They Take Such a Holy Tzaddik and Humiliate Him by Force

"It is not simple at all what is happening here; let the heavens be appalled and the earth tremble at this terrible situation in which the holy Gaon, Rav Eliezer ben Atia Berland shlit"a, is placed. Such a terrible situation is truly a wonder of wonders and completely unrealistic that such a thing is happening—that they take such a tzaddik and humiliate him by force. He is bound in shackles, and they bring against him strange claims that never were and never existed. After all, anyone who has a little sense and is connected to our teacher Rabbi Grossman understands and knows that such things are not relevant and do not exist, especially regarding the tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland, who is a holy and awesome man." These words are spoken by the grandson of Rabbi David Grossman and one of his close associates; it is not to be missed.

"Throughout all the years, everyone held that this tzaddik has no connection or relevance to this world; this man has no connection to desires. He elevates himself from moment to moment and from day to day, and he stood in trials that no other tzaddik in the last few decades has stood. Prison, persecution from country to country, while every moment he does not let go of the Holy Name of Havayah, not a single moment of letting go of the study of the holy Torah. Anyone who knows the Rav knows that he is attached every moment to the Holy Name, and he even signals this with his fingers: Y-H-V-H; every moment you see him attached to the Shechinah with his entire body. Every moment he prays and learns and remembers Hashem—it is a piece of the service of Hashem."

"From the prison in Johannesburg, they took out hundreds of books; he only asked for books, even though he had no food and the living conditions were unbearable. The Rav told one of his grandsons that the world is placed where they are placed (placed in nonsense), but the Rav is placed in the letters of the Torah and prayer. It is written in the Zohar, Parshat Pinchas, that at a time when it is difficult for the generation to receive the suffering that comes to it due to its state, the tzaddik suffers for everyone. And I ask myself, how did we not realize that there are such judgments upon the people of Israel that the tzaddik must suffer such things? Perhaps it is the internet? Rav Berland spoke much about the destructive influence of this and that destructive forces are created from these flaws; it is possible it is from that."

"One must do much teshuvah (repentance) and turn the world into a place of peace, and the main thing is not to let people speak—because it is a crime upon a crime—the people whom the tzaddik keeps alive are the ones speaking about the tzaddik. And Heaven forbid that we should be among those fools; let us know and remember that the tzaddik keeps us alive, he atones for our sins. How can one believe stories about a tzaddik who was in the hands of criminals, those who turned him into a machine for money and sold him for the sake of money? They took him from lesson to lesson, and from everyone who spoke with him, they took thousands of dollars—these are the ones we can believe regarding a scandal they blew up about the Rav?! They are thieves and liars; they have no connection to holiness! They harmed an entire community and locked a Rabbi in Israel behind lock and key and did not let him speak with anyone except for the things they want—are we to believe them?!"

"These wicked people pay tens of thousands of dollars to another complainant so she will agree to lie; about them it is said: 'They speak against the tzaddik with arrogance and contempt.' They are the sinners of Israel in their bodies, and we will treat them as tzaddikim? From the period of the Gemara through all the tzaddikim of the generations and up to the students of the holy Baal Shem Tov, there were tzaddikim who behaved in all sorts of ways, and no one claimed against them that they committed a sin or did, Heaven forbid, such a thing. Everything is based on Halacha, and we are talking about a tzaddik who has no connection to thoughts and desires. We do not understand this, and we will not act this way, but we must know not to be fools and blind in the darkness—to go and speak about such a tzaddik."

"And how do people believe this? After all, he is surrounded by mafias and criminal people who exploit the self-nullification he has toward the leadership of Hashem, and they exploit this and threaten him that if he does not agree with them, they will release false scandals about him—how did we fall into such a thing? How are people not careful about speaking about such a tzaddik? The thing that most angers Hashem is when people speak about a tzaddik; it is like speaking with a father about his only son who sacrifices himself every moment for the people of Israel. Especially Rav Berland, who every moment sacrifices himself to bring the people of Israel closer, without food, without sleep, and without drink."

"About such a person, can one write that he errs and misleads from the paths of holiness?! After all, he is the one who most brings people closer to guarding their eyes and avoiding flaws. He is the one who speaks most sharply about holiness, the persistence of Torah study with intensity, and about prayer with melodies and at length. All the things against him are lies and falsehoods and the opposite of all straight logic. This tzaddik is far from sins; all his talk and conversation is only how to draw closer to Hashem; even from within prison, he only strengthened [others] in the study of Torah."

"May Hashem bless us to accept these words and not deviate from the path of truth."