There is No Rosh Hashanah Without Requesting Forgiveness

There is no Rosh Hashanah without the Request for Forgiveness

Rosh Hashanah 5781 - May it be a year of the redemption of captives

It is forbidden to forget and lose hope - we all want and yearn to be in Uman on Rosh Hashanah with our Rebbe and teacher, Rav Berland shlit"a - but it currently seems that our holy Rebbe has rebuked us all with a severe rebuke and banished us from coming into the inner sanctum to prostrate ourselves with tears upon the stones of the holy gravesite.

The rebellious year of 5780 will never be forgotten from the pages of the history of Breslov Chassidut.

A grim year, filled with controversy, in which Breslov Chassidut descended to a moral low unprecedented in its history.

Even during the intensity of the great persecutions against Rebbe Nathan and his students in the years of wrath around 5795, the Chassidut did not know internal traitors and vile informers who emerged from within its ranks and publicly permitted the blood of one of the elders and most important members of our community - one of the few people in the history of the Chassidut who caused its wasteland to bloom during a difficult period of decline and rebuilt the ruins of the paths to the holy courtyard in Uman.

Although there is no one in our generation within the Chassidut who can even touch the edge of the transformation that this passionate Chassid brought about among the masses of the Jewish people - those foolish and bitter Chassidim did not seek the success of the Chassidut and its flourishing among the masses of the Jewish people, but rather their own status and personal honor within the "Chassidic aristocracy."

They did not seek to ignite the burning truth of the Rebbe in thousands of wandering Jews - they sought honor and status in their closed and fanatical world; they desired money and power under their own comfortable conditions, which were a direct import from a world of fantasy.

Where is the Gratitude?

How much gratitude does Breslov Chassidut owe to the pious and holy man who spread the mysteries of the great light of our Rebbe to thousands of lost and rejected souls who did not merit to grow up speaking Yiddish, never visited a Haredi street, never heard the phrase "Avodat Hashem" (service of Hashem), did not know the connection between a tzaddik and the soul, and did not know what prayer and gratitude were.

It is impossible to erase the facts - the majority of the structure and membership of Breslov Chassidut today drew close directly or indirectly in the merit of that Chassidic meteor who struck people at their core and brought the light of our Rebbe deep into their hearts. Almost everyone returned in teshuvah and drew closer to our Rebbe with greater strength and might through a long or short acquaintance with the burning fire walking on two legs that ignited within them a new flame of light of drawing close to the tzaddik to serve Hashem with all their strength. Almost everyone was influenced at the beginning of their drawing close by the burning student who made students who made students who are still making students.

How much gratitude does Breslov Chassidut owe to the steam engine that broke through, who sacrificed himself to collide with the Communist iron wall and pulled behind him carriages of thousands of souls toward the hidden light that was concealed in a dark Soviet city under the boots of a tyrannical and oppressive regime - the human trickle that began to flow to Uman in the 70s, he turned within three decades into a sweeping downpour of tens of thousands of followers who visit the gravesite all year round, and especially on Rosh Hashanah.

Have we already forgotten that in 2007, the year the gravesite and the Kloiz were put up for public auction due to a lien placed on the Chassidut's management association, which fell victim to a sophisticated scam, and the ownership of the gravesite was almost lost to foreign hands - and again it was that same passionate Chassid who sacrificed his soul in conversations, meetings, and activating connections all over the world to obtain the enormous sum and save the holy gravesite for Breslov Chassidut from cruel predators.

How many children in Breslov Chassidut who have already become fathers with children merited to gather on Rosh Hashanah at the holy Kibbutz in the merit of the only Mashpia in the Chassidut who pushed with all his might and urged bringing even small children to Rosh Hashanah with self-sacrifice, because they too are part of the Kibbutz.

How much double and redoubled good does Breslov Chassidut owe to the man who saved it from a fate of ignorance and distance from studying the Gemara in depth.

The passionate Chassid who joined the Chassidut in the early 60s as a young Lithuanian avrech was famous for his scholarship and genius in Shas and Poskim and introduced the Lithuanian "steigen" and toil of Torah in depth into the Chassidut.

The historic transformation he made in the Chassidut built a new image of a Chassidic servant of Hashem who is enthusiastic in the work of prayer and melodies but knows how to sit for hours in concentrated toil to break down a topic in 'Ketzot HaChoshen'. He grew a new breed of Israeli avreichim - mature and serious, God-fearing, engaged in Torah in depth and breadth, playing the prayer for hours, spreading the light of the tzaddik among the masses of the people, and engaging with all their heart in intensive activity of drawing the distant close.

And what about the tens of thousands of baalei teshuvah who owe their first acquaintance with true and heart-warming Judaism to the work of the passionate, scholarly Chassid? How many tons of gratitude should be credited to the stubborn activity of dissemination and drawing the distant close over the years to rescue from the captivity of ignorance and secularism thousands of brave people who crossed the lines and became Haredi and established upright generations for glory, homes of Torah and holiness filled with joy and faith, and who face extremely complex social challenges as baalei teshuvah in a closed Haredi society.

They received the strength, support, and encouragement on the difficult path from that same passionate Chassid who had already become over the years the great spiritual grandfather and the main trunk of branches that split off and blossomed into a huge group within Breslov Chassidut. If we examine the graph of teshuvah in Israel in the last jubilee - it can be assumed honestly that most Israelis who returned in teshuvah in this period, and especially among those close to Breslov Chassidut - underwent the spiritual transformation after being exposed to those messengers from the study hall of that same passionate Chassid who ignited in them the spark of the tzaddik of our Rebbe.

In the first years of his drawing close, he plowed every plot in the Chassidut to receive from it the special inner point of the generality of the shades of the tzaddik in his people.

He received from the Seraph R' Shmuel Shapira the zeal for the holiness of the covenant and guarding the eyes; he was with the Saba R' Yisrael for long months in joint service of Hashem and received from him the innocence and absolute nullification to our Rebbe; he received from R' Levi Yitzchak Bender the exemplary order of study that builds the intellect of our Rebbe; he received from R' Shmuel Horowitz the absolute self-sacrifice for all the matters of our Rebbe. From R' Ze'ev (Velvel) Cheshin, he received the toil and the desire to draw more distant ones to the holy knowledge of our Rebbe.

And while most of our people at the time were close to the theory of our Rebbe - he went in practice to implement the theory and prove it in reality.

The facts told about him during the period of his drawing close and after were not heard in Breslov Chassidut except among a few individuals in the Chassidut in general for years. Long hitbodedut (seclusion) of weeks in the desert or in the field with a meager bag of food and books in a large sack, prayers and melodies for long hours connecting Shacharit from sunrise to Mincha at sunset and deep into the night for Maariv and Chatzot, studying Gemara in depth in concentration and with all his strength days and nights, giving long lessons in Likutey Halachot with strength and shouting from the early morning hours until the late evening hours.

Anyone who knew him closely knew that being in his presence meant a continuous crushing of the body's forces and the overcoming of the strength of the soul and prayer - truly the light of the tzaddik of our Rebbe.

There is no exaggeration here at all - the witnesses to these sights are still alive among us, the facts are well known even to those who chose to hate him.

So a person who acted and did so much good for Breslov Chassidut - how much gratitude should we have toward him?

There is no end to the gratitude.

Our March of Folly

A cursed evil eye entered Breslov Chassidut to observe and focus on the shortcomings of the other and the sins of one's neighbor instead of dying of shame when I look at myself.

A stormy spirit and jealousy kidnapped the infant of innocence and shame and poisoned the pure well to pursue the other to the bitter end, to informing to the authorities, to public bloodshed, to a consuming fire of fanaticism and hatred.

Rivers of controversy of foul language and thought flooded the holy Chassidut in a terrible flood of lashon hara (evil speech) and the degradation of Torah scholars.

A stench of controversy clung to us, a foul odor of separation wafts from within us - how will our Rebbe dwell among us?

We adorn ourselves with the feathers of those close to the Rebbe, the true tzaddik, but we take his name in vain and pour mud and filth on his students.

To what moral low has the Chassidut reached, alienating itself from one and unique among its best sons who bound himself on the altar of the fire of our Rebbe and ignited thousands to his light?

How did wild and fanatical growths emerge from within the Chassidut to destroy, kill, and lose in an ugly and terrible campaign of persecution while encouraging or with shameful silence from famous Mashpiim in the Chassidut?

And where are the elders of the community who will say,

Our hands have not shed and our eyes have not seen?

For they saw and knew and were silent,

Facing a despicable murder - they filled their mouths.

And the slain lies wallowing and the murderers are known,

And how will we reach our Rebbe, to the holy place - when our hands are dripping with the blood of poor tzaddikim.

Our brother we sent away, flesh of our flesh,

Ingratitude has sealed our hearts,

Imprisoned in jail and tortured in iron,

Brothers have sold Joseph again,

To be trampled and seized, to be shamed and cursed.

And this is the Tikkun HaKlali of the generation,

To have mercy, to concede, to love, to help,

And we will hold ourselves together as upright ones

In forgiveness, pardon, and teshuvah before the Judge of the oppressed.

The Clarification Returns

Rebbe Nathan teaches us that the clarification between the wicked who pursue the tzaddikim continues in every generation, but who thought that precisely in these years the clarification would sharpen into the Chassidut itself when factors within the Chassidut activate methods of media terror and an organized and efficient mechanism of informing against the authorities just like the greatest persecutors of Judaism and its enemies throughout the generations.

In exactly the same methods, they inflame the masses with wild incitement and frame and pursue a large group of Jews who serve Hashem, calling them "Shabbateans and heretics," exactly as Christians and Muslims pursued Judaism and as the Mitnagdim pursued the students of the Baal Shem Tov and the Ramchal, and exactly as they framed the Chassidim of our Rebbe and Rebbe Nathan.

In a few decades, when the dust of the controversy settles and the impulse for persecution subsides, people will hold their heads in astonishment at how they allowed the sewer of bad rumors to flow into their hearts and defile their thoughts.

The Chassidim of future generations in Breslov will ask in wonder how brave Chassidim did not rise to stop the murderous madness raging within the Chassidut?

How did they allow a handful of fanatics to bring destruction and terror to a delicate and magnificent Chassidut and pollute its corridors with the stench of controversy?

How did false and deceitful illusions succeed in confusing masses of innocent Chassidim and blinding great and important people?

For download and the merit of the public