The angels have overcome the mortals and the Ark of God has been captured—yesterday, Tuesday, the 3rd of Tammuz 5784 (July 9, 2024), the great Gaon (genius in Torah) Rabbi Yehuda Derai zt"l (of blessed memory), the Chief Rabbi of the city of Beer Sheva and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council of Israel, suddenly passed away to the heavenly treasuries.

During the time of his funeral, our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days), delivered a eulogy during his lesson after the Maariv (evening) prayer. These are his holy words from the awesome eulogy:

"Now is the funeral of Rabbi Yehuda Derai zt"l, the brother of Aryeh Deri and the son-in-law of Rabbi Yitzchak Toledano zt"l. Rabbi Yehuda zt"l was a supporter of Shuvu Banim with heart and soul. He was the Rabbi of Beer Sheva, and he merited to ascend in a whirlwind up Jacob's ladder to the heavens.

For if Jacob had ascended the ladder, then no nation or tongue would have ruled over us. Now Rabbi Derai has merited to ascend the ladder, so no nation or tongue will be able to rule over the People of Israel—he protected the People of Israel with all his prayers.

I was detained in Beer Sheva from the 15th of Tammuz until the 15th of Av. On the 13th of Tammuz I landed, on the 15th of Tammuz they moved me to Beer Sheva until the 15th of Av, and on the 15th of Av I moved to Tzalmon. After that, before Chanukah, we moved to the Ramla prison at the IPS (Israel Prison Service) medical center, and he arranged for me to have a 12-star hotel. He arranged for me to have all the conditions there, the best food.

Like Rebecca, who had a kad (pitcher) of 24 digits—twenty-four digits comes out to exactly 72 zeros (our teacher Rabbi Berland shlit"a calculates the count of zeros of the pitcher during the eulogy), because if we now go and read the Rashi (Genesis 24:3). Everyone asks about this Rashi, some Joab, some general, I don't know? Moshe Dayan abandoned the entire People of Israel (in the Yom Kippur War), 2,222 killed for nothing. Now I read that Kissinger (the former American Secretary of State) made an agreement with him (Moshe Dayan, who was then the Minister of Defense) that they would let the Egyptians enter (Israel in the Yom Kippur War), and then the Egyptians would move to Israel's side and there would be peace with Israel. Because the Americans would save the Egyptians from the hand of Israel—because Israel can conquer the whole world, Rabbi Shimon (Bar Yochai) said 'I can conquer the whole world.' Now I know, but after that, they will return everything, because the Geulah (Redemption) has not yet arrived. If it were the Geulah, then it would be fine, but there will still be more kings (who will act wickedly), Rehoboam served idols, Manasseh served idols, and every king served idols—so they will have to return everything. So we already reach the 72 zeros (in Rebecca's pitcher, mentioned above) which is the Name of 72 (Ayin-Beis), which is the secret with which one can subdue Esau. It was written twice 'kad' (pitcher), because when Eliezer saw Rebecca, he saw Esau. Because the Tzaddik said 'this is Esau,' so Esau came out, but then Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz (Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Horowitz of Ropshitz) arrived with his grandson and said, 'You don't know, you aren't looking'—it is written 'silent' (macharish) regarding Eliezer, the servant of Abraham (Genesis 24:21). The Rebbe (Rebbe Nachman) says (in Likutey Moharan, Torah 46, Part II), you have a difficulty with the Tzaddik, a difficulty with Hashem, questions about Hashem—why did the massacre happen on Simchat Torah? The truth is that they all went straight to Gan Eden (Paradise)! There were 200-300 cyclists who rode from Rehovot to Be'eri—from Rehovot they arrived straight in Gan Eden! They left at 5:00 from Rehovot, and at 7:30 they already met the angels of destruction and were sent straight to Gan Eden, they merited!!

Rabbi Yehuda Derai, quite simply, supported our Yeshiva; he sent endless donations—he encouraged everyone who became Breslov. Everyone who became a Chassid of Shuvu Banim, he would encourage them, truly encourage them.

Everyone should go to his funeral in Sanhedria; the funeral has already started now. The funeral is near Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt"l, everyone will manage to arrive. We will do the songs a bit briefly so that everyone can arrive to give him his final respects. Now everyone is going to the funeral of Rabbi Yehuda Derai without exception."