Last Night’s Lesson of the Holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Before you is the full lesson from last night - after the Maariv prayer and Sefirat HaOmer together with our community:

Do not hesitate even for a moment to come and help the tzaddik

So today is nineteen days, which are [two weeks and five days] - Hod sheb'Tiferet. Hod is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Hod sheb'Netzach - next week will already be Hod sheb'Netzach; today is Hod sheb'Tiferet. And the fourth day will be Netzach sheb'Netzach - the third at night. Regarding 'Netzach sheb'Netzach', Rebbe Nachman said, "I have been victorious and I will be victorious," because all those who draw close to the Rebbe are sparks of the Rebbe. And therefore, it is written in Likutey Halachot, Laws of Milah 4, that all the righteous women are sparks of Queen Esther, of Deborah the Prophetess. Every woman today is a spark of Deborah the Prophetess who defeated Sisera. 'I have been victorious and I will be victorious' - "From the heavens they fought, the stars" (Judges 5:20). All the stars came to help Deborah. All the stars fought for the sake of Deborah; there were some stars that did not come, and they turned into black stars - "Curse Meroz, said the angel of Hashem" (ibid. 23). The angel curses one who does not come to help the tzaddik, one who does not come to pray with the tzaddik, to help the tzaddik; the angel himself curses him. So, "Curse Meroz, said the angel of Hashem"; Deborah says, it is the angels who cursed them, not I. The angels cursed the stars that did not arrive. And they turned into black stars from which no light emerges. They cannot shine, because one who is not with the tzaddik has no merit of existence. No merit to shine in the world, to shine upon the earth. Only one who comes to the tzaddik, to help the tzaddik, to pray with the tzaddik, to fight with the tzaddik.

And the moment Barak hesitated, he only said to her, "You come with me too." He told you to go, why are you not going!? You have already lost the merit to defeat Sisera - "Your glory will not be upon the way... for into the hand of a woman, Hashem will give Sisera" (ibid. 4:9) because you hesitated. If a person hesitates, "Should I go with the tzaddik, or not go with the tzaddik..." He only has a slight hesitation, perhaps to pray with the tzaddik, or not to pray with the tzaddik... Even a hesitation, a hesitation of something, he deliberates all day. Why does he deliberate? Because he is deliberating because he is in pride; it does not suit him to go with the tzaddik. It is not to his honor to pray with the tzaddik, so he loses everything. He lost all his merits, he lost his entire World to Come, his entire present world. Even to defeat Sisera, he cannot; he is nothing. He only has a slight hesitation, one doubt whether to listen to the tzaddik, then he is rejected from everything and anything; they throw him outside.

The lesson at minute 1:04:46

The women did not sin and did not dispute the tzaddik

But all the women who were with Moshe Rabbeinu, for no woman sinned in the desert, no woman. Not the sin of the Golden Calf and not the sin of the Spies. There were ten trials, ten sins, but the women did not sin. The women went with the tzaddik; nothing interested them. "Moshe is a fraud, Moshe is a sorcerer... Moshe..." Korach explained, "Why do you exalt yourselves over the assembly of Hashem?" (Numbers 16:3), "Why have you killed?" (ibid. 17:6). Suddenly the earth opened, everyone was swallowed. Then he said, "This is just some sorcery, this is not from Hashem at all." The women were not interested in this. The women knew that Moshe is the tzaddik; they follow Moshe through fire and water! He split the sea, he brought ten plagues, he brought them Torah from the heavens. Korach said, "I too can bring down Torah from the heavens, what is the problem? I will ascend to the heavens, I too will bring down Torah." Moshe ascended to the heavens; why did he ascend to the heavens? Because everyone prayed, everyone crossed the sea, [as it were, through the power of the community he brought down Torah, and this did not come from the power of Moshe Rabbeinu]. Behold, Dathan and Abiram, the sea split for them; for Dathan and Abiram, the sea split.

The affair of the blasphemer

What is the story with the blasphemer? Why did the blasphemer suddenly start to curse? After all, the Midrash says – Midrash Rabbah – that the husband of Shelomit was Dathan. She had a nice, sweet husband, holy of holies; he only disputed the tzaddik, that was his problem. But other than that, he was a good, devoted husband. He washed dishes, did the cleaning, he cooked all the food; she would rest and say Tehillim. He would do everything for her, only one thing he would do: dispute the tzaddik. That was Dathan; he was the husband of Shelomit. And of course, this child was not his child. And suddenly everyone was swallowed in the earth, everyone suddenly, everyone swallowed in the earth - Dathan, Abiram, Korach, the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren, even the great-grandchildren were swallowed in the earth, with the women, with the babies. One was not swallowed in the earth; that was the blasphemer. The blasphemer was not swallowed in the earth. Everyone asked, "Why were you not swallowed in the earth?! Why? The earth did not swallow you, why?!" He said, "I am holy of holies, I am a tzaddik." No, no, you have another reason, something... Let's go to Moshe and ask him. They went to Moshe, he told the whole truth. Immediately he started to curse. So he was, in truth he thought he was the son of Dathan, he thought he belonged to the tribe of Reuben at all. He did not know about the story at all. Suddenly the story was revealed, immediately he cursed Moshe, the tzaddik, he was rejected from the tzaddik. And this is the moment he needed to do teshuvah (repentance); this is the moment he could have been holy, as great as Moshe. If he had held his ground, then he would have ascended to the level of Moshe. If he had accepted the humiliation with love, he would have ascended to the level of Moshe; he could have been Moshe. Therefore it is written "Vayikov" (Leviticus 24:11), it does not say "Vyekallel" (and he cursed), "Vyekallel" is later [in the continuation of the verse]. "Vayikov" means he made a hole between the world of Yetzirah and Asiyah. He drew down lights from the world of Atzilut; he was so great.

"Who and who are going?" The Chariot goes with you!

For the smallest, the smallest woman was like Ezekiel the son of Buzi. The Rambam brings in the Laws of Eight Chapters, chapter four at the end, that the smallest woman, even an Egyptian maidservant, "This is my God and I will glorify Him" (Exodus 15:2) - she saw things more than Ezekiel the son of Buzi. So the smallest person could see the Chariot like Ezekiel; he knew the entire Chariot. The whole matter of the blasphemer was that he wanted to see the Chariot literally!

So a person goes with the Chariot, "Who and who are going?" (ibid. 10:8). But Pharaoh asked, "Who is going with you?" The lion in the Chariot, the ox in the Chariot, the eagle in the Chariot, which... "Who is going with you?" They said, "With our young and with our old we will go" (ibid. verse 9). What is the meaning? The entire Chariot is going.

How many angels accompany a person in one week?

It is written 'three hundred thousand myriads of lions', it is written in the Zohar Va'etchanan, "And it came to pass when the Ark set forward" (Numbers 10:35). When a person goes on the road, travels to the tzaddik, then the lion of the Chariot descends, the ox of the Chariot, three hundred seventy thousand myriads of lions, three hundred fifty thousand eagles, three hundred fifty thousand oxen, these are all angels. A person goes on the road, then "For He will command His angels for you, to guard you in all your ways" (Psalms 91:11) - all the angels accompany him, all the angels of above, all the angels of the Chariot. And then they say 'Shalom Aleichem', and then on the sixth day another forty-eight hours they need to sing 'Shalom Aleichem'. They need to sing 'Shalom Aleichem', to bless all these angels that accompany the whole week that are created. Because a person studies twelve and a half hours, he creates sixty myriads of angels. Every hour he creates forty-eight thousand angels, ten hours – four hundred eighty thousand, two and a half hours another one hundred twenty [thousand], four hundred eighty [thousand] and another one hundred twenty [thousand], that is six hundred thousand angels created every day. And these are the angels that we see, we bless them, when we come home to make Kiddush. Even before going home, one needs to say, even before going home. If one blesses them in the synagogue, to bless all the angels that we created, every day we created six hundred thousand [that is] three million, six hundred thousand angels over the course of the six days, and all the angels accompany us.

"So that it may go well with me for your sake" - that your angels will accompany me

And the woman is accompanied by angels; wherever the woman goes, the angels accompany her. Because the angels of the woman do not flee. As Abraham said to Sarah - it is written in Zohar Tazria page 52 - Abraham said to Sarah... Abraham sees that the angels of Sarah did not flee. From him, all the angels fled, even from Abraham our forefather, who is the head of all the Patriarchs, that we say 'Shield of Abraham', he is the head of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But the angels fled from him! The Zohar says because he is going down to Egypt, "Why are you going down to Egypt? Eat grass like everyone else." In the siege, they ate grass, cooked grass; the women went in the fields, gathered grasses, cooked them. Before Mashiach comes – another two hundred years, then everyone will go to the Syrian desert and there they will eat grass. Nine months they will take over here, Edom will rule over the land, they will have to flee to the Syrian desert, to eat grasses. So it is written in the Gemara in Yoma, the Gemara in Sanhedrin, and this is ten Gemaras that everyone will have to flee. So why are you fleeing to Egypt? Eat grass like everyone else. Everyone manages, you too will manage. He went down to Egypt, all the angels fled from him. But with Sarah, the angels remained. From the woman, the angels do not flee; she is accompanied by the angels. Therefore he says to her, "Say, I pray you, that you are my sister" (Genesis 12:13). He is speaking with the angel. He says, "Say, I pray you, that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me for your sake." "For your sake – for your sake" the angel that goes with you, will guard me.

Everything a person has is in the merit of his wife

Because everything a person has is all in the merit of his wife, because the angels of his wife never leave her. Except if she commits sins, of course, but a righteous woman who does not commit sins, then the angels go with her, sixty myriads of angels go with her. For every step and pace, wherever she goes, the angels accompany her, they do not leave. From the man, they leave him – the angels leave him, because he fails in forbidden sight, then the angels fled from him. He hears a lesson, he goes outside, he lost all the angels. But from the woman, no, the woman, the angels go with her, sixty myriads of angels, wherever she goes. For every step, every day, sixty myriads of new angels. 'That is already' three million six hundred thousand, the angels never leave her. Therefore he says to her, "So that it may go well with me for your sake, and my soul shall live because of you." The Zohar says that the angels of Abraham left him, but those of Sarah did not leave him.