The Daily Chizzuk from our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a – “One needs to shake off the impurity of childbirth”
Monday, 6 Adar 5783 – “What is true learning of the heart?”
These are his holy words:
People ask: We were in Uman, we were in such-and-such… Why is the evil inclination not weakened?
Because, “Behold, in iniquity was I fashioned, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Tehilim 51:7). A person is born through the evil inclination – now you need 120 years to fight the evil inclination.
“When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were terrified” (Bereishit 42:35), because the impurity of childbirth clings to the child for all its life. Therefore, he cannot learn, cannot pray, because the impurity clings to him.
A person needs to do teshuva (repentance) on the impurity of his birth. The Rebbe brings here in Torah 11 [of Likutey Moharan], that a person needs to do teshuva for his birth. “When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were terrified” – “saw,” because it is impossible to bring offspring without desire, but ones needs to shake this off fast, to cleanse this, to pray about this.
When he sees their bundles of money in their sacks, he needs to do teshuva for this, because through learning Torah, one needs to join the Kadosh Baruch Hu and the Shechina (Divine Presence).
The Rebbe says an awesome insight which I haven’t seen in any book in the world. When in the future world, our righteous Mashiach will arrive, whoever cannot learn will make seats, will make tables, will make…, and will distribute this for free. People will need to produce things, and everything they will distribute for free.
For everyone there will be enough food. It is written (Ketubot 111b), that one grape will be enough for a hundred years. With one grape, there will be wine for a person for all the years.
About Zevulun it is written, “Rejoice, Zevulun, in your excursions” (Devarim 33:18). Why “rejoice”? Because Zevulun gets people to do teshuva!
The only one of whom it is written “rejoice” is Zevulun. About others it is written “Yissachar is a strong-boned donkey; he rests between the boundaries” (Bereishit 49:14)< “Naftali is a hind let loose (ibid 21), but it is not written about them “rejoice.” About Zevulun, it is written, “Rejoice Zevulun.” Why?
Because “Nations will assemble at the mount” (Devarim 33:19), because through the Torah learning of Zevulun, everyone does teshuva – he doesn’t learn Torah for himself.
In the future world, a person will bring one grape, place it in the corner, and he has it for a hundred years. They take the grape to outside Israel, and all the nations see that the Jewish people are learning Torah and are blessed. There are no institutes, no universities. They’re not needed. They learn Torah.
The Rebbe said that learning of the heart is learning Gemara.
You want heart? The Gemara develops the mind! You want to develop the mind – learn Gemara. Learn sugyiot. Learn Ketzot HaChoshen – this is the real heart. Then everything develops. Then “wheat is destined to grow up straight as a palm tree” (Ketubot 111b). Who can climb to a height of 50 meters? A wind will come, the wind will blow and the wheat will fall, the seeds will fall, the grains will fall.
You need to know that the moment that we learn Torah, learn Torah only in depth, the Rebbe explains in Likutey Moharan Torah 101, that only learning in depth breaks the evil inclination. The Rebbe brings in the lesson that people ask: “The evil inclination still hasn’t been broken; the evil inclination doesn’t flee, but we were in Uman?!”
We were in Uman – then we receive the intellect to learn in depth!!
“There are dark faces” – that they learn without understanding, and there are “shining faces” when learning in depth. “Anyone who accepts onto himself the yoke of Torah” (Avot 3:5). What is “the yoke of Torah”? The Rebbe says that this is when learning in depth!
The Rebbe repeats this three times, that accepting onto oneself the yoke of Torah is learning in depth – then you are called “adam” (a man/person). Only when a person learns in depth he is called “adam.” Without depth, he is an animal, not a person.
You are called “adam.” Even non-Jews learn Gemara. They don’t learn in depth. They just learn the give-and-take. The non-Jews reached this [conclusion] that the Gemara is the deepest intellect. In a little while, they will require in all universities to learn Gemara every day for several hours – because this is the only thing which develops the intellect. Without learning Gemara in depth, the intellect collapses.
“Shining faces” – the true intellect is only Gemara.
