Iran’s nuclear weapons are not the real problem
Translated excerpt of a shiur given by Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, after counting the Omer, Day 37
Guarding the eyes, kedushat habrit (guarding the holiness of the brit mila), gevurah she b’yesod[1], the gematria of yechida – 37.
Today, we’re receiving the strength to get to grips with our yetzer hara. This is the whole war that each person has [to face]. It’s not against Iran’s atomic bomb, even if they throw 10 nukes at us, a million nukes.
Quite the opposite; we have a machsan (warehouse /storage room) here at Shuvu Banim – we prepared a [spiritual] machsan here for all the nukes that they’re going to throw [at us]. This is not the problem. They [the Mossad] also found documents that show that the Iranians have a nuclear weapon. No-one is excited about this, except Israel.
[The nations of the world say] “So what, that they have a nuclear bomb? Whatever Hitler didn’t manage to finish, so [Iran] will succeed.” Everyone is angry at Hitler, mamash they are angry with him and they won’t forgive him, that he didn’t manage to destroy the Jews.
So now, someone else comes along and is making a nuclear bomb – so Baruch Hashem! [The nations of the world say to him] yasher koach! And all those documents [that Israel located in Iran]? They’re laughing at them. They say, so what? So what if we drop a nuclear bomb on you? So what’s going to happen?!
Wear a helmet, wear what Shuvu Banim wears, we’ll make (a kippah) like “NaNachNachman”, [only] it will say “Shuvu Banim” – שובו בנים נגד אטום – “SHUVU BANIM [PROTECTS] AGAINST THE NUCLEAR [BOMB]” .
So, the problem is not the nuke, the problem is the yetzer hara. It’s only because there’s a yetzer hara that there is a nuclear bomb. So we need to cry out, oy, woe. Everyone needs to cry out.
[1] Each day of the Omer is linked to a different kabbalistic attribute. Day 37 is linked to gevurah she b’yesod, or ‘courage / strength / judgment within the foundation’.
