Live Only in Jerusalem, Gain Everything

The daily chizuk from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “When it’s possible to live in Jerusalem, it is forbidden to live anywhere else”

“Zevul — where the Heavenly Jerusalem is situated” (Chagigah 12b)

“I rejoice over Your word like one who finds great spoil” (Tehillim 119:162)

“And I restrained myself and brought up the burnt-offering” (Shmuel I 13:12)

“And he took his firstborn son, who would reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt-offering” (Melachim II 3:27)

Sunday, 12 Adar 5783 — “They come to learn even in the snow; if he had arrived five minutes earlier, he would have received everything.”

These are his holy words:

“Zevul — where the Heavenly Jerusalem is situated” (Chagigah 12b), because there is a Jerusalem Above and a Jerusalem below.

A person must live in Jerusalem. It is forbidden to live anywhere else. When it’s possible to live in Jerusalem, it is forbidden to live somewhere else. Just as it is forbidden to leave Eretz Yisrael, it is forbidden to leave Jerusalem.

Everyone must be in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the Beis HaMikdash Above. One sees the Beis HaMikdash eye to eye, and enters the Devir—the Holy of Holies.

They come to the shiurim even in the snow

There was Rabbi Hirsch Leib Lipel zt"l (Rabbi Hirsch Leib (Tzvi Aryeh), son of Rabbi Aharon Betzalel Lipel. He was born in Lodz, Poland, to his father Rabbi Aharon Betzalel, a chassid of Radomsk. In his youth he noticed his father sitting and learning from a sefer, with tears streaming from his eyes. It was the holy sefer “Meshivas Nefesh,” because his father cherished Breslov sefarim. Rabbi Hirsch Leib understood there was something deep here, so he went searching for that sefer. The little he managed to draw from it became for him a thread that led him to draw close with all his heart and soul to the light of Rebbe Nachman. His yahrtzeit is on the 23rd of Marcheshvan 5740.) His yahrtzeit is on the 23rd of Marcheshvan 5740.

What a Tzaddik—what tears. From Chatzos, from midnight until four in the morning, inside the snow. I stood next to him—I was his attendant—standing beside him holding his bag. Thick snow was falling, up to the knees. Rabbi Grossberg arrived, who was a maggid shiur, and he spoke about what this means: “I rejoice over Your word like one who finds great spoil” (Tehillim 119:162).

He said: This is a true story. A woman came in order to donate—women are the greatest donors. She had 5,000 dollars, and she came to the Kosel to distribute it to tzedakah, but no one was there. Snow fell that day, so nobody came. She arrived alone; the Kosel was empty.

So she began putting the money into the charity boxes. There are about ten boxes at the Kosel. She put in 100 dollars, another 100 dollars, and another 100 dollars. Suddenly someone arrived and saw the woman putting a lot of money into the boxes.

She said to him: It’s good you came. I already put 2,500 into the boxes; I still have another 2,500 left. He felt such regret over the 2,500 he “lost”—if he had arrived five minutes earlier, he would have received everything.

It was a snowy day—snow up to the knees—“I rejoice over Your word like one who finds great spoil.” But you could have learned more if you hadn’t stayed home because of the snow. Look—you came and heard a shiur. You could have heard a shiur yesterday, and there was a shiur on Monday. Every day there are four shiurim; each time they say new chiddushim.

So a person comes to the Kosel and sees a woman putting hundreds of dollars into the boxes—and instead of rejoicing in what he received, he feels pain. “If only I had come five minutes earlier”—five minutes, like Shmuel HaNavi and Shaul—five minutes.

Shmuel told Shaul: Wait five minutes. What’s the problem with waiting five minutes? Wait another two minutes—what is it? Two minutes you would have waited! Even though you brought up the burnt-offering (“And I restrained myself and brought up the burnt-offering,” Shmuel I 13:12), because they would not go out to war without a korban olah.