Welcome to Breslev Israel. When I say welcome, I mean that you are truly welcome, whether you're Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Chassidic, Sephardi, Litvish, or non-affiliated. Even if you're not Jewish at all, we're happy to greet you with a big Breslever smile – welcome, dear friend.

 

Jewish lore says that when Moshiach will come, everybody will claim him: The Chassidim will say, "He's ours!" The Sephardim will proclaim, "He's one of us!" The Lithuanian Jews will declare, "Can't you see that Moshiach is ours?" And so forth…

 

Everyone will be right. Moshiach is a kaleidoscope of many shapes and colors. Each of us will be able to relate to Moshiach, for as the tzaddik of all generations, he reflects the light of all of our souls. As such, we all see ourselves – and who we strive to be – within Moshiach.

 

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev said, "My fire shall burn until the coming of Moshiach." Rebbe Nachman is thereby revealing that his teachings reflect the light of Moshiach. This explains how we see such a growing assortment of people each year in Uman, when Breslever Chassidim gather together to observe Rosh Hashanna by Rebbe Nachman's holy gravesite. Uman is probably the only place in the world where you can see Ashkenazi Chassidim with their shtreimel fur hats and knee-high white socks praying alongside Yemenite Chassidim in their traditional garb. Among the Chassidim are spiritual newcomers with earrings in their ears – and in their noses. It's also not uncommon to see men with tattooed bodies in the mikva, performing a purifying ritual immersion as part of their spiritual journey home in seeking their Jewish roots. Rebbe Nachman welcomes each and every one; we here at Breslev Israel, as the pupils of Rebbe Nachman, do so as well.

 

With Hashem's loving grace, I hereby begin my new task as editor of Breslev Israel's English website, formerly known as Breslov World. In keeping with the true spirit of Rebbe Nachman's teachings (that I've had the privilege of learning from one of this generation's true tzaddikim, Rabbi Shalom Arush, may Hashem bless him and grant him long and happy days), this site aspires to be a light unto the nations. We want to make Rebbe Nachman's teachings available to all mankind, not only to a selected few. As such, our goal is to provide interesting and stimulating reader-friendly articles that will directly contribute to the personal and spiritual growth of "veteran" Chassidim and Baalei Tshuva (those new to observant Judaism) alike. Not only that, but our new facial uplift here at Breslev Israel includes a Breslev Kid's page for our young readers, because if there are no lambs there will be no rams. As we enter the Messianic Age, more and more non-Jews are seeking truth. Therefore, we're delighted to introduce our new Noahide corner, a special feature for our non-Jewish friends, who we hope will feel welcome and at home here.

 

Since many people have been searching for "kosher" Kabbala, we've happy to introduce our weekly Kabbala and Mysticism page. Also, our traditional features of the weekly Torah portion and stories for the Shabbat table will continue, with Hashem's loving help.

 

The heart of this site is Rebbe Nachman's teachings, made so readily available to this generation by our esteemed teacher and spiritual guide, Rabbi Shalom Arush. As his pupil of more than a decade already, I thank Hashem for the privilege of being Rabbi Shalom's English-language mouthpiece. This is an awesome task; I feel a tremendous responsibility to Hashem, to Rebbe Nachman, and to Rabbi Shalom about every article I print and every word I edit, write, or say. I pray that my job will be done in complete faith, bringing gratification to Hashem and glory to His Holy Name, while accurately presenting the teachings of Rebbe Nachman as passed down to us by Rabbi Shalom Arush, may Hashem give him strength, and by the luminaries of previous generations, of blessed memory.

 

Behind the scenes of the multi-language cyber giant known as Breslev Israel, stands its dynamic general director, Rabbi Yosef Nechama, may Hashem bless him always. Yosef, also a loyal pupil of Rabbi Shalom Arush, was the Chut Shel Chessed administrator when I was Rosh Kollel of the Chut Shel Chessed Ashdod branch. He was always Mister Everything: if I needed something for the Kollel, I'd call Yosef. If I wanted to find Rav Shalom, I'd call Yosef. If one of our seminary students had an urgent problem, Yosef was always there to help. Yosef's talents and resourcefulness reminded me of my comrades in special-forces days. Understandably, we became best of friends.

 

Throughout the years, Yosef and I always remained in contact. When Rav Shalom gave him the task of building a worldwide outreach network on the internet, Yosef took me on as one of the weekly columnists on the Breslev Israel Hebrew site. In the meanwhile, Breslev Israel had become one of the most prodigious Hebrew outreach sites on the web. Eventually, I started writing weekly articles for the fledgling Breslev Israel English site as well, known to web surfers as BreslovWorld. When Yosef decided to revolutionize the English site in order to reach an even wider readership, he passed over a host of potential candidates that included professional editors, well-known writers, and career proofreaders to choose me as Breslev Israel's new English editor. In Yosef's own words, "Their writing is much more refined, but Lazer's has the soul. I want the soul, because Breslev Israel is a site with a soul." The real reason he chose me, in my humble opinion, is that we work together as a team. Nothing beats brotherhood and harmony.

 

Then again, Yosef and I are a big nothing without his extremely talented wife, Sara Chaya. Sara Chaya is the editor of Breslev Israel's award-winning Hebrew site, as well as graphics manager for all of Breslev Israel. She takes Yosef's ideas and turns them into a model of cyber beauty and elegance. She's the hand behind all the exquisite graphics editing on the site. I can't begin to thank Yosef and Sara Chaya for their amazing assistance in my first steps as editor. It's a delight to work with such wonderful professionals; even more, as pupils of Rabbi Shalom and as disciples of Rebbe Nachman, we're all on the same ideological page. With Hashem's blessing, our unity will help us grow and reach more people in more places. Folks in Alaska and in Hong Kong deserve to hear about Rebbe Nachman too.

 

In the coming weeks, we'll have big surprises in store for you, G-d willing. Yosef Nechama, together with his staff of Israel's most capable programmers and website developers, is in the final stages of upgrading all of Breslev Israel's websites under one, super high-tech state-of-the-art and newly designed website. Our Hebrew and English sites will be complemented by our new sites in Russian, French, and Spanish. All five sites will appear under one cyber umbrella known as Breslev Israel. With your blessings, dear readers, we hope to be a faithful source of smiles and spiritual vitamins for you and your whole family.   

 

We hope that Breslev Israel will not only be a dynamic source for timely articles, even on the sticky subjects that others prefer to circumvent, but a fun site too that features the latest in Jewish music and multimedia.

 

Dear reader, we welcome and cherish your feedback. In addition, we'll be pleased to publish articles of general interest, especially in the area of strengthening emuna, so feel free to contribute your writing talents. We want you to feel at home here at Breslev Israel; even more so, we'd love you to feel like this is your site. With blessings always and very best wishes, Lazer Brody.