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

Worth the Trade

“I threw it all away.” Ruth of Moab

Now, she didn’t really say that, but she could’ve. She was a princess, beautiful and wealthy. She could have had pleasure and power had she stayed in her native land, instead of migrating to the Land of Israel. But she saw something in her late Jewish husband, or in her mother-in-law, Naomi, or in both. When Naomi set out to return home to the Land of Israel and tried hard to dissuade Ruth from joining her, Ruth refused. “Wherever you go, I will go.” Even to poverty, even to risk my life because I don’t yet know everything about being Jewish and may commit a sin. It’s worth all that—and more—to be Jewish.

Ruth never regretted her choice and was never bitter about it. She was such a kind and loving person that anything she looked at became blessed.

So what happened because this woman threw it all away and became Jewish? We ended up with King David and his Tehillim (Psalms). And we will end with tikkun haolam when Mashiach comes, swiftly and soon, in our lifetime. Amen.

© Copyright 2013 O. Bergman

 

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