By Us, Disparagement is Only Praise

BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS FROM THE DAILY SHIUR OF MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A, GIVEN ON THE NIGHT OF 2 KISLEV AFTER MA’ARIV:

“Honey drips from your lips, O bride” – Once, all the women were prophetesses.  In every generation, there were sixty prophetesses.  Serach bat Asher sang, “Od Yosef Chai – Yosef is still alive.”  Everyone is going tonight to Yosef HaTzaddik.  The entrance is with the army.  The brigade commander there doesn’t believe in the words about Tzaddikim.

By us, disparagement is only praise.  “And in His sanctuary, all proclaim ‘Glory’” -- this means that whoever slanders us, all his curses turn into blessings.  Like the curses in Parashat Bechukotai and in Ki Tavo, which together add up to 148, the numerical value of “Nachman.”  Only Rabbeinu turns the curses into blessings.

All the women will be prophetesses.  A woman has a million times the intelligence of a man.  The woman is from the Sefirah (Divine emanation) of Chochmah (Wisdom), and the man is only from half the Sefirah of Binah (Understanding).  A man, if he doesn’t learn, will eventually fall into gambling and lose all his money, but the Tzaddik can rectify everything.

The Gemara in Bava Batra says that for a woman, one receives 200, and for a man, only 100.  This is mamash literal.  The Shlah explains that after the sin of the Golden Calf, things were turned over, and the woman [became] more important than the man, because the men tore off the earrings with the ears.  Therefore, the women received Rosh Chodeh.  Today was Rosh Chodesh; it was forbidden to launder.

We need to protect the youth here so that they won’t decline.  Otherwise, the police have a plan to take them all to closed institutions, from which they will emerge criminals.  We need to save them.  Therefore, every Kollel student should devote himself to this cause, and through this, we will merit to a complete redemption, speedily in our days, Amen!