Rare Words Never Heard Before: The Story of Rabbi Michael Gol shlit"a's Journey

Continuation of the moving story of the spiritual awakening of the esteemed Rabbi Michael Gol shlit"a, Rosh Yeshiva of 'Maginei Eretz' in Jerusalem and one of the veteran and famous students of the holy Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a.

First Prayer in Life from the Depths of the Heart

"A second point was when I was supposed to be asleep, but I heard my mother pleading with my brother to leave the place where he was (at that time he was already married), but he told her that he was only searching for the truth. 'On the contrary, convince me that the truth is elsewhere and I will go,' he told her. My mother began to convince him that we are Jews, and I remember that this was the first time I turned to Hashem from the depths of my heart. All my life I had prayed Shacharit, Mincha, and Arvit, but I never felt myself praying to Hashem. I remember how I turned around and reached out to Hashem from the depths of my heart, and with tears, I asked Him to show me the truth in the world, to whom one must draw close. We didn't even connect it to Judaism; we talked about the need to draw close to the 'perfect person,' that is what we called it back then." Thus we concluded the first part of the conversation with Rabbi Michael Gol shlit"a, and this is how he continued.

Tell me, who is the Tzaddik of the generation?!

"Suddenly someone entered and saw my father crying and asked him the reason for the tears. My father told him about the situation with my brother, and that person promised to send someone who understands these matters. A man named Menachem Filipowski came to our house, an avrech from Bnei Brak who, years ago, when our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a studied in Volozhin, was his chavrusa. He is a special Jew who drew close to Rav Berland and was truly an admirer of his. After years, I asked him, 'Tell me Menachem, you are a Litvak, so why did you push us toward Breslov?' He answered, 'I knew that only Breslov could interest you, you are only Breslov!' I remember that he came to our house and my brother asked him, 'Tell me, who is the Tzaddik?' Menachem began to mention names of various tzaddikim, among them the Steipler, Rabbi Chashin, and another whose name I do not remember. But my brother challenged him and said, 'There are not three, in every generation there is only one Tzaddik!'"

Filipowski tries to keep the path with us open

"The conversation was very sharp and supposedly was not meant to have a continuation, but that Filipowski saw me in uniform and asked me where I was serving. It turned out that the operations officer in our unit who was my friend and had since been discharged, is a Haredi and also Menachem's chavrusa; he said, 'I will come with him next time.' In fact, it turned out that he had almost despaired of us and wanted to come with his chavrusa to save the matter with us. I was happy to see him; his name is Avi Eisen. In the army, we had many deep conversations."

The story behind the brown 'James Bond' briefcase

"Many have asked me in the past why I used to carry the brown 'James Bond' briefcase that served as my tefillin bag? The story behind the bag is truly history. My brother at that time traveled to the USA to meet with that same man. At that time, my father dreamed that my grandfather, his father, was returning home from abroad and giving him as a gift the 'James Bond' briefcase that my brother was using at that time. Afterward, my grandfather continued and spoke to him in the dream about the teshuvah (repentance) of the children."

I told you to remove the impurity, not the son

"Later, my father had another dream about his father, in which my grandfather entered the house angry and struck the wall while saying, 'Remove the impurity from the house.' My father in the dream burst into tears and asked, 'What, should I banish my son?' My grandfather replied, 'Not the son, remove the impurity.' At that time, my father asked my brother to remove all the material related to that subject from the house, and my brother did so. On Shabbat, my brother was a guest at our home, and at the Shabbat table, my father asked him why he hadn't removed the impurity from the house. My brother answered that he had removed it, and my father challenged him, 'But grandfather came to me in a dream and told me to remove the impurity from the house.' Those were the two dreams."

The dream becomes reality

"One day my father was lying on the bed, when in front of him stood a wall with a closet that never closed completely. This was the wall on the other side of which my grandfather had knocked forcefully in the dream. My father observed, and suddenly he remembered that this was the wall my grandfather had struck on the other side in the dream. Immediately he climbed to the closet with a ladder and found the brown 'James Bond' briefcase, and inside it, a picture of that same man. On my brother's next visit, my father showed him the picture, and my brother apologized and said he hadn't seen it. In a conversation I had with my brother afterward, he was truly shocked that my grandfather had come in a dream and warned about impurity in the house, and in addition to that, in the second dream, he had arrived with the brown briefcase."

Rabbi Shalom Arush pulls my brother to 'Shuvu Banim'

"All this occurrence caused cracks in my brother, and the family took advantage of this to pull him to a lecture by Rabbi Chashin zt"l. Immediately after the lecture, my brother approached Rabbi Chashin and told him about everything that had happened. Rabbi Chashin said, 'Run away from fire, run away from fire.' That same evening, Rabbi Shalom Arush (then still Shalom Arush) arrived there, and after hearing Rabbi Chashin's words to my brother, he approached to inquire. A conversation developed between them, and he took my brother to 'Shuvu Banim' that very night. They went out at night to the field for hisbodedus (secluded prayer), and when they returned, he studied with my brother the Torah that the Rav had studied with them."

"At that time, Dror Tzanani (today - Rabbi Moshe Tzanani) also drew close, and our teacher Rav Berland studied with him Torah 65 from Likutey Moharan - 'My daughter, do not go to glean in another field,' the Torah that speaks about the importance of drawing close to the Tzaddik, the owner of the field. And Rabbi Shalom, who remembered that this Torah had captured Tzanani, therefore studied this Torah with my brother. They studied all night; afterward, my brother prayed Shacharit there and stayed with them all day."