The holy words of our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a, given over after the Maariv prayer on Wednesday, 3 Shevat 5782 (January 5, 2022)
“Serach bat Asher – everyone should call their daughter Serach! The Horowitz family – all of them are children of Serach, who was the greatest Tzadika in the generation.
“Why are we talking about Serach? Everyone had sisters, everyone had daughters. Everyone had 20 daughters. Tzelafchad [had] 5 daughters and sisters. There is an opinion that they only married sisters, because it was impossible to marry the Canaanite women — they were all blemished, they were all already corrupted. Like Eliezer, who said to Avraham, ‘Where are you sending me? To a place where they’re all already corrupted, all of them blemished?! All of them sinned. There, all of them perform sins.’
“[Avraham] said, ‘My angel! An angel will come and be revealed to you.’ Because with a righteous woman, an angel goes to every place. An angel works out the match, so that a person finds their true match, to find the right match, the true soulmate — ‘From Hashem, the matter emerged.’
“Lavan was extremely wicked. He was here before; I sent him away. He is extremely wicked. The Ari, when Rav Moshe Alshich said his novellae, then the Ari saw Lavan mamash. Lavan gestured with his head, ‘yes, yes, right, right,’ because [the Alshich spoke of the deceptiveness of Lavan, who deceived Yaakov and ‘switched my salary ten times’] – this is a million [times]! A hundred times a hundred times a hundred is a million. Every two and a half minutes he switched the conditions on him.
“Now Akudim, now Brudim, now Nekudim, now the Star of David…now pentagonal, now hexagonal. Every two and a half minutes, he switched the conditions, and all of them were born according to the new conditions. He already saw in the womb that they already had received the right star, the right sign. Then immediately he said, ‘I don’t want another condition!’ Yaakov answered him, ‘What do you want? As far as I’m concerned, whatever condition you want. I don’t care.’ Then Yaakov saw the angels ascending on the flock ‘Akudim, Nekudim, and Berudim,’ because Yaakov merited to the world of Akudim, where everything is switched in a second!
“Akudim is the source of the Nekudot. Nekudim exit from the eyes, Akudim exit from the ears – ‘ears, nose, mouth’ opposite the mouth. Then Yaakov merited to Akudim. Then every moment, everything is switched, the signs are switched. Every second! A million times in six years is [every] two and a half minutes! Because you need to multiple 1440 [minutes in a day] by 365 days by 6 years, and afterwards divide it by 1,000,000. It comes out to two and a half minutes.
“Every two and a half minutes, Lavan switched the signs. Stars like these, a white gartel (a prayer belt) in the middle… All are reincarnations of the lambs!…Moshe had a black gartel. There is a green gartel… The sheep had gartelach. All of them went with gartelach… Every moment he says to him another gartel, another sign. So a million times he switched the signs.
“Like the great removal… By us, the calendar is exact to the second, chalakim! 2 minutes and 15 chalakim, but they don’t know how to make a calendar [the Rav laughs]. Then they had a discrepancy of 11 minutes per year, because of the counsel of Julius Caesar who made the calendar in the year 44 before 0. In 1600 they saw a discrepancy of 12 days in the winter. If you take 1600 years times 11 minutes, it’s 17,600 minutes, divided by 1441. Everyone see to divide it on all the computers. On the clock it comes out 12.2 [days].
“Then they chose the Yahrzeit of Rabbeinu. The gentiles already knew that this was sanctified even before Rabbeinu was born! Then on the Yahrzeit of Rabbeinu, we’ll move the clock from the 4th to the 15th. The 4th of October jumped 11 days. Until all the nations accepted this was only 100 years ago. Not every nation agreed to this. Only the Russian church and Vatican accepted this. The other churches didn’t agree to this change. Little by little, they all accepted the new calendar.
“Therefore, tomorrow is the [yahrzeit] of the Sfat Emet. There is a book ‘Shema Yisrael,’ that they said they would evacuate the ghetto, because they were in retreat. From 2 Shevat, they already knew that the Germans would suffer defeat, because it was a mistake that they went to conquer Stalingrad. This was a big mistake. Everyone was against Hitler, may his name be erased, but he said, ‘I will try and conquer Stalingrad’… they didn’t conquer it. The Red Star [the Soviets] found Paulus [the leader of the German forces], a Jew uncovered him…and then they took him and then… He [Hitler] said I’ll make you [Paulus] into the greatest officer in the world. He [Hitler really] wanted him to commit suicide [and to not surrender]. He [Paulus] said I won’t commit suicide for this wicked one. I’m not prepared to commit suicide! He wasn’t prepared, [so he surrendered]. What is there to do.
“Then Stalingrad fell, and the Jews… There is a book ‘Lech Lecha B’ni,’ Yeshivat Lomza. You flee from here and stay alive. I’m with the children, I have nowhere to flee. The heroic ones were those who went with the children to the ovens. Now, in Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta’ot, Mordei HaGetaot near Nahariya. They said, ‘We are the heroines, that we went with the partisans in forests. The heroines were those who didn’t abandon the infants and walked with them into the ovens. They were the true heroines in whose merit we are living now.
“This is Serach bat Asher who was a true heroine, that the Torah mentions her out of all the daughters and granddaughters of Yaakov, that every tribe had holy sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, and even so the Torah mentions Serach bat Asher who was prepared to die. No one agreed to relate that Yosef was alive. Whoever would tell that Yosef was alive would die on the spot.
“Therefore, it’s written in the Ba’al HaTurim, ‘Blessed among sons is Asher’ – that Asher was in excommunication. They said, ‘How does she know? From where does she know, since she wasn’t in Egypt. She didn’t meet Yosef.’ When the brothers returned, they didn’t reveal to anyone that they revealed Yosef. They didn’t reveal this – it’s forbidden to reveal it!. Selling a brother [is something you] don’t reveal. After 22 years, reveal it?! ‘I said he must have been devoured.’ Certainly he was ‘devoured.’ You took a trip to Dotan, you lose for me a child. You take a trip to Egypt, you lose for me a child [because Yosef kept Shimon imprisoned there]. He didn’t know that he immediately released him.
“Because Shimon was the most zealous of all. Therefore, Levi merited to Moshe and Aharon, and Shimon cut off Amalek. He stands on Har Gerizim. Because Shimon was the second child, born in such holiness that he couldn’t stand any sin, any blemish. He said, ‘They performed a sin like this – I’ll kill the entire city. A child thirteen and a half years old eliminates an entire city. Levi was thirteen years old – a half-year difference.
“So an entire city! Yaakov says there’s no such law! They said to him, ‘We go according to the Rambam. Today, everyone goes according to the Rambam. The Rebbe said that in the future, the law is according to the Rambam. He says that if they perform a sin in the city and the city doesn’t protest, then we need [to eliminate] the entire city – to eliminate without exception. Like a whole tribe, Binyamin, had some sin, a repulsive, abominable deed [the pilegesh of Givah]. They killed the entire tribe. They didn’t leave anyone – not babies, nothing. 600 fled, amongst them Shaul. ‘Son of a twisted, rebellious woman.’ He says to Yehonatan, ‘Who are you? You don’t know who you are at all. I know who you are. “Son of a twisted, rebellious woman.” Why do you go after Ben Yishai?!’ But he is the true Tzaddik.
“He didn’t bring a slice of bread. Always bring a slice of bread, so what happened to Yehonatan won’t happen to you. Then ravenous hunger gripped David for three days. He hadn’t eaten! Bring one slice; this is enough. He left him in the field for three days and forgot to bring him a slice of bread. If he had brought a slice of bread, the Temple wouldn’t have been destroyed and all the tragedies [wouldn’t have happened]. Therefore, he was liable to death. Yehonatan didn’t bring him a slice of bread. Then [David] went to eat bread of holies. He came to Nov, the city of Kohanim.
“Go into Beit Achsa, to Beit Hananya. Why do you go into Nov? This is a city of Jews. They’ll slaughter you. Arabs are good, merciful. If you entered a city of Arabs, they would have given you pita, falafel for free. Why did you enter Nov? What do you have with Nov? There is the sword of Goliath. How did you get to Nov? Then David became liable to death [because Doeg, under Shaul’s orders, killed the entire city of Nov who helped David]. Hashem asked him, ‘Did you want your children to die?’ He said, ‘No. My children won’t die under any circumstance. No, I’m prepared to die.’
“You’re prepared to die? Then he got up onto the mule. It dragged him off to Gaza, to Ashkelon. There Yishbi-B’Nov [the giant] captured him. There are two Nov’s: one near Jerusalem and one in the Golan – there then was Yishbi-B’Nov. This isn’t in Gaza, not in the land of the Philistines. Rather, everything is because of the sin of Nov. He took the beam from the olive press which they crush the olives with, and he wanted to crush him [David], to make shawarma out of him, but he wasn’t crushed. Crushes, crushes, but he isn’t crushed.
“Then he lifted up the beam. He saw that there was an impression in the bottom beam and he entered the impression. Now he threw him 100 meters! This is ten seconds on a second. This is ten meters, 100 meters – this is exactly ten seconds [not clear]. David has ten seconds to live. Then Avishai bathed in honor of Shabbat Kodesh in a tub, like the house of Israel bathe in tubs, in basins. There weren’t showers. Perhaps one shower for twenty men. Then they would bathe in basins. They would take a vessel and pour out. So it was until they made showers for everyone. In the meantime, there were basins. So he bathed in a tub. Suddenly, he sees that the tub fills up with blood, and sees an eagle devour a dove. He said, ‘A dove—this is the congregation of Israel.’ [Then he flew off and saved David].
“The dove of Noach. ‘You anticipate him with blessings of good’ [initial letters of verse=Tevet], because Tevet is the hidden light—the month of Tevet. We’re already in Shevat – this is niggunim [melodies]. All the niggunim in the world are revealed in the month of Shevat. Now, this is the month of niggun and song. The almond tree blossoms on Tu B’Shevat. Then everything sings the song of the almond tree. Then songs in honor of the almond tree and the saplings of Tu B’Shevat are composed. Tu B’Shevat is Rosh Hashanah and the law is like Beit Shamai, that it is 1 Shevat.
“Now, the month of Tevat is the month of good. ‘Behold, a place with Me’ – this is the cleft of the rock. The month of Tevet is the cleft of the rock – this is the hidden light. This is only with learning Gemara, that a person only finds the light through learning Gemara. In the month of Tevet, one needs to finish the entire Shas, and whoever didn’t finish, should finish in Shevat. Until Tu B’Shevat, we must finish all of Shas. So, each person now, from 9:30 pm until 5:30 am, needs to finish all of Shas. Eight hours is enough. There’s no yeshivot now, there’s nothing. So a person needs to go home, eat dinner in five minutes, and learn until 5:30. Afterwards, pray, and then one can sleep a few hours.
“So a person needs to know that in eight hours we are already beginning vatikin [the dawn minyan], and it’s written ‘Ma’ale Akrabim’ [Scorpion Ascents], in Parashat Maasey, is the border of Israel. ‘Ma’ale Akrabim – we learn from this that it’s possible to bring the first fruits from there. Except that this is a desert, because the fruits are emaciated, the fruits are sun-dried, but travel once to Eilat – the bends are Ma’ale Akrabim. The Streams of Arnon – see the place where everyone was squashed, were made into pizzas. Once there were also pizzas. The mountains made pizzas out of the Emorites, the Canaanites. They crushed them. Made from them pizzas for Melaveh Malkah. Rashi says that all of them turned into pitas in the Streams of Arnon.
“And now we are talking about Serach bat Asher, that she has no body – she entered with her body into the Garden of Eden. The Rebbe says that it’s impossible to attain anything except through learning Shas, because in Breslov, many error, thinking that it’s dancing, that it’s ‘I was in Uman, I merited.’ [In Uman], they don’t pray, don’t learn anything. All the time lying in bed, several weeks, months, not moving from the bed. Then this is also something, strolling in the Aravot, in the Shechakim – there are seven firmaments to stroll in. So a person in seven hours strolls in all the firmaments. In the eighth hour, he’s already above the seven firmaments. After the Aravot, there’s also firmaments higher and higher. So the wife arrives at 4 pm. She already gets up at 5 am, dresses the children, sends them to Cheder, and he is still sleeping, sleeping, strolling in the Garden of Eden.
“The Pri Tzaddik asks, ‘From where did they know [the scent of?] the Garden of Eden?’ It’s written that the Shunamit, everyone would go there. Anyone who would go there would immediately be taken account of [that they would have children]. Next to Nahalal there is Kfar Shunem. Until today, already 3,000 years, Shunem, Arabs live there. Now people cleaned it. [People] say the Tikkun HaKlali and immediately are saved. Whoever reaches Shunem is saved on the spot with a son, with everything. The house of the Shunamit is a segulah [preternatural remedy] for all the salvations in the world. They put there a Shas, everything.
“So the Shunamit would smell the scent of the Garden of Eden. It’s written, ‘How did she know what was the scent of the Garden of Eden? Maybe it’s spices?’ Then this is a sign that every night she would ascend to the Garden of Eden. It’s written in the Pri Tzaddik, Parashat Beshelach, Rabbi Tzadok of Lublin, that this that she smelled the scent of the Garden of Eden, that she said to her husband that he [Elisha] has the scent of the Garden of Eden, is a sign that she would ascend every night to the Garden of Eden. In sleep a person can stroll in the Garden of Eden, and women would once stroll in the Garden of Eden in their sleep, stroll in the heavens, see the name Havaya in front of their eyes, fly off to the Holy Temple and return, because everything is to fly to Jerusalem.
“Anyone who lives in the Galilee, in Tzippori, in Metula would fly off to Jerusalem, from Meron to Jerusalem. It’s written, ‘He fenced me in; I won’t go out.’ This is a chapter in Eicha, that they would fly off to Jerusalem. And Serach bat Asher was a prophetess. How do she know that Yosef was alive? Behold, she wasn’t in Egypt. This is a sign that she was a prophetess.
“May we merit to a complete redemption speedily in our days, Amen.”
