“Wander the world to bring lost Jews back to Hashem” - Parshas Vayishlach by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

“Wander the world to

bring lost Jews back to Hashem”

Parshas Vayishlach

Transcribed and translated from previous recordings of

HaRav Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

“Yaakov arrived safely at the city of Shechem” (33:18(

      In Torah 27, Rabbi Nachman explains the pasuk “Yaakov arrived safely at Shechem,” which is a concept of “worshipping Him with a Shechem Echad, a united resolve” (Tezfania 3:9). This is awakened through Shalom, peace, and comes through the aspect of Yaakov, who is he’aras panim, the radiant countenance.

   When Yaakov arrived at the city of Shechem, where the worst murderers resided, he came with he’aras panim, with such a shining face that there was an immediate awakening in the town. Everyone wanted to make teshuva—to keep Shabbos, to throw away all their idols, to stop their running after money, and to start serving Hashem. Yaakov Avinu already made them Shabbos boundaries, fixed a currency, and established bathhouses. Everything that he told them to do was holy in their eyes, and this is what Rabbi Nachman explains, “That when he [Yaakov] came, he established faith.” “Fixing a currency” means that he fixed the desire for money. And when he fixed the desire for money, the flaw of idolatry was fixed. And this is the meaning of “he made bathhouses for them,” as it is written, “And the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe” which Chazal explain (Megillah 13, Sotah 12) as cleansing herself from the idolatry of her father’s home (Likutei Moharan 23). The Ramban explains that this is what was bothering Yaakov when he said to Shimon and Levi, [in killing the people of Shechem] “you have achartem/embarrassed me” (34:30). In truth, the inhabitants of Shechem were ready to make complete teshuva--they had started making teshuva--and they saw Yaakov and his sons as angels, like heavenly beings. All the people of Shechem nullified themselves before them. It pained Yaakov because they had already accepted upon themselves the Shabbos boundaries and that they had already established a currency, which means that they already had started breaking their desire for money. And they had established bathhouses, meaning that they had started to distance themselves from idolatry. “You have achartem/embarrassed me” - I wanted to bring everyone back in teshuva. By wiping out the city, you have destroyed everything I wanted to do, all my hopes.

All the hope of the redemption depends on converting the whole world, of bringing the whole world back in teshuva. This is the ultimate embarrassment! Any generation that doesn’t bring the whole world back in teshuva is as if they themselves caused them to sin! The greatest thing is to bring people back in teshuva. The Rebbe wanted people to go all over the country, all over the world, and to bring people back in teshuva, as is written in the holy Zohar, “Fortunate is the person who takes wrongdoers by the hand…” The holy Zohar says that whoever brings people back in teshuva has no gate closed before him. All the doors are open for him. All the paths are open to him. He is given all the keys—a person who goes out and works to bring people back in teshuva—this is the greatest honor for Hashem, He is glorified in all the worlds, “See what a person I have here, one who goes out and brings people back in teshuva.”

   Truly, the greatest thing is to bring people back in teshuva, but how does one do this?  How does one merit this? Only if a person has hadras panim, a majestic countenance, will he have panim me’irot, a shining face and then he will have a holy face so that just looking at his face will cause people to return in teshuva. On the gravestone of Rebbe Aharon from Karlin, it is written that 80,000 people made teshuva because of him. How did they make teshuva? Did he go and give classes and lectures? What happened was is that people saw his shining face, his hadras panim, and everyone returned in teshuva. To merit to hadras panim, to he’aras panim, Rabbeinu says in Torah 27, is only through learning the holy Gemara, because you can’t get people to make teshuva if you have no intelligence, if you have no understanding. A person needs to have great intelligence, just as the Rebbe said, “I wanted that you would have such intelligence that there hasn’t been for several generations already.” Why shouldn’t we take the Rebbe’s advice and do what he wanted us to do? Let’s do what the Rebbe wanted. The Rebbe didn’t want us to run around aimlessly, dancing around for no reason. The moment that a person learns Gemara and poskim, he receives such a light that he will have the 360,000 holy lights (nehorin). Everyone will run after him, everyone will abandon all their heretical thoughts. All their questions will be answered. And he will come with such a light, such a he’aras panim, emitting such rays of light—“the wisdom of the man enlightens his face.” People see such a light, such wealth, such joy on the face and they return in teshuva. What do people want? People want to be happy—that’s what they want—and the minute that they see that true joy is found by someone who learns Torah, who learns poskim, and whose face is shining like the sun, then everyone returns in teshuva.

   The main point of learning Torah is in order to teach it to others, as it is written [in the blessings before Shema], “put it in to our hearts…to learn and to teach.” Once a person is knowledgeable in Torah, he is obligated to teach it to others. The Torah that a person learns is measured according to how much chesed and how much mesirus nefesh he is prepared to give in order to teach others. After a person learns eight or ten hours, he must show that he has the strength, the light, the influence, to bring people back in teshuva. This is the primary action that comes from learning. Each person can bring thousands and thousands of people back in teshuva. A group of 100 people can bring a thousand back in teshuva, and within a few years all of Am Yisrael will do teshuva. If we will start bringing people back in teshuva, then also the nations of the world will return in teshuva. Our purpose is to bring the whole world back in teshuva, even the non-Jews. This is what Hashem loves. Hashem is waiting for us to bring all of Am Yisrael in teshuva, all the nations of the world in teshuva. “All flesh will call Your name, and all the evildoers will turn to You, and every being in the universe will recognize and know You…”  Why do we say this? Why do we say these pesukim? We need to draw the farthest people close so that everyone should call out in the name of Hashem—even goyim. But first we need to draw the Jews back. If we start with the Jews we can then bring the goyim back. Everyone will do teshuva and will come close to the faith of Israel and serve Him together.

   “And he graced the countenance of the city,” for six days you studied, worked, and traveled to bring people back in teshuva. Now Shabbos has come, do nothing but sing to Hashem, and this is “and he graced.” Yaakov made them take a break, he taught them not to go out on Shabbos from their homes. “Stay at home on Shabbos--sing on Shabbos.” One day a week is given to man to sing to Hashem. Shabbos has arrived: sit with your children, sing with your children, learn with them, so that they will see what oneg Shabbos is all about. This will make such a kiddush Hashem in the world, in all the worlds, in all the sefiros—a person sings the Shabbos songs, the whole world hears it--it is heard in every country. This is what awakens all the souls to return in teshuva. A person sings in the privacy of his own home and sings songs to Hashem then all the souls hear his zemiros and his melodies. “And He rested.” Sit at home and sing the Shabbos songs. You will see the whole world return in teshuva, simply from the Shabbos songs, the Shabbos tunes. When one sits at home on Shabbos and sings the Shabbos songs, this gives his children yiras shamayim. When they see their father sitting peacefully and singing tunes, they will have such a good feeling in their hearts, such peace of mind—this becomes their whole life force. This is their whole joy. From this alone they will lose all interest in what is going on in the street. They won’t be interested in the futility of the street. This is all that the child needs: to see his father smiling and happy, calm and singing, sitting for at least two hours at the Shabbos table and singing. This gives vital energy to the child for the whole week. Start to be a simple Jew. The minimum one needs to be a Jew is to sing the Shabbos songs—without this one hasn’t even started being a Jew. If a child sees that his father doesn’t sing the Shabbos songs and he doesn’t learn with him, then he won’t have any reason to stay at home. In the end he will fall into bad behavior, chas v’shalom. He won’t comprehend kedusha. He won’t comprehend purity. A person doesn’t realize the greatness of the Shabbos zemiros. One can resuscitate the dead with the Shabbos zemiros, just as it is told of Rebbe Mordechai who wrote the song, “Ma yafis, uma na’umt ahava b’ta’anugim, (Such beauty and such pleasure are in loving Your delights).” His son passed away on Friday night after candle lighting, and he asked that they put the child in the living room on the couch to hear the Shabbos songs. He started singing, “Chai zekof mach, (Hashem stands erect the one in need)” and the child revived. Shabbos arrives. A person sings all the Shabbos songs and he enlivens everyone. Everyone comes alive. Everyone is happy—everyone is content—because the Shabbos songs give the joy and life force to the whole week.

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“A little bit and there are no wicked people in the world” Parshas Vayetze by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

“A little bit and there are no wicked people in the world”

Parshas Vayetze

Transcribed and translated from previous recordings of

HaRav Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

“Vayetze Yaakov Vayelech Charana” (‘Yaakov left and went to Charan’) (Bereishis 28:10)

    The Torah tells us: “Vayetze Yaakov” (‘and Yaakov left’). When Yaakov left Beersheba, he’d already completed the seven levels of holiness, the seven Sefirot, namely: Malchut, Yesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiferet, Gevurah and Chessed. These are the seven ‘Gevurot’.

“Vayelech Charana” (‘and he went to Charan’). Yaakov went to Charan, to the place where the roots of din, or judgment, was found because he wanted to draw down chessed, or kindness, into the world, and to bring shefa (bounty) into the world, because the work of the Tzaddikim is to bring chessed and shefa into the world.

From the moment that Rebbe Nachman of Breslev came into the world, he sweetened all of the judgements in the world until the end of all generations. He drew down Shefa into the world, he drew down Chessed into the world, and he announced that there are no more wicked people, and that the age of wickedness in the world had come to an end! From the moment that Rebbe Nachman was born, the age of wickedness finished; there were no more wicked people in Am Yisrael, as he himself revealed in Lesson 282 of Likutei Moharan (popularly known as ‘

Azamra’).

In that lesson, Rebbe Nachman explains: “Od me’at v’ain rasha”, (‘a little more, and there is no longer a wicked person). Just a little more - today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow – and we’ll already see that there won’t be any more wicked people in Am Yisrael, because everyone will be on the path of teshuva, or repentance.

This verse, “Od me’at v’ain rasha”, comes from Tehillim (the book of Psalms), and Rabbenu explained its simple meaning:  Just a little more! A little more, and there will be no more wicked people, and everyone will be Tzaddikim, and everyone will reach the level of “Your entire nation are Tzaddikim” (Yeshaya 60:21).

One Jew will become a Tzaddik today, another one will become a Tzaddik tomorrow, and yet another one the day after. And the one who will become a Tzaddik after a few days will fulfil the verse: “the smallest one will be like a thousand, and the youngest will be like a vast nation” (Yeshaya 60:22).

This ‘small’ one will rise up and up, as the greater the soul that a person possesses, and the more refined their soul, the more difficulties and obstacles they have to overcome when they want to make Teshuva.

Rabbenu teaches us in Lesson 282 that there is no such thing as a wicked person in Am Yisrael! There is no such reality. Even if you see a completely wicked person, from his head to his feet, you can’t see any Yiddishkeit in him at all, he is completely anti-Torah, anti-observance, God forbid, even if it seems to you that there was never a more wicked person than this since the creation of the world, you should know that the main problem is that this person simply lacks da’at, or spiritual awareness.

But a huge fire of holiness still burns inside of them! A raging fire of holiness and yearning for Hashem Yisbarach burns inside of every Jew, just that it’s covered over by mountains of dust. Their neshama is on fire for God, but it’s covered in a layer of dirt. These Jewish souls are like spiritual volcanoes; from the outside, a huge mountain covers the heat and the lava flowing just beneath the surface, but the moment the fire and the lava burst forth it consumes the entire mountain. The mountain explodes!

A spiritual mountain of dirt and rocks is currently resting on every Jewish soul, but the day will come when the fire will bursts forth, and consumes all of these mountains of sand and dirt.

In lesson 282, Rebbe Nachman writes: “And you need to search and find in him a small amount of good. And in that small place, he is not a wicked person.” Rabbenu is teaching us that here is no such thing as a wicked Jewish person, from his head to his toes, just that it currently seems that way to you. But it’s only your imagination! You imagine that he’s a completely wicked person, but if you train yourself to look for some little bit of good that he has done, or some kindness that he did to help someone else, you’ll always find even in the most worst wicked person lots and lots of good. And the very act of you finding some good in this person, and judging him favourably, through this very act you raise him up to the side of good, and you can cause him to make Teshuva.

We need to look at every Jew with a ‘good eye’, and stop thinking to ourselves: ‘Well, I made Teshuva and I keep Shabbat, and I learn Torah, so why doesn’t he make Teshuva like me?! Why doesn’t he keep Shabbat like me?! He should be doing the same! I went through what he went through and more, so why doesn’t he also make teshuva!?’

It’s exactly about this that Rabbenu said: “Od me’at v’ain rasha”. A little more! He is going to do it eventually, tomorrow or the day after.  You can’t interfere with Hashem’s order for the world, and the order of the teshuva process. The order of Teshuva, when each person will make Teshuva, how he will make Teshuva, this process is hidden from all of His creations, but it’s a process that needs to happen to every single Jew. Every single Jew will one day make teshuva!

Now, it’s possible to speed this process up, but only if we start looking with a ‘good eye’. Only if a person merits to look at every Jew with a ‘good eye’ then, “he will consider his place and he [the wicked person] won’t be there any more”, [ie, in the place of being wicked]. If people would realize this, and internalize that if they started to judge others favourably, and to stop looking at them with an ayin ra, or ‘bad eye’, then there wouldn’t be any more wicked people in Am Yisrael. Because it is possible to bring all of them back to make Teshuva, in the blink of an eye.

Even when a Jew appears to be the most wicked person, know that he really has the most righteous Neshama, or soul. It’s the opposite of how it appears to be externally:  the more ‘bad’ the Neshama seems, the more righteous it actually is. Only, because it’s so full of righteousness it’s scared. It has a hidden, internal fear about keeping Mitzvot, because it knows if it starts the process of teshuva, it will go ‘to the end’!

There are many Jews who are far away from Yiddishkeit who say, ‘if I start to fulfil Mitzvot, then I will go to the end… not like you! I will go to the end, I will learn Torah day and night; I will become holy, I will purify myself, to the end!’ But to go ‘to the end’ seems very difficult for them. So, we try to say to them, ‘go at least halfway, and keep half the laws’. But they tell us no, they are not prepared to do that, because by them, they want everything - or nothing. And in truth, if you were to show them and to explain to them how to reach the entire way, and how to become holy, and how it’s really not as difficult as they think, they would all make Teshuva!

Every Jew is a part of Hashem, and every person has Godliness in him. “Man is beloved that he was created in the image of G-d” (Avos 3:14). The heart of every Jew, even the most wicked, burns for Hashem Yisbarach. There is no Jew whose heart does not burn for Hashem Yisbarach. Because a Jew is not a cow or a sheep, every Jew is a holy Neshama, that was carved out from the Kiseh Hakavod [the Throne of Glory]. Every Jew in the place where he is, even if the burning coals of his soul and heart are currently covered over by mountains of sand, billions of grains of sand, nonetheless, the coals continue to burn. We need to blow away the dirt covering his heart, the mountains of sand covering his heart, and this is what Rabbenu said – come lets blow away the mountains of sand from his heart, because there is no such thing as a wicked person in Am Yisrael. There is no such thing as ‘chilonim’ [secular Jews], there is no such thing!

There are people who succeed in fulfilling the Torah’s commandments 80% of the time, 70%, 20% and 10%. Every Jew fasts on Yom Kippur, and eats Matza on Pesach. There is no such thing as a ‘secular Jew’! Every one of them fulfils some aspect of the Torah. Every Jew is a holy Jew, a pure Jew.

This is the foundation of what Rebbe Nachman taught us, that there are no wicked people in Am Yisrael. It’s forbidden to call any Jew ‘wicked’. It is forbidden to say: ‘this one is wicked’. We need to fix this way of speaking, because there’s no such thing.

How can you believe that so-and-so is wicked? Were you in his place? Do you know where he was born? Do you know who his parents were? What he went through? How can you decide to call a Jew wicked? How can you decide to call a Jew ‘chiloni’ (secular)? How can you say things like this? Do you think you can decide who is righteous and who is wicked? Do you think that you can really know? You need to know that everyone is righteous, because “Your nation are entirely righteous”, and there are no wicked people in Am Yisrael.

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There are no evildoers among the Jewish People – Everyone is searching for the way – Waiting for someone to awaken them

"There are no evildoers among the Jewish People 

Everyone is searching for the way

Waiting for someone to awaken them"

Transcribed and translated from previous recordings of

HaRav Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

“And as the Ark set out on the journey...” (Bamidbar 10:35)

"And as the Ark set out on the journey”—this phrase is a parsha in and of itself. It is its own book, as it says in the Gemara (Shabbas 116a), “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars, (Proverbs 9:1), these represent the seven books of the Torah.”  Really, there are seven books in the Torah and not just five. The book of Bamidbar is divided into three separate books. The two pesukim, “And as the Ark set out on the journey” (10:35), “And when it rested, he would say, ‘Reside tranquilly…’” (10:36) are a book in and of themselves, found in the middle of the book of Bamidbar. Truly this is an awesome wonder that such a small section of only two lines can be a book on its own.

The parsha of “And as the Ark set out on the journey” is enclosed by two upside-down [letter] nuns. The letter nun hints at the 50th gate of holiness which is the most hidden. This gate can be achieved only though “And as the Ark set out on the journey”—only through traveling. So says the Zohar in parshas Behaaloscha (151a), “Go and see, there is no nun in the psalm of Ashrei.” Everyone knows that in the psalm of “Ashrei yoshvei beisecha” there is no verse that starts with the letter nun. So when do we get the nun? When do we merit to the letter nun? It is davka when a person is traveling! It is such a high level of holiness, it is such an awesome gate, that it is impossible to reach other than by traveling for the sake of heaven—to bring people back in teshuva. The Rebbe says—go, go, start traveling. All over the land of Israel there are people living by themselves in moshavim and kibbutzim who don’t see Rabanim and don’t listen to Torah classes and don’t know anything about Judaism. And the yetzer hara is burning! How could it be that their children won’t sin? When a person travels on the road and brings people back in teshuva, he doesn’t know how many people are actually being influenced to return in teshuva just from having seen him. They see a man with pa'os and with a light on his face and their hearts open up. Their hearts start burning and they wake up. Maybe, amongst all the people, there is one who laughs and makes fun, but 10,000 are awakened to teshuva. People look out of their windows and say, “If only that we should be like him, with a beard and pa'os.”

  

When they see a religious person, a holy person, their neshama springs to life! It comes alive and it wants to attach itself to this Jew. A person sets out with a shining face, and he goes and knocks on some darkened door, and people see such an angel and immediately everyone gets up and runs to the door. There was such a story in Gush Katif in a Meretz moshav where avrechim went to spread Torah and when they finished and wanted to go home, everyone started running towards them—all the children in their shorts and undershirts, and they shouted, “Why are you abandoning us? Help us! We don’t know what to do!” Whoever does such an important mitzvah as this and travels from city to city and from moshav to moshav—all the time learning, of course. Before a person learns for eight hours, there is no reason to go out!  You need to learn for eight hours and then spread Torah for eight hours, and you can also learn on the way while you are traveling. Then a person arrives full of Torah and he has a shining face, and when people see his shining face then they immediately make teshuva, because everyone else is walking around with sour or broken expressions on their faces. And when someone who learns Torah shows up, they see him like a G-dly angel with pa'os and a beard, with a shining face, and everyone makes teshuva!

  

The Gemara Baba Metziah 85b relates how Rav Chavivah Bar Surmaki wanted to see the heavenly chariot of Rebbe Chiya. He asked Eliyahu HaNavi, pleading with him, crying, “I want to see Rebbe Chiya! I want to see Rebbe Chiya! Eliyahu HaNavi said, “Beware! Your eyes will burn out if you see it. You will be burned up by his fire!” Eliyahu HaNavi told him, “Me you can look at, but Rebbe Chiya is completely fire: chariot of fire, fiery angels. Be careful! You are making too dangerous a request.” But Rebbe Chavivah couldn’t control himself. He didn’t stand up in the test, and he looked at Rebbe Chiya’s chariot. Immediately his eyes were burned up—one spark of Rebbe Chiya scorched his eyes and he was blinded. He was almost completely burnt up. The next day, he went to the cave of Rebbe Chiya and cried and cried, “Rebbe Chiya, return to me the light of my eyes.” And Rebbe Chiya gave him back his sight. The Ari HaKadosh asks: Who is Rebbe Chiya? What is Rebbe Chiya? This is a tzaddik that we simply have no conception of. Why? Because he went from town to town, from moshav to moshav, day and night, to spread Torah in Israel. He didn’t sleep and he didn’t rest for a second. The Ari says that it is not for nothing that a person merits such levels. All the Tana'im and  Amoraim are raised up by angels in heaven, but Rebbe Chiya rises up on his own. No angel or seraph can lift him up because they can’t go up that high! Rebbe Chiya rises up and up and up to a place that cannot be described, to Atika D’Atika.

  

The Zohar says, “Worthy is the person who brings others back in teshuva.” (Shemos 128b). A person who brings others back in teshuva will have no gate in heaven closed before him. Everything is open to him. They give him everything—all the Kings treasures. Hashem draws him close, hugs him and dedicates time to spend with him more than all the other tzaddikim, because he dedicated himself to bring people back in teshuva. And they give him all the keys and open all the gates for him and reveal all the Torah’s secrets to him.

  

Reb Nosson says that if a person doesn’t bring people back in teshuva, it is said about him: “an offering of the wicked and an abomination” (Proverbs 21:27). Hashem has no pleasure from his Torah. Even if a person will be the wisest and the most righteous, if he doesn’t travel and bring people back in teshuva, and he doesn’t connect with people on a lower level than he is, then his prayers are not accepted. There are no evildoers in the nation of Israel—even if you see a totally wicked person, you must know that it is only the klippos that are surrounding him that you see. The Arizal says that the many klippos that pile up around the wicked are only a reflection of the great light that is hidden within them. Even the generations’ most chutzapidik and brazen faced people are only covered in a millimeter of klippos—just a millimeter of a millimeter—which can be shed in one second, and then their internal light will be revealed. They have the greatest light inside, so the klippos are attracted to them and fight hard to hide their great light. The moment that we are able to bring them back in teshuva, a ray of light will shine which will enlighten the whole world and then all of Israel will return in teshuva.

  

A person is obligated to bring people back in teshuva, as Yehuda exclaimed, “How can I go up to my father if the youth is not with me!” (Bereishis 44:34). How can I go up to my father? How can I go up to Heaven and the youth is not with me? Who is this youth? This is all of Am Yisrael—all of the unfortunate young people who are lost and far from Hashem. How will we dare go up to Heaven and admit that we didn’t at least attempt to bring them back in teshuva?

art by: Joshua Wiseman 054-844-1133