Last night, Monday night—Leil 14 Teves—the avreichim of the kollel of our Beis Midrash on Ido HaNavi Street, in the prayer hall, entered to hear words of the Living G-d from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a.

Below is a summary of the shiur, delivered for about forty minutes with holy fire:

The Rav shlit"a opened the shiur with the weekly parshiyos and the episode of Yosef’s goblet being “stolen.” He explained that Yosef told them the reason they took the goblet was in order to reveal Yosef in Egypt, as brought in the Midrashim. After that, he spoke about this week’s parshah—Vayechi—and Yaakov’s curse of Shimon and Levi. He explained the well-known question of the Ramban: that the reason they should not have killed the people of Shechem was because they had already accepted the mitzvos upon themselves and wanted to convert. Continuing from one matter to another, he discussed the episode of Pilegesh B’Givah, and cited the Gemara in Gittin on this subject: “A person should never impose excessive fear within his home.” From this he strengthened the importance of shalom bayis, and how much a person must bring a pleasant atmosphere into his home. In the course of his words, The Rav mentioned that next week Shovavim Ta”t begins, and he said that everyone should take on a ta’anis dibbur at least once a week. After this, he returned to the topic of Shimon and Levi and to the dispute between the Rambam and the Ramban regarding why the people of Shechem became liable to death. From there he moved on to additional disputes between the Rambam and the Ramban, explaining that these were the very disputes that stood between Yosef and the brothers. He also dealt with the sugya of whether a bird is considered ever min hachai. He brought the dispute of the Karti u’Palti and the Radbaz regarding the Rambam’s view—whether a bird is considered “meat” or not with respect to the law of a ben sorer u’moreh. After that, he returned again to Shimon and Levi and explained that Dinah was essentially the first captive, and he said that even David was held captive by the Philistines. He related the entire story of how Avishai flew through the air by means of a Holy Name to save David at the very last moment.

Toward the end of the shiur, he spoke about the holiness of Tzeruyah—how she was like a rock (tzur), and merited to bring such holy sons into the world, sons who could fly through the air. As support for his words, he cited Midrash Rabbah, which speaks about a person’s holiness, and that when a child is formed in holiness, he will be sharp and quick.