87th Birthday of Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

LAST THURSDAY, 23 TEVET, MARKED 87 YEARS SINCE THE APPEARANCE IN THE WORLD OF THE GREAT LIGHT, THE HEALER OF SOULS OF THIS GENERATION, OUR MASTER, TEACHER, AND REBBE, THE GAON AND TZADDIK RABBI ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A.  MAY HE MERIT TO LENGTH OF DAYS ON HIS THRONE UNTIL THE COMING OF MASHIACH TZIDKEINU, AMEN!

HERE IS A COLLECTION OF TEACHINGS FROM MOREINU HARAV BERLAND SHLIT”A ABOUT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ONE’S BIRTHDAY:

So the Yerushalmi asks what Amalek did?  They took people on their birthdays.  What is a birthday?  The Baal Shem Tov marked his birthday and all the great Poskim (halachic authorities) marked their birthdays, because then is the greatest day of the year and all sins are atoned for – everything!

One needs to be awake on the night of one’s birthday and to do unique Tikkunim (spiritual rectifications), because then the soul is victorious over all – it can win!  It can make a war with the entire world, to fight with the entire world alone – the entire world!  It has no fear!  A Jew can fight the entire world and not fear anyone.  He can walk between Arabs, between terrorists, with no fear at all.  A Jew has no fear.  There’s no controlling a Jew if he just does teshuva (repentance) and guards his thoughts, sanctifies his eyes.  No terrorist can rule over him.  So especially on one’s birthday, no one can harm him!

So the Gemara Yerushalmi says that Amalek would take people on their birthday.  A person doesn’t need to do anything.  They would take people on their birthday.  It’s impossible to defeat a person on their birthday!  Even a gentile cannot be defeated on their birthday.  So what did Amalek do?  They took people on their birthdays, the day of their mazal (zodiac), and then no one could defeat them [Amalek].  What did Moshe do?  He switched the zodiac, the birthdates.  He switched everyone’s birthday, their mazal.  He switched the mazal “BeYad Amitecha (in the hand of your fellow).”  So the “Korban HaEda” explains, “Through sorcery, they brought people to war on their birthdays,” and no one can defeat a person on their birthday.  “A person cannot be easily harmed on their birthday, when their mazal rules and helps them.”  He switched the mazal’s, “so that the mazal doesn’t rule,” so the mazal of their birthdays could not protect them.

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“And they consulted about the fact that on a certain day there would be a birthday feast for the king, which is called mininis -- a birthday.”  It is called in Russian “mininis.”  Also today, we came to Russia for the first time.  We wanted the driver to take us to Uman.  He said, “Today, I have mininis – I can’t.”  So we knew from “Sippurey Maasiyot (Rabbi Nachman’s Stories)” what the meaning of mininis is, that this is a birthday.  So this is called “mininis” in Russian – a “small miracle” [“mini” “nes – miracle”].  A birthday is a small miracle.  If a person merited to reach his birthday, it is already a miracle – full of miracles!  Every day that a person is alive is another miracle and another miracle – every day that one is alive!  A person must reach his birthday.

The Tzaddikim say that a person’s birthday is a day of teshuva.  A person needs to be reminded: Today I was born, I came into the world.  Baruch Hashem, another year passed, and what have I done in the world?  I’ve done nothing…

In the past, a person could transform the entire world.  There were kings who began to reign at the age of eight, like King Yehoyachin and King Yoshiahu.  King Shlomo began to reign at the age of twelve.  A person needs to think that at his age, there were already kings who transformed the entire world.  And where am I?  Where am I?

So a person needs to know that when their birthday arrives, that it is a day of teshuva!  That is to say that really a person’s wedding day is a day of teshuva.  For a person’s birthday is called a day of teshuva, and this is Malchut (Kingship), because the Rebbe says that a day that a person does teshuva is like Yom Kippur.  Every day that a person does Hitbodedut is above time.  That day that a person did Hitbodedut is above time!  Therefore, no person can harm him, and he succeeds in everything that he does, because that day, he is above time!