"A Flame of Fire" - The Lesson of Our Teacher Rav Berland shlit"a Before

"On the 29th of Tevet was the first trip when we arrived in Uman; it was minus forty degrees, there was very, very heavy snow! As one hears in all the descriptions, a whole book needs to be written about that day, heavy snow that is impossible to describe at all. And they had to come to Shmuel Isaac, that is the highest name that exists! And they had to come and stand next to his house in Dashiv; it was a great fear, it was a flame of fire! They saw fire burning around the house in the terrible snow! It was forbidden to take Rabbi Hirsch Leib... he left the son of Rabbi Aharon of Breslov to wait until he finished his tikkun (rectification) chatzot; it was four hours of fire!"

"FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! With terrible shouts, with terrible weeping, outside it was minus forty and in the room there was such a fire, they could not go outside. And all this was on the 29th of Tevet, Erev Rosh Chodesh.

This is how our teacher, the holy Gaon Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, opens his holy words, 'A Flame of Fire,' after the Maariv prayer - 13th of Tevet 5782 - before a crowd of thousands; all the streets opposite are packed with beating hearts, a flame of fire.

Next Motzaei Shabbat, a new year begins, therefore in 'Davar Be'ito' he brings that one must eat fruits immediately, immediately on Sunday night, the 1st of Shevat, because the halacha will be like Beit Shammai; the halacha in the future will be like Beit Shammai. And therefore, in truth, Adam HaRishon performed Chanukah twice, first 8 to 1 and afterwards from 1 to 8. In the future to come, the halacha will be like Beit Shammai, so they will perform Chanukah twice."

"And it was like that for 695 years until he passed away, may it not befall us or you. Then Enosh said, 'I am God, I created Adam HaRishon, I created God and everyone' (G-d forbid), the generation of Enosh, 'Then it was begun to call upon the name of Hashem' (that the name of Heaven was made like something profane, G-d forbid). The name Enosh is 703, 'then' (az) is eight, 703 minus 8 is 695; they did Chanukah every year, and there was Purim, and Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, everything was fine until Enosh came and turned the order upside down, and they turned Chanukah into the 'holiday of fire'; today they call it Christmas, they took it from the idolaters. 'Then they light all the lanterns and all the candles in their homes together with the Chanukah candles (lehavdil).'

Adam HaRishon did not succeed in penetrating the light, so it had to come within King David and live another 70 years, to complete the millennium. David did not live 70 years, that is a mistake of yours! He lived a thousand, he completed the millennium of Adam HaRishon. He came to complete the millennium in order to bring down a Beit Hamikdash of fire. David had to complete and bring down a Beit Hamikdash of fire, and then the terrible mistake happened that he said, 'You and Ziba shall divide the field' (II Samuel 19:30). He said to Mephibosheth, who was the son of Jonathan (son of Saul), who was lame in his feet and could not reach the terrible journey to Mahanaim; he was in exile for half a year, all of the people of Israel rebelled against him, his son (Absalom) organized the rebellion. In the end, 20 thousand died, lions ate the people. But for half a year he was outside the yeshiva, outside the house, tortured and pursued with the Pelethites and Cherethites. So Ahithophel said immediately to run after him, immediately!! Then Hushai the Archite thwarted the counsel of Ahithophel and said, 'Heaven forbid, now he is ready in the field, we will wait until he straightens out, until he calms down, until he is complacent, not so alert. And then we will attack him, we will take him down all at once.' Hashem caused Hushai the Archite's counsel to be accepted to wait.

And then, because he could not reach the arduous journey, he said, 'You and Ziba shall divide the field' of Saul. A Bat Kol went out, 'Now you have lost everything! Jeroboam and Rehoboam will divide the kingdom.' Because he accepted lashon hara, for a drop of lashon hara...

Rehoboam wanted them to rectify all of this, Rehoboam the grandson, the son of Solomon the Tzaddik, said, 'I will rectify,' so he ordered a thousand sacks of scorpions; we received ten as an inheritance and we have them here below, anyone who wants a few scorpions will get them for free. Rehoboam said, 'From today there will be the system of scorpions: that anyone who gets up after 4 AM will receive a sack of scorpions, they will pour them on his bed.' Not like Solomon, where one gets up at 10, at 11, at 12, one at 15... managed to eat chocolates... the wife arrives and her husband is sleeping.

And this is the power of the problem of the gittin (divorces), that the husband continues to sleep calm and peaceful, like Absalom. The wife sent the children to cheder, fed them, prepared sandwiches for them, managed to go to work and return, and her husband is still in the upper worlds, traveling in the Garden of Eden in the firmament of Aravot...

So Rehoboam said, 'With me, there will be no such thing! With me, only scorpions they will receive.' Because who says such a foolish thing?! This was the 'counsel of the children,' these were Torah scholars, Shuvu Banim, yeshiva students, so who would say such a foolish thing (that the people would immediately hate him)? A person wants to be prime minister, king, will he say scorpions?! On the contrary, he will say everything will be free! Free rides to the beach, free rides on Shabbat, like the secular say, 'You will receive everything for free!' So for two years they haven't been able to go to the beach, they got such a corona that whoever went to the beach got a 5 thousand shekel fine; they said, 'Everything will be free,' what free? So Rehoboam said, 'At my father Solomon's, you did what you wanted, but I want the Beit Hamikdash to be built! The sign of Scorpio, the month of Cheshvan, the Beit Hamikdash will be built. We are now in Tevet, the sign of Capricorn, so this month the Beit Hamikdash will be built! Even before the month ends, a Beit Hamikdash of fire will descend! We will see a Beit Hamikdash descending from the heavens and there will be the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, Amen!"