Tuesday, November 2, 2010

A Ba'al Mussar's Experience in Uman

Here is a section from a very nice article I read this morning which was sent to me by Neil Harris . HT to him for pointing me to this article:

I walked over to the Tzion to find only several dozen people praying at the grave. I entered this small crowd, Psalms in hand looking forward to saying something really significant to God. Over the next hour I took small steps forward into the increasingly dense crowd. I finally got to within one row of the large four-foot high, ten-foot long, five-foot deep marble grave.

A row of men in front of me leaned, heads on arms on the grave crying and whispering intimate prayers. A sociable Israeli man next to me played traffic cop and called out every few minutes, “Ok, brother, your time is up, let someone else get in,” grabbing the shoulder of one of the petitioners and helping him make way for the next person.

At last it was my turn. I squeezed forward and there I was – at the grave...

CLICK HERE to read the full article. It's a very nice article by a Mussar oriented person who is really working on himself.

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2 comments:

Levi Grunhaus said...

Just saw this. Thank you for posting! I had a similar experience at the site. Didn't push it either... I was somewhat better prepared (not with a journal...). Having heard from Rav Kluger the night before, I adjusted my expectations. He warned against people coming to Uman with 'High' expectations. Namely expecting a constant state of 'high'. He explained that if you try very hard to make your Rosh Hashana so special, it will be disconnected from the rest of the year. The 'Rosh' (head) must be attached to the 'Guf' (body). Therefore if one experiences even a few moments of 'Hisaloos' during Rosh Hashana, that is a true gift to be cherished. The Uman experience for me, was an overwhelming sense that everything is just as it should be. That everything is operating according to Hashems plan and is constantly under his direct Hshgacha. And, that I also had my place in this plan...

DixieYid (يهودي جنوبي) said...

Levi, thanks for commenting. I had a similar experience as you had (and not only because we rode the bus to Uman together). I didn't have a big high, but I tried to do what I was supposed to do, and I davened for what I needed to daven for.

IY"H, I would like to go back again this coming R"H with my son. It will be a few months before his seventh birthday...