More Revelations: Rabbi Shalom Arush Shares His Journey to Judaism and Rabbi

We continue by presenting the third part of the rare conversation with the head of the 'Chut Shel Chessed' institutions and one of the veteran and famous students of the holy Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, Rav Shalom Arush shlit"a. "The first trips to Uman—whoever did not see the joy in Kiev has never seen joy in his life. In 5735, I was in yeshiva; this was the period when I was with the Rav in Arad (detailed in the previous part of the conversations). At that time, our teacher Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a was not yet famous; his yeshiva in Shikun Vav only opened in 5737. During that period, I moved to live in Bnei Brak to study in the Rav's yeshiva; before that, I studied in other yeshivas."

The sweetness of the first trips to Uman

"On the first trips to Uman, the entire journey was spent in prayer. They would hold us up there for a long time; it took a long time until everyone would pass through. How many dances we would do—what dances, what joy. If a person wants to travel to the Rebbe, there are no obstacles in the world that can stop him. It is written that whoever extends their hand on Purim is given to; I had a yearning to travel to Uman, and I stood and prayed on Purim with supplications in order to reach the Rebbe."

Prayer to reach the Tziyun is effective

"I passed by the Meshech HaNachal bookstore and there I saw Shimon Shapira, who said to me, 'We are nine people traveling to Uman on Rosh Chodesh Nissan and we need a tenth; are you interested in joining?' I said, 'Okay,' but I didn't know what to do—how would I leave my wife with all the cleaning and preparations for Pesach? And besides, I had no money. I told my wife, and she answered firmly, 'You are only traveling to Uman if you take our son.' At that time, it wasn't yet clear to us how to act regarding the children on the trips to Uman; I hadn't taken Nachman before the age of seven, and there was Natan before the age of seven. 'Here, I saved money for both of you, if you take the child!' she continued—this is the power of prayer."

True self-sacrifice to reach the Tziyun of the tzaddik

"I don't know if we had another trip like that one. We traveled through Vienna with the intention of receiving a visa, and indeed we received visas for Leningrad. This was in the year 5747, and there, in Leningrad, they didn't want to give us any permit. We flew to Moscow without suitcases and without any food; at Chabad House they made us soup, we immersed in the mikvah—it truly revived us. From Moscow, we made the whole way to Kiev, and we still had to reach Uman. It is impossible to describe what we went through until we reached Uman; the whole way we were in prayers, saying the names of the tzaddikim, dancing—everyone who managed to pass through brought everyone into joy. Every single step was miracles; thank Hashem, on all the trips I traveled, I reached Uman."

"Our teacher Rav Eliezer Berland said that whoever merited to travel on those trips knows what a trip is. Those who endured with difficulty were left with a strong impression from the journeys."