Rabbi Avraham Chanania shlit"a, one of the veteran students of our teacher, the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, arrived at the Netzach Netzachim Yeshiva in Jerusalem and delivered holy words on the importance of drawing close to the tzaddik

Strengthening Pearls from His Words

"Our Rebbe says (Torah 123 Likutei Moharan - To Connect Oneself to the Tzaddik of the Generation), "The main thing and the foundation upon which everything depends is to connect oneself to the tzaddik of the generation and to accept his words in everything he says, whether small or great, and not to deviate, God forbid, from his words to the right or to the left". A person truly wants to escape desires, understands that the truth is in Judaism, and seeks an opening for salvation, but the evil inclination fights with the person. And our Rebbe says (in the aforementioned Torah) that escaping desires is only possible through a true connection to tzaddikim - because only someone who has escaped can help us escape."

""And they believed in Hashem and in His servant Moses" (Exodus 14:31), Rabbi Natan says that one can believe in Hashem only if they believe in Moses His servant. Similarly, it is written in the Zohar that the spirit of Moses is present in every generation (Tikkunei Zohar 69), the neshamah (soul) of Moses our teacher continues and spreads in every generation until he rectifies us all, with Hashem's help."

"Rabbi Natan writes (Likutei Halachot, Blessing on Fragrance, Halacha 4) "For a mitzvah is a lamp and the Torah is light" that the Torah and the mitzvah are light and a lamp through which we can discover this tzaddik who can and should bring us closer to Hashem. For regarding the search and revelation of Hashem it is written, "For whoever finds Me finds life" (Proverbs 8:35), but truly Hashem is infinite, blessed be He, as Rabbi Natan says (there, Pesach Laws 6) that Hashem is so exalted and beyond our understanding that we can only attain emunah (faith) through the tzaddik. Like a baby who cannot comprehend complex realities, we too need the tzaddik to simplify the concepts of divinity for us. The tzaddik reveals to us and instills within us that Hashem is close to us and hears us."

"The tzaddik achieved closeness to Hashem after cutting himself off with toil and self-sacrifice in the service of Hashem, and he refined his body like processed leather that has no scent of this world. Therefore, he can instill emunah in the entire world, not just among the people of Israel. As our Rebbe writes (Likutei Moharan 188) that the tzaddik first finds his own lost items until he eventually finds the lost items of the entire world. He knows the work of each person in the world, their reincarnations, what they came to rectify in the world, so when one comes to the tzaddik, they receive their lost items."

"Once I asked our teacher Rav Berland about what our Rebbe says in this Torah, that the tzaddik does not return a person's lost items until he checks that he is not a liar or a deceiver. And I asked, after all, these are the person's lost items, Rav Berland answered: "If a person always works on having a good eye, through this they receive all the lost items from the tzaddik. Because to be a student of Avraham Avinu, of the tzaddik, one must pray and ask to merit a good eye. And the Rav said that Elijah the Prophet merited this by praying for every Jew to have all the good in the world."

"Rabbi Tzanani told me that even the good eye is received from the tzaddik, as Rabbi Natan says that the main thing is that a person should not be foolish, but continue and ask Hashem for a good eye."

"To enter the gates of teshuvah (repentance) one must go through many transitions, ascents, and descents, our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a said that the main test is not to leave him, our Rebbe said this in the Book of Attributes, that we are all like a pen in the hand of the writer before the tzaddik, he raises and lowers - the main thing is not to fall in our minds and not to leave the tzaddik."

"The tzaddik truly impregnates himself within us, this is called escaping from the serpent, feeling that I am truly doing nothing. He prays from within you, he lifts you, we just need to remember that we are not the ones doing it, to escape from the serpent, from pride. Our teacher Rav Berland learned this 30 years ago in the study (Likutei Halachot, Seeing 4) that the tzaddik lowers a person like a diver to the depths of the sea, and when he raises him, many stones and precious gems rise with him that can only be raised by that person."

"The tzaddik intentionally lowers a person to remove him from pride and the illusion of 'my strength and the might of my hand.' And when the person rises, he then merits humility and knows that he is not the one acting."