Message from the Rav: "In looking at the Rav, I saw that he is very ill"

Many in the Charedi community are reaching out to us, expressing their revulsion at the one-sided, brutal, and biased conduct against the holy tzaddik, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, and thousands of his community members. Today, following the harsh persecution directed against the great leaders of Israel in recent times, it is already understood that the conduct against Rav Berland is a terrifying milestone in this persecution of religion. Everyone knows that boundaries have been breached, and that Rav Berland will not be the last on this path of persecution. Everyone has been marked; the anti-democratic silencing of voices and the efforts to dictate what a great rabbi in Israel is permitted to say are only increasing and intensifying from case to case.

Imagine entering a Daf Yomi Gemara class in the early morning, when the study hall is filled with students with open Gemaras, and dozens of masked security forces throw stun grenades and brandish their weapons. If they had waited just two or three hours, they could have taken the Rav quietly from his home and prevented all this unnecessary terror. But no, that is exactly their desire: to delegitimize everything that smells different from the secular mainstream that has seized the leadership of the country. This terrifying power is backed by the State Attorney’s Office, the mobilized media, and the henchmen who do their bidding.

Those who have not yet awakened and realized that this is not a matter of a controversial rabbi should wipe the sleep from their eyes. You are next in line, as is your community, your rabbi, and so on. And even if they do not come directly for you, the educational content in your children's institutions and everything similar will be seized from the hands of the leaders of Judaism and placed in the hands of those who hate Judaism and tradition.

"I dreamed of the Rav tonight," one of the important rabbis connected to Rav Berland told me.

"In the dream, they told me that our teacher, Rav Berland, was here in the room (I don't remember if it was in the hospital or the prison clinic). I entered the room; there were two beds. On one lay the Rabbanit Tehilla, may she live, who was ill (Heaven forbid). The second bed was Rav Berland's, but the Rav was not lying down; he was standing by the bed."

"Rav Berland was very ill. Looking at his face, I saw that he was very ill—something frightening—but he still radiated light, joy, and hope as usual. Rav Berland spoke and strengthened the people around him as usual. Then he saw me, reached out his hand toward me, and I approached and took his hand. The hand was cold and weak; I kissed his hand and began to tremble and cry."

"Rav Berland asked me with astonishment, 'Why tremble and cry? There is no need!'"

"I understood immediately in the dream that we enter into sadness and worry by choice, but by our own will, we can exit it whenever we want and be in joy."

"This is what Rav Berland wants—this is the message the Rav came to deliver to me in the dream."

"In the morning, I remembered that I had a dream with the Rav, but I didn't remember anything from it, until suddenly everything returned to me as clear as the sun."

The path of our teacher, Rav Berland shlit"a, throughout all these years has been one of complete faith and trust in the reality of Hashem. The Rav has not been afraid for a moment, just as he always brought the verse from the Scroll of Esther (5:9): "And when Haman saw Mordechai in the king's gate, and he did not rise nor stir."

Our teacher, the holy tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, has prayed all these years to enter prison. There are high-level processes of the tzaddik for the clarification of the souls of Israel that are strongly attached to the kelipah (shell), and the Rav, in his great stature, knows what is necessary to extract them. We must strengthen ourselves with the power of this holy elder and not let the events around us enter our heads and cool us down from simple Jewish faith—as Rebbe Nachman said, all the actions of the tzaddik are secrets of secrets.