Chidushim on Parashat Matot-Masei by Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

CHIDUSHIM ON PARASHAT MATOT-MASEI BY MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A – THE WAR AGAINST MIDIAN

When Moshe sent the people of Israel to wage war against Midian, he chose the most righteous and holy individuals, as it is written: “Arm men from among yourselves for the legion” (Rashi: “righteous men”). These were people who stood at the giving of the Torah and saw Hashem face-to-face. They chose men who had never opened their eye in their lives. When they went out to battle and needed to enter the houses of the Midianites, they were gripped with terrible fear—fear of seeing something forbidden. After all, they were tasked with taking captives, both men and women. Therefore, they didn’t settle for merely guarding their eyes; each one brought along boxes of soot. Upon entering the houses, they would pour buckets of soot over them so they wouldn’t see anything, as the Midrash Rabbah (Shir HaShirim 1:3) says: “When Israel went to war against Midian, they would go to the women in pairs, and one would blacken her face with soot, while the other removed her jewelry.”

The entire world knows that the Jewish people are holy of holies. They only need to guard their eyes, to walk with their eyes on the ground. One needs to know that the Angel of Death roams the streets. The Angel of Death is full of eyes as the Gemara in Avodah Zarah says: “The Angel of Death is entirely eyes.” He is entirely made up of eyes—every one of his 248 limbs and 365 sinews is made of eyes. Each person, according to the forbidden glances he has stumbled in, so will be his Angel of Death. If someone has stumbled in a thousand forbidden glances, their Angel of Death will have a thousand eyes. If they stumbled in a million forbidden gazes, their Angel of Death will have a million eyes. Every forbidden sight a person stumbles in, if he doesn’t cry immediately, if he doesn’t repent immediately, he builds another floor onto his Angel of Death. Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian says: When you leave the yeshiva, when you go out of the door of your home, the Angel of Death is already waiting there to cause you to sin, to burn your mind and heart. Each one of us, before leaving the Beit Midrash, before leaving home, must know they are going out to war. Just as in a [physical] war, if someone knows bullets are flying outside, they don’t just go outside. They wait for the shooting to stop, or if there is no choice and they must go out for food or water, they crawl on the ground. If the bullets are flying over their heads, they cling even closer to the ground, and they have to know how to bend down, crawl, and twist so the bullets won’t hit them. It’s the same thing when a person goes out onto the street. They must know that mortar shells and bullets are being fired at them. They must devise strategies to not stumble in any forbidden sight. You don’t just jump into the street! You must go out with a settled mind. Therefore, before going out onto the street, before leaving home, every person should pause for a moment, wait, and think: “I am now going out to war.”

> Reb Natan writes: A person’s entire free will lies in guarding the eyes.

One might say, “I’m religious, I put on tefillin, I pray Vatikin, I rise at Chatzot.” These are all wonderful things, but they are not the essence of free will -- the essence of free will is in the eyes. The moment a person guards his eyes, he can attain all the levels in the world. He won’t speak lashon hara, won’t hold grudges, won’t hate. King David says, "Turn my eyes away from seeing vanity"—“Master of the World, blind me! Take my eyes out—I don’t want to see anything in this world!” The moment a person guards his eyes, he returns to the state before Creation. He merits to know that “Ain Od Milvado -- there is nothing besides Him.” He merits to know that Hashem is One and His Name is One. When he sees nothing in this world, he nullifies the Creation itself. He nullifies this world—there is no fear, no creation, no evil, no Nazis, no terrorists. They don’t exist. They are nothing!

> Reb Natan says: Even if a person already merits to shut his physical eyes, he must know that there is still more work! He must also close the “eyes of the intellect”! Not only must one close his physical eyes, he must shut all categories of eyes. He must close the eyes of jealousy, the eyes of hatred, the eyes of honor.

Because even is he closes his physical eyes, he may think about and desire honor. Because now that he already closes his eyes, he thinks that he’s a tzaddik.  He wants recognitions for this. But the eyes of honor are the worst eyes of all. Therefore, he must close all his eyes, to not look at the world at all, to disconnect all his senses from the vanities of the world. He must have no interest in any subject in the world – only senses for Hashem Yitbarch. All his senses must be devoted only to Hashem, to believe in His providence. When a person closes his senses, automatically, he doesn’t feel anything other than Torah, prayer, and clinging to Hashem. He has no desire for anything physical, and has no longing for anything except for Hashem Himself. Then he will merit to understand all the wonders of the world, all the secrets in the world, as it is written, “Uncover my eyes, and I will behold wonders from Your Torah.” If a person merits to close all categories of eyes, all the secrets of the Torah will reveal themselves to him. Because all the lights and secrets are in the eyes. The secrets of creation will be revealed to him, how to create the heavens and the earth, how to override the laws of nature. All the lights and mysteries will reveal themselves to him.

A person doesn’t need to travel abroad for livelihood. There is infinite money in the Land of Israel – infinite “shefa (abundance).”  From the Land of Israel, shefa comes down to the whole world! You only need to stretch our your hands and bring some vessel to receive the shefa. That vessel is “kedusha (holiness).” The vessel is guarding your eyes! Because the moment that a person opens an eye, he loses his livelihood.  He loses the shefa and become a debtor, as the Rebbe says, “There is a transgression whose punishment is to always be a debtor” (Sichot HaRan 112).  The moment that a person’s eyes are open, he becomes an enormous debtor. If a person starts to guard himself against forbidden sights, he will begin to see such miracles, such wonders.  HaKadosh Baruch Hu will work for him miracles and wonders.

FOR EVERY MATTER OF HOLINESS, THERE ARE TEN KLIPOT (EVIL HUSKS) WHICH ACT AS OBSTACLES. EVERY MOVEMENT TOWARDS HOLINESS HAS TEN KLIPOT.  THEREFORE, THE ATTEMPT TO GUARD THE EYES HAS MANY OBSTACLES. IF A PERSON CLOSES HIS EYES, THEY OPEN BACK UP LIKE A SPRING! HE CLOSES THEM AGAIN, AND THEY OPEN UP AGAIN LIKE A SPRING. THE TRUTH IS THAT HE NEEDS TO DO THIS A MILLION TIMES A DAY UNTIL ONE DAY, HE MERITS TO GUARD HIS EYES. EVEN IF A PERSON FELL A BILLION TIMES, HE SHOULDN’T GIVE UP, BECAUSE AT A BILLION AND ONE, HE WILL RISE.  YOU NEED TO FIGHT FOR THESE THINGS ALL THE TIME.  YOU NEED TO FIGHT 24 HOURS A DAY.  JUST AS WHEN A PERSON FIGHTS, HIS REWARD WILL BE MANY TIMES OVER, IN AN ENDLESS WAR HIS REWARD WILL BE ENDLESS TIMES OVER.

===

IN THE LIGHT OF THE KING’S FACE IS LIFE

“All the goodness we feel in our hearts, even if only a little, comes from the fact that we step outside of ourselves and think about something higher—about the soul. That is what constantly brings us joy: the ability to cling to our pure soul.

“For the soul—its source of strength flows from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It is itself a “Chelek Eloka Mima’al (a portion of God above),” and it is drawn directly from Hashem. It is not so easy for us to leave ourselves and to think about Hashem all the time. Yet, one way or another, we feel the soul—it is within us. We know that when there is something very hard, very painful, it is something connected more to the soul than to bodily matters. And then we automatically remember that there are higher things—that we are connected to higher worlds. We are children of the Jewish people—the eternal nation. We are bound to eternity.

“Only when we elevate ourselves to something higher, when we look at reality from a different perspective—like when a photograph is taken from above and you see everything in an entirely different way than from the angle of your own eye—only then do we see the truth. The light is the truth. The truth illuminates the path for us. All the other things, the darkness we feel—our biases, our sadness, our pain, our wounds, our struggles—everything, absolutely everything, is because that is not the truth. It is our one-sided perspective. That’s how it seems to us. But if we rise to the truth—there, in that place, we have light, not darkness. ‘Send Your light and Your truth; they shall guide me.’

“Light is truth. Light is joy. Light is the reality where the soul can live—where it is good for the soul, where it can withstand trials, where it can connect to something higher.”