"Now Everyone is Flying to Uman"

Pearls from the holy words of our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, as delivered from Ayalon, Ramle, on the second day of Shabbat Ki Tetzei 5780, 4th of Elul, 24.8.20.

Ber-land in Hebrew means the land of the bears.

The Canaanites were once cannibals.

"You shall not treat her with cruelty, because you have humbled her" (regarding the beautiful captive woman taken in war, Deuteronomy 21:14). How is such a thing possible? You take a captive, and now she will do your scrubbing and wash your dishes? No, set her free!

A person who practices self-sacrifice goes out to war, almost dies, and sees Hashem face-to-face. When soldiers go out to practice self-sacrifice for the sake of the Jewish people, all their sins are forgiven.

Whoever breaks the tooth of his Canaanite slave must pay a fine, and the slave is set free. The Jerusalem Talmud (Shevuot 27b) says that Rabban Gamliel had such joy—he was so happy—the moment had arrived to free his slave Tavi! (Because he had broken his tooth). Such joy that does not exist anywhere else in the world; here he is freeing his slave. Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: "You require a Beit Din! The Beit Din must obligate you; you cannot set him free without a Beit Din!"

Whoever does not blemish the covenant, the lions will not do anything to him! A person is forbidden to blemish the covenant. "And you shall guard yourselves from every evil thing"—do not commit adultery, that is the whole parsha. It is forbidden to look at a woman; only a son may look at his mother.

"Face to face, Hashem spoke with you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire" (Deuteronomy 5:4). A person comes into the world for one thing: "Face to face, Hashem spoke with you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire"—to see Hashem face-to-face.

Now everyone is flying to Uman; one must be in Uman, there is no such thing otherwise. Every year, during "Ki Tetzei," everyone flies. This is the last Shabbat in the Land, and then one must fly.

Here is Ayalon—"Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the Valley of Ayalon." Here one sees Hashem face-to-face, literally! Whoever goes up to the roof sees Hashem face-to-face. "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the Valley of Ayalon"—both the sun and the moon. "And the light of the sun shall be as the light of seven days," sevenfold, 7x7x7. Whoever lives 777 years will have all his sins atoned for.

Whoever lives in Shlomi will have all his sins atoned for; there is buried Buki ben Yagli, Chushi, and Mechusham; he was from the tribe of Dan.

(Someone asks the Rav if he saw lions in exile as they say, the Rav answers:) There was one little one; I told him, "Calm down, you will grow up yet." They have an observation point on the roof there to see that the lions do not approach. Within a second, a jeep with rifles arrived; they saw lions approaching. The lions know how to jump high; this is at Victoria Falls.

In Tehran, it is forbidden for a woman to raise her sleeve a millimeter; straight to prison. Even the elevators in the hotels are separated—men and women. Tehran is more than Mea Shearim, such fanatics.

A person must ensure he is not a slave against his will. "He who frees his slave violates a positive commandment"—what does the Rashba say? There is no such thing! A person who freed his slave—that is the highest thing in the world to do, to make him a free man. They murdered his wife, cut him into pieces, stole his children... He says in Kiddushin there is no such thing as freeing for free. "He who frees his slave violates a positive commandment." A writ of emancipation is the highest thing in the world—not a divorce document for a woman, but a writ of emancipation (for a slave). Whoever merits a writ of emancipation... a writ of emancipation is the highest thing. Now everyone is receiving a writ of emancipation today.

The Rambam says a person can live 120 years. From the day of our Rebbe's passing, the years are extended; a person can live 720 years.

"To the foreigner you may lend at interest"—a gentile is just a donkey; he is not a person, he is a reincarnation of a donkey. A donkey upon a donkey until he converts. Therefore, there is a mitzvah: "To the foreigner you may lend at interest."

The service of man is to be ownerless, to be a "Petrushka." There was a woman called Petrushka, "Hefker Petrushka" (a Yiddish expression for a state where everyone does as they please).

King David's mother was called Nitzvet. Whoever is called Nitzvet, she forgives all the sins in the world. "My sheaf arose and also stood upright (nitzvah)"—she forgives all the sins in the world.

Avidan ben Gidoni jumped into the sea; the Gidonim are all suicidal. The tribe of Judah stoned the tribe of Benjamin; they also jumped into the sea.

The Rashba says a novelty: to make a slave a free man, this is the greatest novelty, that when they free a slave, it is written that one violates a positive commandment!

Now they are freeing Yisrael ben Rachel! Yisrael ben Rachel will be freed by Shabbat Nitzavim-Vayelech. There will be a hearing, and they will accept the claims that everything was a lie, by a person who wanted to take revenge; everything was out of pressure and confusion... by Nitzavim-Vayelech he will be freed! I decree it! Ki Tetzei, Ki Tavo, Nitzavim... Vayelech.

What the Rashba said, that a person frees a slave, it is not for free, because he served faithfully day and night; now he deserves to be freed. It is like paying him a million shekels. He said, "So-and-so, my slave, is a free man"—it is mandatory! We hold that one violates a positive commandment? There are a million excuses for this; the truest excuse is that he gave him pleasure, and that is worth a lot. The Torah was given to Israel as slaves. Is there no act of kindness? They tell him, "Freeing a slave, what have you done?!" This is the true novelty—certainly, he did not violate a positive commandment!

The heart—woe to the one who has a heart! "Zebulun is without a heart and a heart"—they have no heart!