The Entire Matter of the Groom and Bride Being Deaf-Mute

The Gaon and Tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a arrived today, Tuesday night of Parshat Re'eh 5778, August 7, 2018, for the wedding celebration of the groom Mordechai Chilo with the daughter of Rabbi Chanan Vaknin from Hadera. The wedding was held in the luxury halls on Shlomo Hamelech Street in Bnei Brak, where Rav Berland shlit"a officiated the Kiddushin and even remained to gladden the groom and bride with sacred dances. Here are the stirring words that the Gaon and Tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a said in this context.

"The wedding—the entire concept of the groom and bride being deaf and mute, from the day of the wedding they do not speak, do not see, do not hear. A young man is a bit confused, but why should a groom be confused? He already has his wife; we are finished, he is a complete person. The woman is 252 (Ram"b) and he is 248 (Ram"ach), gematria 500, because a man and a woman are one body and one soul. And if a woman sees something not good in her husband, she must cry out that her husband is only studying Torah and only doing good things."

"After one gets married, it is impossible to sin anymore; there is no such thing as sins or blemishes. A person becomes deaf and mute; these are all gifts—to be blind, to be deaf, to be a stutterer, to have a crooked neck, not to breathe, to be hunchbacked, and to never straighten the back."

"A person needs to study from now until morning—until six in the morning there are five hours—five pages of Gemara. It is written twice, 'Because of Hashem's hatred for us'—in Devarim 1:27 and now in the Parsha, 'Because of Hashem's hatred for us,' 'Our wives and our little ones will be for plunder.' Hashem raised us up because He hates us; He does everything 'because of Hashem's hatred for us.' A person thinks that he comes to pray because Hashem hates him, so he must pray; He does not let him lie in bed."

"A person must jump from the bed—to spring up. He can go to speak with Hashem, he can go to pray to Hashem; he must spring from the bed, in an instant. One must always stand before the Rav, just as Achiyah HaShiloni would study Torah, and Elijah the Prophet would wait for the Baal Shem Tov to finish the lesson with Achiyah HaShiloni."

"The Rebbe said how much a person must toil until he sees Elijah the Prophet in a dream, how much he must toil until he gives him 'Shalom,' until he merits to return 'Shalom' to him. And after this, one thought of pride and he loses everything. A person can in one second see Hashem, and after a second he falls into the depths of the abyss."

"A person has trials every moment, and he must know all the time that everything is because he is half a person. The moment he gets married, then there is no need to work or to bring parnassah (livelihood). What the woman learns, she learns, and the man sits and studies Gemara for 18 hours. He leaves at six in the morning—18 hours until 12 at night; he has six hours left to be at home. A person comes to the world to study 18 hours, not to move his head from the Gemara for one second, to be the one with the hunchback."

The words were edited from the Shevilei Ohr newsletter.

Photo gallery from the wedding in Bnei Brak

Photos courtesy of Shachar Eliyahu