Tisha B'Av by the Righteous Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel across the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the Arabah, opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Di Zahav."

"Di Zahav," Rashi says, refers to the sin of the Golden Calf. When Moses our Teacher rebukes Israel for the most terrible and greatest sins, he speaks only in hints. It is difficult—after all, Moses could have spoken explicitly; why did he need to speak in hints? The Komarner explains that Moses our Teacher feared that judgments would be aroused against Israel. For one must never give rebuke, because when we give rebuke, a person becomes a willful sinner (mezid). Until now, he sinned, he didn't pay attention, he didn't know what was happening to him, he forgot his sin; he was an "unintentional sinner" (shogeg). But if one rebukes a person and reminds him of the sin and he does not awaken, then he has already become a "willful sinner." So Moses feared that perhaps Israel would not feel remorse and would not perform teshuvah (repentance) as they should, and therefore he feared giving explicit rebuke, only rebuking in hints. Moses gained two things: that if one did not awaken from the hints, did not remember that he sinned, did not awaken, and did not understand the hints, then there is no judgment upon him (he remains in the category of "unintentional"). The second gain was for those who study Torah with depth and analysis, and it is a rule that through studying Torah with depth and analysis, judgments are sweetened. To them, Moses spoke in hints, so that here too they would merit the sweetening of judgments through deepening and contemplating every single word he spoke. For a person who delves into and contemplates the hints of the tzaddik, every single word, what the tzaddik intends—this alone sweetens the judgment for him, and this itself is his teshuvah, and consequently, he will merit to awaken and rectify his sins.

To bring Mashiach—Rebbe Nathan says, this is by sitting on the ground, crying and mourning over the destruction. And what are we mourning? Over my sins, 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 through a person doing hitbodedut (secluded prayer), and nullifying himself, and searching his deeds, and attributing the destruction to himself—only in this way will the Geulah (Redemption) come! What is hitbodedut? Hitbodedut is only one thing: to reach nullification, to know that I am zero and nothing, and there will be no pride and no substance in me. Because a person thinks all day, "I am the wisest, I am the smartest, the most successful, the most learned." Twenty-four hours a day he thinks thoughts of pride about himself, and he has evidence for it—that he is the most successful, the luckiest, and the smartest. His head works all day, because the mind is endless. If we could open the mind, we would see a million thoughts per second: "I am the smartest, the wisest, the most successful..." Hitbodedut is very simple: that we begin a whole hour to stop the sequence of thoughts. We need to calm down a little; 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 people who understand in the world. Your soul is miserable; it cannot return to its root. It wants to be "nothing" (ayin); the soul is Divine, it does not want to hear these fantasies. Give it a rest one hour a day! And the essence of hitbodedut, the Rebbe says, is at night. ("For then is the essence of the perfection of hitbodedut, for then precisely one can reach the aforementioned level of nullification" - Likutey Moharan 52). And for this, one precisely needs the night, quiet, when no one is actually thinking now about how to get dollars and how to run to the bank, etc. At the hour when everyone is sleeping, dormant, then sit and do hitbodedut and work on humility. And only such hitbodedut nullifies all the decrees and all the judgments. And if, Heaven 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—which 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 look of mine, everything is mistakes—then immediately the complete Geulah will come, speedily in our days.

(On the other side!!!)

"The Pain of the Shechinah (Divine Presence)" – One person came to comfort a widow, and she had many sons, and every single son of hers had very many troubles, and suffering, and terrible difficulties. And he began to comfort each child, each one with his troubles... until he reached the widow. And then the widow said to him, "Each child has his own pain, but I, in addition to my own pain, suffer the pain of everyone..." How can one describe the pain of this widow!! This widow is... she is the Shechinah. What happens is that people forget entirely that there is a Shechinah, they forget that there is the pain of the collective. Everyone is with their own pains, everyone with their own suffering, everyone with their own difficulties... truly terrible difficulties! But the greatest pain is that we are sunken in our private pain; we do not succeed in awakening and rising and reaching the root of all things, where we struck, at the Cause of all causes and the Reason of all reasons, and there we failed and separated, through our sins, Hashem from the Shechinah. Usually, everyone is sunken in their own troubles; even if they hear the troubles of another, they say "oy, oy," sigh for him a little, help him a little, comfort him, visit him, and afterward return into themselves. But on Tisha B'Av, it is a special day when one succeeds in rising and shedding a tear for the collective. Tisha B'Av is a day such that our 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 "pain of the collective," the pain of the Shechinah, the true destruction, which is the destruction of the entire nation, and it is to exit the pain of the individual and reach the pain of the collective. And it is told about Napoleon that he arrived on Tisha B'Av at the synagogue and saw an entire congregation sitting and crying and mourning. He asked them, "Why are you crying? What are you crying about?" They said to him, "Over the destruction of our Holy Temple." He asked, "When was the destruction?" They answered him, "Two thousand years ago." He said to them, "If so, I believe that you will be redeemed, I believe that you have a future, I believe that you have a holy mission in the world, because if you are capable, an entire nation, in every place, in all synagogues, in all corners of the globe, not to forget what happened two thousand years ago, and to continue to cry and mourn and think about it—that means that you are connected to your roots, and you have hope to reach the goal, to reach the building of your Holy Temple." And through everyone sitting and crying and mourning, and connecting to his roots, to the Cause of all causes, to the Reason of all reasons, and participating in the pain of the collective, in the pain of the Shechinah, through this he will merit to see the Geulah. As it is written, "Whoever mourns for Jerusalem merits and sees her joy" (Ta'anit 30b).

"These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel" (1:1)

The entire Book of Deuteronomy (Sefer Devarim) appears seemingly as superfluous, Heaven forbid—because all its words are a repetition of what was already said in the previous books. And yet, this book, the Book of Deuteronomy, does not fall in its value and holiness from the other books of the Torah, and it is a fixed law: a Torah scroll in which one letter is missing or extra—it is invalid, because in every letter and crown (tag) in the Torah scroll, thousands upon thousands of laws are hinted at (Menachot 29). If so, why did the Book of Deuteronomy come, and what is special about it? Since, as mentioned, it repeats everything said in the previous books? Rather—says the author of "Netivot HaMussar" regarding this—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 influence positively his actions in the present and in the future. And this is the entire Torah of Mussar (ethics), to repeat the things that have already been learned, and to bring them to the heart, and such is the Book of Deuteronomy, which is entirely Mussar. It was not for nothing that the "Holy Jew of Peshischa" would study every day a few verses in the Book of "Deuteronomy"—Chumash Devarim—and said that it is like a book of Mussar for him, for he is like one hearing from the mouth of the Rebuker, Moses our Teacher, and not like one reading in a book merely. The holy Rabbi Bunim of Peshischa zt"l gave advice to a person whose soul desires to return in teshuvah, that he should study all year in the Book of Deuteronomy, and thus his heart will awaken in teshuvah. And the matter is hinted at in the word "Eleh" (These)—an acronym for: "Hashivenu Avinu LeToratecha" (Return us, our Father, to Your Torah). (Bnei Tzion).

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

In the order of the confession of Yom Kippur, we say: "For the sin that we sinned before You in confession—of the mouth." And it is puzzling: is confession a sin? And the opposite is the truth, for confession is one of the stages of teshuvah! Rather, the emphasis here is in the writing "in confession of the mouth"—meaning, a confession that is said only with the mouth, while the heart is far from truly confessing... We found this principle in our parashah, Parashat Devarim, where Moses says to Israel: "And you answered and said to me: 'We have sinned to Hashem'... And Hashem said to me, 'Say to them, do not go up and do not fight, for I am not in your midst.'" On this, the question is raised: why was the teshuvah of Israel not accepted? Why does Hashem say, "I am not in your midst"? After all, the Children of Israel confessed their sin, as it is written: "And you said to me: 'We have sinned to Hashem'"—and this is a confession of the mouth. Rather, our Sages say that the confession was only from the lips outward, for the text does not say: "And you said, 'We have sinned to Hashem'." Rather, the text is precise and says: "And you said to me, 'We have sinned to Hashem'"—only to me—only toward 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—He surely 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 of the tzaddik, and told of an incident that happened to him with his father: "One time I was in great financial distress, and I came before your father the tzaddik, and I detailed my troubles. The tzaddik asked me: 'From what is your parassah (livelihood)?' I answered him that my wife goes to the courtyards (chazerot) of the masters, and sells vegetables there, etc., and from that we live. The tzaddik said to me: 'It is written in the Torah "and Hazeroth and Di Zahav"—meaning that if one goes to the courtyards (chazerot), there will be "Di Zahav" (enough gold).' I left the presence of the tzaddik confused and wondering about his intention, and behold, it is a wonder—after a time, my wife found among the courtyards a package containing three hundred gold coins. With this money, I married off my daughter, I paid my debts, and with the remainder, I started a business, from which I earn my parnassah until today." The son said to him: "My holy father was a man of wonders, whose miracles and marvels he dressed inside jokes and proverbs, so that the people would not feel the miracle."

"Distance yourself from a false word..."

The tzaddik Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who is the "Defense Attorney of Israel," returned one time at noon on Tisha B'Av from the synagogue, after the morning prayer and the saying of lamentations. And behold, he saw in one of the streets of the city a man of Israel, sitting on the balcony of his house and eating for his pleasure in public. The tzaddik approached the man and said to him in a whisper: "R' Jew, surely it escaped your notice, for some reason, that today is Tisha B'Av!" "Not at all," the man interrupted the Rebbe's words, while chewing his food. "And perhaps you do not know that Tisha B'Av is a fast day by the decree of the ancient prophets?" Rabbi Levi Yitzchak asked again. "Even when I was a child, they taught me in 'Cheder' that the later prophets established a fast on Tisha B'Av, as a memory 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!" "I wish I were as healthy all the days as I am healthy today!" the man called out in a tone of insolence, and with a mischievous look toward the holy Rabbi. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak turned away from the man eating, lifted his two moist eyes upward, and called out with excitement: "Master of the Universe! Look from heaven and see, to where the measure of truth reaches, which is engraved in the heart of every person of Israel! Behold this simple Jew, it is easier for him to make himself a sinner, provided that he does not, Heaven forbid, utter a lie from his mouth..."

Courtesy of the newsletter Tzamah Nafshi 052-763-9126