Meeting the Master of Treasures

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

No Matter What Happens 

Everyone encounters pressures, but if we have to experience pressure, we at least want it to be for a good cause. It should be for a happy occasion rather than for an illness. One of my talmidim was faced with a daunting challenge for a good cause – his wife was expecting to give birth on Rosh Hashanah. 

Ever since he had become close to me, this talmid made sure to travel to Uman every year for Rosh Hashanah. What was he supposed to do this time? He reasoned that it would be a crime to leave his wife alone when she was about to give birth, especially since they had young children at home. He asked me what he should do, and I told him that he must not go away unless his wife pushes him to go. 

Well, he stayed home. That year, the family was bombarded with one crisis after another. They realized that these were not chance events; there was no natural explanation. 

My talmid’s wife told him, “Listen, dear husband, and listen well. We will never again decide that you will not go to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. I don’t care what it will cost me – you are not going to stay home for Rosh Hashanah. I don’t care if I am left by myself to care for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and whether or not I have any money or food, whether I am about to give birth or in any other circumstance – you will go to the Rebbe!” 

At Any Price 

Dear friends! We are taking giant steps toward the month of Elul, and Rosh Hashanah is right around the corner. In previous generations, this one sentence would have been enough to cause people’s hearts to tremble with fear. In our times we might not tremble, but we are intellectually aware that we are approaching the day when we will be judged for everything we did over the past year, and that we will be sentenced for everything that will take place over the coming year. We must do something to prepare for it, but what are we doing? 

Suppose you were summonsed to a court case, and you are liable to be fined 50,000 shekels, or perhaps the stakes are even higher. You would be preoccupied with this all the time, seeking advice and strategies from all directions. Most importantly, you would seek a competent lawyer. What wouldn’t you do to ensure that you would be found innocent of all charges? 

In reality, we need to make all these preparations, because our very lives are at stake. We have to discover our spiritual weaknesses and patch them up. We have to fix whatever we can so that the Court will find us as innocent as we can make ourselves. But that is not enough. Besides all that we can do for ourselves, the most important thing is to find a lawyer capable of defending our case in court. That lawyer is available – his name is Rebbe Nachman! 

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov promised to influence the Court in the cases of all his people, all those who gather around him for Rosh Hashanah. He will be there for them from the very beginning, from the moment when the chazzan  says Barechu to begin the holy day! 

Right now is the time to reserve a ticket to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. It is time to call your friends and persuade them to join you. And you, good Jewish wives, it is time for you to encourage your husbands and push them to make the trip.¹ Send them on their way happily despite the toll it might be taking on your family and your finances. 

Your husbands are about to pack a valise and go on a harrowing trip. They do this for their benefit, for your benefit, for your children, and for the entire nation of Yisrael. Even if it is difficult or even arduous, every hardship will be rewarded with a sweet, good year, a year of blessings, marital harmony, healthy children, parnasah (income), and every  yeshuah (salvation). 

Nothing Is More Important 

There is hardly a Jew in the world who does not benefit from the teachings of Rebbe Nachman. Rebbe Nachman told his followers to announce to the entire world that whoever has faith in him should come to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. His entire essence is Rosh Hashanah, and his Rosh Hashanah is more important than anything else.² All people’s arguments and excuses are simply irrelevant. This is the most important week of the year for you personally, for the entire Jewish nation, and in fact for the entire world. This week is what makes the difference. 

Each person’s traveling experience is a step toward the Geulah³, and that is especially so now that the trip is longer and more difficult. We earn more reward for every extra step. Rebbe Nachman took upon himself to watch from his place in Heaven as we traverse the roads, and he pays attention to the efforts people are making all over the world and the hardships they encounter to come to him. 

Numbering in the tens of thousands, Jews of all types from across the spectrum come. They are emotionally charged and inspired. They do teshuvah through love, with song and joy. During the few days before Rosh Hashanah, his holy grave site appears to be a sea of Jewish tears, an ocean of prayers and of genuine inspiration. Fortunate is the one who witnesses this, and fortunate is the one who succeeds in arriving. 

Rebbe Nachman said that everyone in the world wishes that his Rosh Hashanah should be as inspiring as the day before Rosh Hashanah in Uman. The days of Rosh Hashanah themselves in Uman are beyond description. There are no words to capture their power. 

Rebbe Nachman said that on Rosh Hashanah he can accomplish for people even things that he could not  accomplish at any other time of the year.⁴ This is especially so on a year like this, when the first day of Rosh Hashanah will be Shabbat. This gives us an opportunity to be privy to another of Rebbe Nachman’s promises – that spending one Shabbat with him is equal to fasting consecutively for seven weeks! 

Come Home With Gifts 

Whenever people travel abroad, they come back with suitcases filled with gifts for their children. Well, Uman is not chutz la’Aretz (outside of the land of Israel); Uman is the very source of the holiness of Eretz Yisrael⁵. Despite this, when people return home from Uman, their suitcases are full to the brim with gifts. What kind of gifts do people bring from Uman? 

They are not just gifts, they are treasures. They are the most valuable treasures in life. If you wanted only one thing, what would it be? You would approach Hashem and ask, “Father in Heaven, what is the most valuable thing?” 

Moshe Rabbeinu gave us the answer to this question in this week’s parashah. He said, “Now, Yisrael, what does Hashem ask of you other than to fear Hashem?”⁶ Nothing else in this world matters – only yirat Shamayim (fear of heaven). This is how the wisest of all men summed up his life’s experiences: “In the end, after everything has been heard, fear Hashem and observe His mitzvot (commandments), because that is the sum total of the human condition.”⁷

People come home from Uman packed full of yirat Shamayim, and even more so if they went there with this purpose in mind and davened for it while they were there. I will sum up this essay with a few wonderfully sweet lessons from  Rebbe Nachman on this subject to help us build our yirat Shamayim. 

To quote from Chayei Moharan⁸:

“I heard from his holy mouth, ‘I am a treasure trove of yirat Shamayim. Anyone who wants can come to get some from me.’ We saw with our own eyes how everyone who approached the Rebbe was immediately filled with an intense fear of Heaven and was inspired to dedicate himself to serving Hashem. This was unlike anything anyone has ever seen.”  

Another citation: “I was told that he said, ‘If we were shown a treasure, we would certainly run over to it and begin digging, making ourselves filthy with mud and soil until we extracted the treasure. Well, I am a treasure trove of yirat  Shamayim. Why don’t people run to me to get that treasure?’ People asked him how to receive it, and he said that they must seek it and plead for it with their mouths and hearts. 

“I heard that he said, ‘I want to instill in my followers yirat Shamayim – a level of incredible awe that has never yet been experienced anywhere in the world.’” 

So let’s go, dear Jews! Pick up your telephone and make your reservation. Take your sons and your friends with you, and start packing your suitcases. Dear Jewish women! Prepare snacks for your husbands, and include notes with the names and photos of your children so that your husbands can daven on their behalf. When your husband and sons return home, be aware that you have made a great sacrifice for the sake of the Jewish nation. You will be the first to enjoy the wonderful fruits of that sacrifice. 

We will close this essay with Rebbe Nachman’s words: “My Rosh Hashanah is of paramount importance. It is my personal miracle. Since those who are close to me believe me about this, why don’t they all, without exception, make sure to be with me on Rosh Hashanah? Everything about me revolves around Rosh Hashanah.” 

He told us to publicize an announcement stating that all those who consider themselves his followers must come,  without exception, to be with him for Rosh Hashanah. Anyone who joins him for Rosh Hashanah will be filled with joy, as the pasuk states regarding Rosh Hashanah (Nechemia 8:10): “Eat delicacies and drink sweet wines…for the joy of Hashem is your source of strength.” 

Editor’s Notes 

¹ Uman Rosh Hashanah: For the Ladies, Debbie Shapiro 

² Chayei Moharan 403-406; Likutei Moharan I, Torah 211; Likutei Moharan II, Torah 94. See also The Rebbe’s Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Dovid Sears 

³ Kochvei Ohr, section Anshei Moharan, letter Dalet [Jerusalem 1983 ed.] p. 69 

⁴  Chayei Moharan 404 in the section “My Rosh Hashanah” 

⁵  Kochvei Ohr, section Anshei Moharan, letter Alef

⁶  Devarim (Deuteronomy) 10:12 

⁷  Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 12:13 

⁸  Chayei Moharan in the section “Ma’alat HaMitkarvim Elav” (The Greatness of Those Who Draw Close to Him)