The Daily Chizzuk of our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a – “When it’s possible to live in Jerusalem, it’s forbidden to live in another place”
Sunday, 12 Adar 5783
These are his holy words:
“Zevul – Jerusalem on high is [located] in it” (Chaggigah 12b), because there is Jerusalem on high and Jerusalem below [on earth].
A person must live in Jerusalem. It’s forbidden to live in another place. When it’s possible to live in Jerusalem, it’s forbidden to live in another place. Like it’s forbidden to abandon the Land of Israel, it’s forbidden to abandon Jerusalem.
Everyone is obligated to be in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the Temple on high. You see the Temple eye-to-eye, enter the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies.
Coming to the shiur even in snow
There was Rabbi Hirsch Leib Leipel zt”l – his yahrzeit is on 23 Marcheshvan 5740 (1980). [Rabbi Hirsch Leib Leipel, born in Lodz, Poland to his father Rabbi Aharon Betzelel, from Chasidut Radomsk. In his youth, he saw his father sit and learn the Breslov book “Meshivat Nefesh” with his eyes flowing with tears. This led to Rabbi Hirsch Leib drawing close to the light of Rabbeinu Nachman of Breslov.]
What a Tzaddik! Such weeping! From Chatzot, from 12 at night until 4 in the morning in the midst of snow. I stand next to him. I was his assistant. [I] stand next to him, holding his case. Thick snow falls down until the knees. Rav Grossberg — who would give over a shiur — arrives and explains the meaning of “I rejoice over Your word like one who finds abundant spoils” (Tehilim 119:162).
He relates a true story about a woman who came to donate – the women are the greatest donators. She had $5,000, and she came to the Kotel to distribute it to Tzedaka, but no one was there. Snow came down on that day, so no one came. She came alone. The Kotel was empty.
So she began to but the money in Tzedaka boxes. At the Kotel there are some ten Tzedaka boxes. She put $100, another $100, and another $100. Suddenly, someone arrives and sees that the woman put a lot of money into the Tzedaka boxes.
She says to him, “It’s good that you came; I already put $2,500 in the Tzedaka boxes. I have another $2,500 left.” He was so aggrieved because of the 2,500 that he missed – if he had arrived five minutes earlier, he would have received everything.
If was a snowy day, snow until the knees. “I rejoice over Your word like one who finds abundant spoils,” but you could have learned more if you hadn’t remained at home in the snow. Behold, you came, you heard a shiur. You could have heard a shiur yesterday, and there was a shiur on Monday. Every day, there are four shiurim; every time saying still new insights.
So a man comes to the Kotel, and he sees a woman putting hundreds of dollars in Tzedaka boxes, and instead of rejoicing in what he received, he is aggrieved. I would have come five minutes earlier – five minutes like Shmuel HaNavi and Shaul [in I Shmuel 13, that Shaul was commanded to wait for the arrival of Shmuel in order bring an offering before going to war with the Philistines, but seeing that Shmuel didn’t arrive, he brought the offering without Shmuel, and Shmuel arrived as he finished bringing the offering. This was the beginning of the fall of Shaul’s monarchy]. Five minutes.
Shmuel said to Shaul, “Wait five minutes. What’s the problem to wait five minutes? Wait another two minutes. What’s the matter? You would have waited two minutes! Even if you brought the elevation offering,” because they wouldn’t go out to war without an elevation offering.
