ANT KATZ

 Last week Monday July 14, Rabbi Eliezer Berland, head of the Shuvu Banim Breslov Yeshiva in Jerusalem, but currently residing in Johannesburg, “attacked and criticised the conduct of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to BEHADREY HAREDIM – a website that calls itself “The world’s largest Chareidim portal”.

The Shuvu Banim leader’s attack on Bibi was reported by Moshe Weisberg, who wrote that in conversation with his disciples, Rabbi Berland had said: “Every day a hundred missiles flying over all Israel, and Prime Minister Netanyahu does not do anything! Just makes fun, sends a few soldiers to make noise, he is not doing anything – resign!”

SAJR Online spoke to Yossi* – a senior member of the Jerusalem Yeshiva today to verify the report. According to Yossi the report was correct, but poorly translated into English and that Rabbi Berland had made the statement prior to the IDF going into Gaza.

“Like a father he was trying to get the nation on the right track – that’s why he spoke so harshly to Bibi at the time,” said Yossi.

When R Berland said these things last Monday, says Yossi, deputy defence minister Danny Danon raised them with PM Netanyahu the same day. “The next day (Danon) got fired, he said all the things that R Berland had,” says Yossi, “and the next day they went in (to Gaza). The government realises that Rabbi Berland has a lot of influence in Israel.”

According to the Jerusalem Post of July 15, Bibi had “attempted to silence his critics on the Right by firing his deputy defence minister Danny Danon from his own Likud Party.”

Berland’s attack, as published in English, continued:

“Israel’s leaders have lost all proportion, people are killed, murdered and no one is shocked, kidnapped boys called the police and no one took any notice at all, if they would have sent immediately a few cars they would have caught the terrorists with the bodies of the hostages that same night, what kind of police is this? What kind of army is it? Is it impossible to eliminate all Gaza’s senior terrorists?! To catch all their weapons caches, all of their missile arsenal?!

“Bibi chose to form a government with Yair Lapid, who the only thing that pains him is when Orthodox children with peyos get a glass of milk, the entire state is overturned because an Orthodox child received a glass of milk, and those are the ones who support Hamas, they pay all those who make attacks social security and compensation, and the suicide bomber because he also got killed in the attack – they pay him compensation for the whole family! They want to recruit the Chareidim to the army?! What kind of army is this?! An army that abandons its soldiers! That’s not the IDF (Israel Defence Forces – in Hebrew צה”ל;) It’s the Army for Protecting Arabs (also צה”ל – צבא הגנה לערבים)! What kind of country is this?!. We need to shake up this country! “

Rabbi Berland’s plans

Asked what short-term plans Rabbi Berland and his followers have as their permits to remain in SA were for 90 days, Yossi said: “We don’t know his plans, or even question them. He is entitled to come back to Israel any time he wants. For all we know, he may come back tomorrow.”

Yossi did verify something that one of Rabbi Berland’s followers told Jewish Report recently, that Rabbi  Berland has gone into exile partly to save Am Yisroel from a nuclear attack by Iran.

Rabbi Berland is still willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of Israel and the Jewish people,” said Yossi. “He is taking it on himself to suffer for the Jewish people.”

Biblically speaking, Jacob fled from his wicked brother Esau – in the Torah we read of Vayivrach Ya’akov.

Jewish Report was reliably informed at the time of Rabbi Berland’s departure from Zimbabwe to South Africa, that he said the Brocha Shehecheyanu and stated that he was about to fulfil the mitzvah of Vayivrach Ya’akov. At that exact time Iran had planned a nuclear attack on Israel, say Rabbi Berland’s followers. This had been averted by Berland’s actions.

Rabbi Berland’s prayer for Israel

Yossi says that Rabbi Berland wrote a four-page prayer for Israel which he sent to the Yeshiva yesterday. It is being typed up and printed today. “We are printing half a million copies,” says Yossi. Every Wednesday evening Berland’s followers pray for him at the Kotel, and his followers are determined to have copies to distribute today.

PDF: PRAYER FOR ISRAEL PAGE IN R  BERLAND’S OWN HAND 
PDF IN HEBREW: R  BERLAND’S PRAYER FOR ISRAEL PRINTED

Yossi sent the above copies to SAJR Online so they can be distributed among Rabbi Berland’s local followers. These have just been typed today and are currently being printed. They appear here, on SAJR Online, for the first time.

Yossi has said he will begin working on translating it into English for SAJR readers as well. 

People are starting to realise who R Berland is

People in both Israel and Johannesburg are “starting to realise who Rabbi Berland really is,” says Yossi. “And how powerful he is.”  Yossi says that Chareidim in Israel strongly believe that the current government is “leftist and anti-Chareidim”. He quotes examples such as Yair Lapid wanting to cancel services to Chareidi children and the delayed response of the police to the call by the 100 (911) from the three Yeshiva students who were kidnapped last month and later found murdered.

Rabbi Berland, says Yossi, believes that if the police had been working as they should have, the three deaths could have been avoided. “The whole system needs to be fixed,” he said.

“The families of the kidnapped boys were constantly in touch with Rabbi Berland,” says Yossi. “He gave them strength!”

IN HEBREW: CLICK TO HEAR PODCAST ON ISRAELI RADIO

An Israeli radio station recently broadcast a live talk by Rabbi Berland. “Tens of thousands of people,” had listened to it, says Yossi, who provided SAJR Online with the above podcast to publish. As with the above PDFs, this is an MP3 format and can be downloaded and distributed.

Achdut, Israel more unified than ever

Because of the war and the influence of Rabbi Berland and other Chareidi leaders, said Yossi, “we are reaching a state of solidarity between all Jews”. He says that it has thus-far been a “very, very difficult war”, but has united Israel as we have never seen before. “The soldiers who are coming back say they are seeing miracles every day,” he says.

Yossi speaks of the Biblical principle of Achdut (unity). He says that only if Jews are as one can Moshiach come. “We must be as one, when Jews are united Hashem forgives them for everything – even if they are violating all the Torah laws.”  When we received the Torah we were “like one man with one heart”. Yossi says this is the first time in recent history that Israel has seen this kind of achdut.

“Before the Holocaust Jewish sects were also lacking unity, but when they started killing us we came together, sadly enough sometimes the only thing that brings the Jews together is persecution” he says.

But the Holocaust isn’t over. “The whole world is against us (not to say that there are not good non-Jews) – we have no friends besides Hashem. Rabbi Berland can help bring the nation together with his ideas of love and unity,” says Yossi. “He has infinite love for every single human being!”

Regarding Gaza

Yossi says that Israelis “pray that no-one gets hurt, on both sides. The number one thing we keep in mind is to protect civilians whether Israeli or Palestinian. Israeli soldiers would rather give up their own lives than take the life of a child, any child!” he says.

CLICK TO SEE ALL 63 ITEMS ON R. BERLAND ON THIS WEBSITE

Yossi says Hamas is using UN and Red Cross vehicles and ambulances to hide in and attack Israeli soldiers, as is recorded on video.

PDF: PRAYER FOR ISRAEL PAGE IN RABBI  BERLAND’S HAND 
PDF IN HEBREW: RABBI BERLAND’S PRAYER FOR ISRAEL PRINTED
IN HEBREW: PODCAST ON ISRAELI RADIO