Rabbi Natan Heller shares special, majestic memories from the Purim days at the “Shuvu Banim” yeshivah in the Old City nearly forty years ago : the wine that had no effect > Haman’s “Chatzos” and his sons > how Rabbi Berland reacted when he saw “Rabin” and “Arafat” dancing on Purim > the unique learning schedule Rabbi Berland established on Purim day > and which story Rabbi Berland compared Purim day to?

Majestic Memories

Purim—the great day of the year, when all the gates open, and whoever stretches out his hand is given. A day when the light of the Tzaddik shines with precious radiance, and his renown spreads through all lands. In Breslov, this exalted day takes on an added force in serving Hashem: alongside all the joy, the skits, and the costumes, Breslov placed a special emphasis on Hisbodedus at midnight, and in general on prayer and crying out to Hashem throughout all the matters of the day. And in order to enter the holy, joyful atmosphere of Purim, we spoke with Rabbi Natan Heller, one of Rabbi Berland’s veteran students, who brings up majestic memories from the Purim days in the shadow of The Rav, Rabbi Berland.

A Lesson of Fiery Flames

“I remember,” Rabbi Heller recalls, “the first Purim I merited to be at ‘Shuvu Banim.’ After the morning prayer, Rabbi Berland delivered a lesson filled with fiery flames. And I remember that while he was speaking, they poured him a large cup of special wine—homemade wine. Rabbi Berland drank and spoke; he finished one cup and they filled him another, and another, and he kept speaking words of Torah—and you could see no change in him at all, even though anyone else would have been drunk long before from such wine… And afterward there were dances, and Rabbi Berland danced with everyone as if he hadn’t drunk any wine.”

A Witty Line from Rabbi Berland: When Achashverosh Wanted to Catch the Breslovers

“That year,” he recalls an interesting anecdote, “when I arrived at the yeshivah, Rabbi Berland arrived as well. He came up the stairs together with me, and on the way he said to me, in a witty tone, that Achashverosh was from the opponents. Every night the Breslovers would disturb his sleep, because they would do Hisbodedus at midnight in the palace garden, and they would say Chatzos there, with loud voices and cries… And every night he wanted to drive them away and catch them. He would wait for midnight to come, and then they would arrive, and he would go out and catch them—but in the end, he would always fall asleep at midnight… Until one day he decided to stay awake at any cost, and the first Breslover he would catch, he would hang. And precisely that night… ‘Haman came’… He was the first one to arrive—he was caught and hanged on a tall tree…”

Rabbi Berland told me this in connection with the fact that at that time people were talking about Breslovers who do Hisbodedus at night and disturb people’s sleep—so you see, they disturbed Achashverosh too…”

A Special Learning Schedule on Purim Day at “Shuvu Banim”

“At that time,” Rabbi Heller continues, “I was constantly unsure whether to remain in ‘Shuvu Banim,’ and Purim made a very special impression on me—to stay in this holy place. On Purim night, after the prayer, there were buses out to the fields, and afterward there was Shacharis at sunrise. After the Megillah reading, Rabbi Berland would give a lesson, and after that there were dances. And there were also years when, after the Megillah reading in the morning, Rabbi Berland made sure everyone sat and learned for two or three hours. I remember Rabbi Berland shouting this in the lesson: he said they should not go home without learning—that the dancing and all the matters of Purim joy should not be done mindlessly, without a mind and without learning. And indeed everyone stayed; the Beis Midrash was full like on a regular day, and when Rabbi Berland went out—everyone went out after him…”

A Serious “Performance”

“On Purim day,” he recalls, “already at 12:00 the dancing would begin in our Beis Midrash, and it would continue until the late hours of the night. And in the early years, The Rav, Rabbi Berland, would also participate in all the dancing. There was one time—this was during the Oslo Accords—Meir Rubinstein dressed up as Rabin; he knew how to imitate him very well. And R’ Yisrael Savag, who knew how to imitate Arafat, dressed up as him. They approached Rabbi Berland in the middle of the dancing to make him happy, but Rabbi Berland suddenly became truly serious. He spoke with them as if he were speaking to Rabin and Arafat themselves, and he said to them: Why are you making all these terrible agreements? He spoke with real pain—everyone was shocked by it. And it truly was terrible then, all those “peace agreements,” while all the time the Arabs were carrying out terror attacks. There was also one Purim when an accursed terrorist blew himself up in Tel Aviv among a group of children, may Hashem avenge their blood. (This really brings to mind the story about Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin, with the chassid who dressed up as the Czar.)

“Whoever Stretches Out His Hand”—The Drunk Whose Blessings All Come True, and Purim as a Special Parable from Rabbi Berland

To conclude, Rabbi Heller brings words of The Rav, Rabbi Berland, from one of the lessons on Purim day: “The Rav said that Purim is truly like the story of that man who redeemed captives with self-sacrifice, and he was given a gift from Heaven that whatever he blessed would come true—only that the Baal Davar made him drunk, and then he could not bless. And there was a man who needed salvation, and his Rav sent him to that drunk, saying that only by him would he see the salvation. What did that chassid do? He made sure they would not bring him more wine, and then, between bottle and bottle, he managed to draw out from him the blessing—and it indeed came true. And The Rav, Rabbi Berland, said that this is how Purim is: a special eis ratzon that must be seized. On the one hand, there are many distractions—there are the mitzvos of the day—but we do not always manage to use it properly.”