Receiving the Torah with the Tzaddik - Words of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a for the Holiday of Shavuot - Kevavas Shomrom 26

"There is a significance to reciting the Ten Commandments. One who recites the Ma'amados (daily compilation of verses) every day merits to say the Ten Commandments every day, and specifically as an individual, it is permitted to say the Ten Commandments daily. Now we are three days before Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah), the three days of limitation (Hagbalah). 'If He had brought us close to Mount Sinai and not given us the Torah, it would have been enough (Dayenu).' Everyone waits for Matan Torah, yet we said in the Haggadah that we would have managed even without Matan Torah—without the Giving of the Torah, the thunder, the torches, and the lightning. Everyone said explicitly: Once we arrived at Mount Sinai, it was already enough for us, we would have managed. So what is the meaning of 'had He not given us the Torah'?"

"Rather, on that day, the moment we arrived at Mount Sinai, the Nation of Israel already heard all Ten Commandments. Every single limb proclaimed all Ten Commandments, just like with Avraham Avinu, whose kidneys became flowing springs of wisdom (Bereishit Rabbah 61:1). Every single limb in Avraham proclaimed its specific commandment to him. The eyes said: It is forbidden to look! The mouth said: It is forbidden to speak! The ear said: It is forbidden to hear! The hands said: It is forbidden to touch where it is forbidden to touch! As we mentioned that the Satmar Rebbe says this is worse than desecrating Shabbat. And the legs said that it is forbidden to walk where it is forbidden to walk! So every single commandment voiced its own instruction. This is what the Gemara says in Eruvin (Page 100b): 'Who teaches us? The beasts of the earth.' The Gemara says—and there is also a Yalkut Shimoni—'Who teaches us? The beasts of the earth, and makes us wise from the birds of the heavens' (Job 35:11). This is the opposite of what the gentiles say, that man is a monkey. The monkey can still teach you; there is much to learn from the monkey. I wish there were monkeys—monkeys do nothing evil. One can learn the Torah from all the animals, from all the beasts; from all the animals and beasts, one can learn the Holy Torah."

[caption id="attachment_7755" align="alignnone" width="787"] Kevavas Shomrom 26 for the Holiday of Shavuot - Words of the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a[/caption]

"Avraham learned this from his limbs; every single limb proclaimed the Torah, every single limb proclaimed its mitzvah. There are 248 limbs and 365 veins. What should a person do if he does not hear from his limbs? He should look at the animals and the beasts—how beasts behave, how doves behave, how an ant behaves. As it is written: 'Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise' (Proverbs 6:6). In the summer, she does not rest for a single second. The ant has another nature: something that an ant has merely smelled—if an ant smelled a certain grain, she only smelled it—then the second ant will no longer touch it, because it already has a scent on it. If she smelled a grain, no one trespasses on their friend's boundary. She steals from humans—that is something else, we won't discuss that topic now, a kor of wheat in an ant hole—but we are speaking about [conduct between] friends. First of all, 300 [teachings] were once found on how a person should be decent with his friends. Let's start with friends first. Let us learn from the ant how to behave with friends, how to conduct oneself with friends. If the ant merely smelled a grain, then the second ant will not touch it there; she will not touch that grain. A cat—a cat covers up; one needs to cover the waste. When entering the restroom, learn from a cat."

"Rabbi Akiva Eiger brings down that when a person enters a restroom, he must clean the place after himself and not leave the place dirty. And we haven't even reached those laws yet; right now we are holding at the Ten Commandments. There are entire laws regarding this, how a person must enter the restroom. There was a story where someone related that a certain Rabbi—a certain prince—asked for the Shulchan Aruch to be brought to him. He began reading Siman (Section) 1, Siman 2, Siman 3. When he reached Siman 3, he said, 'I see that your Torah is truth.' In Siman 3, he understood that our Torah is truth—how one behaves in such places, laws of how to sit, how to remove one's garment."

"David HaMelech saw Shaul HaMelech and was astounded. He was his father-in-law. [He saw him using] ten sheets, one upon the other; he entered the restroom and didn't know where to throw his clothes. The Gemara says in Berachos that they eulogized someone as being 'modest.' Modest? You go with your friend into the bathroom to see how he behaves there? How can you say he is modest in a place where no one sees him? There, in the innermost chambers, how does he behave? How does he remove his garment? How does he put on his garment? In these matters, a person is tested; in this, a person is tested; in this, a person is tested. This prince saw Siman 3 and said: 'If so, the Torah of the Jews is truth.' This shows that the entire Torah is truth, that they write how to behave in such places."

"So from a cat, learn from a cat, how a cat behaves. You don't remember that the Commandments are resonating in the void? You don't hear the Commandments at every moment, like Avraham Avinu, Yitzchak, and Yaakov who heard the Commandments at every single moment? Then learn from the animals and from the sea algae. Sea algae, exactly two hours before sunrise (HaNetz), begin to rise. Sea algae sink up to 8 meters—whether it is two kilometers, whether it is 100 [meters] to the bottom, whether it is a kilometer—they go down to the bottom. The sea algae, exactly two hours before sunrise, begin to rise. At sunrise, they already reach the surface of the sea. Exactly two hours [prior]. They descend—they are algae! Who taught them? They are algae, almost single-celled, barely a few counted cells. Exactly two hours before sunrise, whether in summer or in winter, they rest on the ocean floor. At night, the sea is clean of algae. So it is written: they descend to the bottom and they rise for two hours; they rise slowly, slowly."

"Two hours before sunrise. The Mishnah Berurah brings that the Magen Avraham [says] according to the opinion of... (one must already) prepare for prayer from Alot HaShachar (dawn) until HaNetz (sunrise), which is exactly two hours. Maybe 5 minutes (the time to walk a Mil), so 24 (minutes) is a Mil. So it works out exactly right: [at] 24 [minutes] one can already say Korbanot (offerings), one can say everything. It is written: two hours before sunrise. So, modesty from a cat; [avoiding] theft from an ant—she will not touch what her friend touched. A dove—a dove is always faithful. If one dies, then the other is finished; he does not marry again. (The pair of doves) are born together, marry together, and if one dies (that's it, his partner remains lonely)."

"A rooster—a rooster comes home and tells his wife stories: 'I will buy you diamonds, I will buy you this, I will buy you that.' Learn from the rooster how to speak. A person comes home... Rashi says he will only buy her a cloak. Rabbeinu Chananel is more of a gentleman; [he says the rooster promises] 'I will buy you diamonds.' He says: 'Diamonds multiplied from your ears to the ground! I will buy you such beautiful necklaces from your ears down to the ground.' So this is in the morning. And when he comes home, he says, 'Tomorrow I will bring it to you, today I didn't succeed.' Tomorrow he comes—well, where are the diamonds? Where is it? So Rashi says he just bows; this gentleman just does a little bow with his head. Rabbeinu Chananel says no, [the rooster] says: 'May a cat come! May a cat come and cut off my head and eat my head if I didn't look for diamonds and didn't succeed in finding them! I didn't succeed in obtaining them. I went, I searched, I searched Gemachs (free loan funds), but all the Gemachs were closed. Now they have returned the deposits. Let's wait another month, maybe some Gemach will give.'"

"A person needs to know derech eretz (proper conduct)—how to speak with a friend, with one's wife, how to pray. 'Who teaches us? The beasts of the earth, and makes us wise from the birds of the heavens.' A person can learn everything from animals and fish. Every living creature has a certain trait from which one can learn how to behave, for Hashem scattered all the 613 Mitzvot among all the living creatures—contrary to what the secularists and the gentiles say. So do not rob! And do not steal! Be like ants! Be like doves! A human is worse than a dove! A dove does not betray! A dove behaves with modesty, a cat behaves with modesty. I wish you were animals! I wish! I wish! You are some kind of monstrous creation like that, that together no one knows where it came from—whether it came from the demons, or from the void. No one knows who gave birth to them. The problem is that they haven't found such monsters yet; they thought they would find such monsters on the moon, or on Mars. There are no such monsters anywhere, on any star."

"So the moment the Nation of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, they already heard all the Ten Commandments—already, already. 'Had He brought us close to Mount Sinai and not given us the Torah, it would have been enough'—Dayenu. For they would have already been like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, where every single limb spoke its Torah, spoke its mitzvah. They heard the Ten Commandments. And when the 6th of Sivan arrived, and they shouted 'Na'aseh V'Nishma' (We will do and we will hear) even before, and they saw the Livnat HaSapir (Sapphire Brickwork), the Chamber of Livnat HaSapir—'and they saw under His feet like the work of the Livnat HaSapir'—this could be [that] even (this year, may we merit during) Matan Torah to already reveal the Chamber of Livnat HaSapir."