We Must Submit to Hashem Without Conditions

The Daily Strengthening from our Teacher, the holy Tzaddik, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a – "Bringing Down the Serpent's Head with Tikkun Chatzot"

Monday, 21 Sivan 5782 – "We must surrender to Hashem without conditions"

[The words of our teacher, Rav Berland shlit"a, refer to the Gemara (Kiddushin 29b). Rav Acha was very meticulous with his study schedule, and whatever he did not manage to study during the day, he would study at night. The Gemara (ibid.) recounts a miracle that happened to him when he sent his son, Rav Yaakov, to study under Abaye. After the son did not meet his father's expectations, Rav Acha went to study in his place. In Abaye's city, there was a study hall inhabited by a demon; if two people came—even during the day—it would harm them. The power of this demon is very puzzling, as demons usually only attack at night and do not attack two people, but rather individuals, and certainly not those who are wise in Torah. Since Abaye knew that Rav Acha was accustomed to miracles, he ordered the local residents not to provide him with lodging. Rav Acha was forced to sleep in that study hall. The demon rose against him and appeared to him as a seven-headed serpent. Rav Acha prayed (Tikkun Chatzot, according to the Rav shlit"a), and with every prostration he made in his prayer, one of the demon's heads fell off.]

These are his holy words:

Now we are talking about the yeshiva of Abaye. Abaye had a huge yeshiva of a thousand students, and a serpent would come there every morning immediately after the vatikin prayer and drive everyone away.

The students would see a giant serpent, 12 meters long, capable of swallowing 100 people—because 12 meters can swallow 100 people, may Hashem have mercy.

The serpent would arrive every morning, and the students would flee every morning; everyone would run away and not return until they were found in the afternoon.

Abaye did not know what to do. They told him that Rav Acha bar Yaakov would arrive. Rav Yaakov was a boy who was not that sharp; he liked to play. So Rav Acha told him, "Go hide there, provide for the house, I will go to study. You go every night to the Nechama bakery—what is this? You won't progress at all like this!"

He did not progress. Rav Yaakov was there (in Abaye's yeshiva) for half a year, from the 1st of Cheshvan until the 1st of Nissan, and he did not progress a millimeter.

Rav Acha said to him, "I will go to study in Abaye's yeshiva in your place." But how would he go? Would he go on a donkey? Poor Rav Acha, he was left to sleep on the benches in the yeshiva, on the tables; he had no bed, he had nothing.

Suddenly, at 12 midnight, his clock rang; he had a clock that would ring at 12. He got up for Chatzot at 12, and he saw a serpent with 7 heads, a giant 12-meter serpent. It would swallow him; it would swallow him 7 times, each head would swallow him, it would swallow other people too.

What to do? Where to run? What fear, he didn't know where to run.

He began to get up for Chatzot, he began to say Tikkun Chatzot—every moment that he prostrated in prayer, a head fell off the serpent. He prostrates, a head falls; he prostrates, a head falls.

One must perform prostrations, prostrations, every time.

Surrender to Hashem Without Conditions

On the 8th of Iyar, the Nazis finished their surrender, an unconditional surrender—the main thing is to surrender to Hashem without conditions.

Here we see, a person must surrender to Hashem without conditions, without conditions.

We must get up for Chatzot, surrender to Hashem without conditions—if you make conditions, it is already worth nothing, surrender without conditions.