"If Rabbi Akiva Had Attended All the Lessons, He Would Not Have Been Combed with Iron Combs" - Words of the Esteemed Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Words of the esteemed tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a delivered on Motza'ei Shabbat Parshat Pinchas 5778.

"The Rebbe said that in every letter and sign in Likutei Moharan, all the worlds depend. In the letter Aleph, the Yud of the Aleph holds the Throne of Glory, the Vav of the Aleph holds the firmament, and the lower Yud is the World of Action. Together, this is Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. The small Aleph together with the Hei is the gematria of Rabbi Akiva."

"Rabbi Akiva was combed with iron combs, but if he had attended all the lessons, he would not have needed iron combs. Rabbi Akiva had the most difficult spark to rectify, because the greater a person is, the more difficult his spark is to rectify."

"In every letter spoken in Likutei Moharan, all the worlds are created, all the heavens and all the firmaments until the end of all generations. Rebbe Nachman said that until now he hid all his writings and then he gave it to Reb Noson to go and get endorsements. The Chozeh of Lublin writes that Likutei Moharan is truly a writing from Heaven, it is not a human writing at all. 'And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God' (Exodus 32:16). The tablets are the work of God."

"It is written in Tikkun Mem of Tikkunei Zohar about what Rabbi Akiva said to his students Elisha ben Avuya, Ben Azzai, and Ben Zoma 'A speaker of lies, when you reach the pure marble stones, do not say water, water.' 'Marble' is the tablets, do not say that the tablets were broken, and whoever says so is liable to death."

"Because the tablets are straight, the tablets are whole, no tablet was broken, and furthermore, the sages discussed the interpretation of the words water, water that incur death, appeared the elder of the elders, Rabbi Hamnuna, and asked what are you engaged in? Rabbi Hamnuna said that this is a secret that must not be revealed to humans. Because, pure marble stones are the two Yuds of the Aleph, the upper Yud is the first tablets and the lower Yud is the second tablets. Whoever holds the tablets lives forever, the Torah is the Tree of Life."

"Whoever knows that the tablets were not broken will live forever and can revive the dead and heal the sick. All those buried in Eretz Yisrael will live first, and those born abroad will live last, until they receive a new neshamah (soul)."

Thus concluded the words of the esteemed tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a as delivered on Motza'ei Shabbat Kodesh Parshat Pinchas 5778.