The Daily Chizuk from The Rav, the holy Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “The Chol Bird Did Not Eat from the Tree of Knowledge”

Monday, 25 Tishrei 5785 — “The whole concept of Rebbe Nachman is renewal.”

These are his holy words:

For there is the Chol bird (based on Midrash Bereishis Rabbah, this bird is called “Chol.” The Midrash explains the verse in the book of Iyov, “Like the chol I will increase my days” (chapter 29, verse 18), as referring to the Chol bird: “A bird whose name is Chol, and death was not decreed upon it, because it did not taste from the Tree of Knowledge. In the end, every thousand years it renews itself and returns to its youth.” The Midrash brings a dispute regarding how the Chol bird renews itself. According to Rabbi Yannai, after a thousand years of life, fire comes out from its nest and burns it, and what remains is like an egg; then the Chol bird grows limbs again and lives. According to Rabbi Yudan the son of Rabbi Shimon, after a thousand years the body of the Chol bird wears away without burning—“its body is consumed and its wings are plucked”—and what remains is like an egg; then the Chol bird grows limbs again.) because it did not trouble him (the Gemara explains that the Chol bird merited eternal life through Noach’s blessing, as a reward for not asking Noach for food in the Ark, since it saw that he was busy feeding the other animals.).

The Chol bird did not eat from the Tree of Knowledge; it did not agree. When Chavah ate from the Tree of Knowledge, the Chol did not agree.

And now we are repairing the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. The Chol did not agree to eat from the Tree of Knowledge; therefore the Chol is a bird that renews itself every thousand years. It lives a thousand years, and afterward it renews itself—it is burned, it is renewed, it is created מחדש, anew.

A person is created מחדש, anew, every day; every second he is created anew—this is the whole concept of Rebbe Nachman: new creation.

Rebbe Nachman says, “I am blind; I do not see the world at all—I have never seen the world in my life.” The Rebbe did not look at forbidden sights; the Rebbe immediately closed his eyes.

The Rebbe also did not taste from the Tree of Knowledge; he did not even think of tasting. Even before Adam HaRishon thought of tasting from the Tree of Knowledge, the Rebbe had already flown away (his soul departed from the soul of Adam HaRishon before the sin).

The soul of Rebbe Nachman is from the Zihara Ila’ah; the Rebbe was the Zihara Ila’ah. Chanoch is the Zihara Ila’ah.

The whole point of a person is that he sees nothing—he sees no immorality; he is simply not capable of seeing it. He cannot look; he vomits. If he sees a woman’s body, he begins to vomit. If he sees a woman revealing a tefach—revealing even a millimeter—he vomits.