"The Main Thing is to Twist the Mouth

Before you is the full daily lesson as delivered by our teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – yesterday after the Maariv (evening) prayer, Thursday night, the 11th of Sivan, Parshas Behaaloscha:

"So there are ten killed, twenty killed; on the Holy Shabbat, two tanks went over explosive devices and mines. One tank had eight people, one tank had three people—eleven people entered and went straight to Gan Eden (Paradise). We want them to stay here in the Land and to do teshuvah (repentance). They are all members of religious kibbutzim like Chafetz Chaim, Karnei Shomron, Psagot. They all come from religious villages and moshavim (settlements). They are all young men with beards and peyos (sidelocks). It's just that the girls haven't lengthened their skirts yet. There are still girls who haven't lengthened their skirts, or they walk with a slit, which is a literal Torah prohibition to walk with a slit. Every girl needs to sew it up or change the skirt.

And all the girls must learn now—in order to sweeten the judgments—to learn a chapter of Shoftim (Judges) every day, to start learning a chapter until Tisha B'Av (the fast day mourning the Temple). Today is the 11th of Sivan; until Tisha B'Av, there are sixty chapters. It is exactly sixty days; each one needs to learn a chapter. Now we are only at nine [o'clock], until ten each one needs to learn a chapter, starting from Yehoshua (Joshua) and starting from Shoftim. Chapter 1 of Shoftim—for every chapter there is a Torah (lesson) in Likutey Moharan; for every chapter, one must know there is a lesson in Likutey Moharan. For Chapter 1, there is Torah 85 in Part II; everyone should learn it until the morning. Torah 85 Part II immediately after finishing the first chapter of Shoftim, he must learn Torah 85 Part II. Because only Rebbe Nachman revealed the secret of Shoftim Chapter 1. Besides Rebbe Nachman, no one reveals the secret; no one understands what this secret is. What does the Torah tell us about—okay, there is a city, and we aren't in Oxford or Harvard or Columbia. It's not that we are now learning strategies; what strategies are being taught here? Suddenly Rashi gives us a lesson in strategy on how to conquer cities, how to conquer fortified cities. A fortified city that has no gate at all, the walls were ten meters wide. It takes three years to breach such a wall; how do you breach such a wall? Rashi explains all this and Rebbe Nachman explains it in Torah 85. No person in the world, no tzaddik in the world explained this secret. How to conquer the Land of Israel, how to conquer Beis El (Bethel) which is the most fortified city, the most fortified. It is all a wall without doors, without a bolt, without gates—it's impossible to ever conquer it. So Rashi reveals to us the secret of the Luz (a bone or a city), that twenty-one days is the Luz, and twenty-one days is exactly from the 17th of Tammuz—in another thirty days it will already be the 17th of Tammuz. From the 17th of Tammuz until Tisha B'Av is actually twenty-two days, but it is twenty-one plus, which is the 'etzem luz' (the luz bone/essence) plus one, making it twenty-one days, because on Tisha B'Av the tikkun (rectification) is already achieved and we don't say Tachanun (supplication prayers) on Tisha B'Av. So from the 17th until the 8th of Av, which is when the spies returned, it is exactly twenty-one days. Only Rebbe Nachman reveals the secret of how to conquer such a city, with what strategy, with what 'combinations' (clever schemes). So the man went out of the city, and they didn't know how he came out, Rashi says, they didn't know where he came from. Suddenly he popped out from the ground, he popped out with his children and his wife. 'Where did you pop out from?' He says, 'I can't tell, I can't say; they are standing on the wall with arrows and spears and bows, and if I give you one hint, one hint I give you, then I will be either in Gehinnom (Hell) or in Gan Eden (Paradise)—I won't be here anymore. I can't give any hint. I can't tell you how I went out, how I went in, where I came from.' They said to him, 'Do something with your head, with this...' so what did he say to them? He only twisted his mouth. He only twisted his mouth, and they immediately understood. The moment a person twists his mouth then... The main thing is to twist the mouth, not to utter evil words, not to utter words of Lashon Hara (evil speech), not gossip, not slander. The moment he twisted his mouth, they immediately discovered the tree that stands alone. Rashi says this is the Luz tree; only Rebbe Nachman explains what Luz is. Luz is Leah. For every woman is a spark of Leah, a spark of Esther. It is written [in Likutey Halachos – Laws of] Milah 4:24: Every righteous woman is a spark of Esther HaMalka (the Queen). Every woman can sweeten all the judgments. Every girl should take it upon herself to learn a chapter of Shoftim every day until Melachim (Kings), sixty chapters. Except for Chapter 1 of Melachim, everyone needs to. And every girl needs to know that she needs to be either a teacher or a principal; the moment she is a principal, she will know the Tanakh (Bible), she will give lessons in Tanakh. Then she will be able to bring all of the Jewish people back in teshuvah (repentance). A thousand girls will study Tanakh, a thousand girls will be principals. Every girl needs to know that she has a destiny and a mission; she cannot just wander around the world, walking on Jaffa Street or hanging out in some bar. She has a mission to bring back all the girls. Today there are two hundred girls in captivity, all with tattoos; everyone with a tattoo ended up in Gaza. Why do they go with tattoos? Because they are good girls, they are looking for meaning. They draw a lion, a tiger, a snake, a crab, a scorpion—all kinds of animals they draw on their bodies. Because they want meaning so much, but the meaning is only to say Tehillim (Psalms). Every girl needs to finish the entire Tehillim every day until the war ends. And every day a chapter of Tanakh (Bible), starting now with the first chapter of Shoftim with Torah 85 in Likutey Moharan, which explains the secret of Rachel and Leah. For every girl has the power of Rachel and Leah to bring the Geulah (Redemption) to the Jewish people."‏.