The Master of Prayer, Part 3
Rebbe Nachman as the Master of Prayer helps your prayer. His gravesite is the gate of prayer. Since Rebbe Nachman is the Master of Prayer...
Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody
The Master of Prayer, part 3
The Yetzer Hara – the Evil Inclination – will be happy to let a person learn Tosefot or Arizal all day long and even learn Gemara by heart, just as long as that person doesn’t pray to Hashem. The Yetzer especially hates hitbodedut, or personal prayer in your own language, where you talk to Hashem like you’d speak to a loving grandfather or best friend. So how does the Yetzer discourage people from doing an hour of hitbodedut a day? He drives you crazy and says, “That’s a Breslever shtick – do you want people to think you’re crazy like the weirdos that dance on the car roofs?”
According to the Yetzer, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moshe Rabbenu, King David, Elijah the Prophet and a long list of other great tzaddikim throughout history fall into the category of “weirdos” since they all did an hour (minimum!) of personal prayer every day. The Yetzer is the number one opponent of Rebbe Nachman, because the latter is the Master of Prayer who teaches people how to connect to Hashem by way of pure and sincere personal prayer.
Rebbe Nachman is still alive and with us to this day. How so? The proof is that people are still arguing with him to this day! Other tzaddikim were controversial, but the argument with them and against them terminated when the tzaddik died. But, to this day, people still argue against Rebbe Nachman. Why? They’re unwittingly agents of the Yetzer trying to prevent each of us from attaining our soul correction. Since Rebbe Nachman takes responsibility for the soul correction of everyone who is fortunate enough to be connected to him, by obstructing a person’s connection with the Rebbe, the Yetzer prevents him or her from attaining their soul correction.
That’s why, when we travel to the holy grave site of Rebbe Nachman in Uman every Rosh Hashanah. There, we attain our soul correction. Uman runs along the lines of emuna – everything there is above nature. I saw with my own eyes a little boy who had difficulty sitting in cheder for more than a half hour. Yet, when his father took him to Uman, the little boy would sit in the Kloiz and pray for over 4 hours straight! [The father asked Rav Shalom Arush how could that be. Rav Shalom said that the little boy was connected to the main spiritual generator and not operating on his own little battery – LB]. Rebbe Nachman is our spiritual generator. From the true tzaddik, we get our direction, our spiritual recharge, and our soul correction. Therefore, there’s not a single person that ever went earnestly to Uman, especially on Rosh Hashanah, and didn’t come home a changed, more inspired, and better person.
Rebbe Nachman as the Master of Prayer helps your prayer. His grave site is the gate of prayer. Since Rebbe Nachman is the Master of Prayer, his chief disciple Rebbe Natan said, “My entire hope, my entire desire, is to reach the grave site of the Rebbe, to taste the flavor of true prayer”.
When Rebbe Nachman acts in our behalf to open the gate of prayer, we come home from Uman a reborn soul. A person can accomplish in Uman what he or she can’t accomplish elsewhere in years. The Rebbe is right there with us – he listens to our prayers, he caresses us, he brings us closer to Judaism and to Torah, and helps us get closer to Hashem.
Here’s good news for the ladies: Rebbe Nachman said that he wants the women to become chassidistas [Yiddish for female Chassidim – LB] too.
Rebbe Nachman said, “I want to remain among you.”
Breslever tradition says that every trip that a person makes to Uman is another steppingstone to the Geula, and that every person who makes the pilgrimage to Uman is promised a share in the Geula.
Rebbe Nachman said, “The time will come, before Mashiach, that the whole world will long for me, and tens of thousands of people will come to my grave site!” People thought that the Rebbe was pipe-dreaming, Heaven forbid. Until a few years ago, Rebbe Nachman’s grave site was closed behind the iron curtain. A few brave Chassidim would sneak into the USSR with forged passports. As late as 1991, only about 20 people reached Uman on Rosh Hashanah. Last year, 26,000 people were there; that more than anything is a sign of the impending Geula, the full redemption of our people.
Rebbe Nachman promised in the presence of two witnesses, Rebbe Natan and Rebbe Naftali, that whoever comes to his grave, says Tikkun Haklali, and gives a coin for charity, the Rebbe will do everything so the person won’t fall into gehinnom [purgatory – LB]. How can Rebbe Nachman make a promise like that? Simple – as soon as a person comes to him, Rebbe Nachman won’t let him or her alone until he or she makes teshuva.
Rebbe Natan wrote his son Yitzchak that it’s worthwhile to bear all the suffering in this world in order to have the privilege of going to Uman. He adds that anyone who reaches Uman on Rosh Hashanah makes his entire reincarnation worthwhile, for Rebbe Nachman can cleanse a person of all impurity.
Rosh Hashana is an especially wonderful time to go to Uman. Rebbe Nachman says, “Anyone who listens to me, who considers me their Rebbe, should come to me for Rosh Hashana – no one should be absent!
A person asks, how can I leave the family for Rosh Hashana? Imagine that on the two days of Rosh Hashana, a person is in a life and death trial with hundreds and thousands of accusations. Where in the world do you find an attorney that will take care of one accusation, much less hundreds and thousands? Where do you find an attorney that takes care of your family too? The Rebbe promised that he’d take care of everything! Who can make such a promise, even for millions? What are 4 or 5 days away from home to insure the welfare of your family for the entire coming year?
Really, if a person would understand the depth of the accusations – that Hashem doesn’t forget the tiniest detail, such as bitul Torah [idleness from Torah – LB] for a minute – he’d fly like a bird to Uman. This is no joke – it’s a trial by the King – Judgment Day.
If a person has never been to Uman, he can’t understand what Rosh Hashanah is. Without Uman, a person can’t understand what teshuva is – another vidui, another prayer, more tears…
If a person has never been to Uman, they can’t understand what a Kaddish is – Y’hay shmay raba with tears streaming down their faces.
If a person has never been to Uman, they can’t understand what prayer is.
The Rebbe promised his daughter that whoever would come to his grave, he’d be like someone who’s listening from right behind the door – Rebbe Nachman is alive.
The most powerful prayers are the ones asking for one’s soul correction and teshuva. Rebbe Nachman is the tzaddik with the power to correct a soul, the Doctor of the Soul of all times. Rebbe Nachman promises that anyone who prays for spiritual arousal on his grave won’t go home empty-handed. He also promises that he’ll come here to listen to those prayers.
More than anything, when a person goes to Uman and talks to the tzaddik, he should ask the Rebbe for the power of prayer, and to speak to the Rebbe just like he’d speak to his local rabbi that’s still in the flesh. Rebbe Nachman can help us make real teshuva and can send each of us the salvation he or she needs, as well as the general salvation of our people Israel, amen.
Uman, Uman, Rosh Hashanah!
Ashreinu, ma tov chelkinu! How happy and fortunate we are to be Breslever Chassidim with such a Rebbe like we have!!
G-d willing, we’ll see you this year in Uman. Don’t miss it, for with Hashem’s help, Mashiach will be there too, amen!
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