If They Had Withstood the Test of Not Speaking About Moshe, the Decree Would Have Been Immediately Canceled - The Righteous Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"Will you gouge out the eyes of these men?" - Datan and Aviram incited the people with the claim that Moshe was deceitful, God forbid, that he was deceiving everyone! He wants to gouge out the eyes of the people! He wants to blind the eyes of the people! It's all deceit! When we said after the sin of the Golden Calf, let's return to Egypt! After all, then everyone drowned in the sea! All the Egyptians died! In Egypt, only women and children remained, no soldiers! No Pharaoh! We wanted to conquer Egypt to have at least some quiet corner, so Moshe said no!! We need to enter Eretz Yisrael! Moshe shouted only Eretz Yisrael! And this was after the gravest sin, the sin of the Golden Calf, which is equivalent to the entire Torah, and yet Moshe said there is forgiveness, we can go to Eretz Yisrael, we need to enter Eretz Yisrael.

And now after the sin of the spies, which is less severe than the sin of the Golden Calf, Moshe says that's it! We cannot enter Eretz Yisrael! There is no Eretz Yisrael! You spoke about Eretz Yisrael, now you cannot enter Eretz Yisrael! We need to stay forty years in the desert! Everyone asked what is happening here! Moshe!! Explain to us what is happening here?! We want a logical explanation! After the greatest sin, the sin of the Golden Calf, you say that Hashem forgave us and we can go to Eretz Yisrael, and after we spoke about Eretz Yisrael, you say that's it! No forgiveness! No atonement! No Eretz Yisrael! What did we do in the end!? We were a little afraid for the children, we cried a little "Our wives and children will be as prey" we didn't make a calf, we didn't worship idols, everyone is afraid for their infants! The giants in Eretz Yisrael will kill the children! They will kill the women! We just got a little scared of Eretz Yisrael and that's why we spoke, so what is this noise that there is no forgiveness, no atonement, and no Eretz Yisrael, and for the sin of the Golden Calf, which is more severe, you say there is forgiveness and there is Eretz Yisrael!? Datan and Aviram incited and explained to everyone it's all deceit! That what Moshe said after the sin of the Golden Calf that there is forgiveness and there is Eretz Yisrael was only because he was afraid to return to Egypt and then he would lose his authority, he was afraid that some grandson of Pharaoh would come and take his place, and what he said after the sin of the spies that there is no forgiveness and no atonement and no Eretz Yisrael is all because he was afraid of the war with Sichon and Og, with the Egyptians he managed somehow, a little lice, a little frog, with Pharaoh he managed, Pharaoh was only half a meter tall! But with Sichon and Og he is afraid and therefore he says there is no forgiveness and leaves us in the desert for forty years. Datan and Aviram said now the true Moshe Rabbeinu has been revealed! It has been revealed that Moshe is human! He is afraid! He has no divine powers! He is deceiving everyone! "Will you gouge out the eyes of these men?" You want to gouge out the eyes of the people! You want to deceive everyone! Now we see your mistakes! Your forgeries! You are just a coward! Now it has been revealed that you are only deceiving us and leaving us in the desert for forty years just to rule over us! "To kill us in the desert because you want to rule over us as well." The Zohar says that the real reason they couldn't enter Eretz Yisrael was that the entire desert was filled with klipot (spiritual impurities)! The entire Sinai desert was filled with terrible klipot! After they spoke ill of Eretz Yisrael, the entire desert was filled with terrible impurities! There is nothing more severe than speaking about Eretz Yisrael! Whoever speaks about Eretz Yisrael brings upon themselves a terrible impurity! There is no greater impurity than this! On one hand, it is not a sin, there is no punishment of lashes, but whoever speaks about Eretz Yisrael and prevents people from coming to Eretz Yisrael brings down such klipot and such impurities to the world that all the decrees and disasters come from these impurities. The moment they spoke about Eretz Yisrael, such klipot and such impurities descended into the desert that to rectify them and eradicate them requires forty years in the desert! Forty years of journeys! And yet, even though they spoke about Eretz Yisrael, if they had withstood the test and not spoken about Moshe and not spoken about the tzaddik, it would have been possible to cancel the decree immediately. The Kedushat Levi says in a discourse for Pesach that if a person does not believe in the tzaddik, they are a heretic! If a person does not connect themselves to the tzaddik, does not internalize the words of the tzaddik, then they have no right to exist in this world! Here I am praying, I go to the synagogue, I put on tefillin, I learn, what do I need the tzaddik for!? What... do I have to nullify myself to the tzaddik!? The Kedushat Levi says they are called a heretic in essence! Because the entire creation was for the tzaddik "The whole world was created only to accompany this" the entire creation is for Avraham, (the Zohar says in Parshat Tzav 30b that if this divine name had not been awakened in the world, the world could not stand even for one hour because of the harsh judgments that awaken in the world every day. This is what is said, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, do not read when they were created but with Avraham, because with the awakening of Avraham, the heavens and the earth stand, and when Avraham is awakened in the world, all the judgments that exist every day, he pushes them outside and they do not stand before him.) Hashem sustains the world only for the tzaddik. The tzaddik is the head of the house of the world, he is the beginning, the whole world is only branches from him, all creations are only sparks from the tzaddik, it is written in Shmuel II chapter 15 "And David came to the head" the Be'er Mayim Chaim explains that Hushai the Archite revealed to David you are the head! You are the beginning! You are the foundation stone! He saw that David was broken, all in heartbreak, he told him you are the head! You are the head of all the tzaddikim! You are the foundation stone! Wherever you go, there will be the foundation stone! Wherever you go, that is Jerusalem! All influences are received from the tzaddik, Jerusalem receives the influence from the tzaddik! The foundation stone receives from the tzaddik! The foundation stone jumped to Yaakov! Not that Yaakov came to the foundation stone! If there is no tzaddik, there is no foundation stone! The stone will not do anything without the tzaddik! If there is no tzaddik, there is no atonement for sins! If one does not believe in the tzaddikim, there is no sweetening of judgments! When Shimon the Tzaddik was alive, all sins were atoned for, everyone had a thread of scarlet in their home, and on Yom Kippur from morning till evening, everyone's thread would turn white, there was atonement for everyone! And all thanks to Shimon the Tzaddik. A person needs to believe and connect themselves to all the great tzaddikim of the generation! Those known to him and those unknown to him, he needs to connect himself with all the tzaddikim who are now in the world, I don't know who is a tzaddik, who is not a tzaddik, I don't know who is one of the 36 tzaddikim, one of the 36 tzaddikim could be a simple Jew drawing water who is now crying to Hashem and shedding tears like rivers, this Jew is sweetening all the judgments! And I connect to him! I don't know who this Jew is! I don't know! It could be one Jew who doesn't know how to read and write! Even some woman who doesn't know how to read and write, and she is now sweetening all the judgments over the people of Israel, a person needs to intend in all their prayers, in all their actions, that they are connecting with all the tzaddikim, with these Jews, the righteous and the simple and the innocent who are crying to sweeten the decrees over the people of Israel, who are now crying with a broken heart to Hashem truly. One doesn't need to know who the tzaddik is, it doesn't interest me who the tzaddik is, I know there is a head of the house in Israel, there are tzaddikim in the people of Israel who are sweetening the judgments and I connect with all of them! And it could be that every moment it changes, now this one has a broken heart and he is one of the 36 tzaddikim! This one has a broken heart, this one is now crying to Hashem, one must always be connected with those who cry to Hashem, with those who have a broken heart, and know that I am not the tzaddik! I am not the tzaddik! I don't know how to sweeten judgments, I don't know anything! On the contrary, I bring the destructions! And the holocausts! And the sufferings! I only connect with the tzaddikim known to me and those unknown to me. A person needs only to praise the tzaddik, the Rebbe says that through praising the tzaddikim, the decrees are canceled, a person believes in the tzaddik, all the decrees are canceled, if the people of Israel had withstood the test of not speaking about Moshe Rabbeinu, then the decree of not entering the land would have been immediately canceled. The whole world is garments for the tzaddik, all creations were created to serve the tzaddik, a person cannot move a foot without the tzaddik, cannot move a hand without the tzaddik, every movement is thanks to the tzaddik, every breath is thanks to the tzaddik, every word, every thought, is thanks to the tzaddik (because the moment the tzaddik prays for the people of Israel, sweetens the judgments over Israel, advocates for the people of Israel, sacrifices himself for the people of Israel, then thanks to him Hashem gives the people of Israel life, healing, sustenance, etc. and therefore every breath is thanks to the tzaddik) and this is what the Kedushat Levi says, whoever does not believe in the tzaddik, does not connect to the tzaddik, is a heretic in everything.

Courtesy of the 'Tzama Nafshi' bulletin