The Story of Drawing Close to Breslov — Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"I said, this Purim I must discover who the tzaddik is!!!"

Sixty years since the drawing near of the light of our eyes and our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, to the light of lights, our holy Rebbe - Rebbe Nachman of Breslov zya"a - 14 Adar II, 5722 - 14 Adar II, 5782

Our teacher, Rav Berland shlit"a, tells the story of his drawing near to Breslov sixty years ago, from a lesson given to our people in the city of Ramat Gan:

"And then I went to Vizhnitz, because they said there was a play there in honor of Purim. But the bus arrived from Lelov, so I went to Lelov first. I said, this Purim I must discover who the tzaddik is! This was 5722, Purim of 5722, and then in the merit of this, she was blessed with children (the Rabbanit tlit"a), because the doctor said I would not have children, the doctor promised me...

We went to Lelov, and from Lelov we traveled to Vizhnitz. And then we came to Lelov. A few guys didn't read the Megillah, so they read the Megillah—it was eleven o'clock at night when they read the Megillah. They were completely drunk and were mocking during the reading of the Megillah. I said, if they are mocking, then the truth is not here. So I went back to the bus; I had to walk from South Tel Aviv, 35 Shmuel HaHoliver Street, that's where it was. We had to walk through all of South Tel Aviv to the Egged station for the last bus to Bnei Brak at twelve o'clock at night, line fifty-four.

We arrived at the corner of Chazon Ish and Rabbi Akiva, and after that, we walked the entire length of Chazon Ish Street and passed through Nechemia, Nechemia Street. And at the corner of Nechemia and Breslov is the Breslov Yeshiva; I had never entered there in my life. Suddenly, I was already tired, I'll go in for a moment to rest. I thought I would find drunkards, I would find... there were no drunkards, nothing. Where are the drunkards? I actually felt such sorrow... I looked for drunkards, I went into all the rooms, there were no drunkards. The rooms were empty, not one drunkard. I said, maybe they are hiding under the beds, maybe there is some bunker, maybe they are afraid of the Nazis, of Putin, I don't know... I went... there are no drunkards!

Suddenly, R' Nachman Rosenthal comes to me, and I ask, where are all the drunkards? Is it not Purim by you? He said, 'No, everyone is in the field now, crying out to Hashem - Save me from the kelipah of Haman and Amalek.' We said, this is it, the truth is here! If there is such a thing in the world, then Hashem has revealed the truth to me; I no longer need to go to Vizhnitz. I stayed there, I wanted to stay there until Vatikin, but I had been awake all night. And that was Purim, on a Tuesday, and on Friday I went to Chazon Ish Street. You said you would come for Vatikin, you said you would come, I said now I am arriving. He didn't believe me, he didn't believe me that I was arriving now. I told him, here I am arriving now, now I am going into the mikvah, and I am arriving. It was already three in the afternoon, it was Purim. The sunset is only at five-thirty. And then we came, we prayed Kabbalat Shabbat there, suddenly there was... and Natan Libermanesh, he didn't use electricity, he used only kerosene lamps."

R' Yitzchak Vitzehandler shlit"a: "Lux"

Our teacher the Rav: "Yes, it was those kinds of Lux lamps, suddenly the lamp ignited, and everyone ran away. Because the whole room went up in flames, I stayed, I didn't care about anything. Maybe fire descended from heaven, I said, I don't know... I don't know where this fire came from. Until we went to bring a non-Jew to help on Shabbat and everything, it was about fifteen minutes. Everything, almost the Holy Ark, went up in flames by miracles... So I said this is like a revelation of Divinity, this is 'and the bush was burning with fire, and the bush was not consumed.' And from then on we finished, I started to come to pray there. So everything is in the merit of R' Nachman Rosenthal; he merited that one son, Yechezkel, has seven sons and a daughter, he has another son, eight sons... another son, nine, he has... after seven sons he merited a daughter. Just as the Rebbe says in the Tales of the Wise and the Simple, that there are seven sons and after that a daughter."