Tisha B'Av by the Righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a - "These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan"

"These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suf, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di Zahav."

"And Di Zahav" Rashi says this refers to the sin of the Golden Calf. When Moses rebukes Israel for the most terrible and greatest sins, he only speaks in hints. And it is difficult, for Moses could have spoken explicitly, why did he need to speak in hints? The Komarna explains that Moses feared that judgments would be awakened upon Israel, because one should never give rebuke, for when we give rebuke, a person becomes intentional. Until now he sinned, he was unaware, he did not know what was happening with him, he forgot his sin, he was "unintentional." But if one is rebuked, reminded of the sin, and does not awaken, he becomes "intentional." So Moses feared that perhaps Israel would not be embittered and would not do teshuvah (repentance) properly, therefore he feared to give explicit rebukes, only rebuked in hints. Moses gained two things: if one does not awaken from the hints, does not remember the sin, does not awaken, does not understand the hint, then there is no judgment upon him (remains "unintentional"). The second gain was for those who study Torah deeply and with insight, and it is a rule that through deep and insightful Torah study, judgments are sweetened. To them Moses spoke in hints, so that here too they would merit the sweetening of judgments through deep contemplation of every word he spoke. For a person who delves and contemplates the hints of the tzaddik, every word and word, what the tzaddik intends, this alone sweetens the judgment for him, and this itself is his teshuvah, and consequently he will awaken and correct his sins.

To bring the Mashiach - says R' Natan, it is by sitting on the ground, crying, and mourning the destruction. And what do we mourn? For my transgressions, to believe that I am destroying the Holy Temple, only I and no one else but me, when I do not guard my eyes, I destroy Jerusalem and cause a spirit of impurity in Jerusalem. And by a person doing Hitbodedut, nullifying himself and examining his deeds, and attributing the destruction to himself, only thus will redemption come! What is Hitbodedut? Hitbodedut is only one thing, to reach nullification, to know that I am nothing and there will be no pride or substance in me. Because a person thinks all day, I am the wisest, I am the cleverest, the most successful, the most learned, 24 hours thinking thoughts of pride about himself, and he has proofs for it. That he is the most successful, and the most fortunate, and the cleverest. His mind works all day, because the mind is infinite. If we opened the mind we would see a million thoughts per second, "I am the cleverest, the wisest, the most successful... Hitbodedut is simply to start a whole hour to stop the flow of thoughts. We need to calm down a bit, you are not the most, most, most... there are other wise people in the world, there are other successful people in the world, there are other understanding people in the world. Your neshamah (soul) is poor, it cannot return to its root. It wants to be "nothing," the neshamah is divine, it does not want to hear these imaginations. Give it rest for one hour a day! And the main Hitbodedut, the Rebbe says, is at night. ("For then it is the main perfection of Hitbodedut, for then precisely can one come to the aforementioned nullification - Likutei Moharan 52). And for this precisely one needs night, quiet, when truly no one is thinking now how to get the dollars and how to run to the bank etc. when everyone is sleeping, drowsy, then sit and do Hitbodedut and work on humility. And only such Hitbodedut cancels all decrees and all judgments and if God forbid one sees a decree during Hitbodedut, it is a sign that I did not do Hitbodedut correctly. I did Hitbodedut to be Moses our teacher, I did Hitbodedut to see Elijah the prophet. To bring the Mashiach. These are all wonderful wishes. But that is not the purpose of Hitbodedut. And truly when a person does Hitbodedut and sits on the ground and knows - every moment I am mistaken, every thought of mine, every criticism of mine, and every judgment of mine, and every view of mine, it is all mistakes. Then immediately the complete redemption will come speedily in our days.

 

(On the other side!!!).

"The Suffering of the Shechinah" – A man came to comfort a widow, and she had many sons, and each of her sons had very many troubles, sufferings, and terrible difficulties. And he began to comfort each child, each one with his troubles...............until he came to comfort the widow. And then the widow said to him, each child has his own sorrow, but I, in addition to my sorrow, suffer the sorrow of all of them... How can one describe the sorrow of this widow!! This widow..........is the Shechinah. What happens is that we forget entirely that there is a Shechinah, we forget that there is the sorrow of the collective, each one with his own sorrows, each one with his own sufferings, each one with his own difficulties.......truly terrible difficulties! But the greatest sorrow is that we are immersed in our own private sorrow, we do not succeed in awakening and rising and reaching the root of all things where we have harmed, in the Cause of causes and the Reason of reasons, and there we have failed and separated Hashem from the Shechinah through our sins. Generally, each one is immersed in his own troubles, even hearing the troubles of another, he says oh oh, sighs a bit for him, helps him a bit, comforts him, visits him, and then returns to himself. But on Tisha B'Av it is a special day when we succeed in rising, and shedding a tear for the collective, Tisha B'Av is such a day that the Sages succeeded, through all the lamentations, and the mourning, with all the tradition of all the great ones of Israel in all generations, to instill in the people of Israel the "sorrow of the collective," the sorrow of the Shechinah, the true destruction, which is the destruction of the entire people, and it is to come out of the private sorrow and reach the sorrow of the collective. And it is told about Napoleon who came on Tisha B'Av to the synagogue, and saw a whole congregation sitting and crying and mourning, he asked them, why are you crying? What are you crying about? They told him about the destruction of our Holy Temple, he asked when was the destruction? They answered two thousand years ago, he told them, if so - I believe you will be redeemed, I believe you have a future, I believe you have a holy mission in the world, because if you are capable, a whole nation, everywhere, in all synagogues, in all corners of the world, not to forget what happened two thousand years ago, and continue to cry and mourn, and think about it, it means you are connected to your roots, and you have hope to reach the purpose, to reach the building of your Holy Temple. And by each one sitting and crying and mourning, and connecting to his roots, to the Cause of causes, to the Reason of reasons, and participating in the sorrow of the collective, in the sorrow of the Shechinah, through this he will merit to see the redemption. As it is written "Whoever mourns for Jerusalem will merit and see its joy" (Taanit 30b).

"These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel" (Deuteronomy 1:1)

The entire book of Deuteronomy seems, God forbid, superfluous – because all its words are a repetition of what was already said in the previous books. And yet, this book, Deuteronomy, is not inferior in its value and holiness to the other books of the Torah, and it is a clear halacha: a Torah scroll that is missing or has an extra letter is invalid, because in every letter and crown (tag) in the Torah scroll, heaps of halachot are hinted at (Menachot 29b). If so, for what purpose does the book of Deuteronomy come, and what is special about it? As mentioned, it repeats all that was said in the previous books? Rather – says the author of "Netivot HaMussar" – the purpose of the book of Deuteronomy is rebuke. For what is rebuke? – Bringing things known to a person from the past, so that they will positively influence his actions in the present and future. And this is the entire Torah of ethics, to repeat the things that have already been learned, and bring them to the heart, and such is the book of Deuteronomy, which is entirely ethics. It is not for nothing that the "Holy Jew of Peshischa" would learn a few verses from the book of "Deuteronomy" – Chumash Devarim – every day, and said that it is like a book of ethics for him, for he hears it as if from the mouth of the rebuker, Moses our teacher, and not as merely reading a book. The holy Rabbi Bunim of Peshischa zt"l gave advice to a person whose soul desires to return in teshuvah, to learn throughout the year in the book of Deuteronomy, and thus his heart will be awakened in teshuvah. And this is hinted at in the word "Eleh" – an acronym: "Return us, our Father, to Your Torah." (Bnei Tzion).

"And you answered and said to me, 'We have sinned against Hashem' (Deuteronomy 1:41).

In the order of confession on Yom Kippur, we say: "For the sin which we have committed before You with the confession of the mouth." And it is puzzling: Is confession a sin? On the contrary, confession is one of the stages of teshuvah! Rather, the emphasis here is in the phrase "with the confession of the mouth" – meaning, a confession that is only said with the mouth while the heart is far from truly confessing... This principle is found in our parsha, Parshat Devarim, where Moses says to Israel: "And you answered and said to me: We have sinned against Hashem... And Hashem said to me, say to them, you shall not go up nor fight, for I am not among you." The question arises, why was the teshuvah of Israel not accepted? Why does Hashem say "I am not among you"? After all, the children of Israel confessed their sin, as it is written: "And you said to me: We have sinned against Hashem" – and this is a clear confession. However, the Sages say, the confession was only superficial, for the text does not say: "And you said, we have sinned against Hashem." Rather, the text is precise and says: "And you said to me, we have sinned against Hashem" – only to me, only towards Moses our teacher did they confess their sin. But Hashem, who knows the thoughts of the heart, knows that this is not a true confession, coming from the heart, and if they had confessed with all their heart – surely He would have forgiven them.

"And Hazeroth and Di Zahav...."

After the passing of the tzaddik Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen of Radomsk, a chassid came to his son and successor, and told of an incident that happened to him with his father: "Once I was in great financial distress, and I came before your father the tzaddik, and detailed my troubles. The tzaddik asked me: From what do you make your living? I replied that my wife goes to the courtyards of the lords, and sells vegetables and the like, and from this we live. The tzaddik said to me: It is written in the Torah "And Hazeroth and Di Zahav" – meaning that when one goes to the courtyards, there will be "enough gold." I left the tzaddik's presence puzzled and wondering about his intention, and behold, it was a wonder – after some time, my wife found among the courtyards a package containing three hundred gold coins. With this money, I married off my daughter, paid my debts, and from the remainder, I established a business from which I make my living to this day." The son said to him: "My holy father was a man of wonders, who clothed his miracles and wonders in jokes and sayings, so that the people would not feel the miracle."

"Distance yourself from a false matter..."

The tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, known as "the advocate of Israel," once returned on the afternoon of Tisha B'Av from the synagogue, after the morning prayer and the recitation of lamentations. And behold, he saw in one of the city's streets a Jewish man, sitting on his porch and eating openly. The tzaddik approached the man and said to him in a whisper: Reb Yid, surely it has escaped your notice, for some reason, that today is Tisha B'Av! Not at all – the man interrupted the rabbi's words, while continuing to chew his food. Perhaps you do not know that Tisha B'Av is a fast day decreed by the ancient prophets? – Rabbi Levi Yitzchak asked again. Even as a child, I was taught in the "cheder" that the later prophets established a fast on Tisha B'Av, as a remembrance of the destruction of the Holy Temple. I assume, therefore – the tzaddik added and argued – that you are not in good health, and therefore the doctors forbade you to fast today! If only I were as healthy all the days as I am today! – the man exclaimed with a tone of insolence, and with a mischievous look towards the righteous rabbi. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak turned away from the man eating, lifted his moist eyes heavenward, and cried out with emotion: Master of the Universe! Look from heaven and see, to what extent the attribute of truth reaches, embedded in the heart of every Jew! Behold, this simple Jew, it is preferable for him to make himself appear as a transgressor, rather than, God forbid, to utter a falsehood from his mouth...

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