Rabbi Yitzchak Witzhendler shlit"a manages to enter the Kollel Choshen Mishpat in the city of Torah, Lakewood, New Jersey, USA, where he interviews the esteemed Rabbi Eliyahu Levin shlit"a, who was a student at the Kfar Chassidim Yeshiva together with our teacher, the honorable Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, and is today one of the great Torah scholars of the generation.

The interview courtesy of Breslov Information Line 02-800-8800, from the USA 845-640-0007, from England 44-330-390-0474

"Head of Kollel Choshen Mishpat in the city of Torah, Lakewood, and who serves as a responder in the largest yeshiva in the world, Lakewood Yeshiva, the esteemed Rabbi Eliyahu Levin shlit"a."

The interviewer: "Rabbi Witzhendler, for years we have been trying to interview Rabbi Levin shlit"a, who studied for years with our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a. We always heard he has a story about the work of enduring disgrace by our teacher Rav even in Kfar Chassidim. Thank God, we were fortunate that you were the emissary to catch him."

"Yes, and I am happy that Hashem granted me the merit to see this righteous man. He is a righteous Jew and a great Torah scholar, head and shoulders above others. The Chassidim would say about the author of Yesod V'Shoresh HaAvodah, whom our Rebbe praised, as written in Chayei Moharan, that he leaped from this world without any desires. The Chassidim said about him that he was a Chassid before Chassidut."

"Rabbi Levin is a Jew of the same age as our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a, I think he is a bit younger, residing in Lakewood, a great city of Torah, and he has his own private kollel. He sits without any external pomp."

"This is a Jew who, for example, in the Twin Towers attack, a person went missing who to this day has not been found, and his wife was an agunah. They asked Rabbi Elyashiv what to do. Rabbi Elyashiv sent the people to Rabbi Levin to resolve this case. He is number one in Choshen Mishpat. I tried several times to catch him, thinking he did not want to be interviewed, but it turned out he was genuinely not feeling well. Eventually, he saw me in the middle of his learning and called me to sit beside him."

"Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian would work on focusing on the holy names in the first blessing of the Amidah prayer, and also on the names in the Grace After Meals. I remember there were 42 words to focus on; I don't know if it was about the names or the words of the first blessing."

"Rabbi Lopian asked in a session and said, anyone who does not focus should write for themselves half a penny for each name they did not focus on. Later, in the next session, he asked each one, how much do you owe? One answered three pennies, another two pennies, he reached Rabbi Eliezer Berland and asked how much you? They spoke a bit in Yiddish and Rav Berland said to him: half a penny!"

"Rabbi Lopian was startled and asked, half a penny? Maybe you are confused with the Yiddish and mean to..?"

"Rav Berland replied, no! It is half a penny.., Rabbi Lopian was so impressed by this."

"The hallmark of Rav Berland in the yeshiva in Kfar Chassidim was that he was not afraid of disgrace in serving Hashem and not to fear, not to avoid disgrace."

"Meaning, Rav Berland was happy with disgrace?"

"Yes, so much! The reality is such that he could not be stopped from his work because of disgrace."

"The second incident I remember was on Tisha B'Av when Rav Berland was sitting on his knees, I believe it was even after midday, after the lamentations. He was in large movements, bending and rising, saying lamentations and mourning for Jerusalem. This continued for a time after everyone had already left the yeshiva."

"On Friday, when everyone would leave, Rav Berland would sit and learn with all his strength. We were with him for two and a half years in Kfar Chassidim. Rav Berland then went to the Chazon Ish Kollel, so I would speak with him from time to time in Ponovezh, this was already after his wedding, I was at his wedding."

"He married at a young age, at the table... he sat with the older, more important guests, and they spoke among themselves that the great ones say marrying young is the right thing. Later, the older boys told me they regretted talking about it because they didn't realize Rav Eliezer Berland was there with them, that he took everything seriously, that one should marry young, and he arranged for someone to ask and arrange a match for him, a shidduch."

"Rav Berland decided after seeing they were right, he said and did, they knew with Rav Berland there are no hesitations, if there is something to do, then it is done. They did not want to take the responsibility that he would marry young."

"He married in the year 5719 at the age of 20 - 21, and at that time people did not marry at such an age, he is now 84. They said afterward, the older ones, that with him there are no hesitations. I estimate that his entire life afterward was conducted in this manner..."

"Once on Yom Kippur in Ponovezh, I asked Rav Berland how to awaken to repentance on Yom Kippur? I saw him so focused in prayers, so I asked him how to awaken? I was young there."

"He told me: simply, to ask for innovations in Torah, to ask and it will awaken, it is a sign he lives within these matters."

"Once I asked him to inquire for me from the Steipler, what happens when I am in the middle of Tachanun and the prayer leader is already saying Kaddish? He replied that the Steipler said, I don't remember exactly, that after saying two verses from Tachanun, one can already respond to Kaddish.., something like that."

"In his youth, Rav Berland studied at a school in Haifa, with people who leaned more towards Mizrachi. I asked them afterward: how was Rav Eliezer Berland with you? They answered me: he belonged to the next world, even at a young age he did not belong to them, he belonged to the next world."

Rabbi Yitzchak Witzhendler asks: "Rav Berland told me that he was summoned to the draft office like all the boys, and he arrived without an identity card. They told him they would give him another date and to come with an identity card. He arrived and it was a day for women, he did not enter and ran away from them, to this day they are looking for him."

Rabbi Eliyahu Levin: "Yes, that is exactly how he was."

Rabbi Yitzchak Witzhendler asks: "Someone said in your name that Rabbi Eliezer said to fast for a whole week, is that true?"

Rabbi Eliyahu Levin: "I don't remember, it could be."

Witzhendler: "But was there such a concept of fasting?"

Rabbi Levin: "I remember Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian told, but he did not mention the name of the faster, he said someone fasted for a whole week, but so that no one would know he was fasting, he would come to the dining room at the end of the meal so they wouldn't realize he hadn't eaten."

The merits of Rav Berland will protect, all that is said in the country about Rav Berland I do not believe in all these things, and you should not believe!

"Such things do not belong to him, after all, Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian never made a mistake - and you should know that the state made many mistakes.."

"May you all succeed and may Rav Berland succeed as well - send him regards."