THE ESSENTIAL
RABBI NACHMAN

Translated by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum

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My Rosh Hashanah is greater than everything. I cannot understand how it is that if my followers really believe in me they are not all meticulous about coming to me for Rosh Hashanah. No- one should be absent! My whole mission is Rosh Hashanah.

Everyone , without exception, who counts himself as one of my followers or takes heed of what I say should come to me for Rosh Hashanah. Anyone who is worthy of being with me for Rosh Hashanah should be very happy: "Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, for the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10 ) .

Chayey Moharan #403

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My Rosh Hashanah is something completely new - and God knows it is not something I inherited from my fathers. God Himself gave me the gift of knowing what Rosh Hashanah is. That all of you are dependent on my Rosh Hashanah goes without saying. The entire world depends on my Rosh Hashanah!

Chayey Moharan #405

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During Rabbi Nachman's lifetime it was the practice for his followers to gather around him each year for Rosh Hashanah. Just as they had come to him each year when he lived in Breslov, so in September 1810 several hundred traveled to Uman to be with him for what was to be the last Rosh Hashanah of his life.

During this event Rabbi Nachman repeatedly emphasized the greatness and importance of his followers' gathering around him on Rosh Hashanah. Reb Nosson understood that the Rebbe wanted his followers to gather by him even after his death.

The next year Reb Nosson went to Uman for Rosh Hashanah together with about 60 of the Rebbe's followers, thus instituting the annual Rosh Hashanah gathering of Breslover Chassidim. This continued until the mid 1930's, when the communist repression made it impossible to continue the public prayers. Even so, secret Rosh Hashanah services were held in Uman even in the darkest years of the communist tyranny.

The public Rosh Hashanah gathering in Uman resumed in 1988 attended by about 250 people. The following year the numbers grew to over a thousand and doubled the year afterwards, after which they increased exponentially every year to the point where today tens of thousands travel every year to Uman from Israel, Europe, America and other parts of the world in order to attend Rabbi Nachman's Rosh Hashanah.

 

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