"From the Moment I Saw Him, My Soul Was Bound to His" - Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav zt"l on Drawing Close to the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

With great sorrow, the bitter news was received yesterday, Wednesday, the 19th of MarCheshvan 5785, regarding the histalkus (passing away) of this tzaddik (righteous man) and Chassid, one of the greatest students of our teacher, The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, a teacher of Torah to thousands who brought many back from sin, the Chassidic Rabbi, R' Eliyahu Meirav zt"l (of blessed memory).

We present before you the moving story of the Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav zt"l, one of the veteran and most famous students of our teacher, His Holy Honor, the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, who tells in brief but deeply meaningful words what caused him to draw close to the Rav. During his words, Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav unequivocally cuts through any attempt to fabricate or attribute evil to the tzaddik.

These are his holy words, zt"l:

"So, we were privileged, thank Hashem, from the first moment we merited to see these holy features about forty years ago. It was at the Pomerantz home, down in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood; they said that some great Rabbi had arrived. At that time, I didn't know about Chassidus, I didn't know about anything.

From the moment I saw him, from that very second, my soul was bound to his, and I never left him, and I will never leave him!

I saw that there was a completely different phenomenon here, a completely different kind of light clothed in a body, and he is simply a fearsome and awesome revelation of G-dliness!

"Like me and like you, as Rebbe Nachman said—'A kosher man goes with...'—but this is something else entirely.

Since then, looking at the last forty years, what happened and how it happened, how things unfolded, it is clear to any sensible person who has a drop of brains in his head that these accusations [are false]. Not only did I see with my own eyes that nothing was ever true. Although I did see, thank Hashem, very great tzaddikim, where when women came to be blessed by them, they placed hands on their heads. No one was shocked by this—they placed a hand on the head-covering and blessed them—this was the custom among the great Sephardic Rabbis. All the guarding of the eyes and everything was there, but that was the custom in Morocco and in all those places."

"With the Rav (Berland), we never saw such things—now suddenly all sorts of stories and talk have begun. So I say, 'the prudent shall keep silence at that time' (Amos 5:13). You cannot remove such holiness from its established status of sanctity through all sorts of vanities that people prattle and chirp about."

"Fortunate are we that we hold onto emunah (faith) and will not budge from emunah."

"I am very happy to see that the great Rabbis came out with a written call to stop these kinds of disgraces. We very much hope that things will be revealed and they will truly see—the true holy one. And may we draw close to him, with Hashem's help.