Searching for the True Tzaddik

Weekly Torah Portion Miketz - By HaGaon HaTzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"One must search for the true Tzaddik": In all three Torah portions—Vayeshev, Miketz, and Vayigash—the tribes are searching for the "Tzaddik Yesod Olam" (The Righteous One, Foundation of the World)! For the true Tzaddik! For Joseph the Tzaddik. In Parshat Vayigash, the Tzaddik cries out, "I am Joseph"!! — The true Tzaddik is revealed! The brothers were all true tzaddikim, holy ones of the Most High, but they did not believe that Joseph was the "Tzaddik Yesod Olam." The brothers erred regarding Joseph; they thought Joseph the Tzaddik was just like them, perhaps serving Hashem more than they did, learning more, guarding his eyes more. Each of the brothers was certain that he was the true tzaddik, but they did not know that the Tzaddik Yesod Olam is something else entirely; Joseph the Tzaddik was illuminating from one end of the world to the other.

"We have no grasp of what the Tzaddik's mind is": If a person does not know what a tzaddik is, if a person does not grasp what the Tzaddik is, then he can fall away from the Tzaddik! If a person walks with the Tzaddik without da'at (knowledge), he can fall from faith in the Tzaddik! One must understand in depth what a true tzaddik is! One must understand what the soul of the Tzaddik is! One must understand what kind of mind the Tzaddik has! The holy Arizal says in Sha'ar HaPesukim that the Tzaddik has such a mind... such a mind! That Hashem will resurrect the dead with the mind of the Tzaddik! Hashem will use the mind of the Tzaddik to resurrect the dead!! The mind of the Tzaddik is a resurrector of the dead! We have no grasp whatsoever of what the Tzaddik's mind is!! But whoever merits to be connected to the true Tzaddik! Whoever merits to connect to the mind of the Tzaddik will merit the Resurrection of the Dead!

He will merit that the sea will split for him! He will merit miracles and wonders.

"I want everyone to be redeemed": The Tzaddik can resurrect the dead! The Tzaddik of the generation is not just some righteous person! Hashem will resurrect the dead with the mind of the Tzaddik! The Tzaddik of the generation is not called the Tzaddik of the generation because he has ten thousand Chassidim! Or if he has twenty thousand Chassidim... then he is twice the Tzaddik of the generation! The Tzaddik is not just a righteous person who learned well or prayed well; the Tzaddik is something else entirely! He can resurrect the dead, and he also does not wait for people to believe in him! Moses did not wait for them to believe in him! The Rebbe did not wait for them to believe in him! The Tzaddik does not wait for them to believe in him! When Hashem sent Moses to redeem the Nation of Israel, Moses argued to Hashem: Why must someone who doesn't believe in me have to die?! If someone doesn't believe in me, he needs to die?! I am not willing! I am leaving! I want everyone to be redeemed! Moses was not some tzaddik who would come and say: Come! Believe in me and there will be a Geulah (Redemption)! Enough... do me a favor, believe in me and there will be a Geulah! Rather, Moses had Ahavat Yisrael (love for Israel)! He said to Hashem: I am not willing! I want everyone to be redeemed! I am not willing for Jews to die! So Hashem said to him: There is no choice, you must go to redeem the Nation of Israel! The Geulah will happen! There is no comprehension of the Tzaddik! There is no grasp of the Tzaddik! The Tzaddik says there will be a Geulah! And he redeems!! And whoever merits to follow him is redeemed! Whoever believes in him jumps into the sea, and the sea splits.

"The Tzaddik reveals that there is a God in the world": For the true Tzaddik comes for only one thing—to reveal Hashem. The true Tzaddik comes to reveal that there is a God in the world, so that a person should not think that he acts through his own power, that he can walk, that he can do things alone, run alone, act alone, without Hashem. Because even though he gets a blow to the hand here, and a blow to the leg there, he still thinks: I walk, I run, I do. A person thinks that he is the ruler of the world; he walks, he breathes. Therefore, they show him in a single second that if something small in the body moves even a thousandth of a millimeter, then it's over! Immediately he needs surgeries, tests, scans, and then he already sees that he is not God, he is not an angel, he is not the ruler of the world.

"Only the Tzaddik can show that there is a God": Life teaches us slowly that a person is built of "openings and hollows; it is revealed and known before Your Throne of Glory that if one of them be opened or one of them be closed, it is impossible to exist and stand before You even for one hour." When a person reaches age 60, a vertebra starts moving here, a tendon starts moving there; at age 60 the leg dries up, the tendon dries up. Until age 60, a person can fool himself that he is something, that he is omnipotent, but at this age, he already sees tangibly that truly he is nothing—look, here I fell, here I can no longer walk. But who can open our eyes! And show us while we are healthy, strong, and robust that everything is Hashem!! Health is from Hashem! Strength is from Hashem! Everything is from Hashem!! It is only the Tzaddik who is the aspect of Joseph! Only he can show us that there is a God in the world.

"To see Hashem in every step": The entire reason we came into the world is to know that we do nothing; we came to know that Hashem leads the world. We only need to see Godliness, to see Hashem, to see Hashem in every step, to see Hashem in every movement, to see Hashem in every thought and word. A person moves a hand, moves a leg—it is all Hashem. Hashem moves the hand! Hashem moves the leg! A person lives in the world, a "man of action," builds buildings, builds Yeshivas—if he does not know that Hashem did it all, then it is all the Tower of Babel! As King Solomon said, "I have surely built a house of habitation for You." Immediately Hashem said: You surely built!? You built? If so, the house is decreed to be destroyed. Say Hashem built! Hashem did! The Maggid of Mezeritch, in the famous story, forbade saying the word "I." Tzaddikim were careful not to say the word "I."

"It is not 'One' at all": A person says the word "I"—woe is to him! The Tzaddik is the Ruach (Spirit)! The Tzaddik is a man in whom there is spirit! There is no ruach shtut (spirit of folly) in him whatsoever! And therefore, he can nullify pride! Because there is no advice for pride! No advice at all! The advised counsel to nullify pride is only to draw close to the Tzaddik! Only through the Tzaddik is pride subdued! Only through the Tzaddik is a haughty spirit subdued!

One must find such a Tzaddik in whom there is spirit! Who is completely "naught"! More humble than any man! Because a person has pride from everything! From every word, he has pride! From every thought, he has pride! Whatever he does, he is entirely pride! He will learn, he will pray, he will get a thought of pride! But the Tzaddik, who is a man in whom there is spirit, who has no ruach shtut whatsoever! He draws out all the ruach shtut from everyone! The Tzaddik is a vacuum! He subdues the haughty spirit, the idolatry, and makes from "another"—One! Hashem is One! Without the Tzaddik, it is an "alien god" of pride. If you do not have the Tzaddik, then it is an alien god! It is not "One" at all! You shout "Hashem is One"! Ishmael also shouts "God is Great"!! Through the Tzaddik, one merits the One.

"First thing, one must know upon what the world stands": All the Torah, all the Gemara, Shulchan Aruch, all of Yoreh Deah, all the prayers are only so we will know that Hashem does everything, that there is a God in the world. We do nothing, do not move a hand, do not move a leg, do not breathe—"Let every soul praise Yah, Hallelujah," every single breath is from Hashem. A person's entire work for 120 years is to know who is the Tzaddik through whom vitality passes to the whole world, in whose merit abundance comes to the world, as the Gemara relates regarding Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa: "The entire world is sustained in the merit of Chanina My son, and for Chanina, a kav of carobs is sufficient." The first thing a Jew needs to know is upon what the world stands, in whose merit the world is nourished. One must search for who this Tzaddik is that truly in his merit the world is nourished, to search for who these Tzaddikim are who sustain the world, who are the Tzaddikim who protect us.

"He only sees good in everyone": The proof for a person that he has reached the Tzaddik is when he begins to hate his own evil! He begins to hate his inclinations; he begins to hate all the material things that surround him! He only hates the body! The bad things! All the lusts! At the very least, he does not make an ideal out of them! He does not take pride in them. The moment a person draws close to the true Tzaddik, he only searches for the good things, he sees only good in everyone, he does not speak about anyone, he begins to love the Nation of Israel, loves them with a soul-love, sacrifices his soul for everyone, he only wants to exit all his bad character traits, and merits to return in complete teshuvah (repentance) to Hashem Yitbarach.

"More life and more life": A person's entire work is to search for the true Tzaddik, to discover who the true Tzaddik is. In every generation, there is a true Tzaddik, and the moment a person knows who the true Tzaddik is, he can draw down all the healings to the world, all the salvations to the world, because all salvations are in the hands of the Tzaddik. Therefore, one must constantly search for the Tzaddik. The entire work from the day a person is born until the day he passes away is to search for the Tzaddik! He needs to know that however much he has discovered in the Tzaddik, he has still discovered nothing! And only when the Tzaddik is a new thing to him, and he searches for the Tzaddik with all his strength, then they will give him more life and more life. And one must be careful in this! And to know that for this he came into the world! For this he was born! Everything he learns, everything he does, is only to seek and search for the true Rebbe.

"Need to go on his hands and feet": A person needs to receive "Nefesh," "Ruach," "Neshama," "Chaya," and "Yechida." The Arizal says that through learning Shas and Poskim, Rishonim and Acharonim, one receives the "Nefesh." It may be that you have already received the Nefesh through Torah study—that is wonderful, because without Torah there is not even a Nefesh! But you cannot advance! If you do not search for the Tzaddik, then you cannot receive the "Ruach," you cannot receive the "Neshama," you remain at the same level! Because only through the Tzaddik is it possible to receive the "Ruach." This is what the Arizal explains, that there are tzaddikim who pass away at a young age because they learned Torah and merited receiving the "Nefesh" but did not search for the Tzaddik and remained at the same level (Nefesh), and therefore they had nothing more to do in the world. Therefore, one must always search and request the Tzaddik very much, for with him are all the salvations and all the healings and all the blessings, and he will give you the "Ruach," the "Neshama." And Reb Noson says that one must go on his hands and on his feet, to request and search for the Tzaddik with all his strength throughout the entire world.

"The true Tzaddik has the power to rectify the whole world": Because this Tzaddik can return the entire world to good. If people were to draw close to him and believe in him, they would exit all their evil and become completely purified, because the Tzaddik who has already exited the four elements, who has refined all four elements, who is already clean of every lust, he can remove all the people of the world from their evil, from their lusts. And this is what the Gaon Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk (author of the "Ohr Sameach" on the Rambam) says regarding the Gemara in Tractate Sotah (13a) regarding "And they lamented there a very great and heavy lamentation" (Genesis 50:10): "It was taught: even horses and even donkeys." — Says Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen — "And they lamented a great lamentation"—even the horses lamented for Jacob our Patriarch! It was such a great lamentation! Such a heavy lamentation that the horses cried!! The donkeys cried!!

Everyone cried for the Tzaddik!! The horses felt that the Tzaddik had disappeared! The donkeys felt that the Tzaddik was gone! "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's trough; Israel does not know, My people do not consider." The horses admit to the true Tzaddik! The donkeys admit to the true Tzaddik! It is truly a shame and a disgrace how people do not see the Tzaddik! How people are blind!

Walking around in the world not knowing who the Tzaddik is.

"Even horses and donkeys felt that they were lost without the Tzaddik": A person with his pride, with his inclinations, he does not want to believe in the Tzaddik, he does not want to know who the Tzaddik is. But the horses and the donkeys felt that they were lost without the Tzaddik—who will sustain the world! Who will protect them! Who watches over horses!? Who watches over donkeys? Who protects the world!? They know in whose merit they live. If the Tzaddik is not present, there will be famine! There will be a holocaust in the world! There will be wars! This is what Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen says—start seeing the Tzaddikim! Start following the Tzaddikim! Open your eyes and see who is the Tzaddik in whose merit you live...