Every Day - The Secret of Consistency in Redemption • Shabbat Lesson Parashat

A lesson delivered during the Kiddusha Rabba of Parshat Va'era by the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – on the power of persistence, the tikkun (rectification) of desires, and the path to the Geulah (Redemption).

Before you is the full lesson:

The maidservant switched the children, just like Batya, daughter of Pharaoh, who went every day. Why did she go every day? Is she crazy? Every day she goes to search for Moshe Rabbeinu - why every day?

It is also written regarding Mordechai: "And every day Mordechai walked [before the courtyard of the women's house, to know the welfare of Esther and what would be done with her]" (Esther 2:11). Why every day? Let him go once a month, once every two months - why every day? And this was the worst place in the world, a place of promiscuity. He goes every day - so what if it is his wife? I go to my wife once a month, he goes once a year - why every day?

And this spans several years, because in the third year of Achashverosh's reign they hung Vashti (Esther 1:3). Were you there? And in the seventh year, Esther was taken (Esther 2:16), and in the twelfth year, that was when the decrees were issued (Esther 3:7). So how much does that come to? From seven to twelve - five years. For five years, Mordechai goes every day - what, did he go crazy? Every day he goes to his wife?

Rabbi Shmuel Shapira would go to his wife once a year. The Arizal says that he would go every day in order to study the Shem HaMeforash (the Explicit Name) with her, in order to cast off the demon from her, to separate the demon from her. All desires - that is a demon. The person himself does not want any desires; it is only the demon.

Rebbe Nachman says: Who is forcing you? The person himself does not want any desires; he does not want to commit sins. Everyone wants to fast on Yom Kippur. They say it like this: On Yom Kippur - who needs to eat, and on Tisha B'Av - who can eat? Who can eat on Yom Kippur? Dovalé brought me ten [drinks] to drink on Yom Kippur, and the Rabbanit also brought me ten to drink, but who can eat at all on Yom Kippur? On Motzaei Yom Kippur, people jump a little on the rugelach, but the person himself does not want anything - only the person's demon wants the desires.

A young man gets married. Until the wedding, he knows that a woman is a Satan, the yetzer hara (evil inclination). You see a woman - you cross to the other side. We were young men in Haifa; we would see a woman - we would cross to the other side of the sidewalk. At first, I thought it was only me; after that, the instructors came and shouted, so I understood that it was not just me - everyone does that.

There is no difference between before the wedding and after the wedding. After the wedding, they go to study - they go to study for half a year. Then one is jealous of the other, so he wants to get married. One must work on jealousy. But immediately after the wedding, they go to study for half a year. They leave the house, they go to study. In the yeshivot of the Chofetz Chaim, they would go for half a year after the wedding to study, and they would walk on foot. And that is why there is the "bein hazmanim" (inter-semester break), because they would close the yeshivot on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, and it took two weeks to walk on foot until home.

Like the son of the Tosafot Yom Tov - he walked from the yeshiva on foot from Metz (France) to Prague (Czechia). That is a thousand kilometers. He walked a thousand kilometers on foot - completely crazy. So he walked on foot with his shoes in his hand, so that the shoes would not be ruined, because there were no other shoes, there were no factories. So they would walk with the shoes in their hands.

And when he arrived in Prague, they told him that there was a death sentence on his father, that they were going to kill him, and they transferred him from Prague to Vienna (Austria) in order to receive a stamp on the death sentence, because there everything was organized. He had to receive a stamp - not like in Shuvu Banim, where everything was organized. And he sat for several months in prison. All the tzaddikim sat in prison. Rabbi Natan sat in prison. On Thursday I had a hearing, I do not know what came of the hearing, but all the tzaddikim sat in prison. And he walked with the shoes in his hand - he had no shoes.

Like with Yosef HaTzaddik, whom they sold for a pair of shoes, because they walked without shoes. But what was until then? Reuven was already twenty-three years old. What - for twenty-three years he did not walk with shoes? Because Yosef was seventeen, and Yosef was born when Reuven was six.

In the future to come - however a woman is blessed with children, she will immediately give birth. It is written: "She was in labor and gave birth simultaneously" (Isaiah 66:7). That in that very second, a woman will give birth.

So why did the brothers walk without shoes, and only then did they need shoes? And why sell a brother? Did they not have some sheep to sell? It is written in Parshat Vayetzei that one million two hundred thousand dogs are only the guards of Yaakov's flock, and every flock is a million sheep. So a billion sheep. So let them sell some sheep! Who sells a brother for shoes? There was no such thing in history. I read a thousand books about the Holocaust - you do not find such a thing that they sold a brother!

The Pelech HaRimon says that until then, they did not walk with shoes in Eretz Yisrael, because it was in the holiness of the Holy of Holies. The entire Eretz Yisrael was the Holy of Holies until the sale of Yosef. This is the land that the Patriarchs wandered in - Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. They did not need shoes. Until they blemished the sale - there were no kelipot (shells of impurity) here. There was supposed to be a Geulah, the resurrection of the dead. And therefore they did not understand the dream that the sun, the moon, and the stars were bowing down to Yosef (Genesis 37:9).

But they did not understand, because there were no kelipot. There was supposed to be the resurrection of the dead. One needs to know how to move the sun. There is such a remote control that one can move the sun. The sunset today is at 17:04 - one needs to know how to move the sun!

The Gemara says in Masechet Sukkah, page 28a, that Hillel had thirty students who knew how to stop the sun. Shuvu Banim is against Masechet Sukkah, but it is also written in Bava Batra.

Do you know Bava Batra? Babushka Batra? You don't know Babushka Batra? What is your babushka called, your grandmother? There is some Baba, some grandmother, they call her Bava Batra.

This was at the Beilis trial. Did you know Tuvia Beilis? We had a neighbor in Bnei Brak, on Rashbam Street. Tuvia Beilis - you didn't know him? You surely remember him from Sukkot. We lived at 23 Rashbam, and he lived across the street, at 7 or 5 Rashbam.

They called him Tuvia Beilis. He was a righteous convert, who converted because he did work on the trial of Tuvia Beilis, and was so moved that he converted, and named himself Tuvia Beilis after Tuvia Beilis.

But after a few years, he returned to America. There was no Shuvu Banim yeshiva or something to hold him, so he didn't hold up - he returned to America.

But he converted because he did work on the Beilis trial, and from how moved he was - he converted.

So there was the priest in Tashkent at the Beilis trial, because they said that the Jews need blood for matzot. The mother of the child they found was named Vera, and he had forty-nine stab wounds. So they said that it was surely the Jews, and this is according to Kabbalah - forty-nine stab wounds.

Nikolai said: I know that not all Jews use blood, but there is a part that does put blood in the matzot. Not all, but a part - they certainly put in blood.

And there was one, they called him Yankel Frank. So he said that it is even in the acronyms of "Detzach Adash Be'achav." There are many acronyms. One needs to print a book on all the acronyms of "Detzach Adash Be'achav." One needs to tell Rubinstein to print it.

Yankel Frank said that it is an acronym: "Blood is needed by everyone - for a thing that our fathers did - to that man in Jerusalem."

So there was the trial. And then the Rabbi of Russia arrived, maybe it was Rabbi Maze. The priest arrived, and the priest said that he knows the entire Talmud, and he knows that it is written that one must put blood inside the matzot.

So the Rabbi asked him: Do you know the entire Talmud? So maybe you can tell me - who is Bava Batra? Babushka Batra - do you know her? Do you know who that is?

So he said: Who could that be? Maybe Sarah's mother? No. Maybe Rivka's mother? Also no. Maybe the mother of Rachel and Leah? We don't know what she was called.

So he didn't know who Bava Batra was. So they told him: If you don't know what Bava Batra is, then how do you say that you know the entire Talmud? So you don't know the entire Shas. And they dismissed the trial.

So the argument between the brothers - why did they sell the brother? Because they argued about who would make shoes for the Shechinah (Divine Presence), because the tzaddikim are the shoes of the Shechinah. Every mitzvah that we do - we are making shoes for the Shechinah.

We make a pilgrimage - we make shoes for the Shechinah. "How beautiful are your steps in shoes" (Song of Songs 7:2). A person arrives on foot from Meron to the Beit HaMikdash, and he walks with a korban (sacrifice) - a sheep, with an animal. Suddenly the sheep runs away from him, and he searches for it. They ask him: What kind of korban is this? So he says: A chatat (sin offering). They say to him: Why are you bringing a chatat? And he is ashamed, and he says: I tilted the candle - like Rabbi Yishmael who tilted the candle, and he wrote in his ledger that when Mashiach comes, he will bring a fat chatat.

So a person walks on foot - from this, shoes are made for the Shechinah. And this is the argument between the brothers - who will make shoes for the Shechinah, who will sew shoes for the Shechinah.

There was the story that they hid the pekele (package) inside the shoes. Now I read the story with Yehuda Sheinfeld, that there was one who hid the pekele inside his son's shoes. The pekele of Santa Claus - they distribute pekelach on this holiday.

And it goes that if there are ten children - they buy five. If there are two children - they buy one. Because they don't have enough to buy for everyone. And if he has nothing at all to buy - they wait for Santa Claus to come, and knock on the door, and distribute gifts.

He comes, he knocks on the door, you open the door for him. He had two children, and he bought one pekele, and he hid it in the shoe of one of the children. And the second child found it inside the shoe, and then blows started between them - who it belongs to.

Because he claimed that it belongs to him, because a person's courtyard acquires, and his shoe acquired it from the law of chatzer (courtyard), through the acquisition of a courtyard. And the second said: What do you mean - it's mine, I found it.

And then blows started between them - murder blows. And the mother said: I will buy another one. But the father said: What do you mean - hit him, take him apart, break his bones, crush him, make tomato puree out of him, until there is blood - like in Shuvu Banim. In Shuvu Banim, they don't calm down until they see blood. After that, the mother did not recover from it for half a year.

Now - this is the Parsha of the Geulah, the Exodus from Egypt. And there is a contradiction in the verses: In Genesis it is written four hundred years (Genesis 15:13), and in Parshat Bo it is written four hundred and thirty years (Exodus 12:40). This is a serious mistake - one needs to print the Chumash again, to talk to Blum to print again and fix the mistake.

So one needs to see to print it again and fix the mistake. How long were they in Egypt - four hundred years or four hundred and thirty years?

So the answer is: That in Genesis they count from the birth of Yitzchak - which is four hundred years. And in Parshat Bo we count from the Covenant Between the Parts - so that is four hundred and thirty years. Because Avraham at the Covenant Between the Parts was seventy years old, so that is another thirty years until the birth of Yitzchak, and that comes to four hundred and thirty years.

Which is in gematria - five times "kos" (cup), five times "Elokim." Because now we read about the four expressions of Geulah: "I will take out," "I will save," "I will take," and "I will redeem" - that against this we drink four cups on Pesach, against the four expressions.

And there is the fifth cup, which is against "I will bring" - so together that is five cups. And five times "kos" - eighty-six. Gematria four hundred and thirty.

Or that the sons of Yosef - Menashe and Ephraim - were born five years before Yaakov arrived in Egypt. And Yosef gave them names, because "Elokim has made me forget" - that he is happy that he forgot his father, forgot his family, happy that he forgot his father's house. Exactly the opposite of Binyamin: Binyamin gave ten names - all after his brother Yosef, in order to remember Yosef.

And Yosef gives names in order to forget his family, because Binyamin was not Shuvu Banim - he is organized. He gives names after his brother. But Yosef was Shuvu Banim - so he gives names in order to forget his father.

The Bnei Yissaschar explains this, but this is already written in Likutey Moharan. Rebbe Nachman already brings this in Torah 97. The Bnei Yissaschar was after Rebbe Nachman, so apparently he saw this by Rebbe Nachman.

And he says that he gave names because he forgot his father's house, because he served Hashem as if he had no lineage. He served Hashem as if he did not pray yesterday - as if it is the first time he is praying. He did not boast about his service of Hashem, that he prayed yesterday and the day before. Every prayer was for him as if he is praying anew, as if it is his first time.

Rebbe Nachman brings this in Torah 97. Don't study Torah 97 - it's not worth it for you, I tell you. So Rebbe Nachman says that he prayed every day anew, as if he had never prayed.

And now - this is the Parsha of the Geulah. They give ten plagues, and in the merit of this, we will merit the building of the Beit HaMikdash speedily in our days.

Another seven and a half hours - Mincha. Everyone should study seven pages of Gemara. The girls will say Tehillim twice, and everyone will study with his wife the laws of Hoda'ah (Gratitude) 6.