"Woe to us, from the day of judgment, woe to us from the day of reproof"

“I HOPE VERY MUCH THAT YOU WILL FIND AMONGST MY WORDS, IF YOU WANT TO, REASSURANCE [ABOUT WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON], AND THAT WE SHOULD ONLY MERIT [TO ACHIEVE THIS], IN THE GREAT MERIT OF THE YAHRTZEIT OF THE FORMER LEADER OF OUR GROUP IN A PREVIOUS GENERATION, RAV LEVI YITZHAK BENDER. WITH MY OWN EYES, I SAW HOW MANY TIMES THEY WOULD GO TO HIS HOUSE AND COME TO HIM IN SHUL, MANY ‘GOOD ONES’ FROM AMONGST OUR PEOPLE, TO SPEAK EVIL TIDINGS AGAINST RAV LAZER [RAV ELIEZER BERLAND] AND HIS PEOPLE.

“RABBI LEVI YITZHAK LISTENED AND LISTENED TO THEM, AND THEN I HEARD FROM HIM, AND THIS WAS HIS WORDING: “WHAT DO THEY WANT? I GET TO SHUL BEFORE DAWN AND WHO DO I FIND THERE? RAV LAZER’S PEOPLE. WHO GOES TO THE FIELD [DO TO HITBODEDUT, OR PERSONAL PRAYER]? THE MEN OF RAV LAZER. WHO DO I MEET IN THE MIKVAH BEFORE DAWN? THE MEN OF RAV LAZER. WHAT DO THEY WANT?” MAY HIS MEMORY BE A BLESSING, AND HIS MEMORY PROTECT US.”

Rav Motta Frank is one of the most senior figures in the world of Breslev chassidut. He recently wrote a letter that we have translated from the original Hebrew, below.

Rav Frank, like many others, is pained by the ongoing persecution of Rav Eliezer Berland, and in his letter, he responds sharply to all those people who are continuing to plot against the Rav, and who won’t stop at anything to disgrace him and the entire Torah.

Rav Frank is not one of Rav’s Berland students or close associates. Nonetheless, like any Jew who’s been watching the recent events surrounding Rav Berland unfold from the sidelines, he’s disgusted by the continued persecution and lies that are taking place against the Rav.

“I’m going to speak frankly,” says Rav Frank, “only because you decided, and others like you decided, that he [Rav Berland] and his people, and all those who support him are ‘Sabbateans’ [i.e  followers of a modern-day ‘Shabtai Tzvi’, or false messiah]. And only because you allow yourself to speak in such a lowly fashion any time that you mention Rav Lazer in your letters.

And it seems that only because of this, L.C. and YTC and YTZ (full names are in the original article) decided (and I’m sorry that I can’t bring myself to use the title ‘rabbi’ before their names, because when it comes to the sorts of things I’m not about to discuss, it’s impossible to cause them ‘rabbi’), that Rav Lazer is a modern-day ‘Shabtai Tzvi’ [i.e. a false messiah], Heaven forbid.

And only because of this, they’ve apparently permitted themselves to stoop so low, and to try to kick a person while they’re already down. And they’re not embarrassed to stoop to the very lowest of levels, and to raise their hands against the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu (i.e. they’re going to secular courts that do not abide by Torah law.)

And what’s more, they’re trying to make other people go to secular court, too, to testify against Rav Lazer, to participate in the investigation by the police, who are known to hate religion. [i.e. Judaism], about issues that have nothing to do with the investigation, solely with the aim of trying to make more trouble for him (I recently heard a recording of YTC trying to do this recently, with one of the people who is close to Rav Lazer.)

Because that woman that TZ tried to testify in relation to her matter, when he stood impudently and brazenly in front of his father-in-law and he acted like a complete ingrate, and the most lowliest person…

This woman stood and cried out that these things never happened ever, and that they tricked her into making a falsified testimony from many years’ ago.

And the most terrible thing of all was to go to such a low level to publicly cause the embarrassment and humiliation of Rav Lazer, and all of his people in this way, to pass around a recording of a ‘false’ video (as is evident to everyone who really knows Rav Lazer), which they brought out in a back-handed, deceitful way, made up of old footage of Rav Lazer.

And they passed this video recording to who??? Not to the rabbonim that sit on the throne of justice, with level heads and with pure yirat shemayim, and who make decisions with full cognizance that the ‘gates of Gehinnom are open below them’ should they make a mistake; and not to a beit din [religious court of justice] that’s made up of at least three dayanim [judges], who sit together and act in accordance with the halachic laws of investigations (hakira and derisha).

Not only did they pass this recording to the police investigators behind closed doors, but to our great regret and embarrassment, they also passed this recording to who??? The Israeli television stations!!! In order to persuade the haters of Israel to aim their poisonous arrows of hatred against charedi Judaism, and to debase a Rabbi and his community, in such an evil way, and to cause millions of people to speak profanities in the worst way, and to have thoughts that he [Rav Berland] committed a terrible sin.

Gevald! Gevald! Gevald! Hashem should have mercy.

Who are the people [who are guilty of] spreading around profanity, and false accusations of sin, in a way that has never been seen before? Rav Berland, or LC, YTC and TZ???

Who? Think for yourselves [what’s really going on].

Woe to us from the day of judgment, woe to us from the day of reproof.

Anyone who has even a little bit of understanding about everything that is happening around us knows with certainty that the Rav is being persecuted, and is an innocent man. And more than this, that there is a lowly group that will not stop at anything, even the most degrading things, against this Tzaddik, the foundation of the world.