Watch: Oh, Oh, It's Painful to Hear. The Reasons for the Insane Persecution

Oy, oy, it is painful to hear. Rabbi Yaakov Salma shlit"a, head of the 'Netzach Netzachim' Yeshiva, reveals in a clear and difficult manner the reasons for the vile campaign of persecution against our teacher, the great tzaddik Rav Berland shlit"a. "The Beit Din ruled at the time that the property in Uman belonged to the Rav shlit"a, but the Rav conceded everything to them, and they could not tolerate his righteousness. To see that the Rav established a community of those burning for Hashem and for holiness while they remained behind, they could not bear it. For even in the time of Reb Noson, the student of our Rebbe, they argued against him and could not tolerate his burning passion and holiness."

"Our work is to occupy ourselves with good, and the evil will fall away on its own. The great Rambam, whom everyone today accepts as a central pillar of halachic ruling, faced difficult and sweeping controversy in his time, and the same was true for the holy Ramchal. What controversy there was against Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l; they hung posters against him and would not accept into Talmud Torahs those who followed his path. Until he said himself, 'And the wise shall be silent in that time,' meaning we have no business with those who revile our teacher, the Rav shlit"a.

"From what are you distancing yourselves (those who issued a letter against the Rav and his community)? From the holiness of the eyes of the Rav's students?? From their hitbodedut (seclusion)?? From their service of Hashem?? Is it true that the Rav brings close 'Frankim' (Sephardim) that you and many others are not willing to do, and that is why you are angry?? The uncle of the dissenter said to me personally - 'Get out of here and do not pray here, you have Mussayoff and your own synagogues, what are you (the Sephardim) doing here?' I answered that I came to be strengthened by the melodies of Breslov, and he turned redder than a beet from anger. Is this Ahavat Yisrael? Is this unity? This is the dissemination that our holy Rebbe spoke of. He screamed at me - 'We do not want you here.' Do you want to delay the Geulah (Redemption)?? Do you want to prevent baalei teshuvah (repentants) from drawing near?? But the Rav shlit"a brings everyone close; there is no Rav who is not bothered by 'Frankim,' he is married to a Yemenite woman and he marries Kurds with Romanians. Everything is according to the matter, whether you are suitable or not - period."

"I judge them favorably, but my masters, admit that you are wrong! The yetzer hara (evil inclination) is a genius; it makes us talk all day about controversies and not about Torah, not about guarding one's eyes, not about 'good points.' Therefore, we must continue on our path and not pay attention to those who seek evil. And as the Lubavitcher Rebbe said: 'The opponents know that their words are lies, I will not waste my time on that.' For 30 years they could not tolerate the Rav shlit"a, who shows them their own truth to their faces; now they are rushing to disgrace him, spilling blood, and speaking lashon hara without considering the facts."