Holy words delivered by The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, given on 6 Nissan 5782, the day of the Nasi: Elyasaf ben Deuel:

The Parshah of the Nesi’im and Eliyahu HaNavi

Then there was Elitzur ben Shede’ur—he is the one who enters into the Rock. “And you shall stand there with Me upon the rock.” There is the cleft of the rock, and there is the “ceiling” of the rock; and a person’s entire avodah is to reach the ceiling of the rock—to be constantly at the ceiling of the rock. And then Moshe Rabbeinu fasted forty days and forty nights. After he fasted forty days and forty nights, he had already stripped away the whole body—he rose above physicality. Then Eliyahu HaNavi asked Hashem, and Hashem said to him: “What are you doing here, Eliyahu?” What are you doing here—how did you come in here? As if: without permission. He didn’t have a visa. So Hashem said to him: What are you doing here? “What are you doing here?” How did you reach here—“What are you doing here?” So he said: What can I do? “The Children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant.” They abandoned Your covenant—so now you will go to every bris. Now you will have a “punishment”: for every bris you are obligated to participate, even if there are ten brisos. It doesn’t matter—if there are a million brisos, he needs to be at a million brisos. In one day, in one second—at a million brisos. And people ask: What kind of punishment is that?! What—this is a merit, to be at all the brisos. What punishment is this?! If only we would be at all the brisos in the world—if only we would go to every bris. What does it say here? “And for the Jews there was joy and gladness and honor.” “Gladness” refers to bris milah—bris milah—because they decreed against bris milah. Because Antiochus gave eight days—Antiochus was the biggest miser in the world; he didn’t agree that there should be twelve. A day like today—twelve days: Elitzur ben Shede’ur, Shelumiel ben Tzurishaddai. He said: only eight is enough—only eight. So now we have a problem: how do we fit twelve into eight? I don’t know—I didn’t learn arithmetic, how this works… But in Nissan we manage. Nissan is wondrous: we have twelve days, we make celebrations, and we sing and sing.

Queen Esther Did Not Give In

But in the end the king said to Queen Esther: Listen—everything is lost. They already hung Haman. Because Shuvu Banim does everything the opposite—everything is done the opposite. Even… after all, they hung Haman on Chol HaMoed. Esther said: I want to drink four cups. He didn’t let her. He said: “You will not drink four cups. I warn you—you won’t drink a drop.” “Give me a sip…” “No! Not even a sip!” “A drop…” “No!” So what will happen here—what will be the end? Suddenly she sees—then they said: “They will divide my garments among them.” She already had evening gowns—she had a thousand evening gowns—and they already divided everything. “They will divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they will cast lots”—they divided all the dresses. Suddenly they said: Now they will hang her. At nine… the children didn’t want… small children—at eight, in bed. I warn you: all the little ones, at eight, in bed! Hurry to go to sleep! The children didn’t agree. They wanted to see how they hang Queen Esther. He said: Tonight they hang Queen Esther. Suddenly—what do they see? Instead of hanging Esther, they hung Haman. This is something awesome. Haman didn’t do anything “not good”—everything was… every matter he asked the king. He didn’t do things on his own; everything he did was disciplined, he was obedient—everything he did was what the king told him. He brought him ten thousand talents of silver: I want to buy the Jews. He told him: Take it back—I don’t need the money. I’m not willing to kill the Jews; I don’t have the strength. He said: You’ll see what happened to Sisera—what happened to Pharaoh—what happened to Sisera.

The Story of Sisera and the Might of Yael

Do you know what happened to Sisera? Sisera is “twice Haman.” Why is Sisera twice Haman? “From Heaven the stars fought; from their paths…” It should say “from their paths” one more time—they fought again—and that is twice Haman. He was “twice Haman.” Nothing helped him. In the end, the poor man drowned in the Kishon. Yael came and said the Shem HaMeforash. It is written “balat.” What is “balat”? She “walks balat”—that is exactly forty-two. “Balat” is beit-lamed = 32; alef-tet = 10; so she said the Name of 42. “And she looked out”—Sisera’s mother: he had a righteous mother. Therefore we need one hundred shofar blasts to nullify the cries of the mother. If a mother sheds a tear—oy v’avoy—that no mother should dare to shed a tear. She shed one hundred tears—so came out one hundred blasts. Every Rosh HaShanah: one hundred blasts. So for the sake of her one hundred tears—why suddenly tears? A righteous mother, holy and pure—she went with five veils and five garments. And therefore two Batei Mikdash were destroyed, and the third is now on the way—it will be built. So Achashverosh said to Esther: There’s nothing to do—everything is lost. Listen: “It was sealed with the king’s ring, and it cannot be revoked.” We don’t change decrees here—not like on the internet; there there is no government—the government fell. By us, a government is a government! We made a decree—it is a decree. You will not cancel my decree for me. You will not interfere in my affairs. You want—fine… my eyes—you are the eyes, the eyes… but you will not cancel any decree. I’m telling you—she said: “And Esther continued and spoke before the king, and she fell before his feet, and she wept and pleaded with him: ‘E-li, E-li, why have You forsaken me?’”