Conclusion

great study hall, which is too small to contain the crowd filling it. One of the Breslovers climbs onto a bench and proclaims aloud, “And you shall be only joyful.” A new wave of joy floods the Breslovers, and they are all drawn into a dance that lasts for hours. With the appearance of Rabbi Aharon Leib Ziegelman, one of the veteran spiritual guides of the Breslov Hasidim, the dancing stops and the crowd falls silent.

Rabbi Aharon Leib opens with the words of his master: sadness and a broken heart are not identical. A broken heart is very dear before God and is in the aspect of “a son who importunes his father.” Not so sadness—anger and irritation are its lot. In practice—Aharon Leib continues—a broken heart is good for a person, but there is a danger that through it he will come to sadness. One should therefore set aside one hour a day for a broken heart, and for the rest, “You shall be only joyful”... The Rebbe said: “The main thing for me is Rosh Hashanah. After Rosh Hashanah I incline my ear to the wall to listen for the knocking of the shamash who awakens the congregation for the Selihot of the coming year.” His Hasidic discourse, interwoven with mysteries of Torah and pearls from the Torah of their great master, continues for about two hours; his words are heard with close attention. Throughout that entire time no one dared disturb him, but at the conclusion of his discourse a mighty song bursts forth, interrupted each time by another Hasid calling, “And you shall be only joyful.” The same spectacle recurs on the second night of Rosh Hashanah. The spiritual guides Rabbi Yitzhak Breiter and Rabbi Ben Zion Apter deliver words of Torah from the teachings of their master.

And before I conclude my article, I shall not neglect the memory of the Breslov Hasid who feared God more than many, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak of Ostrowiec, who was the Breslovers’ Torah reader. His slow and emphatic reading, the rafe and the dagesh, the phrasing of the cantillation marks and the melodies, and his pleasant voice brought satisfaction to the listeners. A whole, pure, and holy service did the Breslov Hasidim perform during the days of Rosh Hashanah.

The power of the founder of the Breslov movement—the renowned tzaddik, mighty in deed and giant in spirit, the Admor Rabbi Nahman, of blessed memory, who said, “My ember will burn until the coming of the Redeemer”—stood the Breslovers in good stead, enabling them to endure for a long time without a spiritual leader in their midst and to achieve success in many Torah institutions in the Diaspora and in the Land. Happy is the eye that saw all these things.