The Fire and the tight

u'henhetookajob in his he After Dennyfinished trainingcourse, hadgoodintenticns positivelyrvhile he his company; wassurehe'dbe ableto influen.ce colleagues a secular himselfandthe openrl'orldarrund him. But asBenny maintainingabarrierbetween u,eakened. to rosethroughthe ranks,his strongconnection Yicldishkeit tallis he for In hischildhood, haddavened hoursnextto thetear-soaked of RavEliezer Banimcommunity. leaderof the Brei;lov Shrrvu Berland, powerfulyet enigmatic the w:rspart of this groupand home, whowasborn into a nonobservant Theboy'sfather, in for to wasclose the manwho had ignitedthe flamesof enthusiasm Yiddishkeit the of heartsof thousands people. five distanced from Yiddishkeit, Bennystill devoted minutes Evenashebecamed He a dayto putting on tefillin and recitingthe first chapterof Slrema. kepthis small the But tefillinbagon his deskbeside computerandthe newspapers. onemorning, unusual happened. the Suddenly, lipsbegarr his mumtrling wordsofpsuke[ something in he sing d'zimrah a captivatingtune hadonceheardRavlSerlantl in Breslov. and found "I couldn't control myself," he related. "I imagirne:d llav's tefi.Ilah the - slowly,savoringeverywc rd, and with a tune that myselfdavening way he does the Theforcewasstronger like Iiterallymeltedmy heart.I hadn'tdavened that for years, me." than me,biggerthan away After hismotherpassed was his Yosef anrclderbochurwhen *'orlJ,u.ned d:rr,k. His sadness. an shell,hefelt enl'eloped perpetual irr andhis fatherbecame emotional and by fatherwasshattered hiswife'spassing couldbarelyfu rction himseli let alone providesupportfor his devastated son. betweencaringfor his mothrer the hospitaland tendingto in Beforeher passing, l suggestions, Yosef household, beganli.steningo shidduch mattersof the motherless andhe did nothing corning the stopped blackness, suggestions but in the enve.loping to pursuethem. night,hefoundhimself a of Yosef became shadow his formersell until onedesperat: lived.The whereRavEliezerBerland Streetin Jerusalem, HaShlishis on HaChomah into sleeping, the Ravtiptoedwith the,bochur his privatestudll The so Rebbetzinwas his Ravhowwretched young tellingthe spillingout hearyload, his manbegan miserable

46f^sFiPACHA
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i w R a v El yaLopi an i th hi s i nnerci rcl e." C hassi duss real l yfor Li tvaks"

as shoving to ;4et close as they could to the Rar',rvhen ;uddenly, his eyes flxed on the bochur he'd never met. you will be en"By the v'eek of Shavuos, g&;g,d," Rav Berland stated. The bochur heard, but'ras surprised; he hadn't asked for abracha,i- and he rvasn'teveninterested nrarried -vet. in ;getting ,\ll plans aside,on the day after Shnvuos, the ltochur became engaged.That bochur wa,sme.

in otller spheres. thinks so fast th:tt f-ew He can kr-'ell rvith him. up Conceptsfrom the secretworld of soripepper his conversations evenrvhendiscrussing day-to-day matters. When he speaks, his entire body moves rvith his lips as lris eyesseemto rise to the Heavens.In Bt'eslov they call this nlshmospeleh.chiddushL"e'oro, soul that is an innovation irr his a n'on,drous generation. He was born in Haifa in 1937 into a nationallreligiousfamily, spendinghis yo.rth in of Bneir\kiva in the earlyS'ears the state.He later r;lakedhis thirst for Torah in the Lithuanian Torah u'orld, as he spent entirerclays K b e n t , c v e rh i s s e t o r i m i n Y e s h i v a s n e s s e s Chizkiyahu in Kfar Chassidim,and later in Kollel Ponevezhand Kollel Volozhin in lSnei Brak. His influenceswere RoshYeshivahRav Eliyahu Eliezer \{ishkovsky, MashgiachRav Elil'ahu Lopian, the SteiplerGaon,and other leadingTorah giants in Bnei Brak of ttre last generation. And then he discoveredthe teachi ngsof founl:from RebbeNachman and the endless ri'hich he rvasable to draw a different s;ortof rvisdom. It was through this path thttt Rav Berla'ndhas drarvn thousands of pecple to mitz','ah observance.It began rvith a ,r:rndful o1talnt[dint,rvhichbecame a yes]til'ah, a ri'hicl-r becerme community, which glew into a mor,ement.

life rvas and hou'he wished he rvere dead. Rav Berlan(l u'as silent. "Come. let us cry together,"he said finiilill "Let us cr1', HaKadosh Barucl'rHu sinrplycr.-n will listen to our weeping."And that's 'uvhat they did. For a fuil hour and a hali Rav Berman he didn't land held the hand of a 1'oung knon'.and thevrvepttogether. Rav Berlan<lthen asked Yosefto rvait. FIe mikt'eh,andreturned a few went down to ]:he minutes later. bursting back into the room, this time encouraging and full of smiles. "Forget everything. From nolv on, Hashem rvill treat you rvith great kindness." I hearclthir; from Yosef hirnself',todav a happy father of three little children. a yeal'sagoon Chol HaNIoedPesach, Several bochur davening at the Kosel a cftassrdrshe felt e. crush and commotion behind suddenly him. RavBerlandu,asconductinga ceremonY I'zecher alit,ohI'regel,u'ith a large crorvd of his falmrdrm.The crou'd u'as pusi'tingand

Firom Sccret Worlds At tt2 Kedusuburb in LeviStreert theJerusalem shas

o f B e i t a r I l l i t - - l l a v B e r l a n d ' sn e t t ' h o m e - m a s s e sl l o c k f r o m a l l o v e r t h e c o u n t r l ' j u r ; t t o s t a r :d o u t s i d et h e b u i l d i n g . \ l o s t o f t h , : r n u ' i l l r r o t e v e n g e t t o s e e h i s f a c e ,b u t rvill suffictr rvith being in close proximity'. When neighbors began to complain a b o u t h a r es s m e n t , R a t ' B e r l a n d i s s u e d a u ' a r . n i n gt t L a tn o o n e s h o u l d d a r e d i s t u r b the other r:sidents. and his Rav Eliei:el Beriirnd is a m1'ster1" l i f , ei n r e c e n t ) ' e a r sh a s b e e n f r a u g h t u ' i t h rumors anc intrigue surroundingthe power over his institutions. Yet u'rapped in strulggle his tallis is a porverful.esotericpersonality hidden frori thoservho seekhirn, the secrets of his lif'etoo elusiveto be decipheredeven b1'thoseu-ltoare closestto irim' seemto t'oam his \\'hen he speaks. thoughts

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are It's 5:30a.m'Ahandful of chassidim yawning,battling their standingoutside, "What areyou doinghere?"I exhaustion. to rve'llbe zocheh see thetn."N{aybe asked And for that faint the tzaddik,"they replv' in theY possibilitlr, sleep the street'spendlearningout of the ingnightsunder baresk-v' smallseforimunderthe streetlights' from ajourhas RavBerland just returned prein neyto Am.ukah the Galil,andin this us dawntimt:,hasgranted two hours'during into glance a rverlrepermitted fleeting rvhich Uponhis return' he innerrvorld' his rivetirrg the peopleat Amukah there said,"I tc'ld - 'Don'tyou there of werehundreds people the light? Tzaddikim are seethe fire and in greater deaththan they are in iife' There Iighthere''" awesome is a tremt:ndous, he room opens; Thedoorto RavBerland's andteflliin' It's in tallis is alreadlzrvrapped that he hasbeenfastingfor manl' obvious he Iive hours.Br:tat 74,ma1'he andbe rvell' in any of the ritutry doesn't to getoff easy brrchos takenon himself'He begins alshe's that grows tune a hashacharin captivating that one iouder."RabbeinusaYS steadily up them to ascend the tefitlosfor must sirrg I{is shoulon High,"RavBerlandteaches' and are his swity, e-ves closed his entire ders to I amh'ere sert'e the bodycoltveys message: youv,it,\mt,entiresoul.

coul dthey havefourrdthe mi ssi ngsol d ier s? bon bed-outLebanon, schedule F'irst a LiWak RavBerland's minute he One time and space' transc,:nds at home,and a momentlater he can canbe the North be en route to A'ivreitzaclctikimin onlvtrvohours FIe Shomron. sleeps or in tlLe usuallvafter finishing periocl, in a 2'1-hour His Nighttimeis for Torahstud'v' Shach,rris. - personal pages tableir;piledrvith,vellorved Cre to Ietters l'ris ator'and sh* tefilto .o*po,td, he hasrvritten down' chiclclr-'shimthat Eliezer From the time he waslittle' Rav to spirituality' "I lived Berlard u'asdrawn school in Ha.fa,andrvasthe only onein m-v to beatme up if threatened rvith it hat.Thel'' wearing but in i kepl con'ring m1'hat' I kept at me'why did I insist it. Th: menahelyelled I told a on berngdifferent,it rvasn't d'Oraysa'
hrimI insisted on wearing the hat' the "My brother Rav Yechezkel Berland' me artd'started ra, in Nehorah, followed l;ookhim rvearing his tzitzis over his shirt' t put him into RavYaaout of high school and IcovEdelstein'syeshivah in Hod lJaSharon' life' but lrle had never learned Gemara in nis ',,vhen Edelsteintestedhim' he nderstood Rav mind; to .itall. He had abrilliant, analytical this daYhe still does'" years Rav Berland spent three and tt half There he in Kfar Chassidim, from ageI"7' Mishklearned under Rav Eliyahu Eliezr:r how ovskyztz"/. Yeshivah oid-timers;recall rn almost as a bochur,RavBerland would lt:a 20 hours a da1''

to told Mishkovsky met had take "ButRav

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The Fire and the Light

entire year L pretendedthat I u'as learning Bresloverseforim. Only a year later, on Chol Halt{oed Pesach, we traveled on a train as back from Flaifa, did she discover my ruse. me She began eLsking questions about the She was shocked sefer Srppurei Maasz-vos. her I wasn't familiar i,r'ith it. So when I told And then, when I actually I had no ch<lice. things to learn, I discoveredarvesome began there, all th,r rvisdom in the rvorld. "One can say of my' Rebbetzin that shelr all v'shelachem, that is mine and all that is yours is rea lly hers."
1: .r

of Lost in liidort It wasthe summer

1 9 8 2 ,d u r i n g t h e F i r s t L e b a n o n W a r . T h e a smellof firer nd sulfur hung over Sidonas a g r o u p o f t 2 B r e s l o v e rc h a s s i d i m l e d b y through the Rav Berland made their rvay'' narrow alleyways in a dilapidated van. Just a ferv rlays earlier, soldiers Zecharl'a Baumel, Y,:hudah Katz, Tzvi Feldnlan, C h e z i S h a i .A r i e l L i e b e r m a n , a n d Z o h a r Lifshitz had been captured in the battle o f S u l t a n Y a k u b ,s ' h e r e t h e i D F f a c e d o f f rvith the S1'rianarm\'. Trvo of the missing - Ariel Lieberman and Chezi Shai - were returned from captivity after two and three years, respectivel-t', rvhile it was learned only in October 1.983 that Zohar Lifshitz had been killed in the battle. But the fates of Yehudah Katz, Tzvi F e l d m a n ,a . n dZ e c h a r v a B a u m e l r e m a i n a m1'steryto this da1'. \'IIA YehudaKatz'sfather \bssi Katz calne to Rav Berland in tears.They had gotten to knorv each other after Yossi'sother son becameclosel:oRavBerland.Noiv.ire neededto e\or)'connectionhe had to Hashem exercise to locatehis son Yehudah. "Colneruith me to Lebanon and u'e'll rescue Yehud:rhKatz," Rav Berland told some of his closechassidim.But he qualified one condition:"Believervith alll'our hearts that ein od lvfilvado;' !Vhat happenedtvhile thel'n'ere in Sidon But remaineda secrettor man1,')'ears. s']'ratis knorvn is that to this dal',Katz, Baumel,and Feldman have nel'er been found. Over the vears,those 12 Bresloversrvho

t.ookpart in the daring mission offeredbits and piect:sof infbrmation. And nou', three later. Rav Berland has decided to <lecades sharethe details. "We tr.ed to cross the border into LebaEikev,where it r:rcrn secrotly. It was Parshas :;ays'Kol makom asher tidrof raglechem bo ythyeh, min l'tamidbor v'haLevQnon ,!a':hem - every-'lllace your teet tread rvill be vours. fr,]m thr: rvilderness and Lebanon,"' Rav "We entered Lebarnon Berland t'emembers. and reachedSidon,driving through villages tooking lor Yehudah Katz. The driver was orreof th: tqlmidimof the yeshivah, Baruch Strarvit. "The entire area was full of roadblocks. At: flrst, :hey thought rve \\rere diplomats. \&'hen \\;e celme closer to the roadblc,cks Then, u'hen lve lve donned the kaffi1'ehs. Sidon, rve changed to regular aJlproac.red clothes.'fhey thought we \\rereclergymen. \&'epasstd all the roadblocks.Suddenlythey re'alizedthat rve rvere Jews and the terrorA istsbegar shootingat us.It \\ras miracle n'e gotout ofthere. "We v,'ereable to reach the lookout at Rashia.\l Fuchar, ttl'o kilometers from r.vhereKatz and his friends rvere captured in northeast Lebanon. And from there u'e w'ere ab.e to see the exact spot rvhere the took Place. abductic,n "That nighrt. were in the Rasiria camp, we in gare a shturfor 50 soldiers the dining I a.nd roonl. The contmander,rvho rvasaiso listen'l ing, said to rne: don't knorv rvhl'lt'e hat'eto fight thir; ri'ar.Soldiersare killed everv day''

"I told him, 'If you don't defend trs; here, 'I they'li'ill capture Metullah.'He said, don't to care,letthem capture\{etullah.' I re,plied him,'Theylvill getto Haifa.'The commande:r didn't care. Even when I said theyrvould get 'Why sh<luldmy to Tel Aviv he didn't care. soldiers get killed here in Lebanoni" "l told the commander,'If you don't rlef'end then us herethel'rvill getto Jerusalem.'A.nd he said,'Jerusalem?Oh, no, we won't giiv'e up Jerusalem.' the "The next day', when we tried crossi.ng border back into Israel, IDF soldiers caught us and wanted us prosecuted.They handed us over to that same commander. B;utthe commander gaveother orders.'Giuethese peopleirnmunit-v. Don't do anythin$ to thern' thern, Let them into the dining room, f'eerd and let them sleep.Give them thtl best of rvhat \\'e have."' Does Rav Berland think any of the MIAs are still alivetoday?"Ron Arad is certainlv n,ct alive," he saysof the IAF navigatorwho wils shot dori'n in 1986.And the others? "Yehudah Katz - it's been 30 years since f,rr hi s capture.YosefHaTzaddiku'asm..sr;ing 22years.I told his parentsthat until22 years there'shope.Today,after 30 years,there'sno hope anymore. "But I'nt sure that when we crossed the border, he rvas still alive. When Chezi Shai u'as returned on a plane from Letlanon to Gernanl', one of the soldiers guartiing him askedhis friend,'Is this YehudahKrltz?'Tltre t r s o l d i e r e p l i e d , ' N o h i s i s C h e z iS h a i ' B a s e d on this exchangerve know that he \vas alive.

a break, go out a bit to the fields,be myself'" This u'asperhapsa hint of things to come' although the Rav says he knerv nothing of Breslov or the iCea of hisbodedtLsartthe time. "I didn't knorv there was any such thing as Breslov.I camtl from other places'i didn't even knorv there tvas such a thing as Chasgo out sidus. But my roshyeshivcfttold me to you to the fields every day for tr'vohours' If u'ill don't do that, he said' either.vourhead explode or a t'ein \\'ill PoP' ;Peopi. make :rmistake and think Breslov

personri'horepeatssomethingin the name of the originator lrrings Geulah to the rvorld BaruchHu' Aperson has refersto HaKariosh to to knon'that everl'thingbelongs Hashetn: evervtttS-strength' m,v mv u,isdou1. brains' and Iivesri'ith thing. Someonts'ho recoguizes for that constantll brings about a rederl'rption and fbr the rvorld." hin..s,:ll. R a ' u , l l e r l a n ,c a m e t o K f a r C h a s s i d i m a l mont.h after the passingof Rosh Yeshivah Rar')ioachSh motton'\lzztz"l' "I never nlet longingll',evenafter Ber and sa1''s him.'' FLav so nlartYyears' "IJe passedarval'on 5 Ivar' anclI u'asin Kfar l{aRoeh at the time' It u'as

People think that it's enough to just go tc) Uman. but the bad thoughts don't go awa\i i f o n e d o e s n ' tl e a r n G e m a r a . "\\:iren I traveledto Unian on forgedpalisp o r t s . i n t h e y e a r sb e f o r et h e I r o n C u r t a i r t fell, I met the heads of the government itr 'We knos'ri'hyyou Je'*'s Kier'. rvho told me: are tl-resmartest nation in the rvorld' It's becauseI'ou have the Talmud' That's rvhy \:ou are so strong.'" After his u'eddin$, Rav Berland becalne ztz'? and to his srn' r closeto the Steiple Gaon "We learrLed Ilav Chairn Kanievsky sh1l/a. btftcyruso e\rerv da-vfor an hour. \Vs r:)iin changedsheilosand feshut'os u'riting' Btrt it all got lost."At the end of the shivah for lLebbetzin Kanievskyiastyear,RavChaim rvaited for Rav Berland. u'ho had just arrived on the planc from Anterica.beforegetting up. "The Rebbetzin o"h \\'asa teacher in the rebbe'lzirt Ohr HaChaim high school,and m1'' "cltalsotaught ther:e. Kanievsllv' Rebbetzin tbl u,ho rvoke her children up at three in the morning ancltook them to Lederman [Shul] taught high schoolgirls from eight and ther-r in the morning untilfour in the afternoc'n' f said she got chiztrkand I'trcsShamaJ'im rc'm RebbetzinTehillah Berland." first contactrvith the Ste:pler Rav Berland's \\'as\l'hen he rvas still in Ktar Chassidirn' "l sent him letters and he ri'ould anslt'er rne' I asked hirn u'hat was more important' to cut offthe tchup forehead bangs].or to grrl\v a beard. I had a huge rchup.no one could compete u,ith it. The Steipierrepliedthat I should' first cut offthe tchup'andthat I should [lro\\' er beard after m1'u'edding."

A is dancing in therstreets'That's not true' tt'ent to get and ever.vone learn Gemara b'i1'1171' Yom Haatzmilut, person rvho does not but I just couldn't I just rvild and drir k; kishRebbe Nachmarr says,is called afessel rer'had t.osta]'in sideand learn while the-vkes,abarrel of innards' It saysin SraclrSarfei room in tl-re in the sftrrrr eled outside. Iq'as 2:257)that RebbeNachman Kodesh,(Volume yeshivah in Iifar HaRoeh u'hetr the neu's 'Ich t'il mein zoch zoltl gein oiJ litt'ishe said, tirat lav Noach shimonou'itz had x11ir,'ed is rehertzer,'or in other \l'ords,Chassidus I a\\:a\j.beganto cr)'like a srlall chiid' passed ally for Litvaks. even knorv him' To this altl'rotrghl rl cin'1. ;th. lltggid lirst a Litvak lof ]Iezritchl rvas I da1,' clon'tkltorv u'hy I cried"" Everl'tinre you and then a chassid'Everyonervas'After I rernember it, I start to crv' Everyone else are /i/t'tsh,RebbeNachman says,then conle rvent out to party'and I stayedto learn and grerv of to me. Rav Menciel Nemirov,who first to crv about tleb Noach'spassing"' rvorea shortjacket before up in Germany a.nd unRav Berlandstal'edin Kfar Chassidillr u'ith .o.ning closeto the llaggid and davening h i s m a r r i i t g ea t a g e2 1t o T e h i l l a h S h a k i ' til enthusiasmthaI raisedhim to greatheights' 'What did the \'laggid do for dauglrter of the late Rabbi Shalom-'{r'raasked: \\'asonce hanr llhaki, ,vho served in the Knesset as replierl,'WhenI rvasin Germanl" I 1,ou?'He a National Ileligious Part,vmember in the hadto hold my stluldown to makesureit didn't 1 9 6 0 s .H e t h e n r n o v e dt o B n e i B r a k ' t o t h e \Iago fl1'off [she/ f ifroch);whenI came to the a y e s h i v o so f P o n e " ' e z h n d V o l o z h i n ' " I n ' gid, my soul blossomed[parcch]'"' the geonim Rav BenL Ponevezh there were Rav Berland'svoicetakes on a note of longLevenstein' Zion llanlbe'ger,RavYechezkel closereiationship of ing rvhenhe spr:aks his ztz"l' I learnecl andiFlavCh: im Freidlander (Eli1'ahu) Lopian Rav El1''a to the mashgiach, Rav Chairn and slept in hir; b'cltovrttsar','ith rvas Rav E'h'a ztz"l."Forthree:and a half 1'ears house. Rar' ,shmuel Heller, one of the rabme in nt.vmcrshgrach Kfar Chassidim' He drerv 'You'll becomea big banirnof H:tifa. remembers that they told very closeand predicted, I me on Puri m f 6rgo out and dance' I said I roshyeshivah" rvasjust 2O then' to leavethe Gemara'' coulclnot bring myself "Rav Elya was a very humble, modest perI The5'u'antr:d to spill tt'ater over nre' but u'ith son. I rvill never forget horv he davened' l t h a tG e m a r a " ' couldnot close power,',vith tears. He rvould literall5;crv' At the tirousands lfodal' Ra,'Beriandteaches first bencl't the musscr sederlwould sit on the Is anything left of path of ReboeNachman' betrveenus rvasanother bonear him, and Ln yeshivos? those years in the litt'ishe When churrvhose name I don't remember' intense learning iLs lForRav lleriiind, the iach he learned Shuare[Teshuvah,the mashg l8 f hir; lr:Sacy rom that time' He still learns The rvould sob loudl-v.Irvould cryu'ith him' mitigate hours a da1""If a person \\Iantsto rvholeYeshivahtrembled' he tl-ror-rghts.tnustlearn Gemara' iris negative "Rav Ell''a orrcctoid me''The ChazaI that a

.\ll of This Is Hers Hou'didthir; of of Litvakturn into the leader mass:s;

Breslover chassidirn? Rav Berland sa.vs h h e o t r , e s i s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n t o h i s r v i f e' "Wher-rthe Rebbetzinu'as 15,she began learning some Breslover seforim that her brother received for his bar mitzvah'- Before we married she askedme if I kneu"'r'heLt 'it Breslovwas. doesn'teven interest me" I told her. But she u'as adamant that I start learning the seforim"" "We got nlarried on 28 Adar' and lor an

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\\,'edid a lot to bringJhimback.\!'e got the Red C r o s s o n t h e c a s e ,m e t r v i t h t h e A u s t r i a n prin-reminister. We did a lot." Alone in Shechrt van into the heart of the Lebanon battlefield might be cc'nsidered foolhardy for most, but R;tv Eliezer Berland and his Shuvu Banim chassidim are knorvn for l i v i n E d a n g e r o u s l y .T h e i r m o n t h l y e x cursions to Kever Yosef in Shechem hat'e been a thorn in the sideof the IDF since Israel gave up Shechem in accords with Authority'. the PalestinizLn Rav Berland saysthat the extent of mesrrus nefesh one must have for kivrei tzaddikim is Achassid to travel once a month, on Friday'. quoted him as sarling,"The moment you that entails undertake a practical endeat'or a certain risk, it connectsyou rvith the tzaddik on a higher level." Rav Berland remembers how he u'ould rvascaptured travel to Shechemafter the cit5r in the 1967 Si:xDayWar. "I rvould go everJThen, there u':rstremendous fear of the day'. Jews. I lived in Bnei Brak at the time, so on Jabotinsky Stneett d get a bus to Kfar Saba. It cost me three liras. From there,I continued to Kever ltinyamin ben Yaakov. I rvould spend an hour alone there, and then travel Arabs. They to Kalkilya in a taxi u'ith se\Ien slitting their throats and often made signso1. I did it right back to them. "I rvould wallkfor five minutes through the Casbah in Shechemuntil Kever Yosefalone, alone ...today I come and I seepeoplervith I N{16s. ask th,emvrhy they need it.... "'Lelamed esbnet'YehudahA'ashos, teach to the sonsof Yehudahto use a bou'fand arrori'].' lot'says that everl'arThe MiclrashSihocher vu'ritrorv should havethe ShemHaNleforash ten on it and each one r,l'ouldpenetrate one If thousand enernies. we have faith,ll'e don't need such weapons.Then, rvhen they'd seea Jew they'd see a tank in front of them." he tr\ ake L)p Rav Berland sa"vs has one matn mission in the u'orld:to bringAm Yisraelto ".NorvAm Yisrael is in a state of do feshuyah. "It awakening,"he says. is impossibleto stem Drivingaclunker this arvakening." Berlanddivulges Rav another pieceof infbrmirtion: "The planet Pluto has just drau'n closc to Earth. This is a rare ocr currence that only happens once every ferv hundred years,irnd has ramifications in the spiritual spheres." continues a complex Fle astrononrical explanation, bringing sources fronr the,Ramba11,Zoher,and Kabbalahas to the sigrLificance th is positioningand hou'it of bodesfrorthe na -ionsand the Jeu's. 'Am Y;israel's heart is awake.and it is on the rvay'back i -sMaker.The rvaythe media to portrays the secular public as hating those rvho obsen,emitzvos is an absolutelie. " T h e r r s a c h a i n , c fr e s t a u r a n t s A r o m a , i , and in the past JusticeProcaccia the FIigh of Court ruled thal tliey could sellchometzon Pesach br:cause, ruled, chometzinside a she 'in public,' restaurantis no1considered be to rvhich rvcluldbe against the laut The owner of severalArom a franchises,Oren Sasson, but rvould bring dorLations our 1'eshivah, to he felt bad and :Lskerl me, 'How can you acccpt donationsfrom a placethat sellschometz o n P e s a L c l i ? o l Ch i m , ' I n t h e m e r i t o f t h e s e t 'I you'll stop sellingchometz Pr:on donaticrns sach.'ltn.d that s what happened. Twenl.y branches were li oshered and in the last tu'o vears their reve rues tripled." a The s;unis alr:ad1'shining as I take learre me of the Ftal,. accompanies outside,his He hand holding nrine.His hand is thin, but warm ancioverflrlu'ing rvith a spiritual energy that's u.nbounded. still has much to say, He jum.ps frorr one topic to another, from as he apasukin Tanachto a Rambam to the Zohur to the t','ordsof liebbe Nachman. I u'onder if keep up. an\/one'can " Xt[ei'o:;os hoshamal,im al teic]tosu,ki ve'ichasu lrugo1,ip n',eiheirnah-Do not be frightsign; of the Heavens,though tire encd b5't.tre nations are frig;htenedby them," the Rav rvith a comforting quote from Sepr conclucles "Evr:rything that we said about Yirmiy,:tl,ru. Pluto coming closer has an effect only c,n An Yisraelis abo"'enlazel,"he the gentiles. For Rirv Berland it is another sign explairrs. hrrscoln to drarv thousands that thc 1:ime more to lesftulah.
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