Parshat Ki Tisa by the Esteemed Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"And all the people took off the golden earrings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron" (Exodus 32:3)

"Above in the Heavens, there are myriads of endless chambers of myriads of righteous women from all generations, where each one built a chamber above from her yearnings and her longings for a mitzvah."

Why Aaron agreed to make the calf

"The holy Zohar says regarding the sin of the golden calf (197a) - that Yunos and Yambros, the sons of Bilaam the wicked, who were of the 'mixed multitude' (Erev Rav) and left Egypt together with Israel, began to convince the people of Israel that Moses would certainly not return. If he ascended to Heaven, he would not come back, and therefore they needed to make a calf, they needed to perform a new coronation with witchcraft and sorcery. They said, 'With this calf, we will conquer nations, and in this way, we will also conquer the Land of Israel.' They immediately went to Aaron the Priest and said to him, 'Let us make a calf.' What did Aaron do? How did he want to 'manage' them? He said to them, 'Go to the women, bring me the earrings of the women, and say that Aaron commanded to make a calf.'"

"Aaron knew that the women would not agree to make a calf. He knew that if a woman heard even once, 'You shall have no other gods before Me,' nothing would help! No one could move her from this. It is the nature of a woman; if she heard a certain word, a certain matter of Torah, nothing in the world could move her from it."

Nothing can move a woman from fear of Hashem

"'A woman who fears Hashem, she shall be praised' – the woman has the fear; the woman is more fearful than the man, because the women were not in the sin of the golden calf, the women were not in the sin of the spies. Because the moment the women received the Ten Commandments, the moment they took upon themselves the yoke of Torah and mitzvot, nothing in the world could move them, nothing could divert them, no argument, no persuasion, because the faith of a woman is much stronger than that of a man."

"When they reached the women, every husband tried to convince his wife: 'What? You don't believe in Aaron the Priest? You don't have faith in the tzaddikim? You don't believe in the tzaddik? Aaron the Priest said to make a calf, where is your faith?' Every woman said to her husband, 'Come, let us go to Aaron the Priest, let us argue with Aaron. What does it mean that he said to make a calf? After we heard such a commandment, "You shall have no other..." from one end of the world to the other in seventy languages, even a bird did not chirp, an ox did not low, now we will change such a commandment? What is the meaning of Aaron telling me? What is this, that Aaron is changing the Ten Commandments?'"

Nothing moved the women from their innocence

"The holy Zohar says, 'And they took off' (Vayitparku) – what is this term 'Vayitparku'? The Zohar explains that the women did not remove their earrings under any circumstances! They grabbed their ears and pressed their hands to their ears. So it is written 'Vayitparku,' like 'one who breaks mountains and shatters rocks.' The women simply took it by force, 'they grabbed and broke their ears' as the Zohar says, because when the husbands caught some madness, Heaven forbid, and wanted to make a calf, may Hashem have mercy, the women remained in their innocence, in their purity, in their modesty, and in their pure faith, and nothing moved them, nothing in the world!"

There is a chamber in Heaven where women innovate Torah

"A woman can also be a prophetess, she can be Deborah the prophetess, Miriam the prophetess, just as the Tanna D'bei Eliyahu says, that he swore by Heaven and Earth that everyone can see the holy Shechinah, without exception. The holy Zohar says that there are chambers in Heaven, chambers that righteous women merit. There is a chamber called Bitya, daughter of Pharaoh; thousands of women innovate Torah insights there every day. There are thousands of women there who left their homes, left the wealth, left the career. Bitya was a king's daughter and left everything to be a simple Jewish woman. So every woman who could have been a great manager and left everything to be at home, and to raise her children for Torah study, who sends her husband to study Torah, and says Tehillim and goes to the Kotel, she ascends to such levels that no other woman can ascend, and then she merits the levels of Bitya, daughter of Pharaoh, who ascended with her body to the Garden of Eden."

Deborah wanted to increase Torah and her light grew in Judah and Jerusalem

"There is a chamber of Serach bat Asher who ascended with her body to the Garden of Eden, and there is a chamber of Yocheved, and a chamber of Deborah the prophetess. All the righteous women of the generation ascend to those chambers; they are classified to each one the chamber that suits her, according to her deeds, and also endless other chambers. Myriads upon myriads of righteous women in all generations, each one built a chamber above from her yearnings and her longings for a mitzvah, like Deborah the prophetess, whose yearnings and intentions were all how to increase Torah and glorify it. Deborah made her torches, her great candles, only so that the Torah scholars would sit until the morning and study Torah, so that the candle would not go out in the middle of the night because the wick was not good, or the wax was not good, or the oil was not good. Deborah ensured that the light of the candle would be the most excellent, the wax the most excellent, the oil the most excellent, that everything would be at the peak of beauty. It never happened that the candle suddenly went out in the middle of the night and they had to close the holy Gemara, Heaven forbid; the candles always burned until the sunrise. Then Hashem said to Deborah, 'You intended to increase My light in Judah and Jerusalem, so I too will increase your light in Judah and Jerusalem.' He gave her prophecy, gave her such insights and such intellect until she was a judge, as the Chida says (Rosh David, Parshat Beshalach) that all the innovations were revealed to her, all the laws of the judges were revealed to her."

The women are the aspect of the altar

"The Zohar says in Mishpatim, 'And Deborah sang' (Vatashar). 'Vatashar' – this hints at the net of the altar, as the verse says, 'And the net shall be under the ledge of the altar.' Deborah merited to sacrifice herself to Hashem; she was the aspect of the net of the altar. 'Vatashar' (V-T-Sh-R) are the letters of 'Reshet' (net). The women are the aspect of the altar, because in truth they sacrifice themselves to Hashem, they sacrifice themselves, they receive the children, they take care of ten children, the mothers do everything, they devote themselves to the children, feed them, give them to drink, adore them, they do it with self-sacrifice, they sacrifice themselves to Hashem, so they can be prophetesses."

The women build the Mishkan

"What is a home? A home is a Mishkan (Tabernacle). M-I-Sh-K-A-N (Mishkan) is an acronym for Mita (bed), Shulchan (table), Kise (chair), Neira (candle). The woman cleans the house, educates the children; it is as if there are Torah scrolls in the house because the children study Torah. The husband can sit and study Torah; when the woman washes dishes and lights candles, cooks and sets the table, then she builds the Mishkan. If she does her work, her mission, she can receive prophecy from this."

If you fulfill all the negative commandments, you can be a prophetess more than a man

"'These are the laws that you shall set before them' – women were made equal to men for all the laws in the Torah (Rashi). A woman is like a man and she is obligated in all negative commandments. She also has the prohibition of 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not murder,' she is also forbidden to speak lashon hara, and if she decides to fulfill the mitzvot as they should be, to make 3 meals and Melaveh Malkah, not to speak lashon hara, not to speak nonsense, etc., then she will be able to be a prophetess more than a man."

"A woman is indeed exempt from studying Gemara, but she is not exempt from being attached to Hashem; from that, she is not exempt. She can be attached to Hashem when she cleans the house, cooks, washes dishes, as it is told about the wife of Rabbi Yitzchak Drohobycher, the mother of Rabbi Michel of Zlotchov, that in the middle of sweeping the house, she said 'Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh.' Her husband, R' Yitzchak, said to her, 'Why do you say Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh?' She answered and said to him, 'I hear the song of the angels; the angels are saying Kedushah now.'"

"Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov became blind. They asked him, 'Why did you become blind?' He said to them, 'Because of my wife I became blind... everything she says is "for the sake of Shabbat, for the sake of Shabbat." She kneads the dough and cooks, and says "for the sake of Shabbat," and from every "for the sake of Shabbat" that she says, an angel is created. From every word "for the sake of Shabbat," angels are created, until the whole house became a burning fire, the whole house was filled with angels until they blinded my eyes from the abundance of light.'"

"If the woman does what is necessary in her matters, does her role with loyalty, with devotion, with joy, with fear and love, for the sake of Hashem, then from the simplest things she can receive prophecy."