“These are the Journeys of the Children of Israel”

A SHIUR GIVEN MOTZA’AI SHABBAT PARASHAT MATTOT-MASEI IN 5777 (2017) BY MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A:

“THESE ARE THE JOURNEYS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.”

“These are the journey of the Children of Israel,” because just to reach above is forty journeys.  It is written that the Jewish people camped in “Charadah [language of ‘fear’],” because in Charadah, they had a terrible decree.  After this, it became “Mitka” [language of “sweetening”].  All the names I learned with the Rabbanit.  They gave the names.  In the desert, there are no names, and every place that they came to, they gave a name.  In Charada, they felt fallen fears.  [In] Moserot, they released [and] removed the reins -- the yoke. There, Aharon died and there was a power outage.  For eight days, there was no electricity.  There was complete darkness, and the cloud would shine for them, and since Aharon passed away, the Clouds of Glory departed for eight days.  People told everyone to return to Egypt.

Moserot [reins] – because there they released the reins.  Imagine for yourselves, [because] you are reading the verses [and] do not at all feel what you are reading there.  Suddenly, there are no Clouds of Glory.  They are exposed in the desert to Amalek, the Emorites, Hittites, Perizzites.  “Amalek dwells in the land of the Negev, and the Canaanite and Hittite are in the mountain.”  The Jebusite – Avraham made a covenant with the Jebusite, and until King David, there was a covenant that we wouldn’t touch [harm] them.  For them, it was permissible to touch us; for us, it was forbidden to touch them.  Also with the Philistines, there was a covenant – “David took Metheg-ammah.”  It is written about David that he took the contract; he revealed the contract.  There is a contract to this day in the archives of Rome.  There is the contract that they made with the Romans during the Second Temple period.  We helped them; they didn’t help us.  They just destroyed our Temple.  We helped them conquer Egypt and everything.  Antipater, the father of Herod, fought for the benefit of the Romans.  He built the Antipatris fortress.  This is a 2,000-year-old fortress in Rosh HaAyin.  One should do Hitbodedut once in the Antipatris fortress.

There in Moserot, they fell.  Suddenly, there was no electricity, no Clouds of Glory, nothing.  They were exposed to the Hittites, the Emorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites.  There Aharon died, and it took Moshe time until he brought back the Clouds of Glory.  He did not bring it back immediately.  It took him eight days to bring it back.  He brought Miriam’s well back within two hours.  The Clouds of Glory took him eight days, because what Aharon does, no one else can do.  Aharon would go from tent to tent and learn with each baby, with each child.

In Moserot, there were no prayers to cancel out fear yet.  Now, there are prayers for cancelling out fear, to not fear.  No one wrote prayers.  Because of the fear, there was no choice, you need to return to Egypt.  Everyone returned then until the tribe of Levi stopped everyone.  Shuvu Banim were the party of Rashi, the party of Tosefot, I don’t know exactly – of Rabbeinu Tam.  [Whether] they voted for Moshe Rabbeinu, for Korach.  I can’t remember who Shuvu Banim voted for 3,000 years ago – for Korach, for Datan and Aviram.  For Moshe they definitely didn’t vote.  I can be sure about that.

“The entire congregation gathered” – Moshe remained with seven people, only Aharon, Miriam, Elazar, and Itamar.  They counted Miriam also for a minyan – this is four, and also Eldad and Medad – this is six.  Moshe is seven.  So says the Midrash Rabbah.  And after this, he brought down Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and he had a minyan.  Rabbi Shlomke of Zvhil would always bring down the holy patriarchs.  If there were seven people, he would say, “This isn’t a problem; I’ll bring down the patriarchs.”  He had a synagogue in Beit Yisrael.  He would arrive for Minchah before Shabbat, and he would never have a minyan, because he hadn’t been revealed.  People didn’t know who this was at all.  He would sit on the sidewalk and wait for the bus, simply, sit in front of the shul on the sidewalk.  There wasn’t the Breslov shul yet.  He would wait for the bus to come.  There at the Kotel, there were no seats.  The British didn’t allow bringing seats.  Only at Chatzot did they manage to smuggle them in.  Ov Vavoy – if he would see a chair, the policeman would give such a kick.  Mordechai Luzer told me what kind of kick they would receive.  The policemen would kick those who would get up at Chatzot.  The Kotel was a narrow road, a narrow alley.  This is apparent in all the pictures.

When they arrived in Moserot, all the Clouds of Glory disappeared, no Clouds of Glory, nothing.  Everything disappeared.  No water.  The Jewish people asked about Moshe, why it was necessary to search for the rock.  Moshe can bring water out from any rock.  Rather, Moshe wanted to show them the rock of Miriam, that from there, it’s something else completely.  Water can come out of any rock.  It’s possible to give a hit here so that water would come out.  “Strike the rock” -- in Zohar Beshalach, [it says that] it’s not written, “Strike upon {al) the rock,” rather, “Strike in (b-) the rock” – with prayer.   The Zohar says explicitly that also in Parashat Beshalach, it was prayer.  What happened in Beshalach?  He came with the staff and began to give such blows.

“Strike the rock.”  I asked this question already ten times since we started Chukat.  Why there in Beshalach is it written, “Strike the rock.”  Rather, [it is] the rock on high.  Because there is a rock, and above it there is a rock, and above it there is a rock.  The water comes out of rocks, out of a flinty rock.  And there is a rock above all rocks – the rock of all rocks.  Moshe Rabbeinu was supposed to reach the rock of all rocks, where Miriam had reached.  This isn’t a problem.  Give a blow and out comes water.  You can give a blow here, there, every rock.  But we want also fire, also oil, also honey to come out, and not just for water to come out.  And this is only Miriam’s rock, and Miriam’s rock can also bring out fire.

A person doesn’t know that Hashem doesn’t relent on anything.  On no movement does He relent.  This is the husk of Sichon King of the Emorites and Og King of the Bashan.  We read in Parashat Mattot that Sichon “purified” Gilad [by taking it from Moav so that Israel could conquer it], and Og purified the land of the Bashan.  The Bashan was Og’s and the Gilad was Sichon’s.  These are the most terrible husks, because these are the ones who take hold of a person and cause him to stumble.  One needs to know to go and fight, because Sichon takes a mountain of three parasangs, taking all the prayers and throwing them in one’s face.  The Rebbe says in [Likutey Moharan] Lesson 8 that everything that you pray is thrown into your face if you don’t know about the Tzaddik.  Then a person can pray all the prayers in the world, to finish all the Tehilim every day, and everything is thrown in his face.

The shiur underwent editing and if an error occurred, it should be attributed to the writer, and not, God forbid, to Moreinu HaRav shlit”a.

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