Watch: "A Person Thinks the Tzaddik is Wrong": A Class in the Home of Rabbi Berland on the Wonder of the Bris, Eliezer's Mission, and the Strait of Hormuz

In a class delivered by our teacher, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, in his home on Monday evening, the night of the 23rd of Cheshvan 5785, the Rav discussed the wonder of the bris milah (circumcision), the first bris of Avraham Avinu, and the mission of Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, to find a bride for Yitzchak. Toward the end, the Rav also spoke about the war and the Strait of Hormuz.

"Every bris is miracles"

The Rav opened with a sense of wonder: We take an eight-day-old baby, cut and cut again, and draw out the blood - "How is it possible to live?" According to nature, he said, ten or twenty percent should have died, "but every bris is miracles, every bris is above nature."

"Here there is a bris every day, two bris milahs, and you see - no one cries... he is happy, he wants to dance."

The first bris in the world

Avraham Avinu performed the first bris in the world, and those around him threatened that if anything happened - his sentence would be death. The Rav described Mamre, who stood to the side and did not push himself forward, and finally said to Avraham: "Circumcise me." And then, according to the words of the Rav, Hashem, may He be blessed, revealed Himself to Avraham in the plains of Mamre.

"Without Rashi, it is impossible to understand the Torah"

The Rav transitioned to the weekly Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, and strengthened the study of Rashi: "Rashi is the greatest wonder of the Torah. Without Rashi, it is impossible to understand the Torah, nothing at all."

The "perhaps" of Eliezer

The Rav asked why the word "ulai" (perhaps) - "perhaps the woman will not be willing" - is written missing a letter the first time and full the second time. Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, the Rav explained, was certain that he was right and that Avraham was wrong, and that he would not find a kosher daughter. But on the way, he saw the water rising toward Rivka, he saw the Clouds of Glory and the angels walking with her, "and then he saw that Avraham was right."

"A person always thinks that the tzaddik is wrong... but he withstood the test."

"I am against violence, I am only a man of peace": The Strait of Hormuz and the World War

In connection with the elections in the United States, which were being held the next day, the Rav came to speak about the war and the Strait of Hormuz. The Rav mentioned what people are saying, that after the elections they will blow up Hormuz, and immediately expressed his reservation:

"I am against such things. I am against violence, I am only a man of peace."

They say, said the Rav, that within a week the war in Hormuz will begin, "but this is a Gemara." The Rav mentioned the Gemara about "Hormiz," and the claim that there are two powers that created the world: If so, how do the rivers pass from the domain of one to the domain of the other? That is exactly where the dispute is created. And so too today, said the Rav, there is an argument over the Nile between Ethiopia and Egypt, because the Nile begins in Ethiopia, and Ethiopia wants to close it off completely: "How does one allow the other to pass water through his territory?"

We need to know what the Strait of Hormuz is, the Rav said, to know what is going to be, because very soon there is going to be a world war.

In conclusion, the Rav mentioned Chatzos (the midnight lament over the destruction of the Temple): "Everyone can say Chatzos."