Last night, Monday, the eve of the fast of the 17th of Tammuz - Parshas Pinchas, a lesson was held at the home of our teacher, the Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, for the avreichim (married Torah scholars) of our Beis Medrash Kollel, "Iddo HaNavi," headed by the Chassid, Rabbi Azizian shlit"a. The Rav shlit"a delivered a lesson lasting nearly forty minutes; here is a summary of the lesson's progression:

He began with the secret of the verse, "I rejoiced when they said to me, let us go to the House of Hashem" (Psalms 122:1), which King David said despite knowing that people were asking for him to die so that the Temple could be built; he rejoiced because the main thing is the building of the Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple). Afterward, he dealt with a topic he has been speaking about frequently lately—the true multiplication found in the verse, "And Joab said to the king: May Hashem your G-d add to the people, as they are, and as they are, a hundred times over" (II Samuel 24:3). As brought in Rashi, Joab's blessing was a trillion times a trillion greater than the blessing of Moshe Rabbeinu. This amounts to seventy-two zeros, which is the secret of Rivka's (Rebecca's) pitcher. From this matter, he expanded upon the difficulties Eliezer had regarding the shidduch (marriage match) of Rivka to Yitzchak (Isaac), as he saw through Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Inspiration) that Esau was destined to descend from her. He cited, in his holy way, the words of the "Imrei Noam," that in the merit of "the man stood wondering at her, remaining silent (macharish)" (Genesis 24:21)—the word "macharish" has the same gematria (numerical value) as "Yaakov Esau" (Jacob and Esau). Afterward, he spoke about the greatness of emunah (faith) in the true Tzaddik, and added miracle stories from the Holocaust era, noting that those who believed in Rebbe Nachman were saved from the terrible slaughter carried out by the Nazis in Ukraine. Then, he dealt with the matter of Jephthah's daughter and the fact that during the period of Tammuz, when that event occurred, it is customary not to drink "uncovered water" because the knife that touched the neck of Jephthah's daughter dripped three drops of blood.

Continuing the lesson, he spoke sharply about the holiness of a Jewish person and how much one must sanctify himself to the utmost in order to merit holy and pure children. Afterward, he dealt with the matter of accepting bizyonos (humiliations) with love, mentioning that if the one being cursed would remain silent and accept the matter with love, he would merit an awesome and immense spiritual level. He also brought the words of the holy Rambam (Maimonides) regarding the greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu, who truly stripped himself of his physicality entirely and remained pure intellect alone. He then discussed the matter of "What are you doing here, Eliyahu (Elijah)?" (I Kings 19:9), explaining that Eliyahu wanted to attain the level of "Mouth to mouth I speak with him" (Numbers 12:8) in the cleft of the rock. However, he cited the holy books (Sefarim HaKedoshim) stating that although he fasted forty days and nights, Eliyahu did not have the same connection to the level of Moshe Rabbeinu, who had completely nullified his physicality!