You can only enter Gaza with angels • They saw that masses in Tel Aviv want to pray, so Chuldai forbade them • Now we must free the hostages “I am Yosef”

Holy words of The Rav, the holy tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, published about a year ago:

Lot was the first hostage, and then Avraham went out to war—because now we must free the hostages. When Avraham Avinu went to free hostages—because Lot was taken captive together with his four daughters—everyone was captive, and Avraham Avinu placed his life in his own hands to free them.

The moment Avraham left his home, he saw angels on all the mountains around him—because angels were going with him. You can’t enter Gaza (without angels).

Now, on Chanukah, we read Parshas Miketz, because that is when Yosef disappeared. In Parshas Vayigash, Yosef is revealed—“I am Yosef” (Bereishis 45:4).

This year (5784), the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Nosson of Breslov falls in Parshas Vayigash—“I am Yosef.” Rabbi Nosson of Breslov cries out: “I am Yosef.” Everything is “I am Yosef,” and the brothers don’t understand why all these sufferings are passing over them—“You are spies” (ibid. 42:9)—and in their anguish they were in prison for three days. It was all because they sold Yosef.

The High Court ruled that it is forbidden to do Hakafos on Simchas Torah, but it should have been exactly the opposite—because only the Hakafos protect us from the attacks.

After they cancelled the Hakafos, we got attacks. Chuldai said Hakafos are forbidden, because he saw that all of Tel Aviv was running after the Hakafos. Already on Yom Kippur, a thousand boys and a thousand girls—completely secular—came. They wanted to pray on Yom Kippur, and the synagogues were packed; there wasn’t room to stick in a pin.

You were in the Great Synagogue in Haifa (during the shiur, Rabbi Berland shlit"a addresses his son, Rabbi Nachman): the crowd that pressed in there to enter the Yom Kippur prayers broke down all the doors. They had to buy tickets on Erev Yom Kippur to reserve a place, but no matter how many tickets they sold, there still weren’t enough seats—so people came, broke the doors, and forced their way into the Great Synagogue in Haifa.

I was in the choir; I was on the stage. Suddenly I heard a boom—I thought it was an atom bomb. I was sure it was a nuclear bomb. They broke the main gate; I saw how a thousand people came in.

Now, in Ramat Aviv, the synagogue was packed on Yom Kippur; the women’s section was packed—no room. Suddenly they saw that everyone had come to pray at Dizengoff Square— all of Tel Aviv came to pray, a thousand boys and a thousand girls. Chuldai sent people; they started beating them. All the girls were crying there. They wanted to pray; they didn’t want to disperse, but they didn’t want to fight back— they cancelled the Hakafos, so they received attacks.

Only the Hakafos protect us from the attacks.