Uman Rosh Hashanah & LSD

On my Twitter account last week, I riddled: How is Uman Rosh Hashanah like taking LSD?

OK. Maybe you said because each is a trip. Ha, ha. Very funny. LOL. ROTFL. And probably very true. But before we go any further, I want to make TWO THINGS VERY CLEAR.

  • I do not equate the taking of LSD, or any drug, with any authentic Jewish spiritual practice (with all due respect to both the Yaqui Way and Rastafarians everywhere).
  • I DO NOT ENDORSE TAKING ANY ILLEGAL DRUGS, INCLUDING HALLUCINOGENS.

If you have never taken LSD and are curious to know what it’s like; or if you have and would like to relive the experience (while limiting the chances of a negative flashback), you may want to read Monkey, by Arthur Waley.

OK, back to the subject at hand.

One innocent responded to the riddle by saying that the two are connected by the Summer of Love “but in spirit only.” I won’t disabuse him of this latter notion, but he’s right on the first count, although I would describe Uman RH more as Human Be-In than Summer of Love.

Rebbe Nachman was very insistent that his followers be with him for Rosh Hashanah. I want to offer a reason. Even though it took place on the Sixth Day of Creation, Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of Creation because it is the day humankind was created. Without us and our free will, all the beauty and genius of Creation is nothing but a glorified puppet show.

When we and Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge—girl souls with Eve, guy souls with Adam—all hell broke loose. We were driven from the Garden of Eden and have been trying to get back since. Rebbe Nachman, as the tikkun for/of Adam (humankind, not the guy), calls upon us to re-participate in the annual Opening Day Contest between Serpent and Human. Each year, Rebbe Nachman (with our fragmented-souls reaffixing themselves to his whole Adam-soul) fixes more and more of the damage.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that the greatest part of the RH tikkun (and really every tikkun), is the resultant right-daat, consciousness/awareness. One of the claims made by those who championed “turning on” was that it resulted in “tuning in,” being conscious of the truths of reality and the correct way to live them. It’s not necessarily apparent to us who are blessed to be part of Rebbe Nachman’s Rosh Hashanah, but somehow our consciousness and behavior are permanently altered by the experience. If we remain vigilant, the changes grow stronger within ourselves and get shared with others by osmosis.

Another Yid also got it (mostly) right, although for some reason he responded somewhat tentatively, “Both cause you to see deeper patterns in reality and make you feel outside of daily pedestrian life?” The feeling of being outside the confines of ordinary life is certainly there. This is one of the reasons that many people crash emotionally and/or spiritually (as well as physically) after Rosh Hashanah, sometimes as soon as they pull out of Uman!

As for seeing “deeper patterns in reality,” well, that depends. It has long been my contention—and Rebbe Nachman’s foremost disciple, Reb Noson, backs me up on this (Likutey Halakhot, Taanis 4:8)—that Rebbe Nachman doesn’t really “teach” anything. He says his lesson and each of us who receives the lesson hears what he is capable of hearing, i.e., what he wants to hear. Sadly, those results are sometimes antithetical to Rebbe Nachman’s mission, as well our own personal missions. Reb Noson writes that the best method for “getting it right” is to beg God (and your living teacher) to make you get it right!

Which brings us to the final (for now) part of the riddle’s answer. We will talk first of taking LSD since, in all likelihood, more people who surf the Internet have done LSD than have ever been to Uman. (That is due to change, by the way.) Broadly speaking, there are (were?) three general approaches to taking LSD. There is the Kesey “Electric Kool-Aid” School, the Hunter Thompson “Gonzo” School and the “Let’s Have Fun” School.

What each school sought is not the point here. What is important is that depending on the “why” one was going to ingest the drug, is how one would set up his environment, in order to best foster that goal. Everything that was beyond the person’s planning was viewed in terms of how it impacted on reaching the goal, fun, escape or consciousness.

Uman RH is the same. Some come for the adventure. Some come for a material and/or spiritual escape, including Rebbe Nachman’s promise, that he will pull them out of Hell, no matter what they’ve done (as long as they try their best to not do it again). Some come for daat/consciousness. Some in this last group have a specific state, level or type of daat they want to reach. Others just put themselves “on the table and let the Rebbe operate” on their minds.

Is Uman RH for you? It’s a trip. It requires physical stamina even for those coming from the Holy Land, a three-hour flight. You are (most likely) coming from a First-World country to a non-First-World country. People are coming and going at all hours of the day—and night. Your sleeping and eating patterns will be disturbed, to put it mildly. Services are much longer than usual.

It requires emotional stamina. For a week, you’re thrown into close quarters with Jews of all different types, with different levels of Jewish knowledge, commitment, sophistication, and whose level of courtesy and couth may fall far short of what you consider normal human decency.

It requires spiritual stamina. Facing the physical and emotional challenges, how patient can you remain so that you don’t fall short in your own interactions with others? How committed to maintaining your Torah-learning schedule (adjusted for travel and the holiday)? How patient to focus for davening (praying)? Can you be conscious enough to be b’simchah, to relish that you are part of something bringing humankind to its tikkun?

Do you believe in Rebbe Nachman? Is your faith in his genius and tzaddik-ness enough to cover your stamina handicaps?

© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West

Chosen Person

We’re on the threshold of receiving the Torah, again. As we wrote earlier, one of the reasons we stay awake all Shavuot night to learn Torah, is to awaken our desire for living Torah, despite any obstacles we may face in life. And face obstacles we will.

Rebbe Nachman talks often of the desire to be a Jew, the desire to live Jewishly, the desire to actualize the desire to daven (pray) more/better, learn Torah more/better, be charitable and kind more/better, have stronger faith and love for God, etc. What’s the starting point for that desire? The starting point is to realize that not only are we Jews the Chosen People, but that you, in your Jewishness, are a Chosen Person. Without your having stood at Mount Sinai at the Revelation to receive the Torah, no Jew, not even Moshe Rabbeinu, would have the Torah.

You were chosen to be there and, like the rest of us, you accepted the invitation and the responsibility. And you’re going to fail. Not all the time, hopefully, but often enough to think about quitting or about moving the goalposts (i.e., lowering your standards of Judaism). But this misguided thinking is based on a lack of humility. Your failures—just like my failures and the other guy’s failures—should give you a clearer picture of what your currently capable of and where you need improvement. Your failures, and the humility they breed, should weaken neither your desire nor your resolve for Jewishness. On the contrary—they should strengthen them so much that your failures become stepping stones to Jewish success.

Have a beautiful yom tov. Don’t forget. Being happy that it’s yom tov is a mitzvah. Don’t get suckered into an argument or a funk because the cheesecake didn’t come out right or the rabbi’s class was too long.

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hekhsher Keilim 4:18

 

© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman/148West