Don’t Go To Uman

Q: Growing numbers of Jews flock each year to the town of Uman in Ukraine for Rosh HaShannah. Is this a legitimate practice and can it be justified for a Jew to leave Eretz Yisrael in order to go there?

A: The first and most obvious reason for a Jew not to go to Uman on Rosh HaShannah, or at any time at all for that matter is that the Tora does not instruct us to do so. In fact, the Torah instructs us to live in Eretz Yisrael, and of all the days of the year, one would think that on Rosh HaShannah a Jew would want to be, if he could be, in Eretz Yisrael. Another reason, also very important and fundamental, is the fact that taking a location, any location, Uman or anywhere else in Chutz La’Aretz, and claiming that a Jew must be there, in this place , on Rosh HaShannah, or that there is a very great value according to the Tora for a Jew to be in this place on Rosh HaShannah, something which is entirely absent from the Tora- from the Tanach,from the Mishnah, from the Talmud, from the works of all the poseqim-all these ideas are totally foreign and strange, and essentially this amounts to adding a new concept or a new mitzvah to the Tora.
This of course is associated with another issue, and that is the claim of Breslov Chassidut in general that Rabbi Nachman MeBreslov, who was without a doubt a very great spiritual mentor and thinker, and a very great chassidic master, who did in the past, and in the present day as well help many Jews to come closer to HASHEM. Nevertheless, the claim that this person is somehow unique and the only way to approach HASHEM properly and correctly is through the agency of this particular individual, this Tzaddik, this is an idea which is very foreign to Judaism, and frankly, smacks of Christianity. Exactly, as Christianity claims regarding Yeshua HaNotzri, that no one can approach HASHEM except through their false Mashiach, known as Yeshua HaNotzri. The same is true for any such claim regarding any individual, whether it is Rabbi Nachman MeBreslov or anybody else. Whether it’s the Rebbe MeLubavitch, or any other individual that any particular group wishes to promote. All such claims are a distortion of authentic Tora Judaism and therefore they are to be discouraged and in fact, they should be suppressed.
It is also very important that people understand that the reason that many people go to Uman particularly, and more generally, the reason that many people are attracted to Breslov is because it provides a form of escapism. Escapism from reality, from the difficult and disappointing aspects of this world, which undeniably exist. This kind of connection to the “super tzaddik” with whose help you are above and beyond all manner of earthly troubles and worries, and essentially you are exempt from concerning yourself with the real issues which face the Jewish people, not to mention the real issues that face the individual himself and his family;this kind of approach is essentially a religious, and as it were, sanctioned form of escapism. But, in fact it is not a sanctioned form of escapism because there is no such thing as sanctioned escapism. Escapism is escapism. Whether it’s drugs, or whether it’s going to Uman, whether it’s believing in a certain individual who died many years ago, that he is the Mashiach and insisting that this is the case. No matter how many times you repeat such statements, it doesn’t make it any more true. No matter how many times a person goes to Uman it doesn’t make it any more correct. Going to Uman is not part of the Tora. Rosh HaShannah and Uman, in fact have nothing to do with each other. If Rabbi Nachman MeBreslov, who as I say, was a very great chassidic leader, who cared much for his flock, suggested to his chassidim that when I die and you are still here in the Ukraine, you should all gather at my gravesite on Rosh HaShannah and daven together-that was probably a very reasonable and very positive piece of advice. It without a doubt led to unity and cohesion amongst his followers, it strengthened them spiritually in different ways and I can certainly understand why he would have said such a thing. It also, on the other hand, seems entirely incredible that Rabbi Nachman MeBreslov who he himself in his writings mentions Eretz Yisrael very frequently could possibly have imagined or intended that his followers should leave Eretz Yisrael in order to come to the Ukraine on Rosh HaShannah. This is something quite ludicrous and it flies in the face of everything the Tora teaches us.

Q: What does the Rav suggest to those Jews who feel that going to Uman is very spiritually uplifting for them?

A: As for those who claim that they feel, they experience a great spiritual high when they go to Uman on Rosh HaShannah, I would say as follows. First of all, there is truth to the claim that in many shuls, in many places, the davening on Rosh HaShannah, and in fact one could add, the davening throughout the year is perhaps dull, dry, some would say boring, some would say uninspiring, and I would say they would be right. And this brief interview is not the time and place to go into this entire subject in great detail. I would simply say that if a person, a Jew is looking for spiritual uplift the first thing he should do is open Sefer Tehillim. If a person reads and understands Sefer Tehillim deeply, and one can do this by way of using all kinds of commentaries and books on the subject in any language that a person can understand;there should be nothing more uplifting and conducive to connecting to HASHEM than immersing oneself in the book of Tehillim. This is also why Tehillim forms a very central part of of all of our tefillah, all our prayers, as we know. Therefore, rather than look for some strange, foreign, and very, very dubious substitute, let us turn to the real McCoy, the true source of tefillah which begins with Sefer Tehillim. As for choosing a minyan, a place, to daven on Rosh HaShannah or anytime during the year, which is more inspiring, more meaningful- that is something that it’s perhaps time that many Jews begin to address. Certainly, I can understand the claim, and I think that many people either openly or at least in their heart of hearts would admit to this, that the tefillah of the Ashkenazim on Rosh HaShannah which involves many piyutim which are not at all required according to halakha, which are added on to and extraneous to the essential core of the tefillah, which results in a tefillah which is very lengthy and tiring-not to mention the fact that many of these piyutim, many of the things that are said are not very well understood by many people because of the language and what have you, even to some Hebrew speakers. For many Hebrew speakers as well, not all of the tefillah on Rosh HaShannah of the Ashkenazim is so straightforward. These are all valid issues, valid points, and they should be discussed. If people adopt the position, if Jews-laymen, rabbis adopt the position that
“מה שהיה, הוא שיהיה” , that which was must continue to be so for all time, that this is what the Ashkenazim have been doing for some centuries, therefore we can not change this format of Rosh HaShannah tefillah, if that’s the position, well, frankly, no one can help them, no one can do anything to improve the lot of Jews who feel that there is something not quite right here. But, if one adopts a system of tefillah, if one joins a community where the tefillah is based on the central core of the tefillah as instituted by Hazal and as described by the Geonim and the Rishonim, one finds that the tefillah of Rosh HaShannah is not so lengthy, not so tiring, not at all so difficult to follow, and it’s in fact a very different experience altogether.
Travelling to Uman, however, running away to Ukraine to escape the problems of Ashkenazi tefillah in Eretz Yisrael, or in Chutz La’aretz for that matter, is not the Answer. That is simply creating another problem.