Introduction

On the day of 23rd of Tevet in the year 5698, light was shining in the house of the Berland family, in the town of Haifa, when baby Eliezer was born. His father, Chaim, was a simple and wholehearted Jew, a baker of bread. His mother was Mrs. Ettel of the house of Strolevitz. She was a simple tzaddekes.

Little Eliezer knew good deeds, and a deep love of the study of Torah. His parents entered him into the school next to his house. Little Eliezer wasn’t such a good student at first, and was not considered one of the great students in his class. When little Eliezer was in 6th grade, he was studying with a melamed (teacher of yeshiva) Rabbi Rivaon, ztl. Rav Berland remembers that the rabbi was the first one that saw the determination of the child who had a passion for the fire of Torah. And Eliezer studied with rabbi Rivaon until age 18.

Right after his bar mitzvah, Eliezer became ambitious. At age 14, in the afternoon, after studying in yeshiva, he would go to the beit midrash near his house. Over there he would study Torah until the wee hours of the morning. By the age of 17 he had a spirit of holiness and purity in his heart. He wanted to study in the yeshiva Knesset Chizkiyahu in the village of Kfar Chassidim.

When he arrived at the yeshiva, the principal of the yeshiva said that there was no room for him. Eliezer cried bitterly, “I’m not asking for a room, I’m just asking to study Torah.” This was the way he entered the gates of the yeshivah. While there, he studied in the shadow of the gaon Rabbi Eliyau Lopian. After that he continued studying in the Ponevezh yeshiva.

When he came to the age of the covenant of marriage, he married Rebbitzen Tehillah from the Shaki family. In the beginning, the Rav was living in Bnei Brak, where he received Torah from the greatest of the generation, the mighty ones of Torah and knowledge in the glorious city of Torah. At that time, the Rav was studying and learning the fundamentals of the ways of the study of Torah from his mashpiach, the tzaddik Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein. Also he was in close contact with the gaon Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Also, the head of the yeshiva, the gaon Rabbi Aaron Yehuda Leib Steinman. And until today, Rabbi Steinman carries good memories of the Rav’s youth in Bnei Brak and states that the Rav was an “erlicher Yid” (a sensitive and innocent Jew).

After his marriage, he began to study in the kollel Volozhin. He had the great merit to study with the gaon Rabbi Yakov Yisrael Kanievsky, the Steipler Gaon, ztzl. He would study with him every day.

His lofty soul was burning inside of him. He turned to his teacher, the Steipler with a question, “In the Torah I merit to work hard and to be a good student. But what about the avodah of prayer?” The answer of the Steipler was sharp like a blade. “For the avodah of prayer, you need to go to the chassidim!”

And this is the way that the Rav started his search to satisfy his thirsty soul: in the courts of the chassidim. In the beginning, he turned to the courts of Lelov, Vizhnitz, etc. On Purim night 5722 (1961), the Rav passed next to the Breslov yeshiva in B’nei Brak. While the town was celebrating, he saw that the yeshiva was dark and quiet. His curiosity awakened, he thought to himself ‘maybe I will see a fascinating and quiet place.” He entered the yeshiva building and he looked for the mashgiach of the yeshivah, Rabbi Nachman Rosenthal. He asked him, “What is the meaning of the quiet here on Purim night?” Rabbi Rosenthal told the Rav that every night in Breslov they go out to the fields to pray in solitude. This is hitbodedut. Purim is the highest time of the year to pray alone, according to the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, ztzl. In that moment, the Rav felt that this was what he had been searching for and his soul was aflame with the light of the Tzaddik, Foundation of the World, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, ztzl.

This is the way the Rav got closer to the people of Breslov and learned their Torah. He became close to the knowledgeable mashpi’im Rav Levi Yitzchak Bender, Rav Shmuel Shapira, and the rest of the elders of Breslov chassidut of the prior generation. They noticed the remarkable greatness of the Rav, the fiery angel of Hashem.

Very soon the Rav became more widely known and people began to follow him. People saw that he was special and that he was destined for greatness.

In the year 5738, Sept 13, 1977 the Rav established the yeshiva Shuvu Banim in B’nai Brak. After a while the yeshiva moved to Jerusalem. In the year of 5742, Sept 29, 1981, the yeshiva moved to the old city in Jerusalem.

The Rav was busy all day long with studying Torah and with the avodah of prayer. There was nothing like it. On his tables were many piles of holy Torah books in which he would study with great dedication. Hours and hours he would study the holy Torah. Sometimes he stood on his legs while studying for six or seven hours. In order to find something he couldn’t locate, he studied hours and hours until he solved the question. He was also learning Shas and the words of the Poskim. He cared about all of the Torah. His heart was diving into all the questions of the Torah. He was busy with the Pardes, the various levels of Torah study. Sometimes he was writing on paper his original thoughts and his deep and special knowledge. And especially his original and awesome thoughts word by word he would write, while surrounded by the wide ocean of the Talmud.

The face of the Rav changed in the blink of an eye. He wanted to find a new way of avodah. He was moving his hands during prayer with deep kavanah and making signs with his hands in order to capture a wonderful and beautiful way of praying. He would close his eyes with attachment to Hashem, excited, running to Hashem, but not retreating back into the world of physicality. This describes him whether he was standing in front of a multitude or whether he was alone in his room, or with a small group of followers.

His lofty soul was like a fiery flame in front of his followers, with no hint of retreat. He did not feel fulfilled because he always wanted more and more. He desired to know more and more of his Creator. When asking forgiveness from his Creator he would bow and kneel. His body was not a normal body. His way was revealing a big light that was coming out from him. The Rav was not requesting food and drink and he never thought about the needs of his body. His prayers could continue for six, seven or eight hours continuously. Not because he was forcing himself, but because he enjoyed it, always wanting to know more, like a deer thirsting for streams of water.

Around the time that the Rav turned 18 years old the Rav was running in front of his Creator like a young man. He was already guiding the way for his chassidim and students. He was lighting the way for everybody, protecting the generation, and begging for salvation for everyone in general, and also for individuals in particular.

The 25 stories in this book are not coming to tell all of the life of the Rav. These are just touching on the edges of his way in holiness, so that we can merit to walk in the ways of the light of the great tzaddik, our teacher and our rabbi, the Rav Eliezer Berland, until the arrival of the Righteous Redeemer soon in our days, Amein.

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Eliezer Eved Hashem — Introduction

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