This is the only post I’m planning on putting up this week.

Baruch Hashem, we just married off another daughter, and I am taking a week off the blog, and the computer generally, to recuperate.

In the meantime, I wanted to post this up about the prayer gathering happening September 12th, 2024, beginning 9pm, in Hevron.

I don’t have details of any buses, any more than you see on this flyer, but I know they are really starting to get it organised this week, and that they are now announcing locations from where the buses will pick up and drop off, if you can’t make it by car.

May we just hear good news!

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Excerpt of a shiur given by Rav Berland on Sunday, 24th of Av, in relation to the prayer gathering occurring in Elul.

The most ‘accepted’ tefilot are by the Mearat HaMachpela, and especiall on Rosh Chodesh Elul, when all of Klal Israel enter into erev Rosh Chodesh Elul.

And then, the tefilot are ‘the most accepted’.

It’s like Rosh Hashana, mamash.

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It’s like the Rebbe says, that whoever comes to him already during Slichot, so it’s as though he’s already at Rosh Hashana.

“I heard that one time, [Rebbe Nachman] said on Erev Rosh Hashana after slichot, other people would be satisfied to have their Rosh Hashana the way you had your Erev Rosh Hashana.’[1]

He said that this is the true Rosh Hashana, it’s already Rosh Chodesh Elul, we are meriting to greet Elul, when the Elders used to faint.

R Yitzhak Breiter used to faint, when he used to bless the month, he used to say ‘Elul’, and when he used to say ‘Elul’ he used to faint.

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And it was like this by all the Litvkaks, all the roshei yeshivot used to faint when they said ‘Elul’, and their students would hide themselves under the tables, under the sofas, from fear, when they said ‘Elul’!

All their body would tremble! Their whole body would tremble!

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So the word ELUL ( אלול) is LO ( לא) LO (לו), two times ‘lo’ [i.e. The word ELUL is spelled with a lamed alef, and then a lamed vav].

Because in Elul we see: nachon, alilot lo, that Hashem does alilot[2] – great acts. Every day, new great acts, each second is something totally new. Every second is more ‘new’ than the second that preceded it, ‘because the world is getting better and better’.

Even though the generations are deteriorating, the most lowly neshamas, but if they weren’t so close to the ‘breaking’, they would have been good.

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Because the Shechina is the Tzaddik, and the Tzaddik renews.

If a person is close to the True Tzaddik, he is being renewed every second, he’s already a totally new person.

It’s already a ‘new sun’, because it’s now how we think, that it’s the same old sun, and the same old moon. Every second, it’s already a totally new sun.

“The One who renews in His goodness every day, always, the act of Creation.”[3]

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So, when the month of Elul arrives – Virgo, which is mamash a new totally new birth, this is a new formation. Elul is a new creation, because on the 25th of Elul, the world was created.

The 15th of Av – says the Bnei Yissachar, 40 days previously. Like the 15th of Shvat, this is for 40 days before the 25th of Adar.

All of this, Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol explains, that the world was created on the 25th of Elul. The first of Tishrei [Rosh Hashana] – this is Adam HaRishon.[4]

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So in Hevron, everyone is obligated to be in Hevron, no one should be missing!

So it shouldn’t come about that a person shouldn’t reach Elul.[5]

On Thursday night, it’s an obligation for all Am Yisrael [to be in Hevron]. For every group and every faction, it doesn’t matter at all, this is ‘one person’.[6] Like a person with one heart, like one man!

“I have given you Shechem, one above your brothers.”[7]

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This was written about Yosef HaTzaddik, because Yosef was found wherever everyone was found.

The [Talmud] Yerushalmi says [that] Rav Huna entered the house of Rabbi Chiyya, and he saw Yosef HaTzaddik.

Wherever the Tzaddikim are, that is where Yosef HaTzaddik is to be found. It’s like travelling to Shchem.

Now, when we travel to Hevron for the atzeret (prayer gathering), which is the atzeret for Rosh Hashana, we are continuing all the tikkunim (spiritual rectifications) of Rosh Hashana, and we are atoning for all the transgressions.

[This is] someone who is really doing teshuva shleima (total teshuva).[8]

Translated from Shivivei Or 374

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UPDATE:

Literally as I finished posting this up, I got an email from one of the Rav’s attendants telling me the following:

They are 60,000 shekel short just for getting the requirements to use Hebron. Subsidizing buses will be another 60,000 shekel. There is no sign up yet until they know it’s happening.

I’m waiting for him to send me a donation link to help make Hebron ‘happen’, and when that does, I’ll post it up here.

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BH, so many of my readers are generous givers, who regularly give their 10% tithe to somewhere, every single month, I hope they will be able to help out with this project.

Anyone who believes in the power of prayer, in the power of the True Tzaddikim, in the power of bringing Jews from all background to pray in the merit of zchut Avot for this horrible war and terrible situation to finally end – I’m sure those people will try to contribute something, even something little, and they’ll be greatly blessed for it.

And I’m also sure that the cynical misers out there who hate parting with a shekel are already formulating all their reasons ‘why not’, even as they read these words.

Bezrat Hashem, the former group outweighs the latter by a large margin…. and our good deeds should also outweigh our sins by a large margin, too.

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So check back here for a specific donation link, or if you can’t hold yourself back, go HERE and just specify it’s for the prayer gathering in Hevron, on September 12th, 2024.

We can’t do this without the True Tzaddikim.

But they can’t sweeten this without us, either.

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UPDATE 2:

Donation link to help make the prayer gathering in Hevron a reality:

 לתרומה מאובטחת באשראי לחץ כאן

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Chayei Moharan #305. Rabbenu’s meaning is that already by Erev Rosh Hashana in Uman by Rebbe Nachman, his followers had already been ‘taken across’to being signed into the Book of Life.

[2] In Hebrew, ‘aliya’ also denotes ascension, or ‘going up’.

[3]  Bereishit 1:1

[4] I.e. Adam Ha Rishon was created on the 6th day, and Rosh Hashana is counted from the creation of the first human being, ergo, the creation of the world began six days earlier, on the 25th of Elul.

[5] Perhaps the Rav’s intention is that coming to pray in Hevron is a guarantee of long life.

[6] Like at the time of the giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai, when the Jewish people were so united and unified, they were considered to be ‘one man’.

[7] Bereishit 48:22. In English, this is typically translated as ‘one [portion] more than your brothers’.

[8] I.e., that whoever makes the effort to follow the Tzaddik’s instructions to get to Hevron for the prayer gathering on Thurs night, September 12th, 2024, despite all the obstacles, effort and mesirut nefesh required, this will be considered for him as ‘teshuva shleima’, ahead of Rosh Hashana 5785.