Parshat Balak from the Words of the Righteous Rav Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Parshat of the week 'Balak' - from the mouth of the tzaddik, the foundation of the world, the esteemed Rav Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"The mouth of the donkey": Hashem speaks to us twenty-four hours without pause, Hashem speaks to us every second with thousands of hints, there is no person at any moment whose neshamah (soul) does not teach him what to do, the neshamah is alive and existent and it teaches the person. Every second there are endless hints to each and every one about what he should do and how he should behave. "Ten things were created on the eve of Shabbat at twilight, and these are: the mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, and the mouth of the donkey..." (Avot 5:6) Hashem created the donkey to rebuke Balaam. Because when a person goes to commit a sin, creation rises against him! "The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him" (Job 20:27). The heavens and the earth all rise against him! From the heavens, they hint to a person with hints so that he will not fail in sin! The Shechinah hints to a person not to fail! They hint to him sometimes through a donkey, sometimes through a non-Jew, the Shechinah dresses in all kinds of forms to hint to a person not to sin, even the donkey rises up! It presses him against the wall, and presses him again and again and tells him to start understanding the hints! They want to save you! What is the mouth of the donkey? A person goes to sin, so the donkey cries out, where are you going? And it cries out all the time! Not just on Balaam! It cries out to everyone, where are you going? What are you doing? The donkey cries out! The animals cry out! All of creation cries out! What are you going to a bad friend.

A person can feel how the ceiling is really falling when he goes to do something not good, everything cries out! He hears sirens from outside, the sound of alarms, the donkey stands in his way, suddenly he sees a car blocking him, suddenly the door is closed, nothing works out for him, everything is against him! When he goes to sin, then immediately there are alarms! Sirens! Alarm after alarm! Suddenly there are police, Magen David, fire brigade, the whole world is noisy! The moment a person goes to do something not good, Hashem has already planned from the six days of creation how to hint to a person not to do the sin. All of creation is arranged for the person not to commit any sin in life. Everything that happens to a person, here his wife rebukes him, here a friend rebukes him, here the bus driver shouts at him, it's all hints! The bus driver tells him - move forward, move forward, move already! Get on faster! It's all hints! Everywhere they rebuke him, shout at him, and all the shouts he hears are all hints from the heavens! When the bus driver shouts at you - 'Get inside! More inside! Move! Move forward already! Get even more inside!' Know that it's all hints for you to enter the inner essence of things, to enter the inner essence of the Torah and the mitzvot, not to remain outside, in the externality of things. Because what a person hears, every word he hears, it's hints from Hashem. Hashem speaks to us through every person in the world, Hashem urges us to start entering the inner essence of things, to the depth of things. Once, yeshiva students passed through the central station and saw someone standing there at a booth selling sunglasses. He shouted there 'Pity on the eyes' 'Pity on the eyes' he shouted like that for 8 hours in the middle of the central station. What more do you need, it's all hints! 'Pity on the eyes', sanctify the eyes! Guard the eyes! Everything we see and hear is all hints to draw closer to Hashem.

A person needs to know how to understand what the hints are. The hints that awaken him to draw closer to Hashem, hints that awaken him from his sleep, that's the matter of the hints. Not that someone called me in the middle of the order and now I'm going with him, that's not a hint, that's madness! If you need to go because it's really important, then you go. The Rebbe says in Torah 54 "But the greatness of the intellect in this should be measured, only according to his human intellect should he increase his thought in this"... "Hashem my God, You have become very great"... "You have become very great means that the greatness of the intellect should be measured and limited. The Rebbe says not just hints of madness! Hints are to learn, to pray with intention, fixed lessons, to learn Gemara, that's called hints. They give a person hints every second and you need to understand what the hints are, because there are hints that a person does not understand, hints are a heavenly voice, and you need not to leave logic, because even in a hint there should be some logic, a wise person is preferable to a prophet, logic is preferable to prophecy, and therefore the hints should not be against the Torah and against halacha. A person thinks, here I have returned in teshuvah, that's it, now I will have rest from the evil inclination, I am holy, I have no bad thoughts, everything is fine, but then everything starts to come back to him anew. He already goes less religious, and he starts to compromise a bit, he is already in decline, and then he has a crisis and all this why? Because he doesn't know that the war is for a hundred and twenty years! For life! If a person knows he has a war for a hundred and twenty years, and his teshuvah is not yet complete, and he remains the same animal as he was, the same lustful, the same bad traits, the same corrupt traits, he knows that everything remains the same for him, and nothing has changed, then he will not have a crisis. But since he doesn't know that nothing has changed, suddenly he gets a crisis! When he goes to sleep he sees he has bad thoughts, during the day he goes he is full of forbidden sights, he sees he is full of desires, and it burns in him billions of fires, he breaks. A person needs to know the moment he returned in teshuvah then what was until today everything remains for him! What he stole, robbed, murdered, desecrated Shabbat, went to the sea on Shabbat, smoked on Shabbat, everything comes back to him! It doesn't suddenly disappear in one day! Suddenly after some time, he has a desire to smoke on Shabbat, suddenly he wants to go to the sea God forbid, suddenly he is bored, his body is not used to Torah, his body is not used to the pleasures of kedushah (holiness), to the pleasures of the holy Shabbat, he doesn't yet have the tools to receive the kedushah. And if someone took drugs then the drugs chase him in the hardest way, whoever took drugs, may Hashem have mercy, how many years it takes him to get out of it, a person asks - 'What... I returned in teshuvah, I was in Uman' really it's not like that, it's not so simple, things that the body got used to for forty years, twenty years, thirty years, don't come out of it easily! So from the abundance of desires, from the abundance of fires burning in him, he breaks completely! He says - how much can I cope? How much can I? Maybe it's not for me? - It's not for you!? Certainly, it's for you! For whom was the Torah written? For the Christians!? For the Muslims!? What... was the Torah written for the Pope!?.

"For this, one needs to draw close to the great tzaddik in stature"

Because when a person draws close to a tzaddik, he begins to receive hints, he begins to understand the hints, he receives hints not to despair! He receives hints to fight, to cope, he begins to understand that the war is for a hundred and twenty years, he understands that this is the way, he understands that this is the order, he understands that he has more years of work to purify, he understands that all day he needs to fight with his foolish spirit, they hint to him all the time, another hint, and another hint, struggle!! Overcome!! Continue to fight! Continue to struggle! Until you come out of your foolish spirit. All things are drawn from Hashem, all things are drawn from the infinite, and a person needs to be connected with the infinite light, to be connected with Hashem. Hashem hints to a person every second with endless hints. When Jews are killed everywhere, in every corner, and all of Israel is in terrible anxiety, and no one knows what will be with him, what will be with his family, these are hints from Hashem. Now we have reached the worst situation that has been in Israel, missiles are flying, people are running to shelters, murders, killings God forbid, no one knows what will be in another second, Israel sees that nothing can protect them, really everything is drawn from Hashem! Everything is hints from Hashem so that we return in teshuvah, we have reached such a state that everyone already wants to do teshuvah, every day Hashem hints to us in speech, thought, and action, every day Hashem constricts His divinity and hints to us to awaken in teshuvah. And all this Hashem does for us out of the great love He loves us, He can no longer bear the immorality! Hashem can no longer bear the lashon hara! The desecrations of Shabbat! He wants Israel to return in teshuvah

(Courtesy of the pamphlet Tzama Nafshi 0527639126)