The Secret of the Libation Offerings – Daily Ma’amar of R’ Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

June 15, 2023

The Daily Ma’amar of our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a, from 19 Sivan 5783, courtesy of the “Hashem Hu HaElokim” leaflet:

Song is not sung except over wine – and a half-hin for one ox, and a third-hin for a ram, and a quarter-hin for one lamb – wine for its libation offering.

Rabbi Natan explains (Likutey Halachot): That why are the libation offerings mentioned after the portion about the spies – in order to reveal to us that if the spies had chanted and sung throughout their journey, like the cows sang on their way from the land of the Philistines to Beit Shemesh, they would not have sinned! Because the singing would have shielded them so they would not dispute Moshe!

Like Yeshayahu the prophet said to King Chizkiya: “Sing to Hashem” – Sing song! You saw such miracles and wonders that had never been before and never will be, like Hillel said (Sanhedrin 98b), that “There will be no Mashiach for the Jewish people because they already enjoined [the years of the Mashiach] in the time of Chizkiya” – which is to say that such open miracles and wonders like there were in the days of Chizkiya already will never be [again], that an angel of Hashem – the angel Gabriel — went out at midnight, and struck the Assyrian camp which numbered 260 thousand myriads, which is 2,600,000,000 men, minus one, in order that you should know that the number was exact.

Also on that day, Yeshayahu the prophet said to King Chizkiya: “Instruct your household, for you shall die; and you shall not live.” And Chikiyahu answered him: “Ben Amotz – Finish your prophecy and leave, for such I received from my father’s house: Even if a sharpened sword is resting on a person’s neck, do not give up on Heavenly mercy!

And then he said the prayer: “I waited until morning – as [if it] were a lion, so [my sickness] would shatter all my bones; from morning to night You will put an end to me. Like a swallow and a crane, so do I chirp; I moan like a pigeon. My eyes were raised on high: ‘My Lord, snatch away my [illness], be my surety.’ What can I say? He said to me [that He would heal me] and He did! All my sleep had left me because of my soul’s bitterness! My Lord, about them [You said], ‘They shall live’; and therein is the life of my spirit, may You heal me and cure me. Behold, [my longing] for peace, bitterness intensified against me. But You desired that my soul not waste away in the netherworld, for You have cast all my sins behind Yourself. For the grave cannot thank You nor can death laud You; those who descend to the pit cannot hope for Your truth. A living person, a living person, he shall thank You, as I do today! A father can make Your truth known to his children. Hashem [said] He would save me; let us play my songs all the days of our lives, in the Temple of Hashem.”

“Yeshayahu said, ‘Let them lift a cake of figs and smear it on the abscess, and it will heal.’” And the moment that Chizkiyahu began with melodies, songs, and praises, immediately he was healed from his illness, about which Yeshayahu prophesized that he would not emerge.

And immediately, an angel of Hashem went out – Gabriel, and struck the Assyrian camp, and also blew on them and they passed, and took out their souls — all of them — at once. And then Chizkiyahu married the daughter of Yeshayahu, by the name of “Cheftzi-bah,” and the sun moved backwards, and fifteen years were added to his [life], and there was salvation [Yeshaya 38].