"When you go to Yosef HaTzaddik, then Yosef HaTzaddik protects you"

The Daily Chizuk (spiritual strengthening) from the Gaon and Tzaddik, our teacher Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days), Wednesday, 24th of Menachem Av 5784

We say in the melody of 'Ora V'Simcha' (Light and Joy) from the Shabbos songs, "Accept my prayer like the sacrifice of Nachshon."

Nachshon represents the peak of humility, the peak of lowliness. Moses said to travel, so he travels—there is no sea, there is nothing. He said to travel to Shechem (Nablus), there is no army, there is nothing, there are no Palestinians.

Everyone is going crazy, the entire media is losing its mind—how can one go into a Palestinian city?

I used to go there every day! For five years, every single day. We were living in Bnei Brak, so it took half an hour to get to Shechem. Every day we would go regularly to Shechem; we would finish Vasikin (the sunrise prayer service), and get on the bus to Kfar Saba from Jabotinsky Street. From there, we would walk to Qalqilya and pass by Binyamin HaTzaddik. Not Binyamin the son of Yaakov (Jacob), but Binyamin HaTzaddik, about whom it is written in the Gemara (Talmud) that he lived an extra 22 years because he supported a widow with seven sons.

At the tomb of Binyamin HaTzaddik, we would do an hour of Hisbodedus (secluded prayer), recite the Tikkun HaKlali (the General Rectification), and continue on to Yosef HaTzaddik (Joseph the Righteous).

In Qalqilya, we would get into a taxi with seven Arabs and drive for half an hour, even an hour, until Shechem. After that, we would walk through the whole of Shechem on foot. From the Casbah, we would walk through all of Shechem to Yosef HaTzaddik - when you go to Yosef HaTzaddik, then Yosef HaTzaddik protects you.

For five years, from 5744 (1984) to 5749 (1989), we went every day. Then the first Intifada began, and we started going every day to Shimon HaTzaddik (Simeon the Just); it was a regular thing, we would sit there for an hour.

Yosef HaTzaddik—without this, it is impossible to live. It is impossible to live without Yosef HaTzaddik. Moses took the bones of Yosef with him; Moses did not leave Egypt without Yosef. It is impossible without Yosef. Yosef is [one of] the Seven Shepherds.

"I am Hashem your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery," has the Gematria (numerical value) of "The Seven Shepherds," for the Shepherds are the Ten Commandments. It is exactly, exactly the Gematria of 'The Seven Shepherds,' no need for a Kollel (the extra unit in calculation), without a Kollel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David, and also the Four Matriarchs.

Moses does not leave without Yosef HaTzaddik. I told him that there is no permission from the army; I explained to him that he shouldn't travel to Shechem. In the end, he did travel to Shechem, took Yosef's bones out of the grave, and went with them - even Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) does not leave without Yosef; he does not go to the Giving of the Torah without Yosef.

The coffin of Yosef goes before the camp of Israel. The coffin of Yosef, of the Tzaddik—today this is Rebbe Nachman, and he goes before the camp of Israel.