Teachings from The Rav Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a about the holy Tanna Yonatan ben Uziel • The time period of his life • His greatness • The spiritual power of his burial place • A prayer from The Rav Rabbi Berland shlit"a to say at his grave • The greatest of them: Yonatan ben Uziel

The time period of his life

Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel lived five generations before Rashbi. He was a student of Hillel. Rashbi was a student of Rabbi Akiva, who was a student of Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol, who was a student of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who was a student of Hillel. There were five generations between Rashbi and Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel.

His greatness

Yonatan ben Uziel, one of Hillel’s students, was on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu—he could move the sun and the moon.

The “smallest” among them was Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who knew every kind of wisdom: the speech of birds, parables, and even the language of palm trees. From the “Torah of the palm trees” one can know the future—what is going to happen—just from the movement of the palms. The speech of palm trees, the speech of birds, the speech of animals, the speech of beasts; the discussions of Abaye and Rava—meaning certainly all the Gemaras, the entire Shas until the end of generations—this was considered the smallest. The greatest was Yonatan ben Uziel. When you reach Yonatan ben Uziel—everything gets burned up! Everything gets burned up! All foreign thoughts get burned up—everything gets burned up! Everything gets burned up! Everything gets burned up! Everything gets burned up! Yonatan ben Uziel would sit and learn, and fire would burst forth—fire would burst out from within him and burn everything!

When Yonatan ben Uziel would expound words of Torah, the fire would blaze. When you come to Yonatan ben Uziel, you must believe that the fire is still blazing—because the Tzaddikim are greater after their passing than during their lifetime.

A person who travels to Yonatan ben Uziel can literally see fire! If he merits it, he truly sees fire! Because the Tzaddikim are greater after their passing than during their lifetime. That same fire that would go out from Yonatan ben Uziel and burn—one can see that fire even now. If a person merits it—if he has kosher eyes, pure eyes—he can see the fire above the tziyun of Yonatan ben Uziel, the burning fire! Because this fire keeps multiplying from day to day; it keeps multiplying from day to day!

The spiritual powers of his burial place

A person can already be full of ga’avah; he becomes a baal teshuvah, he becomes a tzaddik… Go to Yonatan ben Uziel—he will take these foolish ideas out of your head! There, everything flies away! Everything takes wing!

When a person travels to Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, he can bring about every kind of yeshuah!

People are looking for shidduchim—this kind of match, that kind of match. There’s nothing to “look for” in shidduchim!… You can travel to Yonatan ben Uziel and accomplish it!

The Chazon Ish says that during bein hazmanim one must at least be like a craftsman and learn nine hours, and afterward there are still fifteen hours left for whatever one wants: to travel to Amuka, to Yonatan ben Uziel—there is a fire there that burns everything. It is written that any bird that flew over him would be burned. They say that this is why whoever reaches the tziyun of Yonatan ben Uziel finds his shidduch—because in truth, everyone is offered his shidduch. Whoever was by Rebbe Nachman comes with his shidduch; the problem is that everyone has confusions—“her nose is crooked”… And the moment he arrives in Amuka, all the confusions get burned away, and then, automatically, he finds the shidduch…

Yonatan ben Uziel is fire! You can see the fire! Fire surrounded him 24 hours a day. “The smallest among you” is Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai; “the greatest among you”—who could set the sun and the moon in place like Moshe Rabbeinu—he was on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu. So people travel to Yonatan ben Uziel, and they take a child along once—it’s such an experience, such light; that child will never become secular!

You need to make some kind of vessel… travel to Yonatan ben Uziel, make vessels—there everything is fire! When a person travels there, it is all fire! The Tzaddikim are greater after their passing than during their lifetime. So if he had fire in his lifetime—what kind of fire is there now?! If you come to Yonatan ben Uziel every week, it is a greater fire. The tzaddik goes from level to level. If you merit traveling to Yonatan ben Uziel on Friday night—then everything gets burned up! All the kelipos, all the bad thoughts—everything gets burned up! He burns everything! Yonatan ben Uziel burns everything!

A prayer from The Rav Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a to say at the place of his grave

Master of the Universe, Almighty, as I stand before the holy and awe-inspiring tziyun of the awesome and holy Tanna Yonatan ben Uziel, who was the greatest among the students of Hillel HaZaken (Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 5:6; Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 28a; Bava Basra 134a), and who was worthy that the Shechinah should rest upon him like Moshe Rabbeinu, and who was worthy to set the sun and the moon in place.

Please, Compassionate and Gracious One, merit me to set the sun and the moon in place like Moshe and Yehoshua, and through his merit to attain the yichud of the sun and the moon—which is the yichud of Chochmah and Binah—and through this to merit Nefesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah, Yechidah. Atone for me for all my sins and for all the blemishes of my bris, and I will never again blemish my bris forever—not in thought, not in sight, not in speech, and not in action. And may I merit, through the merit of the Divine Tanna who rests here—before whose holy tziyun I stand with awesome dread and awe—to shed tears like water, as it is written (Tehillim 119:136), “Streams of water run down from my eyes because they did not keep Your Torah.” And may I merit to hear the holy roar of Hashem over the hind that has distanced itself from Him, as it is written (Yirmiyahu 25:30), “He will surely roar over His abode,” and how He strikes three hundred and ninety firmaments (Zohar Chadash, Midrash Ruth 3) and brings down tears boiling like fire into the Great Sea. And from the power of these tears stands and endures the ministering angel of the sea called Rahav (Bava Basra 74b), who was appointed over the shamir worm, and he delivered it to the duchifas = 520 (Gittin 68a), the secret of ten times “Eliyahu HaNavi, remembered for good” (Eliyahu = 52 x 10 = 520), who will be revealed speedily in our days, amen.

Master of the Universe, with trembling and shaking, fear and dread, and all my bones fluttering from fear, and my knees knocking one against the other—how can a maggot and worm like me come before the Divine Tanna, the head of Hillel’s students, equal to Moshe Rabbeinu, who could set the sun and the moon in place? And I, with my many evil thoughts and disgraceful deeds, dare to stand before the splendor of his holiness. Yet I rely on Your endless compassion, and I know there is no end to Your mercy—especially upon a sinner and transgressor like me, for there is no greater transgressor than me in the whole world and in all generations. And just as he merited that every bird that flew above him would be burned (Sukkah 28a), so too merit me that all my evil thoughts should be burned and disappear completely, and that all my evil and disgraceful deeds should be transformed into merits—through the merit that I now accept upon myself at his holy tziyun a true thought of teshuvah: not to sin anymore from now and forever, and to guard my eyes and my thoughts with complete vigilance.