On Wednesday, the night of 9 Tevet, residents of Beit Shemesh came to the home of Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland shlit”a for a shiur.

Here is a summary for the shiur, which lasted for more than forty minutes:

The Rav shlit”a began the shiur discussing the question in “Ma’aynah Shel Torah” regarding how Yosef solved the matter of grain of Rosh Hashanah (the day of his release), when the world is judged for grain on Passover.  During the discussion, the Rav mentioned the monthly article written in “Hitchadeshut” Magazine about the time that the Rav spent in exile, and on the month of Tevet in which the Rav stayed at Victoria Falls (in Zimbabwe).  He spoke about the snow that was in Israel at the time of the Hilulah of Rabbi Natan, as is described in the article.  The he related in the name of Rabbi Grossberg, that there was a certain man who went to the Kotel, and exactly then a women arrived to donate 5,000 shekels, and that she had already put 2,500 into a charity box when he arrived, and she gave him the rest.  Afterwards, he spoke about the war of the Maccabees against the Greeks, and that this was still before the Romans and Greeks fought over Egypt; as brought in Tractate Avodah Zarah 9, the Romans said to the Greeks that the Torah scroll is with us (that they made a pact with the Maccabees). Later on, the Rav shlit”a spoke about the blessings of Yitzchak to Yaakov, bringing the “Heichal HaBracha” who says that really Esav was on a higher level than Yaakov Avinu, and therefore he screamed, “He screamed a very great and bitter scream,” that there is no scream like this in the entire Bible, because he wanted a Bracha from the world of ATziLut, “Couldn’t you have emanated (ATzaLta) me a blessing too?”  While discussing this, he once again mentioned the article in Hitchadeshut, and described at length how he did Hitbodedut in the jungle at Victoria Falls. After this, he brought the story of Nachum Ish Gamzu, who brought a chest full of diamonds, and the diamonds were switched to dirt when he went out to do Hitbodedut.  The Rav described in his holy way the great faith of Nachum Ish Gamzu, who said about everything, “Also this is for the best,” and in the merit of this, the dirt turned into arrows and swords, and only through this the decree against the Jews was cancelled; because really the diamonds would not have changed the decree, because a king has no lack of diamonds.  This was in the merit of his nullifying himself to Hashem’s rule and rejoiced and saw in everything “this is also for the best”; in the merit of this, he succeeded in cancelling the decree. Afterwards, he discussed Asarah B’Tevet, the Hilulah of Rabbi Natan, and said that on 10 Tevet, the Third Temple was supposed to have been built.  We need to know that Rabbi Natan is the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu mamash, and Rabbeinu Nachman is even above this.  The Rav gave chizzuk in his words that it is forbidden to say about any Jew, even the worst sinner, that he is wicked. At the end of the shiur, he brought the story in which the Baal Shem Tov was on his way to the Land of Israel, and was saved in the merit of his assistant saying the letters of the Alef-Bet.  The Baal Shem Tov, his daughter Adel, and his assistant Reb Herschel came to Istanbul on the day before the seventh day of Passover.  Therefore, there is a custom to this day to tell this story on the seventh day of Passover.