A very important shiur from the Rav, before he left to Uman.

Shiur on Shabbat Parshat Ki Tetzei, 5786

It’s sakanat nefashot (endangering life) to not pray in the Kloiz [in Uman] on Rosh Hashana!

It’s the Days of Judgment, and it’s forbidden to ‘stick out’.[1]

It’s written in the Zohar, that the Shunamite Woman said: Don’t remember me! That no-one should see me! I shouldn’t exist, at all!

==

And it’s written here[2] that it’s forbidden to stick out.

[A person] should include themselves with the tzibbur (community), and nullify himself, mamash. And so, we don’t sing on Rosh Hashana ‘Odeh la E-l’, and not Adon Olam – just nullify ourselves to everyone else.

Because these are the Days of Judgment, there are such [harsh] judgments, and it’s impossible to know what the next day will bring.

==

Now, many children have died.

The boy Moshe Galinsky, and another one, from Modi’in Ilit, his family, Karni[3], a boy aged 7[4]. He capsized with the kayak in the Jordan [River].

And another child, they forgot him in the car.[5] The car reached 200 degrees heat, he died.

==

And in Chicago, two drowned, and brother and sister,[6] aged 19 and 21.

And another child drowned in the pool in Sdot Micah.[7] There are a lot of villas in Sdot Micah. Each time that they want to find me a secret place, they take me to Sdot Micah. Next time, when I’m leaving the house, wait for me at the Kiryat Malachi junction.

==

So, it’s really sakanat nefashot to stand out, on Rosh Hashana.

We need to underline the words, here, these are the words that are written here:

“And he is in danger, chas v’shalom.”

==

So, we’ve got to eight children who have died:

Moshe Galinski and Karni, and another two, brother and sister, in Michigan, in Chicago. You’re American, so you know [the area].[8] And also, the grandson of HaRav Arush drowned in Mexico.[9]

And also this week, on Monday, another child was run over, he was called Fisch.[10]

And another two brothers, aged four and 12[11] – also from Bet Shemesh. A neighbor came, with a grudge in his heart, and he stabbed them.[12] The child who was 4 was saved, and the child who was 12, he is already in the next world.

He said that he wanted to rectify Adam and Chava.

==

It’s truly sakanat nefashot on Rosh Hashana. It’s sakanat nefashot.

And we don’t pray in any other place, only in the Kloiz.

Rabbenu is not to be found in any other place, only in the Kloiz. Also in Uman, Rabbenu is not to be found – except, in the Kloiz. Not even in the Tziyun.

We don’t go to the Tziyun [on Rosh Hashana itself], only on the eve of Rosh Hashana. On Rosh Hashana itself, Rabbenu is not to be found in the Tziyun. Rabbenu is only to be found in the Kloiz.

==

And there is no such thing, as two kibbutzim [gatherings, on Rosh Hashana. The secular z-ists ‘borrowed’ the word from Uman and Breslov…]

There is only one kibbutz, only in the Kloiz.

And even if it’s easier to pray in other places – but, Rabbenu is only to be found in the Kloiz! We only pray in the Kloiz.

We start at 6am, until 4pm. And this year, we won’t have tashlik on the first day. Who arranged this, that there will not be tashlik? The Bagatz organised it, that there won’t be tashlik on the first day, only on the second day.

So, there will be tashlik on the second day, and after tashlik, there will be a shiur in the Kloiz.[13]

Shkeia is at 7pm, so until 7pm, there is a shiur in the Kloiz. And after this, after ma’ariv, we return.

There are trains to Bucharest, or Moldova.

==

Excerpted and translated from Shivivei Or #471.

==

What I took from this, is that even though Baruch Hashem it seems the Rav is now in Uman for Rosh Hashana (even though the ‘news’ is not telling anyone that…) – there is still a lot of work to do, and we aren’t out of the woods just yet.

The judgments are still huge, there is still so much din flying around.

And all of us have to continue to do our part, in whatever small way, to make the necessary teshuva, and to keep going with the prayers, TKs and hitbodedut, to give the tzaddikim the spiritual ‘fuel’ they need to keep fighting the battles on our behalf.

==

That list of dead children is kinda shocking.

And it’s only gotten even longer, in the two weeks since the Rav made these remarks, the below are just from today’s headlines:

There is no room for complacency.

==

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I.e. to make yourself conspicuously not part of the crowd, apart from Am Yisrael.

[2] In the commentary on the Zohar ‘Halichot Olam’.

[3] https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/tjif2b – this was Elchanan Karni, 12, student at a Breslov yeshiva in Modi’in Illit.

[4] Referring to Moshe Galinsky, who was hit by a bus. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/429539

[5] https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/israeli-baby-dies-after-parent-leaves-her-in-car-u021ms23 – By the end of July, three kids in Israel had died in hot cars, just in that single month.

[6] HEARTBREAKING DOUBLE TRAGEDY: South Bend Brother and Sister Killed in Lake Michigan Boating Accident | Matzav.com

[7] TRAGEDY: Two-Year-Old Dies After Drowning In Vacation-Rental Pool – The Yeshiva World. – While I was tracking this down, another story came up of a toddler who almost drowned to death in the same Moshav in 2020, but that time, the story had a happy ending. I wonder why six years on, we are not getting the same miracles.

[8] They drowned in Lake Michigan.

[9] https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2583572/tragedy-in-mexico-4-year-old-grandson-of-harav-shalom-arush-drowns-during-family-vacation.html

[10] Four-year-old boy killed in traffic accident in Beit Shemesh | Israel National News

[11] He was actually 7 years old.

[12] 2 children stabbed in Beit Shemesh, 1 killed | Israel National News

[13] The Rav gave this hint he would be in Uman, the week before he left and actually got there.

I was pretty shocked by that footage coming out of Nepal / Tibet of the huge floods.

I basically check SOTT, and PalmTreeofDevorah blog as my ‘news’ these days, between them, I get enough of a flavour to satisfy the news impulse that I’ve been trying to throttle back, for years.

The footage was shocking to me.

One moment, these villages and buildings and infrastructure are all standing – and the next, they are gone.

They say 400 people are confirmed dead so far, that footage suggests this is going to be the tip of the iceberg. I’m just finding the whole thing shocking.

==

A couple of weeks ago, someone put up comment up on the bottom of a Dutchsince video update forecasting earthquakes, where they basically said the world is being ‘purified’ according to the kashrut laws – either by fire, or by immersion in water.

This comment also struck me very forcibly.

==

My parents’ apartment building in the UK burned down a couple of months ago, they are still homeless.

A few days ago, my good friend had a bad fire at her house here in Israel, and she’s now temporarily homeless, until the insurance figures out the shiputz.

I went to a Chinese medicine lady a couple of days ago, who told me what I’d been feeling for months, namely that I am totally ‘burned out’.

Fire…

==

Now, the floods in Nepal.

The very strange weather here in Israel, with one August rainstorm two weeks ago, and now, another forecast for Motzash / Sunday that they are saying could be big enough to cause flash floods.

In Israel.

In August.

Water spouts bizarrely destroying French villages, floods in Spain…

Water…

==

Back in the middle of June, the Rav started dropping some very big hints that the earthquakes, seismic activity and ‘weird weather’ was about to start picking up again.

You can read the whole thing HERE.

The Rav began by saying this:

Whoever draws close to Rabbenu (Rebbe Nachman of Breslov) is not to be found, at all, in this world.

I.e. when that tidal wave comes crashing down the gorge, anyone who is stuck close to Rabbenu will be lifted clear – they won’t be ‘in this world’, so they won’t be affected by what’s going on.

==

Next, the Rav starts telling a story from Rebbi Shimon, about people who get lost in the desert, and it’s nearly Shabbat – i.e. very nearly the time of the 6,000 year, the ‘Shabbat of the world’, or geula – but they are totally lost in the desert, riding around on their fancy, expensive horses (= ‘gashmius’).

They meet someone hobbling around on crutches, and that poor man on crutches tells them he’s going to rescue them, and get them into a safe space, ahead of Shabbat:

He said to them: hold onto my belt, and I will fly with you, and within a second we will reach an inhabited place!

They didn’t understand what he was talking about.
They said to him, you are talking nonsense, us, we have horses, and you don’t even have legs! You are walking along with crutches!

[He replied] Grab on to my belt, and watch what happens!

==

This is Rabbenu, Breslov, and in our generation, the easiest way to ‘grab on’ to Rebbe Nachman is via Rav Berland, his main ‘student in the flesh’ in our generation.

Yeah, that poor, old, disgraced man ‘on crutches’, literally and figuratively, the one with the damaged legs and feet.

Just like the Seventh Beggar, the Beggar who has no feet.

==

The lost travellers decide, what do they have to lose, by grabbing on to the old man’s belt?!

Either it will work, or it won’t.

So, they grab on, and immediately get taken to an orchard (= kabbalistic concept, place of deep wisdom where humility is the only way you can come out unscathed, instead of going mad, dying, or even worse, becoming an atheist, God forbid.)

==

It’s a side note, but the ‘pardes’ is a great fit for Shuvu Banim.

Ha mavin yavin.

==

And then, there are 300 Torah students there, repeating over and over again:

Haval havalim, amar Kohelet. Hakol havalim, hakol haval.

The world is all pointless and meaningless – if a person isn’t doing Torah and mitzvot sincerely.

‘The world’ literally doesn’t exist, except as the backdrop against whic a person can refine and develop their good middot and emuna.

That’s it.

==

And then, the Rav starts talking about mountains moving, the earth opening up – and how it’s impossible to conquer Eretz Yisrael.

In ‘Sha’arei Tzedek’ [in Jerusalem] the ground opened up in the carpark. Three cars fell into it. The ground, when it wants to, it opens. The ground moves, the ground opens.

You are walking along, and suddenly you fall over – this is because the ground moved. It rose up against him. You are thinking a not-good thought – so boom, you trip on the stairs. You break your head.

==

The Rav continues:

The earth moves every second, it moves by itself, it contains lifeforce.

And then explains more:

So, the earth each time can move by itself.

It sees everything that a person does. A person goes to eat from the Etz HaDaat – move, a little bit! Make an earthquake, and he’ll fall over, he’ll break his hand and his leg.

==

At the bottom of the post, I wrote this:

I took away from this shiur, that we can expect some more big earthquakes to start again soon…

Not because I’m a navi, or anything approaching a navi, in a million years.

But simply, because I read the Rav and I try to understand his hints.

Like everyone else could do, too, if they would only climb off their high horses, galloping around lost in the wilderness, and hold on to the Beggar’s belt.

==

The Rav is currently AWOL again.

The prayers down on Ido HaNavi are cancelled until after Rosh Hashana, word on the street is that the Rav is making his attempt to get to Uman, for Rosh Hashana 5787.

If we really understood, just how important it is for the Rav to get to Uman for Rosh Hashana, we would be doing 18 TKs a day and six hours of hitbodedut.

==

I’m not there myself, right now.

I am so tired, inside, from all the balagan of the last few years, all the war here, all the madness generally, all the disappointment that geula hasn’t (yet…) shown up, as expected, that I can manage precisely one TK a day at the moment.

But, I really, really, really am praying, hoping, that the Rav gets to Uman this year.

Honestly?

It seems impossible.

It seems futile.

But, if I learn one thing from the Rav, it’s truly the living embodiment of there is no yeoush in the world!!!

We have to do our bit, and God will do as He sees fit.

But we have to do our bit, whatever that actually is.

==

So, these are my thoughts on the seismic activity, as clearly predicted by the Rav, three months ago.

He saw what was coming down the pipe, and he clearly set out the solution:

Find the hidden tzaddik hobbling around on crutches, and grab on to his belt.

==

The rest, is up to you.

Shavua Tov!

The Rav put out a couple of important messages about getting to Uman for 5787, which I am translating below.

==

August 2, 2026, 26th Av, 5786

Message #1 from the Rav, about Uman 5787:

All the geula, in order that there won’t be a war, that they won’t launch drones here, that they won’t suddenly close the Kotel for us – all this only depends upon Uman.

It only depends upon the holy Tziyun.

A million people want to get to Rabbenu, mamash, a million people. And there will be 200,000 flights, that will make roundtrips, 10 roundtrips a day. And like this, you can bring a million people, and all of Uman will be vacated.

==

When we were the va’ad in Uman, there was a plan to evacuate the whole of Uman for three days.

The whole of Uman is only three days, from Thursday night until Sunday night. Friday, Shabbat and Sunday – it’s possible to clear out the whole of Uman for three days.

The Rebbe said, you have to come to the Tziyun, mamash, because only when you come to the Tziyun, then the Rebbe can work all the tikkunim. All the tikkunim are only done at the Tziyun HaKadosh.

==

There, all the tikkunim of all the incarnations from Adam HaRishon are done. Every person was part of the sin of Adam HaRishon, and was part of the sin of the sale of Yosef.

Therefore, we need to always know that we need to travel to Rabbenu, to travel to Rabbenu at any cost!

==

The Rebbe – Rabbi Natan said, I will go to the Rebbe, even if I had to walk on knives!

Even on knives!

A person needs to be in Uman with all of Am Yisrael, no-one should be missing.

“They counted the number of their army, and no-one was missing.”[1]

====

MESSAGE #2:

August 9th, 2026, 3rd Elul, 5786

Everyone without exception must come to the gathering in Hevron, which will open the path the Uman.

We come to open the gates of Uman, also for the Rav, and also for all of AM Yisrael. In the merit of the prayers in Hevron, all the gates will open.

Everyone has to come to Uman, this is the sole tikkun, there is no other tikkun. There is no alternative. Not Jerusalem.

The Rebbe said only Uman! And not Jerusalem.

All those who talk about [staying in] Jerusalem [on Rosh Hashana], they are making a grave mistake, and they will be judged on it – that they think it’s possible to hold the kibbutz in Jerusalem. There is no such thing!

==

R Levi Yitzhak [Bender] wanted all the time to travel to Uman.

But in the end, he didn’t want to travel on a forged passport, because that is a lifetime in prison, or even getting shot.

Everyone should register today for Uman, it doesn’t matter how much it costs. In the merit of this, everyone will be millionaires, and everyone will get out of their debts, and have apartments.

People don’t have apartments!

==

A person needs to know that the tikkun is only Uman.

All those who are confused, they will be judged on this. Korach was also confused, they also made a golden calf, because Moshe didn’t come down.

We know that he came down, but they didn’t know that he came down. Regarding this [the sin of the Golden Calf], I can still forgive them for it, they were bewildered. Moshe wasn’t there, “arise, and make for us a god who will walk before us.”[2]

They brought down the ox from the merkava (heavenly chariot)…

==

But here [regarding Uman], there is nothing to be confused about.

Here, R Levi Yitzhak would speak day and night – only Uman!!!

Because he was the main leader, he founded Breslov and he brought 20 guys from Ponovezh, and this is how he began to lay the new foundations for Breslov, after it was almost wiped off the face of the earth.

==

So now, a person needs to know, only Uman!!!

The Rebbe said, only the place where the Tzaddik is hidden / buried. I can do everything.

The Rebbe said, I’m even able to make the goyim do teshuva. That’s what’s written.

So for us, he can’t make us do teshuva?!?!

Come to me, you’ll see so much mesirut nefesh [is required]!

==

You sit at home, eating schnitzels, cholent, bourekas and kreplach…

On erev Yom Kippur, we eat kreplach, also on Purim. On erev Yom Kippur, you eat all the delicacies – chickens, hamburgers.

And then, you want a tikkun?!

What?!

Do something! Travel  and cross borders.

==

Now, the harder it is, the more vessels you will have [to hold] the or ein sof.[3]

Hashem sees that you used to come easily; you got on a plane, and within two hours you were there. So once, Shuvu Banim arranged a flight – they arranged it direct to Uman, mamash, all of Shuvu Banim were there, within two hours they were in Uman. Within half an hour, they were already at the Tziyun.

They came back and travelled, as if they enjoying an afternoon stroll on Shabbat.

So the Rebbe saw, and the Rebbe wasn’t able to do the tikkunim!

If they don’t create vessels to receive, [if they don’t travel] with some more mesirut nefesh! [Like] travelling during Corona. During Corona they slept in the sadot[4], so now, everyone needs to know that the Tikkun is also in Uman.

==

Anyone who confuses you, and tells you stories, you should know that he will be judged on this – and also, you will be judged on it.

The Rebbe does not excuse this.

Anyone who says that Hashem overlooks [sins], he too will be ‘overlooked’. [A quote from Chazal]

Hashem doesn’t back down on anything.

==

If the Rav doesn’t manage to get there [to Uman] – this is also a tikkun. A great tikkun.

But the Rav travels, the Rav tries to cross the borders. I passed through [the last time] and they made me go back.

We were already by the Rebbe a million times. We travelled when they said to us each time, tomorrow, you’re going to Siberia!

[Each time they said] ah, it’s you?! The same person?! You should know that next time, you are going to Siberia. Next time, it will be Siberia!

I told them, you’ll be going to Siberia, not me! Everything will rebound upon you.

“Their swords will enter their own hearts and their bows will be broken.”[5]

==

Everyone should go to Uman, without questions. At all.

And only Hevron opens the way. The trip to Hevron is in order to arrive at Uman. Everyone has to go [to Hevron]. We begin the Ma’ariv prayers at 8pm, and by 11, everyone will be free to go.

Translated from Rasisei Tal, # 82.

==

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Parshat Mattos, 31:48-49: “The commanders of the thousands in the legions, the officers of the thousands and the officers of the hundreds, approached Moses. They said to Moses, ‘Your servants took a census of the men of war under our command, and not a man of us is missing.”

[2] Shmot 32:1.

[3] I.e. it’s the difficulties of the journey, dafka, that create the spiritual vessels required to ‘catch’ more of the blessings and tikkunim available in Uman on Rosh Hashana.

[4] The word means both ‘airports’, and also ‘fields’. In the year when the kibbutz in Uman was effectively cancelled because of Covid, in 2020, many people were caught in no-mans-land between Belarus and Ukraine and slept in fields for 2-3 nights. While others were stuck in airports, and also refused entry.

[5] Tehillim 37:15.

Maybe it’s the heat…

Nah.

Maybe, it’s the thought of all the tzimmes I’ll have to make in 2 weeks time…

Nah.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s all the overwhelming stress we’ve all been through for years and years and years?

Do y’a think?

==

This video is a good, if somewhat basic, idea about the seven different types of ‘tired’ you get, from dealing with non-stop trauma:

And only the first one deals with physical fatigue.

==

There’s also emotional tiredness, intellectual overwhelm, creative blockages, and the last one, spiritual fatigue, where it starts to feel everything is pointless and meaningless.

Is that ringing any bells?

==

After the post about shell-shock, I went to look it up a little more.

Today, it’s called ‘PTSD’, but that doesn’t mean the world has moved on much, or at least, the military world has moved on much, in how to treat it.

Here’s part of the British government report in to how to deal with ‘shell shock’ in the army, from 1922:

No soldier should be allowed to think that loss of nervous or mental control provides an honourable avenue of escape from the battlefield, and every endeavour should be made to prevent slight cases leaving the battalion or divisional area, where treatment should be confined to provision of rest and comfort for those who need it and to heartening them for return to the front line.

==

Bottom line: ignore the problem of soldier PTSD as much as possible, so that you can keep your fighting units together and functioning.

Another big reason to keep pretending all the soldiers were totally A-OK is because the government didn’t want to have to pay out money to people literally disabled by their PTSD symptoms.

I have to wonder, whether our beloved country of 2026 is really operating to a different guideline… or not.

==

Here’s how a British war correspondent described patients with undiagnosed PTSD, between the 2 world wars:

Something was wrong. They put on civilian clothes again and looked to their mothers and wives very much like the young men who had gone to business in the peaceful days before August 1914. But they had not come back the same men. Something had altered in them. They were subject to sudden moods, and queer tempers, fits of profound depression alternating with a restless desire for pleasure. Many were easily moved to passion where they lost control of themselves, many were bitter in their speech, violent in opinion, frightening.

==

This literally describes so many of the 20 and 30-somethings coming out of the army here after the last three years, it’s scary.

==

Have a look at this, if you can see it beyond the paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/30/us/navy-seals-brain-damage-suicide.html

‘Blast damage’, or repeated exposure to ‘blasts’ was shown to cause, real, physical brain damage in the brains of people who had experienced it.

And, there was a high correlation between that sort of ‘blast damage’ pattern to the brain, and people committing suicide.

==

Here in Israel, you don’t need to have been actively mobilised to have PTSD from ‘blast damage’.

All that was required, was just to have been living here since October 7, 2023, and pretty much any place you happened to hang out in, you could quite easily acquire some of that brain-warping ‘blast damage’.

==

This is not a question of ’emuna’ or ‘no emuna’ – although for sure, trying to have emuna reallly would lessen and weaken any PTSD symptoms.

On principal, I never went to a bomb shelter.

Ever.

I sat and read a TK, 9 TKSs, whatever it took – but I also felt shaken by the noises and ‘blasts’ I inevitably heard.

We all did.

It’s a physical reaction to danger.

And I am 100% sure that I have been working through a lot of PTSD (plus some more C-PTSD…) the last few months, as a result.

==

Probably, we all have.

Take a look at this, from 2025:

A prediction model of PTSD in the Israeli population in the aftermath of october 7th, 2023

Long story short, academic models were predicting 9-24% of the total population to have developed PTSD, after ‘October 7th’.

That’s even before the last two rounds of ‘war with Iran’, which from what I could see, was the straw the broke the camel’s back for a whole bunch of people who up until then, had actually been managing OK.

==

Who is talking about this, in our beloved government?

No-one.

You just get more cruddy people running cruddy ads about Bibi being ‘weak with Iran’, or trying to incite the non-chareidi population to hate the chareidim because they keep questioning the need for compulsory military service.

For everyone in Israel!!!!

(Except, the millions of muslim arabs who live here, so go figure that out for yourself.)

==

No-one is talking about the stuff that really matters.

Like:

We ALL need the never-ending war to end.

Not with more violence, but simply by cutting the funding mechanism to the war machine – on all sides of that equation.

That’s really what this boils down to.

And we all need to figure out how we’re being turned against each other, with endless lies and propaganda, while our poor, PTSD-addled brains can’t even think straight.

==

We need real peace.

Real ‘safety’.

Some real honesty, about how many people are literally cracked or cracking, from all the stress they’ve been through the last few years.

And of course, we need Moshiach most of all.

==

 

Last week, it got cancelled and moved to this week in Hevron.

It’s 7.30pm.

I don’t know if the Rav himself will be attending, or not.

But, it seems we are currently in another one of those crucial crossroads again, where things could go radically good, or radically not-so-good.

I don’t follow the news, but even I know that the 60 day ceasefire with Iran is drawing to a close.

Even I know that the USA is technically bankrupt, on paper, and needs some sort of ‘distraction’ – kind of like how WW2 managed to pull the world out of the Great Depression, back in the 1930s.

Even I know, that it’s still, mostly, just about ‘the economy, stupid’.

So, the Rav’s prayer atzeret is happening at precisely the right moment again.

==

I’m planning to go, BH.

If you are in Israel, also plan to go – the participants get so many brachot from these things, because of course, it’s massive mesirut nefesh and not easy for anyone.

If you’re outside of Israel – join ‘spiritually’, but trying to say 3, or even 7 Tikkun Haklalis today.

Sure, it’s effort, it’s mesirut nefesh.

All the really meaningful, important stuff always is.

==

We are all happy to waste so much precious time on crud that doesn’t give anything back to us in any way, me included.

That’s part of why life can often feel so ‘meaningless’ these days – that’s the world we’ve built for ourselves.

But, even one TK can take us out of that mindset, and help us feel like we really did something good and important today, whatever else is going on.

==

In the meantime, there is an obvious ‘strange vibe’ in the world today.

People holding their breath and waiting, to see if we can move forward out of ‘war and more war’, or if God forbid a million times, we are going to be dragged back into it again.

There is a lot to pray for.