"Moses wanted to reveal the Ten Commandments to them with voices and lightning!" • The daily lesson from the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Before you is the full daily lesson as delivered by our teacher, the Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a - yesterday after the Maariv (evening) prayer, Thursday night, the eve of the 6th of Tammuz, Parshas Chukat:
"The prayers of women are accepted more than the prayers of men. Therefore, it is written in the Bnei Yissaschar that the Ezras Nashim (women's section) is always above, because the women elevate the prayers. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak says that in Uman, the women would pray and cry, and such terrible cries that it would stir all the men to weeping; all the men in Uman prayed in the merit of the women who cried in the Ezras Nashim. This was true on Yom Kippur and on Rosh Hashanah as well. And I remember also in the Great Synagogue, the women would cry and stir all the men in the Great Synagogue in Haifa to weep and cry. There were terrible cries. Especially during Yizkor (memorial prayer), especially on Yom Kippur, there were terrible cries from the women. Because the women elevate all the prayers, and Hashem gave a woman a million times more intellect (sechel) than a man. She does a thousand times—a thousand times a thousand is a million. Every woman already knows how to calculate the accounts of Rashi, as Rashi says on Samuel II 24:3, that they need 'as they are, and as they are, a hundred times.' Now, I know 'as they are, and as they are, a hundred times' sounds like two hundred. But that's not correct! It's not two hundred. 'As they are, and as they are, a hundred times' is eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred and twenty-eight, two hundred and fifty-six, five hundred and twelve, one thousand and twenty-four. Now we've already reached one thousand and twenty-four within ten seconds; within twenty seconds we reach a million, within thirty seconds we reach a billion, within forty seconds we reach a thousand billion, in fifty seconds we reach a million billion. And in sixty seconds we already reach a trillion—eighteen zeros—the secret of Rivka's (Rebecca's) jug. And after that, at seventy, we reach a thousand trillion. At eighty, a million trillion, at ninety, a billion trillion. When we reach a hundred, it is exactly a thousand billion trillion. And at one hundred and ten, we reach a million trillion, and at one hundred and twenty, we reach a trillion times a trillion, which is thirty-six zeros. And after that we reach—it goes to one hundred and forty, one hundred and sixty, one hundred and eighty; one hundred and eighty is already fifty-four zeros, which is a trillion times a trillion, and after that—after one hundred and eighty we reach one hundred and ninety, two hundred. After that two hundred and ten, two hundred and twenty, thirty, two hundred and forty—we reach seventy-two zeros, a trillion times a trillion... four times a trillion. Which is seventy-two zeros, corresponding to the jug of Rivka. For Rivka sweetened the Dinim (judgments) until the end of all generations. Rivka went with the jug, 'and her jug was on her shoulder,' so Eliezer saw Esau, but in truth, she sweetened Esau, she subdued Esau. By placing her jug on her shoulder, she subdued Esau completely. If there had been one more jug, there would be no remnant left of Esau, nor of Germany, nor of Amalek. The Germans are the descendants of Amalek. Just as now, one woman attacked the kibbutzim; she said, 'You called to Amalek, you called to Hamas, you sent them balloons saying they are our brothers, that they should come, that they should conquer the land.' That it's their land—all the kibbutzim called to Hamas, they invited them, and now they are screaming and blaming everyone—blaming Bibi (Netanyahu), that's all. He says, 'It is you yourselves who called them, you called them, you invited them, you said it is their land, you said it is an occupation.' We know that in the Tanakh (Bible) it is written that the land is ours, a land flowing with milk and honey. We are now in Parshas Chukat before entering the Land. So, 'before their eyes' (l'eineihem). The Chiddushei HaRim says: What is 'before their eyes'? It is the Ten Commandments, for Va'eschanan is the Ten Commandments. Before they entered the Land, they heard the Ten Commandments anew. They needed to hear the Ten Commandments with voices and lightning. 'And the mountain was altogether in smoke,' they needed to see fire to the heart of the heavens, clouds to the heart of the heavens. But 'before their eyes'—'before their eyes' refers to the Ten Commandments. The Chiddushei HaRim says: And this I received, this is a secret I received from the Holy Shechinah (Divine Presence), that Moses wanted to reveal the Ten Commandments to them with voices and lightning. Because only in the merit of the women did they merit the voices and lightning; Hashem called all the women a day before the giving of the Torah, and their bodies, their wombs, became like glass, like a fluorescent light. And even the children, the babies, the fetuses, said 'This is my G-d and I will glorify Him,' they heard 'I am Hashem your G-d.' They had to say 'Yes' to every commandment—to say 'Yes.' And only after that did Hashem call the men. Hashem called the women a day earlier; the women received the Torah a day earlier. Because a woman has a million times more intellect than a man. Therefore, women already have first, second, and third degrees. And the man is still opening bastas (market stalls), he works with bastas. He has bastas of rotten tomatoes in Mahane Yehuda or the Carmel Market. Therefore, the blessing of Joab (Yoav) is a billion trillion times more than the blessing of Moses. The Midrash asks: How could the blessing of Joab—Joab was just a general officer, essentially the Chief of Staff—how did he merit to be more than Moses? It says it was in the merit that he distributed sweets, he distributed cans of soda, he distributed popsicles and ice creams; every child received a popsicle in honor of the Holy Shabbat. In the merit of the popsicles, he merited that the blessings of Joab are a thousand billion—a billion trillion times more than Moses'—twenty-seven zeros. Moses only said 'a thousand,' but he said 'as they are, and as they are, a hundred,' which comes out to a thousand billion trillion. Therefore, every woman who merits to raise children, and merits to have self-sacrifice (mesirus nefesh) for her children, she merits to bring the Geulah (Redemption). And she will bring the complete Geulah speedily in our days, Amen!"
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Receive Torah articles and inspiration directly in your inbox