Your Shade is Pleasant • Tu B'Shevat Night Gathering for the Elder Students at

On Wednesday, Parshat Yitro, the night of Tu B'Shevat, an event was held for the Rabbinical Board of the Shuvu Banim community, the greatest and eldest students who hold positions of prominence. This took place at the residence of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days). During the gathering, the Rav shlit"a delivered a lesson, and afterwards, he distributed a blessed apple to each and every person, which is a segulah (spiritual remedy) for protection and blessing. Before you is a thematic summary of the lesson delivered by our teacher, the Rav shlit"a, during the gathering:

Every day soldiers are being killed, and despite this, quantities of food enter; for years, quantities of cash were entering for Hamas. Nebuchadnezzar walked three steps, corresponding to three generations of kingship—Evil-Merodach and Belshazzar. For every step, every word, every chapter of Tehillim (Psalms), a person receives kingship over the entire world. Now, the period following the Shmita (Sabbatical) year is the time of the Geulah (Redemption). There is an Upper Tzaddik and a Lower Tzaddik; there is a person who walks with open eyes but sees nothing—if a person is occupied with Torah, then he sees nothing [of the world]. Every day Hashem performs new wonders, "I will show him wonders." In the year 5800 (2039-2040 CE), the final Geulah will take place. We must study Shas (Talmud) and Poskim (Halakhic authorities); this is Shuvu Banim! The holy Shelah brings that the daughters were cleansed of the filth of the serpent at the giving of the Torah, but the filth returned to the sons during the sin of the Golden Calf. Rabbi Shalom Tzadok was the one who brought me close to entering the Yeshiva. Aaron was the reincarnation of Haran, who needed to practice mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) and not make the Calf, and then the Holy Temple of fire would have descended. King Abijah removed all the barriers that his father had placed to prevent people from making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and they used clever tactics. In the merit of this, he was privileged that Mashiach ben David would descend from him. Belshazzar made a great feast and drank a thousand measures of wine, and left through the secret exit. I read the story of Shlomo Gabbai—what a wondrous story, he returned in teshuvah (repentance) from the end of the world. There is a story for everyone; everyone is a story in themselves. These stories must be read. We recorded all the great elders of Breslov; an article should be written in "Nitzotzot" or "Hischadshus" (community publications) about this. So, Belshazzar arrived from the other side of the palace, and Cyrus and Darius killed him; he was in his death throes until morning, for "no kingdom touches its fellow by even a hairsbreadth." Cyrus and Darius killed all the Chaldeans. Vashti at first did not understand why her father was not there and Darius was in his place. This was the argument between Ahasuerus and Vashti: Ahasuerus claimed that in his merit he ruled over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, and she was called Vashti the Queen. But Vashti claimed it was in her merit, because Nebuchadnezzar walked four steps, and she is the queen—Vashti.