The Depth of Connection to the Tzaddik: Leaving Imaginations Behind and Starting to Learn

Class No. 270 | * Sunday, Parshas Noach, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan 5761 - Scholarship distribution party for those tested on Gemara tractates by heart at the "Shaarei Torah" Yeshiva

Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a explains the danger of spiritual imaginations, when people abandon Torah study thinking that physical proximity to the tzaddik (righteous person) exempts them from it. The article reveals the conduct of the Rebbetzin, and outlines a healthy path of receiving guidance through classes, while setting clear boundaries.

There is a severe prohibition against accessing another person's private matters and snooping through them. A person who does this literally violates all the negative and positive commandments in the Torah.

Just as the Chofetz Chaim calculates in the laws of Lashon Hara (evil speech) that there are seventeen negative commandments and fourteen positive commandments involved, so too here—it is simply forbidden for anyone to access letters and personal matters.

The Wondrous Conduct and Innocence of the Rebbetzin

The Rebbetzin never opened letters. There are no letters on the table that she looks at. From the time I married her, letters would come to me from bakeries, from all sorts of places and underground movements. "Letters about what not to do—making tunnels under the Knesset and placing explosives there. She never opened a letter on the table."

Even when the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) arrived and planted listening devices, I said: Let them listen! Why shouldn't they listen? Let them know that the Knesset is going to be blown up so they can escape in time. After all, when would we have time to notify them? By the time we grab the phone, it is good that there are listening devices. We said that if we were to do such a thing, we would announce it on loudspeakers all over Jerusalem, on the radio, and at the UN. We are not afraid of any person in the world.

The Rebbetzin was endowed with special traits that are beyond words. She never spied on me. I would be absent from home for years, in the fields of Meron, or flying abroad. I would travel all over the world—Paris, Athens, all the travel agencies. I would leave on Sunday and return on Friday, and she did not even know where I was wandering in the world. She lived with such absolute innocence, and it did not interest her to investigate.

The Danger of Imaginations: When Proximity Replaces Study

When did the Rebbetzin start to intervene? Only when she saw that things were getting complicated and people had lost their compass. People understood me completely the opposite of what I intended. A situation was created where people did not learn and did not pray, but only wrote letters to the Rav. Shimon Gottlieb and others came and wrote: "The Rav, I am not learning and I am not praying, what should I do?"—What should I write to him? Pray and learn! That person thinks he is clean just because he wrote this to the Rav.

"People are doing the exact opposite. They do not learn and do not pray; all day they stand by the door of the Rav, and think they are exempt from prayer and study. They imagine that they are already in the world of Atzilus (the highest spiritual realm) and Adam Kadmon (the primordial spiritual realm), while they do not know the Aleph-Beis, do not know a Mishnah, and do not know a line of Gemara!" When such corruptions occurred, and the letters were placed before her, the Rebbetzin was shocked.

Spreading the Torah Through Technological Tools

The true solution is to listen to Torah classes. Soon, weddings will begin with the help of Hashem—on the 1st of Kislev will be Shalom's wedding, on the 16th of Kislev Yisrael's, and on the 23rd of Kislev Nassan's. And there will be more weddings and bris milahs (circumcisions). Every week there are several classes that one can and should listen to.

Today there are telephones through which one can broadcast to anywhere in the world. We can learn from Chabad Chassidus. When I arrived in Crown Heights in the year 5733 (1973), everything was already organized. "Throughout Crown Heights, you would pick up the phone and hear the Rebbe's sermon broadcast live. The Rebbe could give a sermon of six or seven hours, and for the price of a local call, you would hear everything."

We can arrange this for us too for a few pennies. There are people here who worked in 'Bezeq' (the Israeli telecommunications company), in the Shin Bet, and in the Mossad. We can find a donor, maybe we will speak with Gutnick or another financier, and arrange that every home can pick up the phone and hear a sermon. After all, there is a class almost every day. Last week there was a class at Sukkot's, and after that at Glick's, and besides that, we prayed together and there were three classes at R' Michel's. Now, every week there will be several classes, and people simply need to listen to them.

A New Order: Setting Clear Boundaries

People need to listen to classes, not run after the Rav. This whole custom, where I would say to everyone "yes, yes, yes," cannot continue. It causes many mistakes, critical issues, and misunderstandings.

Therefore, from now on we are making a new order. We will burn all the letters. "From today, no one follows me after the class." Whoever wants to deliver letters will pass them exclusively through those in charge: Chaim, Shimon, Yehuda, and if Yitzchak is willing—through him as well. The time has come to leave the imaginations behind and return to the true work of Torah study.

Part 2 of 2 — Class No. 270

→ Previous part

All parts: Part 1 | Part 2 (current)