The Admor of Kaliv and His Connection to Rav Berland

IN HONOR OF THE HILULAH OF THE REBBE OF KALIV ZT”L, WHICH FELL ON 23 NISAN, WE BRING YOU A SPECIAL INTERVIEW WHICH WAS GIVEN ON THE KAV BRESLOV OLAMI (*9148) WITH RABBI CHAIM BINYAMIN KIRSCHENBAUM – THE ADMOR OF KALIV WOULD SAY: “DURING THE HOLOCAUST, THE NAZIS WOULDN’T ASK A JEW WHAT POLITICAL PARTY HE BELONGED TO.”

THE ADMOR’S ATTENDANT AND THE ONE WHO WAS THE CLOSEST TO HIM, RABBI CHAIM BINYAMIN KIRSCHENBAUM, RELATES:

"The feeling after the passing of the Rebbe was dreadful and terrible.  On the Thursday night before Passover, the Rebbe appointed me his “shaliach (emissary)” to search for chametz, and after the ten pieces were found, he performed “bitul chametz (nullification of chametz).”  During Shabbat at Minchah, he still received an aliyah to the Torah, but his condition continued to deteriorate

"On the second day of Chol HaMoed, Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein visited him and told him that his face was glowing.  The Admor of Kaliv responded that they were already waiting for him above.  The Rebbe had tremendous self-sacrifice for “ahavat Yisrael (love of the Jewish people).”  He would say, “During the Holocaust, the Nazis wouldn’t ask a Jew what political party he belonged to.”

"The Rebbe went to kibbutzim to draw Jews closer.  He once went to Kibbutz Ein Gev, and they didn’t understand what chasidim were doing there.  He told them that he wanted to affix a mezuzah for them, and that was indeed the first mezuzah in that kibbutz.  Afterwards, he volunteered and built for them a synagogue.

"The Rebbe recounted that during the Holocaust, mighty people fell because they didn’t have faith.  But muselmanim [a term commonly used among Jewish concentration camp inmates to describe those on the brink of death due to starvation] who had faith survived and merited to ascend to the Land of Israel and build faithful homes to Hashem.  The Rebbe composed a song about this, that you always need to instill faith in Hashem.

"The Admor of Kaliv had a very great bond with Rav Berland shlit”a.  I heard with my own ears when Rav Berland visited the Admor of Kaliv in the Beit Midrash of Karlin that he told him that he was giving him an additional eighteen years of his own life.  This was a period in which the Rebbe was ill, and Rav Berland told him that he was giving him eighteen years from his own life.  These are not things that others told me, but things that I heard with my own ears.

"THE LOVE AND BOND THAT WAS BETWEEN THE ADMOR OF KALIV WITH RAV BERLAND SHLIT”A – THEY MET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN JERUSALEM.  THE RAV WOULD COME TO THE CELEBRATIONS OF THE HOUSE OF KALIV.  THE ADMOR WOULD PRAY FOR RAV BERLAND SHLIT”A OFTEN – THERE ARE EVEN LETTERS ABOUT IT.  MAINLY, THE PRAYERS WERE WHEN RAV BERLAND WAS ABROAD.  THE ADMOR OFTEN MENTIONED RAV BERLAND FOR GOOD; THEY HAD A VERY GREAT BOND BETWEEN THEM."

This concludes the words of the Rebbe of Kaliv’s attendant and the one who was closest to him, Rabbi Chaim Binyamin Kirschenbaum.

https://vimeo.com/1077064457