The Esteemed Chassid R' Mota Frank shlit"a - "We Must Eradicate the Evil Inclination That Incites Us to Speak Against Torah Scholars"

With Hashem's help

Erev Bedikat Chametz and Se'or, Erev Pesach 5780

To my brothers and friends, Breslov chassidim everywhere, I am addressing each one of you.

There is a teaching from our holy Rebbe in Likutei Moharan, Part II, Torah 83, which we know from R' Levi Yitzchak Bender zt"l, that there is a tradition that this teaching was thrown to us from the burnt book. A very deep and lofty teaching. Within this teaching, our holy Rebbe also speaks about the matter of 'on the night of the fourteenth, we check for chametz by the light of a candle.' Our holy Rebbe reveals there that when checking for chametz and when burning chametz, one should intend to remove the chametz in every heart of each one of us, from the evil inclination that incites a person to say about Torah scholars of this generation, this one is pleasing and this one is not pleasing. Our holy Rebbe reveals in this teaching that there is a secret called 'Chalak Libam' which in gematria is 72, hinting at the seventy-two hidden tzaddikim in the world, and it is written in the words of our Sages that there are 36 tzaddikim in Eretz Yisrael and 36 tzaddikim outside of it, and the evil inclination in a person's heart causes a state of 'Chalak Libam' in each of us, to feel in the heart that this one is pleasing and this one is not pleasing. This is the main se'or and chametz that one must intend to eradicate when checking for chametz.

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We are now on Erev Pesach of the year 5780, and each one knows what is happening now in the world, each one in his country, in his city, in his neighborhood, in his home, knows there is a terrible plague, which has already, God forbid, taken many victims, and God forbid, there are many sick among the children of Israel and throughout the entire world, and there is great fear among many people, and there is a state of 'isolation' for many people, and here in this teaching, our holy Rebbe reveals to us that when checking and eradicating the chametz, one must intend to eradicate the evil inclination that incites us to say about Torah scholars, this one is pleasing and this one is not pleasing. We know from the ancient tzaddikim, whose words are based on the words of the Gemara, the Midrashim of our Sages, the holy Zohar, and the writings of the holy Arizal, and the holy tzaddik R' Yitzchak Isaac of Komarna in his book 'Adam Yashar', which has now been reprinted and published in light of the spread of the plague, he writes explicitly at the end of the introduction to this book, that the main spiritual reason for the spread of the plague in the world is due to the disgrace done to Torah scholars, the disgrace done to tzaddikim and the God-fearing. We all know, as mentioned, about the terrible situation now affecting the entire world due to the spread of the plague, and we all also know about the terrible disputes within the entire community of Israel, but we as Breslov chassidim need to reflect mainly within ourselves, we need to ask ourselves what we can do to rectify the terrible blemish of the chametz and the se'or?

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Indeed, we were not in the heavens, and we do not know exactly what the current root cause of the plague is to point explicitly at everything. But the tzaddikim have revealed to us that disputes are the root of the entire matter of the spread of the plague. Therefore, certainly, in every chassidut, among the chassidim, among the Litvaks, and among the Sephardim, there are disputes, and among all of them, there is a state of disrespect for Torah scholars, and therefore certainly we all need to return in teshuvah for this, each one in his matter and in his place. But we as Breslov chassidim have the duty, as already publicized by the esteemed chassid R' Pinchas Bunker shlit"a, to distance ourselves from all types of disputes, and I come to strengthen his words and say:

Let's all come together, each one in his own four cubits, I stop and remove from my environment the se'or and chametz that incites me and causes me to say about Torah scholars, this one is pleasing and this one is not pleasing. Yes, disputes exist, differences of opinion exist, and there can be such and such differences of opinion, but God forbid that these differences of opinion should lead to a state of 'Chalak Libam', that it should not lead to a state of dispute in the heart, that it should not lead to a state of hatred, as we have unfortunately all seen in recent years what the entire community of Breslov chassidim went through from the holy community of Shuvu Banim together with their teacher and rabbi the esteemed chassid R' Eliezer Berland shlit"a – God have mercy – we need to know that together with all the existing differences of opinion, even if there are differences of opinion, and even when they have already been publicized, that's it! Enough! I already know he has such an opinion and he has another opinion... but from here on to continue and lower and degrade the dispute to the lines of 'this one is pleasing and this one is not pleasing', Rebbe says here in this teaching, this is the matter that needs to be uprooted and intended during the checking and burning of the chametz and se'or. Let's all awaken and strengthen ourselves, and make every effort from now on, each one in his place together with his opinion, to make every effort, upon himself, his wife, his children, and his friends, and to influence this upon one another, to accept upon ourselves, from this day forward, we are now beginning to eradicate from us the evil inclination from our youth that causes and incites us to say about Torah scholars, this one is pleasing and this one is not pleasing. Even if I have a different opinion from another and even if I think differently from another, this is not, God forbid, any permission to bring us to gossip, slander, defamation, and informing, God forbid, Heaven forbid, on the contrary, this is the time to uproot it from us.

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And with Hashem's help, we are all full of hope, that when each one in his place awakens, awakens in teshuvah, and contemplates teshuvah, and regrets everything he has done until now, and accepts upon himself from now on to be different, and to influence all this also upon his wife, his children, his family, and his friends, and all the environment he can, certainly and certainly the time of 'favor' that we see now in the world, that this time of favor will go and strengthen even more and more, and we all expect and hope and wait to see with our eyes what Hashem wants to bring from potential to actual from the great and awesome process He is doing now in the entire world before our eyes. And with Hashem's help, we hope and expect and yearn that our awakening from below, that we make every effort to eradicate this chametz, this se'or that Rebbe reveals to us here in this teaching, (and it is worthwhile for each one to study this teaching thoroughly and then say the prayer in Likutei Tefilot Part II, Prayer 42, to prepare more properly), all this will cause, with Hashem's help, what Rebbe says there in the teaching, 'on the night of the fourteenth, we check for chametz by the light of the candle' – to awaken the 'light of the eyes' which is the light of the 'Holy Temple' about which it is said "and My eyes and My heart will be there all the days", to awaken the 'light of the day' of "the day of vengeance is in My heart and the year of My redeemed has come", and to awaken the light of the eyes of King David, the Mashiach, for David in gematria is 14, and this will bring, with His blessed help, the imminent redemption with the building of the Holy Temple speedily in our days.

Your friend,

Baruch Mordechai (Mota) Frank