I know, it’s Succot, and I’m not writing about ‘Succot’ much at all.
Except, to tell you how flat the hiloula seemed to be Monday night, in Meah Shearim.
A commentator just sent a link to R Berland’s livestream for the Shuvu Banim festivities, which you can see here:
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I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Rav said HERE that Uman and Jerusalem have now been connected, since Rosh Hashana.
If you’ve ever been to Uman, you’ll probably already know that:
a) It’s a surreal experience, especially, but not only, the first time.
b) All sorts of strange things start to happen, that just seem above nature, but that you often can’t put into words for other people without sounding like you’ve lost your marbles.
c) You get to meet yourself, or some aspect of yourself, usually, for the first time ever in your life.
d) Everything starts to seem ‘meaningful’ and energised and full of spiritual messages and wisdom.
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Of course, you can live a life, in theory, anywhere where “everything starts to seem ‘meaningful’ and energised and full of spiritual messages and wisdom.”
But let’s introduce some candour, and admit that 99.9999% of us are not doing that, or anything approaching it, 99.99999% of the time.
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Why I’m jotting this down like this, is because since Rosh Hashana, I have been feeling that my life in Jerusalem has kind of been operating at levels of ‘in Uman’ intensity.
Such big, painful tikkunim going on most days, that can and often are leading to big decisions, big actions, big changes – but all fit on the head of a needle.
I look back from one day to the next, and it’s hard to understand just why ‘thing x’ freaked me out so much, why ‘thing y’ was just so challenging, in the moment, or meaningful, or ‘BIG’ – but nevertheless, it was.
These are the hallmarks of Uman.
Of Rabbenu.
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You want one ‘real’ example, probably, to try to grasp what I’m saying.
Half an hour before the chag, some red fire ant somehow got inside my clothes, and bit me multiple times, on the left side of my chest – where my heart was.
I didn’t know it was a fire ant.
All I knew, was that the whole area suddenly felt like it was on fire, and it was so painful I felt half-paralysed.
And then, I started wondering if I was having a heartattack…
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Baruch Hashem, I caught the ant red-handed, after it bit me three times, so at least I could calm down about having a heartattack, God forbid.
I showered, lit candles, fell asleep, woke up shivering – and then, spent the whole of the chag throwing up.
It was pretty intense.
The question is, what was the message, from all that?
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I am still figuring things out, but it’s definitely connected to the whole ‘house buying’ issue I’ve been sharing here, and about how much we lie to ourselves and live in a fantasy spun by the yetzer – and none more so, than when it comes to buying houses.
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By Sunday, I was mostly back to normal, and that super-intense surreal experience was starting to fade.
But, I did a lot of hitbodedut lying in bed, and a few more chunks of the puzzle started to fall into place.
It was a classic ‘Uman’ experience, in a way that if you’ve been yourself, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and if you haven’t been yet – you probably have no idea what I’m talking about.
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So, maybe, Uman has somehow seeped in Jerusalem, since the Rav finally got there on Rosh Hashana 5787.
I don’t know.
But it could be.
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Last thing to share today, is another ‘Tommy John’ video, that is also really speaking to me.
It has to do with not just listening (or, ‘pretending to listen’) to the messages God is trying to give us via our body / world / experiences – but actually translating that into concrete action and change.
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Somehow, I feel this guy is bringing parts of Rebbe Nachman’s Torah lessons on emuna really down to the level of someone like me, in my small, stuck space, trying to figure things out here, at a level that is at the least very ‘sub-tzaddik’.
It’s helping me a lot, maybe, it can also help you too.
Moadim lesimcha, and I hope we all have a truly joyous Simchat Torah, 5787.
With Rabbenu in the mix, in more ways than one.

