Beloved Son

Now we are skipping to the next generation, to the next phase of the Hasidic phenomenon, the next significant messianic persona, messianic of sorts.

We are checking out Nachman, the great grandson of the Ba’al Shem Tov, who was not recognized as a great leader or thinker and what not in his time, but in retrospect, in our time, we recognize him as a great spiritualist, writer, messianist of sorts, etc.

His influence was not great, to say the least, during his own lifetime, but many years later the seed of his persona and content took root and produced major impact - which we will not get into.

We will not address that process of how and when and why the impact grew when it did, but rather, since we know that the impact came and continues to thrive today - we are interested in him, what he said and did, what he represented, in his time, him himself.

Beloved Son

This prince of the Hasidic new world was born in 1772. He died in 1810 at the young age of 38. 

He was a mysterious and complex personality, extraordinary in the landscape of Hasidism, for several different reasons… 

We know him as Nachman of Breslev, but he passed through a few different places in his short lifetime. Born in Międzybóż in Eastern Poland (today Western Ukraine), where his famous great grandfather lived and died and was buried, the hearth of the Hasidic. 

His paternal grandfather was also a Hasidic leader, Nachman of Horodenka, after whom he was named, was a disciple of the Besht. 

Young Nachman was a prodigy, from childhood his personality and intellect stood out. 

Growing Pains

Nachman married (super young) and moved away to a village named Ossatin, into the home of his father in law. Already there he began to draw disciples...

He moved to the next stop, Medvidka - and lived there for 7 long years, with a growing following of Hasidic pupils from the surrounding villages.

But in 1798 Nachman did some special - he traveled to the Land of Israel, went about the Gallilee for half a year, between Rosh ha’Shana to Passover, including being in Akko (Akre) just as Napolean decided to lay siege on it, and there Nachman was stuck for a bit.

What was he doing in the north of Israel? Apparently praying, immersing, learning - mostly around the Meron mountain and Tsfat (Safed), the places where the great Kabbalists were - the Rashbi and Isaac Luria and others.

This seems to have been a key period in his lifetime and in the development of his sense of self, his rather high sense of self, as a spiritualist, and his sense of calling, and a feeling of purpose. 

Tested by the Fires 

When he returned from Israel - he never visited Jerusalem by the way, which is interesting, he moved from Medvidka and set up shop in Zlatopol, just like that, spontaneously, in the month of Elul, and that is where his problems started... 

In the new town a rivalry of sorts sparked up. The local rabbis didn’t like him because he was young and brilliant and charismatic. They resisted him.

This hurt Nachman’s feelings. But behind it all apparently was an old Hasidic master from nearby, who felt that Nachman in Zlatopol was entering his territory. 

But apparently there were further reasons, not just political or territorial, and this is where it becomes more interesting to us.  

These reasons for conflict were religious, relating to the high perception and presentation of self by Nachman and his wonderful writings and his disciples.

It is possible there was suspicion that Nachman had some Sabbatian connection or elements about him, at that time it was still tense.

Local rabbis didn’t like him. A local nearby Tsaddiq (righteous one, the name of the Hasidic masters at this stage - unlike the original phase with the Besht and his disciples, the first generation of leadership), and the latter got the other Tsaddiqim - Hasidic leaders to grow critical, suspicious, and resentful of him.

Two years later, in the month of Elul, Rebbe Nachman left Zlatopol for a town named Breslev. 

From Breslev to Uman

Nachman of Breslev was by now a little older and a little more careful. He didn’t move to Breslev spontaneously. He checked around, planned, and transitioned. 

The hostility from others in the Zlatapol area came after him there a bit, but not too much. He blossomed in Breslev, grew his following, received a disciple who was outstanding - Rabbi Nathan Sternhertz of Namirov, who would become the leader of the group under him, and would be his scribe and later publish the teachings of the special Tsaddiq.

Unfortunately, while his enterprise developed, tragically his wife and only surviving son Ephraim, as a baby - more on this later… as it had some messianic consequences. 

He also became sick with tuberculosis, which would kill him within a few years.

So, after a 7 year stint in Breslev, he moved to Uman. Where he would die and be buried. He moved there sick and conscious of death - this also had implications to his thought and messianism and identity. 

What was special about his time in Uman, besides being sickly and death-conscious, was that he socialized with maskilim - Jews of the European enlightenment, post-religious Jews - which was a great sin, a great scandal for the Hasidim and the entire orthodox world. 

He would play chess with them, hang out and have talks. Others were shocked by this. Some said he was on a mission.

And during these years he decided, perhaps having to do with these experiences, that in Uman he will die and be buried.