Someone asked the Rav a few days ago if he should still go to Uman, even if the Rav isn’t allowed to get there.

(God forbid….Basically, if the Rav doesn’t get there, geula will come faster but with a lot more suffering, and if he does get there, BH, it will come a little slower, but way more gently and ‘stretched out’, as we’ve been experiencing the last few  years.)

The Rav responded: Bevedai, bevedai.

(Of course, of course.)

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My husband has his ticket – and yes, it’s getting more and more expensive each year, and more and more difficult travelling-wise.

But things  can get sweetened and ‘fixed’ spiritually in Uman on Rosh Hashana, by Rabbenu, in a way that just can’t happen anywhere else, or any other time.

I’m not going to get into a big discussion about the power of the kibbutz – how each person who comes adds another holy ‘stone’ to the holy ‘houses’ being built, which create the spiritual power to really sweeten harsh decrees.

If you’re interested in how all this works spiritually, get a copy of Likutey Moharan, and start reading through it.

And if you’re not interested in the spiritual explanation, there is no other explanation.

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Point is, the kibbutz in Uman has tremendous power to turn things around.

And that’s why each year, they’ve been going after it in a million different ways, to try to limit it, close it down and scare people off.

But go buy your ticket!

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I spoke to someone who literally got back from Uman yesterday, and they told me that it looks like there are a few more checkpoints than last year.

But other than that – it’s mostly business as usual in Uman itself.

If the night-time curfew is still in place, it seems most people are now ignoring it, and the roads to the Tzion are lit up (which they weren’t last year, the same time.)

There is food there, there is electricity – although there was a power cut at one point during Shabbat.

(Old timers to Uman will remember when the power used to fall two and three times a day, in the middle of the coldest winter days. It used to be a very common part of the ‘Uman package’.)

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She said the travelling is difficult, because you are literally spending 12 hours on the road, even from ‘close’ locations like Kishinev airport, Moldova.

And there are still big delays at the borders, because they insist on taking all the suitcases off and checking them.

So, be aware that it’s going to be challenging travel.

But it’s the journey to the true tzaddikim that brings all the miracles, and makes the ‘vessel’ for the blessings.

Literally, every step a person takes on that journey creates angels that then accompany him onwards.

So the fact that the journey is now much longer, means there are that many more good angels being created, and the ‘vessel for blessing’ will be that much bigger, when you finally get there.

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Last week, Rav Berland said this about getting to Uman (from the RavBerland.com site):

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You can watch it here (shiur begins at timecode 30:52):

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This is how we get things to ‘sweeten’.

This is how we turn the harsh decrees around.

With prayer, emuna, emunat tzaddikim, mesirut nefesh, humility – and Uman.

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The day after this shiur, last Wednesday, the Rav was reported as saying the following:

Thursday night the Rav said everyone should buy tickets, there is talk about closing borders!

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The last couple of weeks, I’ve been feeling quite ‘nervous’ again, for no obvious reason.

I have the feeling this period of relative calm and ‘relative normalcy’ is about to come to a close.

Rosh Hashana is going to be huge this year, one way or another, and it’s the key to determining whether the next stage of the geula process comes gently, or with more suffering.

If you can’t get there yourself – then help someone else to get there, in whichever way you can do that.

And you don’t have to ‘buy in’ to all this – but if that’s the case, this blog probably isn’t the best place for you to be hanging out.

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Big things are on the horizon.

And I’m more than a little scared about those ‘big things’.

But I’m trying my best to have emuna, to believe that God is ultimately behind everything in the world, even the apparently ‘bad’ things – and to stay sitting within the Tzaddik’s circle, as per Rabbenu’s story of the Cripple.

More than that, I can’t really do.

But I pray that thousands of people overcome their own ‘fallen fears’ to make it to Uman and back safely this year – and that the Rav will be joining them, so that geula can come the sweetest way possible, and all the harsh gezeirot can be sweetened.

Amen.

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