Subtitles: The gaon and holy tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a eulogizes

On 2 Adar I 5782, Wednesday of Parshat Terumah, the late Rabbi Moshe Barber z"l was brought to his eternal rest at the Holon cemetery - may his soul be bound in the bond of life.

Our teacher, the holy Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, eulogized him before a large crowd immediately following the Arvit prayer. These are his holy words:

"Moshe ben Esther now needs to know that he was the greatest tzaddik, the greatest tzaddik of all generations, such a tzaddik as there has not been since the creation of the world. He would travel every night to Yosef HaTzaddik, traveling at 1:00 AM amidst the grenades and Molotov cocktails—they even fired about a hundred bullets at us there. The entire army fled, hiding there in the Porek house; some crossed to Dubai and hid in Dubai, but not a single soldier remained there in the entire area except for the Breslovers; not one person remained."

"Barber would travel every night amidst the gunfire, amidst the Molotov cocktails—it was literal. Today there is only gunfire; back then there were Molotov cocktails, grenades. They fired, and one [bullet] exactly—he bent his head, so it hit his hat; Nachman Weiss bent his head, so it hit his hat. And so there was an abundance of bullets, an abundance, an abundance, an abundance. The heavens opened, the windows of heaven opened, and there was a great abundance. Every bullet is infinite; it is millions of dollars. Every bullet—we just didn't pay income tax, so there will be a bit of a problem."

"In any case, one must know that Barber is the greatest tzaddik. Moshe Barber—such a tzaddik has not existed since the creation of the world, who merited to be such a tzaddik with such self-sacrifice. He, in effect, atoned for the sale [of Joseph]. For one must bring a goat as a sin offering; even after Mashiach comes, they will bring a goat as a sin offering to atone for the sale of Joseph."

"Now, Rav Hoffman told me the chiddush (novel insight), 'You are the goat.' I didn't understand what a goat has to do with this—what goat? Where is the goat? No, this is the goat—remove the goat from the Satan, because the Prince of Egypt arrived with the goat of the sale of Joseph. At the time when they needed to split the Sea of Reeds, the Prince of Egypt brought the goat; they slaughtered a goat to dip Joseph's tunic in blood. So the Prince of Egypt walks around all the time with the goat, therefore one must atone by bringing a goat as a sin offering."

"On Yom Kippur, we bring three goats: two goats for the lots and another goat for the day—three. On Rosh Hashanah, we bring two goats: the goat of Rosh Chodesh and the goat of the day. On Shavuot, also two goats. And all the goats always come to atone for the sale of Joseph, because it is impossible to atone for 22 years of being in prison, in a dungeon. We were there with a phone attached, food—today every five minutes they bring new food, chocolates, sweets, all the delicacies in the world. But why were there no actual grapes? May Hashem bring actual grapes; what is the problem for Him? He can bring grapes, plums, dates. No, this is all a tikkun for the sale of Joseph, because in prison there are no grapes, no dates—dates there were, but not grapes."

"So just as Joseph had no grapes for 22 years, therefore I also had no grapes. Therefore, for 40 years in the desert, there were no grapes, only what the merchants of the nations of the world brought, because the manna was absorbed into the limbs (and they did not need to excrete), and what about 'And you shall have a paddle among your weapons' (the latrine that was in the desert)? After all, the manna was absorbed into the limbs! Rather, only what the merchants of the nations of the world ate (see Yoma 75b)."

"That was Moshe Barber. He was our Rebbe of the generation; he was the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation. He did not leave Yosef HaTzaddik under any circumstances in the world, even though there were a million Arabs there, a million Hamasniks, a million Al-Qaeda there. He would travel inside Al-Qaeda, inside Hamas, not fearing anyone in the world. And such a tzaddik has not been and will not be, therefore we must now focus on the elevation of his soul."

And our teacher, Rav Berland shlit"a, sang with the public:

"'And Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears' (Esther 8:3)."

"'My G-d, My G-d, why have You forsaken me?' (Psalms 22)."