The daily chizuk from our teacher, the holy gaon and tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – Devorah says: “For your glory will not be on the road” (Shoftim 4:9), because the moment the Tzaddik says a word, you must immediately run to fulfill it!!

Thursday, 25 Iyar 5782 – The good is held captive within the wicked and is waiting to be revealed; these are his holy words:

Barak hesitated. He was a person who hesitated; he was a person who wavered. Why did he waver? Because he was trying to stand out! Someone who needs to stand out ends up wavering! (It is pride that distances a person from the Tzaddik and from his guidance.)

Barak was a hesitator. He said, “I can’t go— ‘And if you will not go with me, I will not go’” (ibid. 4:8). You won’t go with me? You lost!

The Tzaddik told you to go—then go! Don’t make deals with him, don’t set conditions. He said to go; at that very moment you should have gone! Then you would have merited a complete victory over Sisera—over everyone.

“From Heaven the stars fought; from their paths” (ibid. 5:20)—all the stars came to fight. The moment the Tzaddik arrives, even the stars come down; the stars come to fight for him.

All the stars in the heavens came down to fight together with Devorah. One star did not come down—and it became a black star.

Black stars—anyone who learned a bit of astronomy knows there are “black stars” that swallow light. It is all a punishment for not coming to help Devorah. The moment they did not come to help Devorah, Hashem turned them from shining stars into darkened stars.

Because whoever does not come to help the Tzaddik becomes dark; all his light turns into darkness.

Within the wicked are “impregnated” the souls of tzaddikim—and if they merit it, they are revealed

And therefore only Yael merited to pierce Sisera, because she knew that Rabbi Akiva was “impregnated” within Sisera’s temple. In Sisera’s ankle was Og king of Bashan; therefore Moshe struck him in the ankle. “Bashan” is Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel, the one who claims that Rabbi Yochanan is buried in Tiberias.

Every wicked person has some Tzaddik “impregnated” within him; if he returns in teshuvah, then that Tzaddik is revealed.

If he would do teshuvah—like Lavan—he would become the Supernal Whiteness from the world of Atzilus. Like Esav—if he would do teshuvah—one verse says he would have been a thousand times greater than Yaakov.

A wicked person has more powers. It is written in Likutey Moharan (Torah 17) that within him is the good that is held captive—the hidden good.

Kayin was more wicked (than Hevel). Why is he wicked? Because he overpowers the good within him (instead of giving the good the strength to win and break outward).

Why did Kayin become wicked? Because the good is constantly raging inside him, and the good wants to move from potential into action—but he doesn’t let it! So he becomes more and more wicked.

So even when he is wicked, it only shows how much good is inside him. In one second, (the good—the Tzaddik) can bring him back in teshuvah. Rebbe Nachman says (Likutey Moharan, Torah 9, Part II): it is like a volcano. A person is like a volcano—everything suddenly erupts; lava comes out, and all the good comes out.

The greater you are, the greater the good that comes out. And this is what Devorah the prophetess did—she brought the entire generation back in teshuvah.