Yitzie's Story: A Miracle in Uman

Hi, my name is Yitzie. I'm from New York State. I grew up "chassidish" but went totally of the path. I started working in the Big Apple and got involved in everything guys get involved in when the leave the shtetyl and go to Manhattan. You know…

Until this year at Shabbos Chanuka, I was still a chef downtown. I was on the train to the city to go to work. Suddenly, something came to my mind that I want to go to Uman for Shabbos Chanuka. I don't know why – it was so strange - no one ever told me to go. I have friends that are Breslev, but ME? "I would never go to Uman," I told my friends. Like I was being pulled, somehow I decided to go for shabbos. I bought my ticket that night.

I went to Uman for Shabbos and my whole life changed around. We had major obstacles on the way to Uman:

I spent 3 whole days running from airport to airport and suffered from canceled flights - it was a mess. But we didn't give up. We got to Uman a half hour before candle-lighting on Friday afternoon.

After 3 days not sleeping and not eating normal, my friends went to daven mincha I haven't kept Shabbos for over 2 years. But I decided Shabbos in UMAN I have to keep. We finished davening and we went to our apartment to make the meal which I cooked actually. It was a very nice meal. And we went to sleep we were all tired after what we went through.

At 1am, I woke up and I saw my friend walking out from the apartment we rented. I asked him where he's going. "To the tziyun (gravesite)," he answered. "You want to come?" he asked me. It was 1 AM Friday night - I was tired but something told me get out of bed and go. So that's what I did.

I came into the shul that's built over Rebbe Nachman's tziyun and my friend told me to go up to the tziyun and tell Rebbe Nachman and what happened with you the past 3 days. "But before you go, please come to mikva," he said. I told my friend, "No way I'm going to mikva - I haven't been to a mikva for 10 years." So I went to Rebbe Nachman's kever (grave) and started talking to him, just like this: "Holy Rebbe, I don't know why I'm here, but you sent me a invitation to come to you so here I am - after 3 days of traveling all over Europe, I'm here by you. What on earth do you want from me?"

I started telling Rebbe Nachman my story; not long ago, I got separated after 6 years of marriage. I went on telling him everything what's going on in my life. And in the end, I told Rabbenu Nachman, "I'm in your hands I will do whatever you want me to do but show what you want from me..."

You can read the exciting continuation of Yitzie's Story in this week's issue of Breslev Israel web magazine.

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This week's Torah portion is Vayakhel. May Hashem bless you with a fantastic week!