Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a Regarding Arabs – Video and Audio

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, Head of Shuvu Banim Yeshiva, calls for peace with the Arabs. Winter Stadium, Ramat Gan, 2012.

From a lesson given on the 22nd of Av, 5775

[audio mp3="https://www.shuvubanimint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/no-goy-die-22-Av.mp3"][/audio]

"My handiwork is drowning in the sea, and you wish to sing songs?!" (Megillah 10b). It is forbidden for any gentile to die! It is forbidden for any gentile to be killed! If a gentile walks with Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, the Rabbi splits the river for him; there is no such thing as a gentile needing to die! Every gentile is needed! We have seven billion people, and the world needs to double itself! Not that they should die! "And all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you and your offspring" (Bereishis 12:3). The Midrash Rabbah in Parashat Lech Lecha says that no ship ever sank! Avraham prayed from age 5 until age 175—he prayed for 170 years—praying that no ship should sink! So why should I care if a ship sinks?! They are all idolaters, they are all wicked, they are all slave ships, they are all criminals—what does it matter if some ship sinks?! It is a pity for every gentile! No ship must sink. The Zohar says, the Midrash Rabbah says, that the more gentiles there are, the more human beings there are, then there is more abundance, more blessing in the world. It will be like the Days of Mashiach: "And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and you shall dwell safely in your land" (Vayikra 26:5). We need a multitude of people in the world, as many people as possible. It is forbidden for any gentile to die. If people are being killed every day in Syria, we must go out in protest, travel to Damascus, demonstrate there, and scream: Why are people being killed?! Why are children being killed?! It is a pity for every gentile child! For every Arab child, it is a pity! We must rise up against any murder that exists in the world! Any murder in the world! So Avraham Avinu prayed that no gentile would die! No one knows this Midrash! People think that gentiles are hefker (ownerless/abandoned)! "Beloved is man, for he was created in the Image [of God]" (Avot 3:14)! Gentiles are not hefker, says Reb Nosson on page 172 in Hilchos HaRe'iyah, Birchot Pratiyot. Reb Nosson says gentiles are not hefker! And one will have to give a judgment and accounting for every drop of blood spilled, even from the nations of the world! Hashem needs the gentiles too! "Beloved is man, for he was created in the Image." Avraham prayed that no ship would sink in the sea, and no ship sank. No airplane fell during the time of Avraham Avinu; it never happened that people flew to space and crashed like Ilan Ramon z"l—there was no such thing!

From a lesson given on Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5775

[audio mp3="https://www.shuvubanimint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/bring-every-goy-to-teshuva.mp3"][/audio]

We need to bring all 70 nations back in teshuvah (repentance). The King Mashiach will bring all the nations back in teshuvah. Because, Heaven forbid, if one gentile dies... [King Amaziah] threw ten thousand Edomites from the top of the cliff. It is written in section 14 of the Petichta of Eichah [Rabbah] that a Heavenly Voice went forth and said, "Now you will go into exile. I do not want you to harm any gentile. What is this, throwing ten thousand Edomites off the cliff? You conquered them? Fine. Tie them up, subdue them. They are enemies of Israel, they torment Israel—but you have no permission to throw them off the cliff. If you threw them off the cliff, then you will all go into exile." We have no permission for any gentile to die. In the time of Avraham Avinu, no gentile died, no ship sank—even though they were all pirates, and they were all sea bandits, and the ships were full of idols of pagan worship. But we do not want any gentile to die—not pirates, and not a murderer—unless they are murdering the world like Hitler, yimach shemo (may his name be obliterated). But an ordinary murderer can return in teshuvah...