Until recently, only a handful of devout believers made the expensive trip to Uman, Ukraine, over the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) to the grave of Breslov Hasidic sect founder Rebbe Nachman. Somehow, this custom has now spread and gone mainstream, accepted and recognized at all levels of the Jewish population. Like fasting on Yom Kippur, the New Year pilgrimage to Uman has become a kind of “commandment” fulfilled even by secularists who observe few other religious customs.
Like other phenomenon of this type, the trip to Uman does not exclude celebrities. The comedian Eli Yatzpan and the singer Lior Narkis have been spotted in Uman in the past. This year, the singer Eyal Golan made the pilgrimage before the festival, to beat the crowds.
In September 2012, the secular Israeli journalist Royee Assis published impressions from his trip to Uman. At that time, 25,000 Israelis had visited the site on the holy day, and Assis joined them. “I live a secular lifestyle,” Assis wrote. “I was always skeptical and joked about this mass, blind flow of pilgrims to the gravesite. … [But] the spiritual experiences transcend that, and materialistic issues become trivial.”
Like trips to Indian ashrams, which are quite popular among young Israelis, the celebration in Uman is an easy-to-digest religious opportunity. It enthralls large numbers of Israelis, religious and secular alike, who have a spiritual vacuum they want to fill, but without changing their lifestyle. The Breslov followers make no religious demands on anyone. Everyone is invited to take part in the spiritual experience.
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