The holy words of our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a about Operation Iron Swords, as given on the night of 26 Tishrei after Ma’ariv.
Note from the transcriber: The words went through a bit of editing for ease of reading, and certainly if there is any error, it is because of the writer and not because of the Rav shlit”a
These are the Rav’s holy words:
Every parent needs to watch his child — this is before everything, before Ma’ariv, before prayer. Every parent, instead of praying, should watch his child — this is before everything.
Now, we are entering Lebanon; all the soldiers are in terrible danger.
Everyone here has brothers, sisters, cousins, grandfathers, grandmothers, that all of them are being called up to the army right now. And everyone needs to see to finishing three books of Tehilim every day. The situation is only getting worse, and every girl should see to not shorten her dress! Every centimeter that she shortens it, a troop is killed. Every sleeve that she rolls up, another soldier is killed. Every see-through garment — a whole battalion is killed. Our body is a body of the serpent. This is not the body that Hashem created us with: “And Hashem God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin” (Bereishit 3:21). Hashem took the skin of the serpent and dressed with it Adam and Chava. Every boy and every girl, all the sensations that one has, all the feelings, all the senses are the senses of the serpent! Everything that a girl feels are the senses of the serpent. This does not come from the true body. We will receive the true body only at the revival of the dead. Until the revival of the dead, everyone needs to cover his body with all coverings, to make it stand out as little as possible. Because he makes the serpent stand out. He is not making the body stand out; he is found in the body of the serpent. Every boy and every girl needs to burn their clothes. And it is forbidden for boys to walk with shorts — in no way! Every garment, all shorts — more soldiers are killed.
Now they are beginning to enter Gaza. We do not know [what will be], Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world. Narrow alleys a meter wide. We do not know how the soldiers will enter and leave safely. They are preparing for thousands of killed, and this is only dependent on girls, that they will go with greater modesty and long dresses, sleeves, and not see-through clothes, and not tight-fitting clothes. Because it is forbidden to make the body stand out; this is the body of the serpent. This is not the body with which Hashem created us. This is after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge: “And Hashem God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin.” He gave to them the skin of the serpent, and we need 120 years to deal with the skin of the serpent! From the day that a person is born until he passes away — after 120, he needs to deal with the body of the serpent!
And now, entire Kibbutzim have been wiped out — simply wiped out. Kibbutz Be’eri was completely wiped out. Every house has ten dead. They still have not counted all the dead. Every house has a grandpa and grandma, father and mother, five children, six children — this is exactly ten people. Every house, hundreds of houses, all of them are full of the dead. The terrorists entered and left.
There is no government. At this moment, it is made up of the secular, so there is no protection, no army in the south, no soldiers in the south. All the soldiers — the lone soldiers [that there were] were killed. No trace remains of them. The government abandoned all the Jewish people. This is a government for Arabs; this is a government which only defends the Arabs. Even the gentiles have already regained their normality, understood that it is not the Jews who are the murderers, but the Arabs. Until now, they said that the Jews are the murderers. Biden said that the Jews are the murderers. Now he turned an about-face and said that he will protect the Jews down to the last drop of his blood. However, this is only from the lips and outward. Tomorrow, every will be the opposite. It is only modesty and Tehilim [that can save us].
That every boy is obligated to finish three books of Tehilim every day until the conclusion of the war! From the age of seven, this is not a problem… instead of throwing rocks, playing with nonsense with all types of… don’t look at the internet! Don’t look at iphones! Everyone should break his iphone! All the horrible pictures are the bodies of the serpent. These are bodies of immodesty — this brings about all the tragedies, this whole great tragedy.
Because masses of people did not fast on Yom Kippur. So they thought that Yom Kippur is just something that someone invented. They did not know that it is literally: “Who will live, who will die, who in his time and who not in his time, who will have peace and who will be devoured”! 130 captives — they do no know if they will cut them into little pieces. Every second is a danger to life. Captivity is worse than death! Worse!!
It is only that girls should go with the highest level of holiness, the highest level of modesty. And every girl needs to finish the book of Tehilim every day, until the end of the war. And boys should finish three books of Tehilim, and also nine pages of Gemara — ten pages of Gemara over a course of twelve hours from eight until eight. It is forbidden to arise later than six! 6:35 — 6:37 today is already sunrise. At seven already, eat breakfast and begin to learn. Today, we began Ma’ariv at nine — this is thirteen hours, fourteen hours that it is possible to learn ten dafim [folios] easily. All the dafim are simple words — they are simple halachot.
Like the Gemara says “Elu Mitziot — These are the finds.” At the end, the Gemara says that it is not talking about finds at all. Who invented this? Someone invented this, maybe Shuvu Banim invented this… “These are the finds.” A simple man who lives in Komemiyut: he finished prayer at sunrise, he went [to the field to work until sundown]. In the summer, [sundown] is 7:53. It is 7:50 and they announce on two-way radio that everyone is to come. Some twenty people come with paper kepas. The tractors travel in five minutes five kilometers. Everyone comes together, prays, learns Daf Yomi, everything in the field — completely secular Jews — and Ma’ariv. Now he will gather the tomatoes, the eggplants, the zucchinis which remain for him… He says, “Yalla, this is tomorrow,” tomorrow he will already abandon this. This is not a “mitziah — find.” This is not dealing with a mitziah at all. People don’t even understand what they are learning. They read the Gemara and do not understand — that the Gemara turns everything upside down. The Gemara turns over everything, over and over and over and over and over! A person needs to understand what he is reading; if not, then [it is like] he is just reading Likutey Tefilot — this is not Gemara! Gemara is to turn over the intellect every moment! The Gemara turns over every Mishnah — “Turn it over and turn it over, because everything is in it” (Avot 5:22). Every law is turned over a thousand times; from all directions, it is clarified.
The laws of Shabbat — now on Motza’ei Shabbat, it will already be Rosh Chodesh. You need to learn the laws of Mota’ei Shabbat, that it is forbidden to eat a Kazait after sunset. Everyone needs to see to it that at 5:30 there will already be Minchah. Then at six, we do Netilat Yadaim; until 6:15, we need to finish the first Kazait. It is possible to eat other things, but not a Kazait. After this we enter into a doubt about berachot of “Ya’aleh V’Yavo.” And one who eats a Kazait after sunset, he also needs to say “Ya’aleh V’Yavo,” like the Taz poskens. A person needs to know all the laws, to know all the Mishnah Berurah from memory. One needs to learn Mishnah Berurah for an hour every day. It is possible to finish ten Dafim of Gemara, an hour of Mishnah Berurah, and three books of Tehilim.
Now it is “a time of distress for Ya’akov” (Yirmiyahu 30:7). People are going to defend the homeland, to defend the Jewish people. They are handing over their lives. They do not know if they will return in peace. Therefore, each boy needs to finish three books of Tehilim, and every girl should finish the book of Tehilim at the minimum. If she finishes three books of Tehilim, this is all the better!
Like the girls did in Johannesburg. Every day I received all the notes of all the girls. There were girls who finished three books, four books in a day, five books in a day — and in this way, the Rav was released. Otherwise, the Rav would have remained in Johannesburg forever. In the merit of the girls who said Tehilim for the Rav, and every day handed over the notes; every girl passed on notes about how many books of Tehilim she said. There were those who said three, said four, said five. I remember the notes until today. That all the girls who were there in Johannesburg saved the Rav with their Tehilim. They did not stop saying Tehilim until the Rav was freed completely, arrived in the Land of Israel in peace.
So everything is dependent upon the prayers of the women, everything is dependent on the prayers of the women. In the merit of the righteous women, we left Egypt; and in the merit of the righteous women, there will the complete redemption speedily in our days, Amen!
