"All the elders avoided going to Pharaoh, only Moshe had the strength to complete the mission and overcome the obstacles," the righteous Rabbi Mordechai Soferin shlit"a in a special talk from Likutei Halachot, Laws of Agents (Siman 3, Ot 3, the one who appoints an agent to collect a debt).

Rabbi Soferin leads us to the very important advice for our generation, "Step by step, we advance towards the goal." Meanwhile, Rabbi Soferin shares a personal incident where the chassidim of our teacher, the esteemed Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, remained in Kyiv without a mikveh and risked their lives to immerse in the severe cold of minus 25 degrees with piercing winds. Rabbi Soferin testifies that for him, it was an almost impossible test, did he finally immerse...?

"And this is the aspect of all the ten plagues that Moshe brought upon them, Moshe Rabbeinu entered Pharaoh without any fear. Moshe Rabbeinu has no fear, Hashem told him: Take for yourself 70 men from the elders of Israel and come to Pharaoh. He took 70 elders and went to Pharaoh, then it is written: And Moshe and Aaron came to Pharaoh - where are the 70 elders? They slipped away one by one."

"Rashi says: They slipped away, they didn't flee, they found some excuse, one suddenly had a muscle cramp in his leg, another suddenly said, I forgot the food on the stove, each one found an excuse and said I can't. They couldn't stand the fear, it was terrifying to enter there, they were going now to provoke the wicked, to provoke Pharaoh. No, they wouldn't come out of there alive, no one came out of there alive."

"That's exactly what was difficult, suddenly a man comes with a height of 5 meters, such a stout one, and says that Hashem sent him. So alright, he started performing signs and said a few slogans, so they went with him, but in actuality - there was not yet emunah, there was such a weak emunah, they went to Pharaoh, they started to go, I wouldn't even have started to go, but they started to go."

"We once had an incident in Kyiv. We were there in some hotel, they didn't let us get to Uman, and in the morning there was no mikveh, because we couldn't travel to Uman, and there was no mikveh in the hotel, so there was a river not far away. The problem was it was minus 25 degrees - and it's cold, it's something terrible, but 'Shuvu Banim' don't care that it's cold, they went to the mikveh."

"All the friends went to the river to immerse, but I couldn't leave the room, I couldn't, where, to immerse now in such cold? I couldn't immerse, I couldn't. So everyone went, I stayed alone in the room."

"I said to myself: I can't immerse, but I can pray. I searched for prayers in Likutei Tefilot about mikveh, there aren't any, only on Shavuot, prayers Nun, Nun Aleph, mikveh of Shavuot. I said, okay, I'll say the mikveh of Shavuot. I said the prayer, a thought came to me: well, I won't immerse, but I'll go to the river, I'll go out, I'll go for hitbodedut, the problem is the immersion, I'll go to the river, but I can't immerse."

"I arrive at the river, what do I see there, immersing in pairs, because the moment a person comes out of the water he freezes. The hair freezes, the mustache freezes, the ears freeze, the fingers freeze, you can't get dressed, you can't button the buttons, you can't move the fingers, you need someone to dress you. A person comes out of the water and his friend dresses him, it's cold..."

What, you can't close your hands Rabbi Mordechai?

"Maybe a little, it freezes, it freezes, the hairs, you have to be careful not to break your beard, it can break, it's ice, in a second, as soon as you come out. The water is 4 degrees, the water doesn't freeze, if they freeze at 0, until they freeze 4, below the water flows, below it's not cold, the problem is the wind - you come out to a wind of minus 25 degrees it's like needles."

"So like this..., you start to go until you can't anymore, that's what happened with the elders, some certainly didn't want to start going, some started going, but as they got closer..., the closer they got, they saw the fear, so they retreated. Only Moshe and Aaron were the ones who entered all the way to Pharaoh, and spoke with him and accomplished everything."

"Our teacher Rav Berland was not in Kyiv then, he wasn't with us, maybe he immersed somewhere else, maybe he didn't go on this trip, I don't remember. He traveled, but he didn't always enter, no, he entered, on my trips he always passed, but I don't know..., he didn't go with us to the river, maybe he went somewhere else, I don't know, I didn't follow him."

Did you manage to immerse in the end, Rabbi Mordechai?

"Yes, Baruch Hashem, the whole point is to do what you can, it's something you learn slowly that even if you can't do everything you need to do, but you can do half, do half. And then he sees he can take another step forward, he takes another step forward, until in the end he finishes everything."

"But here the elders couldn't, they didn't succeed, they started. It's not a simple thing, Moshe tells them come to Pharaoh. What come to Pharaoh? Have you lost your mind? Are you crazy? It's not simple, the way to the palace..., it's not that the palace stands on the street, it's a whole park around the palace, it's a long way from the entrance gate to the palace, and on the way there are lions, there are tigers, there are gallows poles, where all the criminals are hanged."

"They leave them hanging there, so that everyone who comes understands that if he only angers the king, either they will send him to the lions, or to the tigers, even if he has an appointment, if he says one wrong word..."

"There was a story with one of the Amoraim, I don't remember his name, he argued with the king and proved to him that he was wrong about something. They told him, you're right, but for proving that the king is wrong, for that you need to be killed."