The Suppressed Good is Waiting to Come Out

The Daily Chizuk (strengthening) from our teacher, the holy Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – Devorah says: "For the glory will not be yours on the way" (Judges 4:9), because the moment the Tzaddik says a word, one must immediately run to fulfill it!!

Monday, 4th of Kislev 5785 – The good is suppressed within the wicked and is waiting to be revealed

These are his holy words:

Barak hesitated; he was a hesitant man, a man of indecision. Why was he indecisive (mitlabet)? Because he made himself stand out (mitbalet)! Whoever makes himself stand out (mitbalet) becomes indecisive (mitlabet)! (The pride that distances a person from the Tzaddik and his advice).

Barak was a hesitant person; he said, "I cannot go, 'And if you do not go with me, I will not go'" (ibid 8) – "If you do not go with me?" You lost out!

The Tzaddik told you to go—go! Don't make "combinations" (deals) or conditions with him! He said to go; he should have gone at that very moment! He would have merited a complete victory over Sisera, over everyone.

"From heaven the stars fought from their courses" (ibid 5:20); all the stars came to fight. The moment the Tzaddik arrives, even the stars descend; the stars come to fight for him.

All the stars in the heavens descended to fight with Devorah; one star did not descend, and it became a black star.

Black stars—anyone who has studied a bit of astronomy knows there are black stars that swallow the light. It was all a punishment for not coming to help Devorah; the moment they didn't come to help Devorah, Hashem turned them from shining stars into dark stars.

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

Within the wicked, the souls of Tzaddikim are impregnated, and if they merit, they are revealed

Therefore, only Yael merited to pierce Sisera, because she knew that Rebbe Akiva was me'ubar (spiritually latent/impregnated) in the temple (part of the head) of Sisera. In the ankle of Sisera was Og, King of Bashan—that is why Moshe struck him in the ankle. "B-Sh-N" (Bashan) refers to Rabbi Shimon ben Nethanel, the student of Rabbi Yochanan who is buried in Tiberias.

Every wicked person has some Tzaddik me'ubar (spiritually impregnated) within him; if he returns in teshuvah (repentance), then this Tzaddik is revealed.

If he had done teshuvah (repentance), like Lavan (whose name means white), he would have become the "Supreme Whiteness" from the World of Atzilus (Emanation). Likewise with Esau—if he had done teshuvah, one source says he would have been a thousand times greater than Yaakov.

The wicked person has more power; it is written in Likutey Moharan (Torah 17) that within him is the "suppressed good," the "hidden good."

Cain was more wicked (than Abel). Why was he wicked? Because he overpowered the good within him (instead of giving the good the power to triumph and burst forth).

Why did Cain become wicked? Because the good was constantly churning inside of him, and the good wanted to emerge from potential into actuality, but he wouldn't let it! So he became more and more wicked.

So even when he is wicked, it only shows how much good is within him; in a single second, (the good, the Tzaddik) brings him back in teshuvah (repentance). Rebbe Nachman says (Likutey Moharan, Torah 9, Part II), it is like a volcano—a person is like a volcano; everything suddenly explodes, lava comes out, and all the good emerges.

The greater you are, the greater the good that emerges. This is what Devorah the Prophetess did—she brought the entire generation back in teshuvah (repentance).