In Light of New Archive Details - The Story of Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a's Journey to Breslov Chassidut

Rabbi Nachman Rozental, who was formerly the supervisor at the Breslov Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, was also the one who brought our teacher, the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, closer to Breslov Chassidut about 50 years ago. In the bulletin 'Knishta Chada' 26, we mentioned the touching story of Rav Berland shlit"a's journey, who was already a great servant of Hashem and a tremendous Torah scholar. It was during the Purim holiday, and in light of the exciting publication of items related to the Rav shlit"a, we will present the main points of the journey below.

This involves the book Likutey Etzot, printed by Breslov chassidim in the United States, which the esteemed Rabbi Berland shlit"a dedicated to the Breslov Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Over time, the book was entrusted to R' Nachman Rozental, who also added his name on the title page.

[caption id="attachment_15223" align="alignnone" width="482"] Likutey Etzot HaMeshulash[/caption]

And also, a dedication letter that Rav Berland shlit"a sent to R' Nachman Rozental

[caption id="attachment_15224" align="alignnone" width="482"] Dedication letter from Rav Berland shlit"a[/caption]

The Story of the Esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a's Journey to Breslov Chassidut - As Published inKnishta Chada Bulletin Issue 26

Our teacher, the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, had a study partnership with the Steipler zt"l. It is well known that the Steipler zt"l respected him and even stood up for him, etc. Many ask, if the Rav was initially Lithuanian and studied in Ponevezh, how did he come to Breslov?

Even about sixty years ago, when the Rav was a young man in the Knesset Hezekiah Yeshiva in Kfar Chassidim, he was already known to many as a genius and a great diligent student in Torah. Our teacher, Rav Berland shlit"a, would study twenty hours a day without interruption. Once, when he was seventeen, the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi A. Mishkovsky zt"l, told him, "You must go out to the fields, to do Hitbodedut." He added, "Go every day for two hours to the field [to release]."

The Rav had not yet heard of Breslov Chassidut and did not know what Hitbodedut was in the teachings of Rebbe Nachman, but to fulfill the head of the yeshiva's command, he went every day and did Hitbodedut in the fields surrounding Kfar Chassidim. He felt such pleasantness in Hitbodedut that instead of traveling back and forth from his home in Haifa to the yeshiva by bus, and to guard his eyes, he would walk two hours each way. At that time, the entire way was just fields and orchards. But his whole being was immersed in the holy Torah. There in Kfar Chassidim, the Rav became very close to the supervisor, R' Eliyahu Lopian zt"l, and when he was a young man of twenty, the supervisor told him, "From you will come a great head of a yeshiva."

When the Rav became engaged to Rebbetzin Tehilla tlt"a, he moved to Bnei Brak to the Ponevezh Kollel, where he studied with the great Torah scholars of the previous generation, R' Ben Zion Bamberger zt"l, R' Yechezkel Levenstein zt"l, and R' Chaim Friedlander zt"l, and he would sleep at R' Chaim's house. The Rav was so immersed in his studies that nothing else interested him. Rabbi Shmuel Heller, one of the rabbis of Haifa, remembers that they told the Rav on Purim: "Go out to dance." And the Rav said: "I cannot leave the Gemara." They wanted to pour water on him - but he could not close the Gemara.

After the wedding, the Rav and Rebbetzin lived in Bnei Brak, and the Rav studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva. There in Bnei Brak, the Rav attached himself to the great tzaddik Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky zt"l (known as "the Steipler"), and studied with him daily for an hour in partnership for several years. When the Rav was still in Kfar Chassidim, he would write many halachic questions to the Steipler, and later continued to ask about everything until he collected entire notebooks of responsa from the Steipler.

On one occasion when the Rav was studying with the Steipler, the Rav told him that he yearned to discover the inner essence of prayer. Then the Steipler told him "Go pray with the chassidim." One Purim night, about fifty years ago, the Rav went from chassidut to chassidut in Bnei Brak looking for a place where they truly served Hashem until he arrived at the Breslov Yeshiva, and when he entered, he saw that everything was quiet, there was almost no one. Our teacher, Rav Berland, met the supervisor Rabbi Nachman Rozental shlit"a and asked him why it was quiet here? Is there no Purim here? Rabbi Rozental told him, here everyone goes to sleep, wakes up at midnight, and goes to the field to prepare for Purim to cry out 'Save me from the shell of Haman Amalek and grant me the holiness of Mordechai and Esther,' because how can one waste such a holy night in revelry and drunkenness when it is written that whoever stretches out their hand [in prayer] is given. The Rav was very impressed by the answer and since then became very close to Breslov.

Rabbi Nachman Rozental, who was the supervisor at the Breslov Yeshiva in Bnei Brak at the time of the yeshiva's establishment fifty years ago, previously recounted that one day a Jew came to the Steipler with a request that the Rav bless his wife who needed urgent salvation. The Steipler told him, turn to my neighbor Rabbi Eliezer Berland and ask him for a blessing. The Jew went to the home of our teacher, the Rav shlit"a, but he was at that time in Hitbodedut in the field. "Leave the note and your name and I will give it to him," said the Rebbetzin.

A few days later, the same Jew returned to the Rav's house with an envelope containing a very large sum of money and gave it to the Rav as a gesture for the salvation his wife received. The Rav refused to take the money, but the man argued and pleaded with him, left the envelope, and went. The Rav consulted with the Rebbetzin and decided - "This money does not belong to me!! I will go out to the street and the first head of a yeshiva I meet, I will give him the envelope." The Rav left his house and immediately met by chance the head of the Breslov Yeshiva, R' Shimon Bergstein zt"l, and happily gave him the envelope. And Rabbi Rozental adds that later R' Shimon Bergstein told him this money sustained the yeshiva.