""I have a thin bed waiting for me from 'Hatsion'. But do you know what it's like to study in the dark?"'

September 28, 2022   

Every night in Ukraine, there is a curfew from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM. During the curfew, residents are prohibited from leaving their homes. In the run-up to Rosh Hashanah, when tens of thousands of Breslov Hasidim arrived at Rabbi Nachman's Zion in Uman, the rules were especially enforced. The night before Rosh Hashanah, I joined the Hasidim who stayed to study during the night. At 10:45 PM, they began telling the Hasidim to leave the Zion building, and at 10:55 PM, they turned off the lights and closed the Zion doors. The hundreds of Hasidim who remained in the area used their cell phone flashlights to illuminate the pages of the Gemara, the General Correction, and the Likuti Moharan - and so on until 5:00 AM, when the lights came back on. Yosef Greenbaum, married, father of seven children, a Jerusalem resident who is currently in Uman, tells Haredim 10 about the upheavals he endured on the road - and why he chose to stay in Zion overnight, even though he arrived that day: "I was on the road for three days. I flew to Vienna in Austria, from where I continued to Slovakia through the Carpathians, and from there to Leuman. "The journey was difficult, but when I arrived I forgot about everything, I wanted to be in the Zion of our Rabbi. I have wanted to come back here for a whole year. War started, there were many obstacles. The desire to be in Zion made me stay the night. We study from the Torah of our Rabbi. The day before Rosh Hashanah, is there a greater privilege than that? To enter the Day of Judgment clean. "Even though I have been on a long journey and a warm bed is waiting for me a minute from 'Zion' - it does not compare to the atmosphere that exists here. Do you know what it is that everyone here studies in the dark? Dedication. [Gallery]

Just before the lights go out

In a conversation with an elderly Hasid, who remained in Zion during the curfew, he says: "I arrived in Uman on Monday about a week ago, after a 30-hour journey from Chisinau in Moldova. I stay in Zion every night and study for the sake of the Jewish people. I pray for us that the Torah will not be forgotten and that we will draw closer to the Creator of the world. Look around you at the atmosphere that exists here, despite the darkness in Zion, we study from kosher firelights and candles. Look at how much sweetness there is of Torah here, free love. There is hot and cold drink here. Just study. "It is a great privilege to be on the last and most significant night of the year and to catch up on some mitzvot, and even more so on the Zion of our holy rabbi. "Our rabbi says that in the first blessing of Rosh Hashanah, I pass on my people. So the great privilege of sitting here to study the day before is a huge privilege that fell to my lot. Many Jews do not get it. Thousands wanted to come, and each one had his own motivations, but I did. Will I not seize the time? I will seize every moment.".