Wonderful holy words for Parshat Vayeshev, filled and enriched with ethics and wisdom from Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a. The lesson was delivered on Thursday night of Parshat Vayeshev, Tevet 5779 after the evening prayer.

And how can we steal silver and gold? They asked Yosef, how is it possible? We returned to you all the money found in our sacks, how can we steal? How does this relate to each other? We returned more money than the goblet is worth, so exactly we would steal the goblet?

He says, yes you want to perform sorcery, the goblet is not money, with the goblet you can know where Yosef lives, you go with the goblet and know where Yosef is hiding, you took the goblet, not for money, but to know where Yosef is, because the goblet reveals everything, with the goblet you can go from street to street, until you reach the house where Yosef is.

It is Forbidden to Flatter the Wicked!

King Agrippa, who was supposed to be killed, Agrippa was a grandson of Herod, they said to him, our brother you are, our brother you are, so now you will go into exile, it is forbidden to flatter the wicked! Even someone like Agrippa, who would lower the basket and bring first fruits and distribute charity, but to flatter him? His head should have been removed – the whole matter is zealotry, only one who is zealous has the right to live, if a person is not zealous, he has no right to live, a person must be zealous, and then he can live all one hundred and twenty years, Pinchas lived, because he was zealous, why did Pinchas live forever? Because he was zealous! Only one who is zealous has the right to live.

Zeal for Hashem of Hosts

This is learned from Parshat Vayeshev, Yosef the tzaddik, he could have fled from them, he said I am going to them, even if they sell me, Yosef knew they would sell him, he was certain, but he said, even if they sell me, I am doing what my father told me, my father told me to go, I am going, because the question is why did he continue to go to Shechem? 

However, one who is zealous will prevail, and Pinchas, because he was zealous for Hashem, he lives forever, he does not die, he cannot die, if a person is zealous for Hashem, his entire body is transformed, he receives a new body from Gan Eden and he lives forever.

This is "Shall I and" "I" is Yaakov, "and your mother" is Rachel, "and your brothers to bow down to you to the ground" (Genesis 37:10). The Midrash Rabbah says that Rachel lives forever, Rachel did not die, Rachel was only included in Leah, "on the way to Efrat" (Genesis 48:7), what is "on the way to Efrat"? This is Leah, the whole work, how to include Rachel in Leah, and therefore the Zohar says, that Rachel did not pass away at all, also Sarah did not pass away, "and the life of Sarah" (Genesis 23:1), Sarah lives forever, "and Yaakov lived" (Genesis 47:28), Yaakov lives forever.

Only if a person is zealous, can he live, then it atones for all his sins, if a person is zealous, and he fights for Hashem, then he will pass the one hundred and twenty without any doubt, because it purifies the body, from the impurity of the serpent, only zealotry can purify the body, only if a person is zealous, it will purify his body, if he is not zealous then his body disintegrates. The whole matter of Rebbe Nachman, that he was a true zealot, he was the true zealot indeed, therefore he lives forever, therefore his chassidim live forever, and he merited that his continuation will be forever, no other Rebbe has a continuation like our holy Rebbe, our holy Rebbe lives for eternity, he cannot die, and even if they dig he can move himself.

Like Chizkiya son of Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yehuda was a flame of fire, during the union he was a flame of fire, and children need to be taught from the age of three, that during the union a fire should descend, if a person performs the union without desires, then a fire descends upon him, the whole matter is that a person during the union should have no desire, no feeling, and then a fire descends upon him, like Rabbi Yehuda, a fire descended upon him, and a person should have no feeling during the union, and this needs to be prepared from the age of three. Therefore it is written in Pele Yoetz, to prepare the children from the age of seven, and the children should beat their father, because he brought them in impurity, because everything that happens to the child, because his father brought him in impurity, so he should beat the father, why did you bring me in impurity? And through this he removes the impurity.

"And it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks" (Genesis 42:35)

The Rebbe says, to remove the impurity of birth, because a person is born with such terrible impurity, such impurity that was not from the creation of the world, so how does he remove the impurity? Only through zealotry, Pinchas was zealous, Pinchas lives forever, some say it might have been a reincarnation, but the Ari says, that Pinchas is actually Eliyahu, and after seven hundred years, then Eliyahu the prophet sits under "under a broom tree" (1 Kings 19:4), "coals of broom" (Psalms 120:4), he reached Be'er Sheva, and after that he traveled to France, he traveled to France, but not the France of today, the France in Sidon, this is "Zarephath which belongs to Sidon" (1 Kings 17:9), so he can live forever, because there was a widow woman, and she says "I have commanded" (ibid), what is "I have commanded"? Deborah says, "Hashem commanded" (Judges 4:6), "Hashem commanded", what is "Hashem commanded"?

But Hashem speaks with the neshamah (soul), Hashem tells the neshamah everything that was and everything that will be, and before the neshamah descends to the world, they show it everything, all the paths, they show the neshamah that it needs to travel to Uman, they show it before it descends to the world, they tell it your rectification needs to be that until one hundred and twenty you will travel to Uman, they tell it this, it remembers this, suddenly it awakens, because of this it travels to Uman, the moment a person reaches Uman he will already live until 120! The whole work of a person is to reach Uman, and then he will already live until 120, a person comes to the world only to be in Uman, only, that is his entire purpose, to actually live there, this is a question, because yeshivas need to be established, and to pray at five in the morning, and not to sleep at night.

If a person falls asleep at night, all his work is not worth it, the Rambam says, the service of Hashem is only at night, the Rambam in the laws of Torah study (Chapter 3, Halacha 13), writes that a person should not lose any night in sleep, nor in eating, a person needs to learn Ketzot HaChoshen 24 hours, only this captures the mind! If he learns Gemara without Ketzot HaChoshen, he does not understand what he is learning! It does not connect for him, only when he learns Ketzot HaChoshen, can he understand what he is learning!

Because the Ketzot says, with one slap, a person turns from a donkey to a Jew, he asks, how can a Canaanite slave suddenly become a Jew? It is written about Tavi, in the Bavli it is written that he took out his eye, the Yerushalmi says, he took out his tooth, eye and tooth together is the gematria of 480 like Lilith, because every Canaanite slave is in the hands of Lilith, when a person is not in the hands of the tzaddik he is in the hands of Lilith! A person goes with the tzaddik, he can pass through Sha'ar Shechem, even if grenades are thrown, Molotov cocktails, all the Arabs move aside, there were Zionists and Arabs there on Simchat Torah, everyone moved aside, and everyone turns to nothing, to dust

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