Author: Matthew Taub / Source: Atlas Obscura
The town of Uman is in the quiet center of Ukraine, hours from the country’s major cities. It’s an unlikely place for a foreign consulate, temporary or otherwise, but Israel has good reason for opening one there this week, for the first time ever.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims have just descended on Uman for Rosh Hashanah and things are about to get both pious and raucous.The pilgrims are there to honor Rebbe Nachman, founder of the Bratslav sect of Hasidic Judaism, who is buried in Uman, where he lived just the last few months of his life. While most Hasidic sects pass leadership down between generations, says Ariel Evan Mayse, a religious scholar at Stanford University, Nachman has remained Bratslav’s figurehead. The community has a joke, says Mayse, that asks, “How many Bratslav Hasidim does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer: “Oy, there will never be a new one like the old one.”
Nachman had promised salvation to those who visit his grave (along with giving to charity and reciting the proper psalms), but…
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