Immediately Burned Up!

Words from our teacher Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a on the holy Tanna Yonatan ben Uziel • His lifetime • His greatness • The spiritual power of his gravesite • A prayer from our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a to recite at his gravesite • The greatest among them is Yonatan ben Uziel

His lifetime

R' Yonatan ben Uziel was five generations before Rashbi; he was a student of Hillel, Rashbi was a student of R' Akiva, who was a student of R' Eliezer the Great, who was a student of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who was a student of Hillel. There were five generations between Rashbi and R' Yonatan ben Uziel.

On his greatness

Yonatan ben Uziel, who was among his students, was on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu; he could move the sun and the moon.

The smallest among them was Yochanan ben Zakkai, who knew all the conversations, the birds, the parables, and the palm trees. From the study of palm trees, one can know the future, what is going to happen, just from the movement of the palm trees. Conversations of palm trees, conversations of fowl, conversations of birds, conversations of animals, conversations of beasts, the logic of Abaye and Rava—this certainly means all the Gemaras, all the Shas until the end of generations—so he was the smallest. The greatest is Yonatan ben Uziel. When you reach Yonatan ben Uziel, then everything is burned! Everything is burned! All the foreign thoughts, everything is burned! Everything is burned! Everything is burned! Everything is burned! So, when Yonatan ben Uziel would sit and learn, fire would erupt, fire would erupt from within him, burning everything!

When Yonatan ben Uziel would expound on words of Torah, the fire would blaze. When one comes to Yonatan ben Uziel, one must believe that the fire is still blazing. For the tzaddikim are greater in their passing than in their lifetime.

A person travels to Yonatan ben Uziel, and he can truly see fire! If he merits it, he sees actual fire! For the tzaddikim are greater in their passing than in their lifetime. That same fire that would emerge from Yonatan ben Uziel and burn, that same fire can be seen now as well. If a person merits it, if he has pure eyes, holy eyes, he can see the fire above the gravesite of Yonatan ben Uziel! The burning fire! For this fire goes and doubles from day to day, goes and doubles from day to day!

The spiritual powers of his gravesite

A person is already arrogant; he becomes a baal teshuvah (repentant), he becomes a tzaddik... Go to Yonatan ben Uziel, and he will take those foolish things out of your head! There, everything flies away! Everything vanishes!

A person travels to R' Yonatan ben Uziel, and he can bring about all the salvations!

People are looking for shidduchim; such a shidduch—such a shidduch. There is nothing to look for in shidduchim!... One can travel to Yonatan ben Uziel and bring it about!

The Chazon Ish says that during the break between the semesters (bein hazmanim), one must at least be like a craftsman and study for nine hours, and then there are 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 is why whoever arrives at the gravesite of Yonatan ben Uziel finds his shidduch, because in reality, everyone is offered a shidduch—whoever was by our Rebbe arrives with his shidduch—but the problem is that everyone has confusions, that her nose is crooked... and the moment he arrives in Amuka, all his confusions are burned, and then, consequently, they find the shidduch...

Yonatan ben Uziel is fire! One can see the fire! Fire would surround him 24 hours a day. The smallest among you is Yochanan ben Zakkai, the greatest among you—who can make the sun and moon stand still like Moshe Rabbeinu—he was on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu. So, one travels to Yonatan ben Uziel, and one takes the child; it is such an experience, such a light, the child will never be secular!

One needs to make a vessel... to travel to Yonatan ben Uziel, to make vessels; there, everything is fire! When a person travels, it is all fire! The tzaddikim are greater in their passing than in their lifetime. So, if he had fire in his lifetime—what kind of fire is there now?! You come to Yonatan ben Uziel every week, and it is a greater fire. The tzaddik goes from level to level. You merit to travel to Yonatan ben Uziel on Thursday night, then everything is burned! All the kelipot (shells), all the evil thoughts, everything is burned! He burns everything! Yonatan ben Uziel burns everything!

A prayer from our teacher Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a to recite at his gravesite

Master of the World, Almighty, as I stand before the holy and awesome gravesite of the fearsome and awesome Tanna Yonatan ben Uziel, who was the greatest among the students of Hillel the Elder (Yerushalmi Nedarim 5:6, Bavli Sukkah 28a, Bava Batra 134a), and was worthy that the Shechinah should rest upon him like Moshe Rabbeinu, and was worthy to make the sun and moon stand still.

Please, Compassionate and Gracious One, grant me the merit to make the sun and moon stand still like Moshe and Yehoshua, and to merit in his merit the unification of the sun and moon, which is the unification of Chochmah (wisdom) and Binah (understanding), and through this to merit the Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, Yechida, and atone for all my sins and blemishes of the covenant, and I will never again blemish my covenant, not in thought, not in sight, not in speech, and not in deed. And I will merit, in the merit of the Divine Tanna who dwells here, before whose holy gravesite I stand in awe and terrible fear, to shed tears like water, as it is written (Tehillim 119:136), "My eyes shed streams of water because they did not keep Your Torah," and I will merit to hear the roars of Hashem over the hind that distanced herself from Him, as it is written (Yirmiyahu 25:30), "He shall roar mightily over His dwelling," and how He kicks the three hundred and ninety firmaments (Zohar Chadash, Midrash Ruth 3), and sheds tears as hot as fire into the Great Sea, and by the power of these tears, the Prince of the Sea, who is called Rahab (Bava Batra 74b), stands and exists, for he was the one in charge of the Shamir worm, and he handed it over to the hoopoe = 520 (Gittin 68b), the secret of ten times Eliyahu the Prophet, may he be remembered for good (Eliyahu = 52 x 10 = 520), that he may be revealed speedily in our days, Amen.

Master of the World, with trembling and fear, dread and awe, and all my bones are shaking from fear, and my knees are knocking against each other, how can a worm and a maggot like me come before the Divine Tanna, the head of the students of Hillel, who is equal to Moshe Rabbeinu, and who could make the sun and moon stand still, while I, in the multitude of my evil thoughts and vile deeds, dare to stand before the splendor of his holiness? But I rely on Your infinite mercies, and I know that there is no end to Your mercies, especially for 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 any bird that flew over him was burned (Sukkah 28a), so too, grant me the merit that all my evil thoughts will be burned and disappear completely, and all my evil and vile deeds will be turned into merits, in the merit that I now accept upon his holy gravesite a true thought of teshuvah, not to sin anymore from now and forever, and to guard my eyes and my thoughts with the ultimate protection.