From the first shiur of Rabbi Berland shlit"a after his release from the hospital— in a stirring and profound teaching, The Rav reveals the secret of the true Rosh Hashanah, the surprising connection between the offerings of the Nesi’im and the days of Adam HaRishon’s life, and the meaning of the lost sparks that were born into destructive forces— and how they relate to the crises of our times. What is the role of the joy of Zevulun, and why דווקא now are we all going through “pregnancy after pregnancy”?—everything is leading toward the moment of Geulah that can already be felt in the air.

Monday, 20 Sivan 5785 — these are his holy words:

“THIS MONTH SHALL BE FOR YOU THE HEAD OF MONTHS; IT SHALL BE FOR YOU THE FIRST OF THE MONTHS OF THE YEAR” (Exodus 12:2)

The true Rosh Hashanah of the Torah is 1 Nissan—when the Rebbe was born. When the Rebbe was born, that is the real Rosh Hashanah. The Rebbe includes all the generations from…

“He brought his offering: one silver bowl, its weight was one hundred and thirty” (Numbers 7:19). ‘Bowl’ (קַעֲרַת) is 770; ‘silver’ (כֶּסֶף) is 160—together 930, and then the 130 years of “one hundred and thirty, its weight”—to atone for all the one hundred and thirty years in which sparks went out from Adam HaRishon for nothing. From those sparks, all the shedim and spirits were created.

Breslov Chassidim give their lives to reach Uman

Now Putin took a very strong pill against cancer, and it affected him. In the middle of the war, 150 Breslov Chassidim traveled to Uman.

People already know that in Breslov we do everything the opposite way: we travel on 1 Tishrei and afterward on 1 Nissan—two Rosh Hashanahs. On 1 Tishrei all the souls were created, and on 1 Nissan the bodies were created; that is why we bless the sun in Nissan—halachah follows Rabbi Yehoshua (In the Gemara [Rosh Hashanah 10b] a dispute is brought between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua regarding in which month the world was created: Rabbi Eliezer says the world was created in Tishrei, and Rabbi Yehoshua says the world was created in Nissan).

By reading the Nesi’im during the days of Nissan, we rectify Adam HaRishon’s sparks

Now we are in Nissan, and every day we “offer” ‘one silver bowl’—which is 770 (bowl) + 160 (silver) = 930 (the days of Adam HaRishon’s life)—to atone for all the years of Adam HaRishon, and to rectify the 130 years of sparks from which all the wicked were created— all the Nazis and all the clown-governments— from those drops.

Now we are already… each person needs to bring an ox. Now it is already the offering of Zevulun (Eliav ben Cheilon, Nasi of the tribe of Zevulun, 3 Nissan: “One silver bowl, its weight one hundred and thirty; one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the sacred shekel; both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a meal-offering. One gold ladle of ten [shekels], filled with incense. One young bull, one ram, one lamb in its first year for an olah. One male goat for a sin-offering. And for the zevach shelamim: two cattle, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs.”).

Only about Zevulun does it say “Rejoice,” because he conducted business with Emunah

Zevulun is the Beis HaMikdash; Zevulun is called so from “zevul.” “And of Zevulun he said: Rejoice, Zevulun, in your going out”—only about Zevulun do we say “Rejoice, Zevulun,” because he does business with Emunah. Doing business with Emunah is the greatest thing: to exchange an ox for a cow is greater than learning about the exchange of an ox for a cow. Or an ox for a donkey when no one knows when the donkey was born; or a foal, or a young donkey, or a calf. There is an argument whether it was born before or after the sale, because it was born in the barn and they do not know when it was born.

Someone who fulfills this stands far higher, because he withstands the test—he gives up the calf for the other person. He fulfills the true Torah, and he brings the Geulah.

Before the Geulah, we must go through many “pregnancies” in order to expel the serpent

That is why the Gaon of Vilna says: For how long is a snake pregnant before it gives birth? (Bechoros 8b: The Caesar said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya: For how long is a snake pregnant before it gives birth? He said to him: Seven years. The Caesar said to him: But the sages of Athens mated them, and they gave birth in three years? He said to him: Those were already pregnant for four years…) The Gaon says: How many pregnancies must we go through, how many sufferings, how many pregnancies—like a woman giving birth who must go through pregnancy again and again.

That is why the woman is called “a new song”: “Then Moshe and the Children of Israel will sing this song” (Exodus 15:1). Like a woman giving birth—each birth is new suffering; each time, we must go through the entire process again from the beginning.

We want Moshiach to already be here; we want Gog and Magog already, so that there will be Moshiach. Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Horowitz of Ropshitz said that Moshiach will come only when people will walk in blood up to their knees, up to their ankles. And that was the Holocaust—people walked in blood up to their ankles—then they merited to return to Eretz Yisrael.

So the Gaon said that everything will happen in a natural way, and everyone will ascend to Eretz Yisrael, and we will merit the complete Geulah speedily in our days, amen.