Shiur from 26th Cheshvan 5786, to the yeshiva in the Old City

[The Rav has been talking about how Leah cried, because she thought she was destined to become the shidduch of Esav. And how people used to make marriage matches between their children as soon as they were born. The Rav continues:]

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By the Arabs, the moment a person is  born, they already arranged his shidduch, immediately with the cousins from the next sand dunes.

You are going to marry him, you are going to marry her, this is the shidduch.

And after this [her shidduch] turns out to be a murderer, he sits in jail – so this is a problem. So then, you want to get a divorce. If you want this, you’ll receive a beating, you’ll be given murderous blows.

The Jewish women [who married Arabs in Israel] are running away from them now. Out of 10,000, they already helped 50 [women] to escape.

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[The Rav turns to his son, Nachman Berland, and continues:]

Your mother herself smuggled out [people[1]] there. You were a boy, you were just born, in 5735 (1974) this was. You were then 10 years old. We made a brit in Tivon, we travelled to Tivon, to make him a brit.

He learned in Ponevezh, and then he became one of my chossids.

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The son of the Rav of Tivon was called Omer. His son went to France, so he came to Yitzhak David Grossman, and begged him to help him rescue his son.

That he should send someone to France to bring him back. I was there then, I was with David Grossman, we were like two brothers. He immediately contacted me to fly to France. I immediately got on a plane.

Where am I going to find him?

The son of the Rav from Tivon had become chiloni, he’d become like that, he’d already been in the mad house, from all the sins [he’d done].

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Like that one, who killed himself.[2]

The father wasn’t at home, so what is the boy going to do? The father needs to be at home. He is doing kiruv a thousand people in Korea. OK, you did kiruv with a thousand people.

But, come home at night!

Fly to Korea, then come back each day. What’s the worst that can happen? Take a private plane, and fly. Altogether, this is 10,000 km. You can do it in ten minutes, a thousand kilometres an hour.

How are you abandoning your son?!

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All the peoiple you did kiruv with, you did kiruv with a million people – this doesn’t equate to one son.

It’s written that King Hezekiah brought the whole of Israel back in teshuva – except his own son [Menashe].

The ikker (main thing) is to do kiruv with your own son, to find out what he’s up to, to buy him bon-bons, to take him out for a trip, to take him to Uman, once – so that he should see his Abba!

You can’t desert your own son! Your own son is equal to billions [of people you do kiruv with]. He can bring the geula.

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A person needs to know that the first priority is to take care of his own son.

He is in Korea for three years already, the boy didn’t see his father, he committed suicide. Because he was alone, he failed. They tripped him up.

Excerpted and translated from Shivivei Or, 436.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Rav appears to be talking about a Jewish mother and child who were smuggled out of an Arab village. The brit being referred to would be that of the boy whose father was an Arab.

[2] The Rav is referring to the bochur, Menachem Mendel Litzman, who apparently jumped off a building during the Million Man gathering to protest the chareidi draft, on October 30th, 2025.

See HERE.

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THIS is a post from 2008, announcing the new ‘Badd House in South Korea.

Here are some interesting snippets:

With their year-old daughter in tow, Rabbi Osher and Mussia Litzman arrived in Seoul, South Korea, to establish the nation’s first Chabad House…

“This is not my job – to look for religious activities for the Israelis or any Jewish people – [so] I need to ask you,” Yigal B. Caspi, Israel‘s ambassador to Seoul, told three Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical students who visited the country’s Jewish resident last summer. “We need Judaism here. We need Chabad. I have to ask of you, please do not forget about us.”…

Osher Litzman, who was appointed six months ago, first completed his duties in the Israel Defense Force before moving to South Korea. He and his wife learned Korean from an Internet-based language course.

In addition to local residents, the new Chabad House, which received a grant from the Rohr Family Foundation, will also serve tourists and business.

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2008 is 17 years ago.

If Mendy Litzman was 20 at the time of his death, as reported he’d be three at the time of his parents going to Seoul, but he’s strangely not mentioned in this press release.

Also, notice the close ties between the State and Chabad, with the State apparently ‘requesting’ ‘Badd houses in different parts of the world, because the State really, really cares about Jewish education, Torah and values, as we see clearly with our own eyes every second in this country. Ahem.

Lastly, HERE is an interview with Sam Rohr, of the Rohr Foundation, who donates so much of the cash for so many of these ‘Badd houses:

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Last one for now, from the Collive site that routinely blocks my browser… so I have to find creative ways to access their content.

Here is a strange line from this article from 2009:

Rabbi Osher Litzman and his wife have tirelessly worked on uniting the Jewish military and local communities of South Korea. This Tishrei, they are joined by bochurim Avi Lesches, Yossi Goldstein, Levi Pekar, and Shmuly Nadler. Full Story

Let me put this over to you, dear reader: what ‘Jewish military’ is being referred to here, that hangs out in South Korea?

And why would they need a ‘Badd shaliach who served in the IDF to help ‘unite’ them?

Over to you….