Parshat "Achrei Mot" by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

CHIDUSHIM ON PARSHAT ACHREI MOT BY MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A:

Because now is the greatest moment – Yom Kippur.  We will read on Shabbat “After the death of Aharon’s two sons, when they approached before Hashem,” that this is the reading of Yom Kippur.  The Zohar says that a person is the radiance of the Shechina (Divine Presence).  A person comes into this world only to enjoy the radiance of the Shechina; only for this does a person come to the world – there is nothing else.  All of those who died for Kiddush Hashem (the sanctification of God’s Name) in the Holocaust, it is said about them, “And His eye beheld every precious thing” – that this is the radiance of the Shechina.  This is what they see.  They came in dreams to people and said they are enjoying the radiance of the Shechina, such an Eden, such light.  “And His eye beheld every precious thing” – this is the radiance of the Shechina.  “And His eye beheld every precious thing” – this applies to all those killed for Kiddush Hashem, in a generation of Shmad (religious persecution), that this is “a pleasing fragrance to Hashem.”  Now this is the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto; all of them went up on Kiddush Hashem.  All of them were burned alive.

Now we need to discuss Yom Kippur.  Now is Yom Kippur.  The Zohar says, in “Achrei Mot,” that this was Yom Kippur mamash.  What, does the Zohar dispute the Torah, the simple meaning?  Here, it is written that on 1 Nisan, they took ten crowns, “Moshe inquired” – the goat of the sin offering.  Why didn’t you eat the goat?  What didn’t you eat it?  He said, “But this is Kodashim for the generations; it’s forbidden.”  He said, “I erred.  Go throughout all the camps with a loudspeaker and say, ‘I erred.’”  It’s written in the Midrash that they went through all the camps with loudspeakers; Moshe announced that he erred.  Because there were three goats.  There was the goat of Nachshon.  Nachshon brought a goat.  This is an offering of an individual – the first day.  Ephraim brought an individual offering on Shabbat Kodesh! – something terrible.  This will already be a scandal, a provocation.  To bring a goat for a sin offering on Shabbat Kodesh?!  So it was, all as commanded by God.  Ephraim merited, because he learned with Yaakov Avinu without interruption.  He didn’t take his head out of the book.

“And His eye beheld every precious thing” – this applies to all those who were sacrificed for Kiddush Hashem.  Hashem smelled the fragrance of Shmad.  Hashem smelled that this is a pleasing fragrance – this is a generation of Shmad.  When a person dies for Kiddush Hashem, this is the highest thing that can be – there is nothing higher than this.  A person comes into the world only to die for Kiddush Hashem; for this, he comes to the world, the entire creation.  “And His eye beheld every precious thing” – this applies to all those who die for Kidddush Hashem.  The main thing is to die for Kiddush Hashem.  The whole reason we came to the world is to die for Kiddush Hashem – this is the whole reason we were created.  Rabbi Natan writes in Tefilah 87 that the first prayer a person needs to pray is “I want to die for Kiddush Hashem”; that on the last day, there will be Kiddush Hashem.  That a person will live 120 [years] like Rabbi Akiva, and on the last day, there will be Kiddush Hashem.  It’s written that the Beit Yosef died for Kiddush Hashem.  Here, he died a regular death?!  They say, “No!”  There is such inner suffering; the Rebbe said that one already doesn’t need any suffering, because I took all the suffering onto myself.

We are now in the Land of Israel – everything is in the merit of Rabbeinu.  Every day, they’re launching missiles; every day, bombers.  One woman ran with her baby; [she fell and] her head was opened up.  Until now, she hasn’t woken up.  Every day, a hundred missiles, 200 missiles.  We fire once – boom!  They say the Jews fired, all the television [networks].  The Jews fired.  A girl was injured.  So what, this is mamash kidnapping girls, taking out babies.  But ”His eye beheld every precious thing.”  In the Holocaust, people prayed, put on Tefillin, even when they trampled on them with their nail-studded boots, with their boots.  They trampled on whoever was caught with Tefillin.  This was the in-law of Rav Wallace, who was caught with Tefillin and they trampled him.  After this, they decided to hang him.  They put him on the table with a rope, with a tie.  Because by the Ashkenazim, the tie faces downwards, but by the Germans, the tie faces upwards [e.g. the noose].  But this is a tie, not more than a tie!!!  How they don’t suffocate, this is a wonder.  They placed a table, moved the table, and he was hanging in the air!   In short, they asked him, “What do you want before death?”  The Germans are refined souls – bitte, danke schon [please, thank you].  All the most beautiful words in the world.  This is by the Germans.  There is no refinement like this.  Before they are going to talk to you, to ask, they apologize a hundred times:  Bitte, danke schon.  Sorry that I’m talking to you, that I dare to address you, that I even ask you, because you are such an important person.  You are Gadol HaDor, you are the king of kings.  I am a “worm and not a man, scorn of men and despised of people.”  Who am I even?  And like this, a person makes of himself zero and nothing, zero and nothing, zero and nothing.  And after ten minutes of putting himself down with a billion putdowns, he asks him the question: “Where is right, where is left, where is the road?”

A person comes to the world to see Hashem face-to-face.  The Jews went through the entire Holocaust.  There was one from Tsherin.  He came three times to the Kibbutz [of Rosh Hashanah].  In the end, someone met him.  Don’t know – he wasn’t Breslov.  He said, “Rabbi Nachman saved me.”  He related the whole story, that every day, the Ukrainians would come, would take families from the houses and slaughter them in the fields.  They would slaughter them alive, light them up in bonfires.  He ran to a bunker, but he sat above and didn’t go down into the bunker.  They covered the bunker.  They needed someone to be above, saw someone and said, “Fine.”  This is the incident of the man who said that Rabbi Nachman saved him.

THE SHIUR WENT THROUGH EDITING, AND ANY ERROR SHOULD BE ACCREDITED TO THE WRITER AND NOT MOREINU HARAV SHLIT”A

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