The Ultimate Uman Pilgrimage

Do I go to Uman? 

My wife grew up in Ukraine. On her first day in elementary school, a couple of older kids confronted her on a stairwell and called her a zhid (Russian for “Jew”).  She promptly took the biggest one and threw him out the two-story window.  

After that and many other not-so-fond memories of growing up in a land soaked with the blood of 1.4 million Jews, she explained her feelings to me about ever revisiting that cursed land.  

Since she grew up in the harshness of the Soviet Union and I grew up a mile away from the softest bagels on Long Island, our discussion didn’t last too long. I have never been to Uman.  

I have decided that it’s better for Uman to come to me.  

Plan B 

More than the pilgrimage to Uman, we all want Rebbe Nachman to make the pilgrimage to Israel. 

We ask Hashem for this multiple times, three times a day in the Amidah. Right at the beginning, we mention twice that God will revive the dead. The second mention is a blessing that He should do it for Klal Yisrael (the entire Jewish people).  

We ask for Hashem’s salvation in the Amidah: That He will restore the monarchy of King David, expand our borders to the Euphrates and to the Nile, bring home all Jews to Eretz Yisrael, reinstate Torah law to all her citizens, rebuild the Temple, and revive the dead so that our next Torah shiur (lesson) will be delivered by Rebbe Nachman himself.  

Our greatest longing is that Rebbe Nachman, alongside every other Jew that ever lived, spends his next Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem! 

Get Extreme 

Two years ago, followers of Rebbi Nachman went to Uman during the coronavirus pandemic. This year, they risked life and limb dodging Iranian-made attack drones to get close to the Rebbe.  

If we are willing to go to such extremities to go to our teacher, we should go to even greater extremes to bring him home to Eretz Yisrael for all time.  

What are the mitzvot that take the most intense effort? What are the mitzvot that no generation had a harder time to perform than ours? 

These very commandments are the keys to our redemption and salvation: 

1. Shmirat Habrit (Personal Holiness)

The entire world is hypersexualized. Every screen on earth uncovers access to the worst sins in the Torah. Performing this mitzvah today is harder than at every other time in human history.  
 

2. Modesty

Girls, even in religious schools, see Harry Stiles and Justin Beiber during recess. They’re learning the alternatives to what they are learning in class. It takes superhuman effort for every daughter of Hashem to follow the laws of modesty.  
 
Every Jewish woman who does so is single-handedly bringing Mashiach closer.  
 

3. Shmirat HaLashon (Guarding Your Tongue, Proper Speech)

Facebook is a slander factory. Every Comments section is also a hub for misusing the great gift Hashem reserves only to man – speech, and the greater gift He reserves only for Israel – proper speech.  
 
The temptation to lash out and say something that is a sin 30 times over is massive. Every time we resist the urge to express our opinion on something that will inevitably lead to hateful speech, we reverse the very plague that extends our current exile without prophets, kings, and the Temple.   

Let’s make the next Uman pilgrimage start from Uman and end, once and for all, inside the Holy City, in our Holy Land, with our Holy Rebbe.  

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, a high-tech center, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, the local camel. David’s Israeli startup, Center Stage Content, ma​kes your business the star of the show by creating SEO optimized, ROI driven, easy to understand content.