What Led the Tzaddik to Take Upon Himself Imprisonment and Suffering? "In Good

The question echoing in the minds of many is: How can it be that such a great tzaddik, a renowned Torah scholar famous for his greatness in Torah, a man of prayer and wonders who, according to the testimony of many, does not fit this generation, is nonetheless sitting behind bars and being persecuted in an astonishing manner?!

The Gemara (Bava Metzia 84b) tells the difficult story of the acceptance of suffering by the holy Tanna, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The Talmud there brings a difficult description of how, at night, Rabbi Elazar would invite suffering, saying, "My brothers and my friends, come." They would fold and place sixty layers of cloth beneath him to absorb the blood from his wounds, and in the morning, sixty bowls full of blood and pus that had flowed from his wounds would be pulled out from under his bed.

For generations upon generations, it has been agreed that Rabbi Elazar is one of the greatest figures in Jewish history, one of the greatest Tannaic sages entrusted with transmitting the Oral Torah tradition through the Mishnah, one of the pillars of the Gemara, and at the same time, one of the members of the holy group that produced the holy Zohar, the foundation and root of Kabbalah. But, during his lifetime, the contemporaries of Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon were not at peace with his actions, and they disagreed with and persecuted him because of them. Matters reached such a point that when Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon passed away, he told his wife, "I know that the Sages are angry with me and will not treat me properly." Rabbi Elazar tells his wife terrible things: "I know that the Sages are angry with me, because through me, thieves were caught and handed over to the kingdom, and among them were thieves who were relatives of some of the Sages (as Rashi explains there) – and therefore, they will not attend to me properly after my death."

The controversy over Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, was so severe; they did not understand the intent of his actions, how he was actually desiring and laboring to remove the thorns from the vineyard, to remove the 'kelipah' (husk) and impurity from Israel. How everything he did was only for the sake of Israel, and he was willing through this to take upon himself unbearable suffering in body and soul, until finally, his wife did not understand him and left for her father's house, "she rebelled against him and went to her father's house," in the language of the Gemara.

For the students of our teacher, the holy Gaon, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, like tens of thousands of others in Israel and the world, the following words may not be a great innovation. However, when the matters come, as if in passing, from the mouth of the investigator who has been investigating the Rav throughout the recent period, one must contemplate the words and derive practical facts from them. In an investigation for 'Yedioth', the investigator, who by all accounts is not counted among the followers of Rav Berland, related that on the day before the Rav was supposed to appear before the judge for a decision regarding detention until the end of proceedings, Rav Berland knew about it. The investigator says that it was clear to everyone that the judge was going to release Rav Berland, and yet, in an astonishing manner, in the final interrogation before the hearing, Rav Berland changed his entire testimony to his own detriment. Rav Berland told the investigator about imaginary sums of money that he supposedly transferred to various people. And suddenly, what was almost certain to lead to the Rav's release turned into detention until the end of proceedings.

The judge simply read the Rav's testimony about himself and said that in such a way, he could not release him. It is incomprehensible – what brought the tzaddik to take upon himself imprisonment and suffering?! To understand somewhat the actions of Rav Berland, we will return to the story in the Gemara (ibid.) about Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Shimon.

The Gemara relates that after the death of Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi—Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who is referred to with honor as 'Rabbinu HaKadosh' (our holy teacher), and who was the one who arranged the Mishnah and concluded the era of the Tannaim—turned to the widow of Rabbi Elazar. Rabbi sent a messenger to the widow and asked her to marry him, but the widow refused, saying, "A vessel that was used for holy purposes (her deceased husband, Rabbi Elazar) should be used for common purposes (Rabbi)?" And in effect, in comparison to her deceased husband, the widow of Rabbi Elazar calls Rabbi 'common'. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was not offended by the words; on the contrary, he answers and says, "Although Rabbi Elazar is greater than me in Torah, is he also greater than me in good deeds?" And here is the surprising answer.

The widow of Rabbi Elazar answers: "I did not know that my husband was greater than you in Torah; I only learned that from your testimony, but – in good deeds, I know that he is greater than you!"

To which good deeds does the widow of Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon testify that her husband was greater than Rabbi Yehuda, the leader of Israel?! This is the language of the Gemara: "For he accepted suffering upon himself; I know that he is greater than you – for he accepted suffering upon himself!!!"

The widow of the holy Tanna Rabbi Elazar, who in her lifetime found it difficult to accept her husband's suffering, understood after his death that her husband's good deeds—his acceptance of suffering—brought him to such a high level that he could cut away the thorns and sweeten the suffering of all the people of Israel. As it is brought in the Midrash Kohelet Rabbah (11), that the widow of Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi, "When my husband, Rabbi Elazar, would invite his suffering every night, he would say, 'May all the sufferings of Israel come upon me.'"

The commentators of the Talmud struggle with the question: "What do good deeds have to do with suffering?" The Ramchal in 'Derech Hashem' explained that the tzaddik atones for his generation through the suffering that comes upon him, as we brought above from the Midrash Kohelet Rabbah. That, in fact, the great reason the tzaddik takes upon himself the suffering is to atone for Israel—and these are the best deeds that can be; this is the most important work before Hashem, that even our holy teacher, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, could not equal him in them.