Thousands travel to Uman for annual pilgrimage on Rosh Hashanah (10/19/03)

Thousands travel to Uman for annual pilgrimage on Rosh Hashanah

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

UMAN, Ukraine - Although this is the heartland of Ukraine it was difficult to be sure.

The city street was filled with an unwieldy stream of bearded men, most dressed in traditional Hasidic garb, their earlocks tucked beneath their black hats. Others wore flowing white tunics. Almost no one was dressed in Western dress. Not only were women few and far between, they simply were not to be seen.

The language of the street was overwhelmingly Hebrew. Everything was in the Hebrew cursive. A sign on one building noted that it was the Sha-arei Zion Hotel. Another notice explained the way to the burial place of Rebbe Nachmann.

It could have been a nondescript, somewhat rundown part of the old section of Jerusalem or any other ancient, now-congested city in Israel for that matter

Yet this was Uman, Ukraine, a sleepy county seat of 88,000 two hours' drive south of the Kyiv metropolis. Each year during September the town becomes the weeklong home to thousands of Hasidic Jews celebrating the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah.

This year was no different. More than 14,000 Hasidic Jews, the overwhelming majority from Israel and around 90 percent of them members of the Bratslav branch of Hasidism, gathered on September 26-28.

They had come to celebrate the beginning of the Jewish year 5764, explained Dov Nathan Kramer, the director of the International Charitable Fund of Rebbe Nachmann, considered the central organization of the Bratslav Hasidic movement, which does not acknowledge a leader other than the founder of the movement.

"Last year there were people from 53 countries," explained Dov Kramer. "We had pilgrims from Iran, Iranian Jews. Many come from America, more than 1,000 annually, but most come from Israel."

The gathering, one of the strongest established religious traditions in Ukraine, has occurred every year since 1812, except for the 70 years of Soviet rule when the celebration was banned. For the most part it involves much prayer at the burial site of the group's founder, Rebbe Nachmann, in compliance with instructions that he set out for his followers before his death. But it also includes an upbeat atmosphere, light-hearted communal meals in a huge cafeteria, ritual cleansings and the ancient Jewish tradition of bringing in the New Year to the sound of a Ram's Horn.

The Orthodox Jews who gather in Uman belong to the branch of Hasidic Jewry that identifies itself as Bratslav Hasidism. Rebbe Nachmann, who developed the movement, was a recognized Jewish mystic and holy man born in 1772, who lived in Bratslav, Ukraine (hence the name), located not far from Uman.

The great grandson of the founder of Hasidism, Rebbe Nachmann developed a following that supported his belief that higher spirituality is achieved through prayer, meditation and good deeds, which was somewhat different from the prevailing view of the time that spiritual superiority was predestined through the soul. It is said by the Bratslav Hasids that Rebbe Nachmann achieved inspiration during walks in the Sofiivka Park, the renowned botanical gardens of Uman where he liked to pray.

Before his death in 1810 at the young age of 38, Rebbe Nachmann told his followers that he would always remain with them as their intermediary with God, but that he would hear their prayers to God only at the place of his burial. He reminded them that prayer in general carried more power on the great holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year, and directed them to convene at his burial site annually at that time.

"Rosh Hashanah is like coronation day for a new monarch," explained Dov Kramer. "Some also call it Judgment Day, and for this reason prayer and atonement are very important."

The Hasidic Jews of the Bratslav movement have gathered in Uman for Rosh Hashanah every year since Rebbe Nachmann instructed them to do so. Celebrations on a large scale did not occur only when Uman was considered a closed city during the Soviet era and authorities forbade non-residents to enter. However, even then, the daring and the most faithful would find a way to Rebbe Nachmann's grave, which was hidden in the garden of a local Jew who acted as the caretaker.

Since Ukraine's independence was re-established in 1991, the pilgrimage tradition has resumed and taken on a grand scale. Today around 15,000 of the world's 20,000 Bratslav Hassid, as well as followers of other Hasidic movements, travel annually to Uman for the Jewish New Year.

The pilgrimage, as always, is centered on Rebbe Nachmann's burial site, which is now enclosed by a white, chapel-like structure. The streets around the monument are cordoned off during the three-day celebration, turning that section of Uman into a city within a city. The organizers hire their own police force, firefighting battalion and emergency medical service, as well as their own doctors who man a temporary hospital.

In the 1990s they rented facilities for feeding the pilgrims, but the $80,000 annual tab was determined to be prohibitive. Now they have built a kitchen that can feed 4,000 people at one sitting. It is here that the four traditional meals of Rosh Hashanah, occur.

A hotel, the Sha-arei Zion, has also risen on the site. The rooms, however, are occupied by the few who can afford them. Even so, there are few rooms available during the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage. While the poorest of the pilgrims bed down in tents or simply under the night sky, most rent rooms from the local population, which is becoming increasingly Jewish as many who come as pilgrims initially return to stay the next time around.

During the week surrounding Rosh Hashanah the area buzzes with activity, prayer services in the synagogue, cleansing rituals in the bathhouse, called a mikva, and bazaars selling everything from the unique garments that make up Hasidic dress to religious books and secular newspapers.

The focus, however, remains on Rebbe Nachmann's grave where one hears the constant humming of meditative prayer interspersed with shouts of exultation and cries of atonement by hundreds of men covered in prayer shawls, some bobbing to and fro in rhythmic contemplation and others pressing to the front to get as close as possible to the rebbe lest their prayers not be heard.

So what do the townspeople of Uman think of this great annual influx of humanity - a pilgrimage of people who do not speak or dress as they do - into this quiet and conservative country town? The attitude seems to be one of grin and bear it. And if there are any criticisms, they are directed at other Ukrainians.

When asked his impression of the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage and how it affected him, Ivan Semerezhenko, 32, who remodels buildings, questioned where the money that the pilgrims spent during their stay went every year.

"We don't see it because it goes straight into the pockets of Kyiv officials," he explained.

Oksana Ryzhoruk, 21, a student who works in a delicatessen, said she, too, has no qualms about the pilgrimage, except for one not-so-minor inconvenience: her landlady makes her leave her apartment during the two-week period because she leases it to Israelis, who pay top dollar for miserly accommodations.

"I don't have a problem with them, it's just that I get thrown out every year so that my landlady can make some money," said Ms. Ryzhoruk.

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