Pikuach Nefesh: Rabbi Ofer Erez shlit"a on the Redemption of Captives of Rabbi

Hair-raising words from the esteemed Rabbi Ofer Erez shlit"a regarding the pikuach nefesh involved in participating in the Pidyon Shvuyim of our teacher, the holy Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a. These are his words.

"I have spent much time over the last three months with the students of our teacher, Rav Berland, who are engaged with self-sacrifice in all of his medical and legal needs. I have also met twice for long conversations with the attorneys Amit Hadad and Rotem Tubul."

"From a legal perspective, we are in a very difficult system; the prosecution and the court system are fighting our teacher, Rav Berland, in an incomprehensible way. This is not understood even by the secular person, let alone the religious and believing one, to the point that people do not understand what all this fighting is about, and certainly, it is not as it seems. The attorney told me that there has never been such a thing, to put a Rabbi in detention for these types of accusations. That the Rabbi, at his age and in his condition, should sit in detention for accusations that are on the verge of delusion and lack of reality. Their self-sacrifice to keep the Rabbi in detention is incomprehensible."

"I sat with the avreichim who are dealing with this day and night, and it involves endless details and an endless war. The Rabbi has his own ways, in a very composed manner, to the point that, seemingly, there were several times it appeared from the Rabbi's side that he did not want to be released. Today, it seems that our teacher, Rav Berland, wants to be released, and in addition, his medical condition is terribly difficult."

"On the eve of Yom Kippur, I spoke with the Rabbi in a very moderate and composed manner, and I asked him if he wanted us to carry out all these steps. We know how much our teacher, Rav Berland, has sacrificed himself for each one of us, so we must do our part."

"From a medical perspective, one must say seven Tikkun HaKlalis every day and pray for our teacher, Rav Berland. His condition is very difficult, but the Rabbi has spiritual strengths that we do not understand. On the medical side, too, there is a very great war, literally over every document and every medical report. There is no logic in this, not according to Torah, not secularly, and not according to the nations of the world. Let's say they don't hold that the Rabbi is a Rabbi, it doesn't matter, but we are talking about an 84-year-old Jew; our teacher, Rav Berland, has 26 different illnesses."

"Every day, we deal with bringing in different doctors from various fields to treat the Rabbi. It is a war because there is someone making every step we take difficult—to manage all of this requires a lot of money. It must be noted that everyone currently dealing with the matter of our teacher, Rav Berland, does not receive any salary. Everyone is volunteering with great self-sacrifice. However, the expenses for the lawyers and all the related matters cost a great deal of money."

The final decision regarding expenses is made by the Rabbinical Committee; I only pass the information to them. We try to save as much as possible, but most things are in the category of pikuach nefesh or close to it. Therefore, at the Rabbinical Committee meeting, we decided to go out to the public and announce a Pidyon Shvuyim campaign. If you were to hear the sums, and all this is to provide our teacher, Rav Berland, with basic help."

"I cannot elaborate, but in one of the petitions, it was stated that every person in Israel is entitled to basic needs, but even this was lacking for our teacher, Rav Berland. 'Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53:4-5). I do not understand; it is beyond my comprehension, but in the little that we do understand, we see that our teacher, Rav Berland, has taken upon himself all the sufferings of the generation."

"If you were to hear the details, you would understand that what Rav Berland takes upon himself and suffers is not human—very extreme and harsh things. Any other person, the strongest and most heroic, would not be able to last one day with what Rav Berland has been going through during this entire period. Therefore, helping the Rabbi's cause is a merit. Only the future will reveal to us what is being done here; this whole process is truly like the stories of old."

"The Rabbinical Committee has set a contribution of 520 NIS for every family; everything goes entirely toward actions for our teacher, Rav Berland. This is the mitzvah of tzedakah, Pidyon Shvuyim, and pikuach nefesh of the highest order."

"A small example: a medical question arose, and yesterday at seven in the morning, one of the activists spoke with the two lawyers for an hour and a half on the phone to see how to deal with it. We are talking about calls early in the morning, calls at night; seven lawyers are dealing with the matter of our teacher, Rav Berland, at Amit Hadad's office."

"In the last petition, we requested an opinion from five top-tier lawyers in Israel, beyond the work of the Rabbi's own lawyers. They read over 400 pages of material and said that it is impossible to submit a better petition than this. In the last two weeks, there have been more than 8 legal petitions just regarding the matter of our teacher, Rav Berland."

"The petitions are literally about difficult things; after surgery, they took the Rabbi out in handcuffs. After all, any sensible person understands that the only place the Rabbi could escape to is the hospital. Right after the surgery, they handcuffed the Rabbi to the bed, and there was another petition about that. The Rabbi suffered severe pain in his hand, and they refused to let him be examined; we petitioned, and they discovered that his hand was indeed broken. By the way, after two weeks, the cast got wet, and they did not agree to replace it; the prisoners cut it and took it off. And these are just small details; there are much more urgent things."

Participate in the emergency campaign for the Pidyon Shvuyim of the holy Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Center for Help and Kindness in the name of Moharan of Breslov to save our teacher, the holy Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a - For a direct donation click here

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To listen to the words of the community rabbis and to make the holy donation by credit card (100% to the Pidyon Shvuyim fund), dial now *9148 extension 10