What Happened in the Year of Redemption According to the Zohar? • The Daily

Before you is a summary of the daily lesson as delivered by our teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a—yesterday after the Maariv (evening) prayer, Wednesday night, the 22nd of Shevat, Parshas Mishpatim:

Rebbe Nosson says that the first "thief" is Hashem (the Holy One, Blessed be He), in Likutei Halachos, Laws of Theft (Gneiva) 5, section 10; everyone should study this with his wife. In another three hours it will be Chatzos (midnight), at twenty to nine. After that, in the Laws of One Who Wounds His Fellow (Chovel B'Chaveiro), Law 4, where the Zohar says that the years 5408 and 5409 (1648-1649, represented by the Hebrew letters Tav-Shin-Chet and Tav-Shin-Tet) were supposed to be the Geulah (Redemption), but the complete opposite happened—so many Jews were murdered, six hundred thousand Jews [during the Chmielnicki massacres]. Rebbe Nosson asks, how could this be? Until Chatzos (midnight), one must say Tehillim (Psalms) and study Tanakh (Bible), and afterwards recite Tikkun Chatzos (Midnight Lamentations). The boys should wake up at five, and the girls should wake up at eight-thirty. In the Etz Chaim (Tree of Life), it is written that the mother's intellect is infinitely greater than the son's; the daughter's intellect comes from the Chochmah of Ban (a Kabbalistic level of wisdom) and the man's wisdom comes from Binah (understanding). The son puts it into gambling and in the end, everything becomes zero. A woman must guard her husband so he doesn't reach absolute zero; if a woman doesn't guard her husband, she will become a widow. For "among these there was not a man"—no woman died in the desert [during the forty years of wandering], as they did not sin, neither with the Spies, nor with Korach, nor in the Sin of the Golden Calf. The boys [men] tore their ears for the earrings [for the Golden Calf], therefore the women received Rosh Chodesh (the New Month) as a holiday; they do not sew or do laundry [on Rosh Chodesh]. Korach said: "Will you gouge out the eyes of those men?" [meaning] we see all your lies—do you think you will gouge out our eyes so we won't see the lies? We stayed forty years because we cried, "Our wives and children will be for a prey"? Rather, [Korach claimed] you don't want to die, for "Moses dies and Joshua brings [them in]," therefore [you keep us here] forty years. Every boy should study six pages of Gemara (Talmud) and study Kiddushin 29b about the seven-headed serpent. And in Sanhedrin 64b about the lion of D'Ila'i that gave a shout and turned around. After that, there was another story—there was one who came and said, "I want to be sick again." Then a Jew arrived who had a leg ailment and they put him on a donkey; she entered the line there and said to him, "What are you doing here? You are a Jew!" All the boys should study six pages of Gemara; everyone should arrive for Vasikin (the sunrise prayer) at six o'clock. There are six hours to sleep; the boys will wake up at five and the girls at eight-twenty-five.