Why Don’t Torah and Prayers Work? The Daily Strengthening from Rabbi Eliezer

The daily strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – “Without the Tzaddik, prayer is witchcraft”

“After the death of Aaron’s two sons” (Vayikra 16:1)

“And behold, the Ancient of Days is prepared, until the times pass” (from the song Bnei Heichala D’K’sifin)

Sunday, 13 Iyar 5785 – “The Holocaust happened because they did not know who the true Tzaddik is.”

These are his holy words:

A person must be connected all day to Atik, “And behold, the Ancient of Days is prepared, until the times pass” (from the song Bnei Heichala D’K’sifin). Through Atik Yomin, all the kelipos are destroyed. If you want to elevate the kelipos (to sift out the good from the evil), it can only be done through Atik Yomin—this is the Tzaddik. Therefore, a person must be bound to the Tzaddik.

Without the Tzaddik, everything he prays is worth nothing, because the Gemara (Sotah 20) says that without the Tzaddik he is called a sorcerer—everything is witchcraft.

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Just as a sorcerer doesn’t truly know what he is saying—he whispers all kinds of incantations, and he has a few names that he received through tradition.

The Gemara says in Sotah, daf 20, that without the Tzaddik he is called a sorcerer—even if he learns day and night, he is called a sorcerer—because a person’s task is simply to reveal who the true Tzaddik is.

If he learns without the Tzaddik, and prays without the Tzaddik, then he is just a sorcerer—nothing ascends Above.

That is why there was such a Holocaust: it was all because they did not know who the Tzaddik is. If there had been two Tzaddikim traveling to Uman, they would have annulled the Holocaust.

There was Rabbi Avraham Elimelech (Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Perlov of Karlin, 4 Elul 5651 – 14 Cheshvan 5703; September 7, 1891 – October 25, 1942, the eighth Rebbe in the Karlin dynasty, who led from 5681/1921 until he was murdered in the Holocaust in 5703/1942) who cried out with such cries (he saw through Ruach HaKodesh the Holocaust that was destined to come, and therefore he cried out in prayer at the gravesite of Rashbi when he arrived in Eretz Yisrael).

Rabbi Avraham Elimelech arrived (from Karlin) after Tisha B’Av and returned on Rosh Chodesh Elul. He knew there would be a Holocaust. He distributed everything—his tallis of silver, his silver staff, his shtreimel—everything he gave away. I asked Yisrael Goldstein, the father of Yitzchak David, and he said: Yes. We were 16-year-old boys; we went up onto the ship, and he said, “I’m leaving nothing for the Germans. It is forbidden to leave anything for the Germans.” A person must know to distribute everything. So he distributed the tallis, the kapote, the jubba—everything he distributed to all the children.

The whole matter is that when a person cries out, he annuls all decrees. But if he learns without the Tzaddik, he is called a sorcerer; he is called an amgush.

What is an am ha’aretz? Someone who learns the entire Torah without the Tzaddik—he is a boor!

That is why Nadav and Avihu, who were greater than Moshe and Aharon—but they were without the Tzaddik—were burned, “After the death of Aaron’s two sons” (Vayikra 16:1).

Now (the shiur was delivered in Parshas Kedoshim) we are dealing only with Nadav and Avihu. In the middle (of the parsha) we have impure animals and pure animals, but all the parshiyos are dealing only with Nadav and Avihu, who knew the entire Torah by heart from alef to tav—yet they did not believe that Moshe is the true Tzaddik. They did not believe it, and so they were burned.

If a person does not know who the Tzaddik is, then all his Torah is worth nothing. He is an am ha’aretz; he is a boor. A complete non-Jew—he is simply a non-Jew. Without the Tzaddik, he is a non-Jew.