With Prayer One Can Stop the Sun – The Daily Chizuk from the Gaon and Tzaddik

Yosef (Joseph) said, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon" (Joshua 10:12). Yosef said, "The sun and the moon bow down to me."

Why did (Joshua) stop the sun? Let us wage war with the entire Land of Israel; we will stop the sun and fight everyone. What Joshua did was according to the dream; he said, "We can stop the sun, we will rule over the sun."

The Daily Chizuk (spiritual encouragement) from the Gaon and Tzaddik, our teacher, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days) – Sunday, 17th of Sivan, 5784

Like Nakdimon ben Guryon (Gittin 56a), who took twelve springs in an agreement with a gentile. First of all, there was a giant pool in the place where Shoneh Halachos Street is today. There was a pool beneath the entire building, a pool that took three days to empty—clean water, crystal clear water.

This was during the period of the Second Temple; there was a massive pool, and each such pool sufficed for a million people. Twelve pools for twelve million people, because billions arrived as oleh regalim (pilgrims) to Jerusalem.

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In the end, no rain fell during the time of the pilgrimage, so there was no water for the pilgrims. There was a "righteous" gentile there who said to Nakdimon, "Listen, I am willing to give you everything for free, but only if it rains and the pools are refilled; if not, woe to you."

"Let us make a condition that you (Nakdimon) receive all the pools for free. It is now the eve of Sukkot; if by the eve of Pesach (Passover) no rain has fallen to refill everything, you will bring me all the pools filled with gold dinars—filled with silver and gold dinars."

Meanwhile, the gentile went to the mikvah (ritual bath); he was a Roman gentile. He was going up the stairs just as Nakdimon ben Guryon was going down. The gentile said to him, "The pools haven't filled up; have you prepared the money yet? It's already ten minutes before sunset (when our agreement ends)." Before the gentile received such a sum, he wanted to go to the mikvah to be "pure and holy."

Nakdimon said to him, "Yes, but there are still ten minutes left. We said at 18:00 (6:00 PM), and now it is ten to 18:00."

The gentile replied, "If it hasn't rained until now, it's not going to rain anymore."

Nakdimon said, "No, I am going down to the Kotel (Western Wall) now to recite three Tikkun HaKlali (The General Rectification prayers), and it will rain." Such a downpour began that within a second, all the pits and all the wells were filled; everything was filled with rain.

He came up from the Kotel, and the gentile said to him, "Well, have you prepared the money?"

He replied, "A downpour fell, what do you want?"

"I want the surplus! When I gave you the wells, they were two meters below the rim; now they are filled to the top. I want more; I want the wells exactly as they were."

Nakdimon said, "No." He (the gentile) pulled out a stopwatch, a Swiss watch.

The gentile said, "The moment the downpour began, I pressed it and it was 18:02. We said until 18:00; 18:02 is already mine, and this downpour belongs to me (because it happened after the deadline)."

He said to him, "Fine, wait five minutes." He went down to the Kotel and recited another Tikkun HaKlali. It began to clear up, and suddenly they saw the sun (showing it was still day).

This is not true only for Nakdimon ben Guryon; it applied to every Jew. The Midrash Rabbah (Part 2) brings here that it wasn't only Nakdimon who stopped the sun; King Hezekiah did as well.

It is written that Hillel had eighty students (Sukkah 28a), thirty of whom could stop the sun. Once, this was common; everyone—anyone who comes to Shuvu Banim (the Rav's yeshiva)—can already stop the sun.