"Even the Worst Soul Can Be Made Like Moshe Rabbeinu" • The Daily Lesson from

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, Monday night, the 23rd of Kislev, Parshat Miketz:

"In two more days we will light the first candle. 'Until the foot ceases from the market' (the time until which Chanukah candles must burn)—all of Chanukah is about elevating everyone 'by the feet' to Chabad (Chochmah, Binah, Da'as - Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge). Chanukah and Purim correspond to Netzach and Hod (Kabbalistic emanations), while the three festivals (Regalim) correspond to Chabad. On Chanukah and Purim, it is even higher; work is permitted and the seudahs (festive meals) are optional, serving only to commemorate the miracle of the cruse of oil that burned for eight days. Rabbi Nosson says that every day the candles double themselves by the number 13, reaching six billion, two hundred twenty-seven million—which is 13 people corresponding to the entire world. It is possible to illuminate Chanukah within all souls. Elisha needed to bring the children who called him 'Go up, baldhead' back in teshuvah (repentance), rather than inciting the bears against them. There is a dispute between Rav and Shmuel whether Elisha created only the bears, or both the forest and the bears. Even the worst soul can be made like Moshe Rabbeinu, and G-d forbid, also the opposite. All teshuvah (repentance) is in the merit of the Tzaddik; 'Who is at the head'—David—everything is in the merit of the Tzaddik. The women did not sin in any sin—not in the Golden Calf, not with the Spies, and not with Korach. Korach claimed that everything was a fata morgana (an illusion). Only six remained with Moshe, and Miriam made seven, so they joined Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to the minyan (quorum), and in this way, he was able to subdue Korach. No woman believed the nonsense of Korach; in the merit of the daughters of Tzelofchad, we entered the Land. The 'Ma'ayanah Shel Torah' asks: what is the problem with interpreting that seven stalks of grain represent produce and seven cows represent meat? Rather, Yosef explained to Pharaoh that it was Rosh Hashanah, when it is judged who is for captivity and who is for hunger. So he told him: you will conquer seven countries. Pharaoh said, 'I do not want to conquer,' so Yosef told him: you will have seven daughters, because a daughter is a million times more than a son. A son has half a mind; a daughter has a complete mind—she comes from the wisdom of B"N (a Kabbalistic name associated with the feminine dimension). All the sons put all their money into gambling, and then lose everything and get divorced, and the children run away. The woman is the wall of the husband. Therefore, the woman is a million times the mind of the man; Osnat is seven times Chochmah (wisdom). Because a woman needs to know all the wisdoms, to be a manager of a thousand girls; a thousand managers is a million girls who do teshuvah (repentance), and we will merit the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, Amen."