"A Jew Can Enter Into the Fire!" • The Daily Lesson from the Gaon and Tzaddik

Before you is a summary of topics from the daily lesson as delivered by our teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – yesterday after the Maariv (evening) prayer, Wednesday night, the 11th of Kislev, Parshas Vayishlach:

It is written in Nizkei Shechenim (Laws of Damages to Neighbors) 154, Law 4, that it is the nature of children to throw stones. The holy Shelah explains that they absorbed the zohamas hanachash (impurity of the snake) during the sin of the Golden Calf. The question discussed there is who must protect the windows—the one being damaged or the father of the children. This is similar to what happened when they left the Yeshiva of Rabbi Yehuda Nesiah and threw stones at Diocletian when he was still a pig herder. Later, when [Rabbi Yehuda Nesiah] was in the mikvah (ritual bath), [Diocletian, who had become Emperor] sent word to him, "You must come to me in Banias, in Caesarea." Then a demon arrived, jumped into the bathhouse, went wild, and made everyone laugh. The Rabbi told him, "Stop driving everyone crazy." The demon replied, "I heard that you need to be with the Emperor one minute after Havdalah (the prayer marking the end of the Sabbath), so climb on me [and I will fly you there]." Then the Emperor said, "You Jews know how to perform miracles," so he lit the furnace for seven days until the walls were red and threw them in. That same demon, Antigris, arrived and cooled the furnace for them. He said to them, "A Jew can enter into the fire." For when he arrived in Morocco and Tunis after the destruction [of the Temple], the governor said to them, "Then bring me one Jew and we will throw him into the fire." This is like Rabbi Zira, Yonatan ben Uziel, and Devorah the Prophetess. Once, every woman would fly in the air surrounded by fire, because in a woman there is no zohamas hanachash (impurity of the snake); they would put the dress on the window and it would become white. It is written in the Etz Chaim (Tree of Life - Kabbalistic text) that a woman's intellect is Chochmah d'BAN (Wisdom of the Name BAN), which is infinitely more—a million times more—than a man's intellect. Therefore, every woman should be a principal of a seminary in Be'eri and in Kfar Aza. Now they are rebuilding Kfar Aza; they will open a seminary there, and no woman will be in captivity, she will not be in Gaza, and we will merit the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, Amen!