we will know from whom. There is halachah regarding when it is permitted to listen to lashon hara—especially concerning a person who is established as a known Tzaddik, about whom it is known that he has contemplated teshuvah. All the more so regarding The Rav shlit"a, about whom it is known to everyone that he is clean of any blemish—while here there are wicked people with an agenda, who persecute him because of their own shortcomings.

The Rav shlit"a’s lawyers cried over the fact that The Rav decided to enter a plea bargain. They said: There is no case here at all; there is nothing against The Rav. So what is happening here? There is a Tzaddik Yesod Olam who takes humiliations upon himself in order to protect the People of Israel within this terrible exile. Our role is to have Emunah that this is the Tzaddik’s course of action. After all, The Rav shlit"a was in places from which there was no extradition—so why did he return to Johannesburg? Yet, as in many other cases, we saw that The Rav shlit"a actually stirred up disputes against himself.

The following questions were written by Rabbi Yaakov Salma shlit"a, Rosh Kollel of “Netzach Netzachim,” Bnei Brak, himself. We bring them so that you can judge for yourselves:

1. Can someone who calls himself “Reb Nosson of the generation” speak negatively about a Jew? 2. Is this how Reb Nosson would conduct himself during a dispute, or would he flee from dispute even if there is reasoning that seems correct? (Likutey Tefillos 141) 3. Can someone who is immersed in desires (as he himself testifies) understand a simple Jew—how much more so a Tzaddik, about whom the Gedolei Yisrael testified that he is a Tzaddik, and who never asked that they bring him fancy cheeses, etc.? 4. Does someone who speaks with bullying about apartment dealings in Uman (“I’ll send you criminals,” in his words) have the right to speak about a Jew who completely forgoes his honor? 5. Can someone who approaches people and asks them, “Send me wealthy secular people who will get excited about me, and then they’ll pour money on me,” say about others whether they are driven by desire for money or not—especially when it is about the Tzaddik of the generation? 6. What Rebbe Nachman said in Sefer HaMiddos—namely, that through falsehood one comes to the revelation of forbidden relations—does it also mean that if a person lashes out, then regrets, and then lies and says he did not regret—did Rebbe Nachman also say about this that he comes to immorality? 7. Is this what Rebbe Nachman meant—that a person sees in the Tzaddik what is within himself, and in truth a person reveals to everyone who he is by what he says about the Tzaddik? 8. When a person says, “I always saw this man lying,” “The other person’s money means nothing to him”—when in fact we already saw in points 5–6 that this is exactly what he himself is afflicted with—is this not what Chazal meant when they said that if he has a grudge in his heart against him, we cannot listen to him? 9. Is this not a Chilul Hashem and a desecration of the name of Breslov, when a person who pretends to be counted among Breslov Chassidim thrusts his head and most of his body into a dispute against Hashem’s anointed—against halachah? 10. Right before the Geulah, is it worth losing everything like this? Perhaps the time has come to do teshuvah and fulfill the words of Rebbe Nachman, who said: “It is fitting that the world should wonder at the love that is between you.” 11. Therefore I am the first to lift the glove and announce that I love every Jew—even one who argues against the Tzaddik and his students—with all my soul and might, and I yearn for peace speedily.