We Need to Ask Forgiveness from Rav Berland for Suffering Due to Our Sins

In the many home circles held nightly by the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, there is an opportunity for many good people who do not yet know the Rav to draw closer to the tzaddik. From this renewing reality, interesting encounters are created when new people draw near—those who, until a year ago, never dreamed of standing so close to such a tzaddik. "I have never met the Rav before," shared a Jew with excitement who came to one of the home circles specifically to meet Rav Berland shlit"a. He then began to speak words of Torah while connecting them to the terrible situation of the persecution of the true tzaddik.

Afterward, that same Jew turned to the main point that brought him to speak in front of everyone. "I was in South Africa," he begins his personal testimony. "I saw someone there building a mikvah for Rav Berland shlit"a, and I told him to build it with awe and love because someone great is destined to immerse in it. A year later, I happened to be on a ship and saw many holy books there. I asked to whom all these books belonged, and he also answered me, 'To Rav Berland.' It was a Turkish gentile, but I immediately understood which Rav he was talking about. I asked him about the daily routine of the Rav shlit"a, and he answered, 'Rav Berland did nothing but study Torah, and every once in a while, he would dance with me.' I said to that Turk, 'If the Rav danced with you, you will lack nothing in life. After all, we learned in the Gemara about gentiles who did less than this for tzaddikim and were rewarded.'"

"I followed all the hardships of Rav Berland shlit"a and said that this is impossible; a Jew like this who undergoes such exiles is not doing it for himself. Such a Rav, these are sufferings for the sake of the Jewish people; the Rav goes from exile to exile for the sake of the Jewish people. It reminded me of the exiles that Rebbe Zusha and the Noam Elimelech took upon themselves. The Rav belongs to the entirety of the Jewish people. I heard how the Rav told someone that one must be careful when coming to the tzaddik, because he can burn them with the breath of his mouth."

"We need to ask for forgiveness from Rav Berland because he suffers due to our sins. I remember that the rain stopped falling in Zimbabwe after the Rav shlit"a left there; I would have been very surprised if it hadn't happened. One does not mess with Torah scholars; those who judge them fall into boiling excrement. Woe to anyone who speaks against the Rav; they will not be cleansed."

"May it be the will that in the merit of all the hardships the Rav has endured, he will redeem us and bring us Mashiach ben David."