"The First of Elul is the Greatest Day of the Year"

ON MOTZA'EI ROSH CHODESH AV 5779, OUR REBBE RAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT"A SPOKE THESE HOLY WORDS BETWEEN MINCHA AND MAARIV REGARDING THE FIRST OF THE HEBREW MONTH OF ELUL, WHICH THIS YEAR FALLS TONIGHT (SUNDAY NIGHT):

"THE FIRST OF ELUL IS THE GREATEST DAY OF THE YEAR.  HASHEM SAYS: I TAKE EVERYTHING ONTO MYSELF."

"A PERSON WHO DOES TRUE TESHUVA TODAY ON THE FIRST OF ELUL -- THEN HASHEM TAKES ALL OF HIS TRANSGRESSIONS FROM ALL HIS INCARNATIONS FROM ADAM HARISHON.  PERHAPS HE WAS ONCE LEMECH, PERHAPS HE KILLED KAIN, PERHAPS HE KILLED TUVAL KAIN.

"Every person already cut people up into pieces -- was in Sodom, built up structures in the tower of Bavel 70 miles high.  Afterwards was the Holocaust and built houses for Germans, to show that everything was to atone for the generation of the division [during the tower of Bavel].

"They would throw children into pyres, like they burned 850 years -- in Gilgal and Shilo -- this is 400; and another 450 years.

"We read all of this in the parasha"

Hear Rav Berland's full words (in Hebrew)