Kindness is everything
Another excerpt from the shiur given by Rabbi Eliezer Berland, shlita, on the 5th of Shvat, 5780.
You can see part 1 HERE.
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When a person comes to the world, when he comes to the world two groups of four angels also descend with him [one from the side of ‘good’ and one from the side of the Sitra Achra].
Each angel is really millions of angels, and these are the difficult ‘birth pangs’,
Who is going to succeed in the fight with the angels of the Sitra Achra?
And they grab hold of the child, and lead him over to their side.
Either, he comes every day [to pray] at 3am, or 4am, or 5am, because he’s a ‘prisoner’ of the angels of kedusha, or…
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So, with each child that comes here to the olam (prayer hall), there’s a world war, a terrible war.
Four angels descend with him, one represents Avraham; one brings with him the merits of Avraham. Another one brings the merits of Yitzhak, another one brings the merits of Yaacov, and another brings the merits of Adam HaRishon.
Raphael is Adam HaRishon.
And if the mother prays, and the father prays, and throughout all the birth pangs they pray, that the angels of kedusha will win over the angels of the Sitra Achra, then they will merit that this child will go in the pathways of kedusha (holiness) all of his life. And that he’ll be drawn towards kedusha, where the kedusha is.
And if not, then the four others will ‘win’, i.e. the angels of sabotage, sin, corruption and fury – and the yetzer hara rules over all of them.
And the yetzer hara is happy that they will win the war, he’s totally happy, all of him…
If a person wants to make the yetzer hara happy, it’s written ‘make happy’ – so who thinks that this is going to make the yetzer hara happy.
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On top of this, we said: A rasha, his yetzer hara rules over him.
Why does the yetzer hara rule over him? Because the moment that he was born, he was surrounded by the four angels of the Sitra Achra, and they drag him to their direction. And he doesn’t have the strength to resist, he believes them, he’s temim (innocent, simple).
And a tzaddik has the merit that the parents prayed at the time of the birth, that only the angels of kedusha will win. That the angels of kedusha will accompany him all of his life… But there are those that have the two groups [of angels], the two groups.
[The Rav appears to say that this person is judged as ‘benoni’, in between.]
A person is made from fire. Fire is Gavriel, water is Michael, and dust is Nuriel. Nuriel is Yaakov, this is dust. Raphael is Adam HaRishon, who represents the lion on the merkava (holy chariot).
And if the holy angels win, then [the child] is all of his life like a lion, like the lion on the merkava, all of him is chassidim (kindness and / or chassidut).
Because the whole ikker (point) is chesed (kindness).
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Eliezer said: The first thing, I’m going to check her, to see if she’s going to do kindnesses.
If he asks her for a cup of water, then she’s going to bring him two cups. If he says to her give me to drink, then she’ll reply, also for the camels.
When someone asks a person for something, he needs to say: Maybe, you want more? Maybe, you want more to drink? Maybe, I can bring something more for you?
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Always, think how you can add more on for them, because a person is embarrassed to ask.
He says: I’m going to ask her for a little bit of water, and if she brings it, it’s a sign that she’s a kosher woman, a tzaddeket, that the angels of kedusha are ruling over her.
And this is why Avraham sent for her, because Eliezer didn’t understand why they didn’t just take his daughter. Because his daughter was born with the angels of the Sitra Achra. She was even more cursed, when she was born.
True, that today she’s already a baalat teshuva (a Jew who returned to religious observance), but in the end, she’ll fall. She’s not going to last the course.
But Rivka was born in kedusha, she can last the distance.
Eliezer didn’t know about all these rules, so he had terrible kooshiot (difficulties / questions) about Avraham Avinu.
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So, if a person merits to do chesed, that he merits to do kindnesses, then the angel who is a lion rules over him, because the lion is chesed. The lion comes from rachem (mercy), the lion is rachem.
Even Bar Kochva, Bar Kochva who had mercy on the lion, so the lion rescued him when they put him inside the menagerie, inside the stadium, inside the cage with the lion.
Then, the lion hinted to him that he should ride on him, and he got out of the cage and ran over everyone else. Because one time, he did a kindness for this lion, and if a person does a kindness even for a lion, that lion with save him.
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The first thing, it’s chessed.
If the parents do a lot of kindnesses, then it will come out that the child will be ruled by the angels of kedusha, and he’ll be pulled towards kedusha.
So the lion, who is Michael, who is the angel of chessed; and after this comes Gavriel, who is gevura (might / strictness), to get a grip on the (might / strictness), to get a grip on the yetzer hara; and after this Nuriel; and Raphael.
And then he can revive the dead, if he merits to have Raphael join with him.
Then he will merit to techiyat hameitim (the revival of the dead.)
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Translated from the Shivivei Or Newsletter #194.
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