Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has recently expressed concern with the high prices of tickets for those wishing to fly from Tel Aviv to Uman, to the Kever of Rav Nachman ZT”L for Rosh Hashanah. Deri promised to work to break the “cartel” responsible for the annual seasonal rise in the cost of airfare.
According to a report released by Kalkalist, the chareidi travel agents are the ones responsible for the high price of tickets to Uman for Tishrei Yomim Tovim, working against the Israel Airports Authority, which is working to reduce fares.
Thousands of Breslov Chassidim and many others are concerned with the cost of travel to Uman in Tishrei, particularly for Rosh Hashanah, for the many wishing to be mispallel at the tziyun. The cost of tickets can double for yomtov, leading Deri to announce he is working to “break the cartel” that profits at the expense of those wishing to take part in the Rosh Hashanah at the site, falling victim to price gouging.
The Ministry of Transportation last week in an unusual announcement stated that the Civil Aviation Authority appealed to its counterpart in Ukraine for a temporary permit to increase the quota of flights to Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah. The goal is to reduce fares for 20,000 travelers expected to head from Israel to Uman for Rosh Hashanah.
The Kalkalist report explains that despite these efforts, it appears the cost of tickets will not be reduced, with one of the factors being the number of flights heading to Uman, as according to Civil Aviation Authority official Yoel Feldshaw, the airport in Ukraine is full to capacity and there is no way to find an open window to add flights, despite efforts to do so to lower the cost of flights.
The Kalkalist reports another reason for increasing fares is the chareidi travel agents, who are not interest in such a move. According to them, the agents act as if they are moving mountains to lower costs, but in actuality, they are doing nothing as they are quite pleased with the sharp increase in airfare in Tishrei.
Another problem is the refusal of Rishon L’Tzion and Holon City Halls to approve an air train, permitting flights throughout the night, as the cities refuse due to the noise pollution, despite the fact this is only for a limited number of days.
Holon and Rishon L’Tzion City Halls petitioned the High Court of Justice against the takeoffs on erev Rosh Hashana during the night, explaining the noise levels are intolerable. The matter is yet to be adjudicated by the court. Attorneys Neri Yarkoni, Chen Amidor and Daniel Tamir represent the Israel Airports Authority, which seeks the authorization to permit takeoffs during the night.
One solution is for the planes to take off from Eilat to Uman instead of Ben-Gurion, but the solution does not address how the 20,000 travelers would get to Eilat. Any form of transportation would just increase the cost of travel, somewhat defeating the purpose.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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23 Responses
Wow. What a surprise?! And who built many of the new fancy hotels in Uman that charge crazy prices?
1) The travel agents are doing the tzibur a favor by working to keep them in E’Y with their families over RH.
2) This will never happen, but if the tzibur holds out on purchasing tickets, the travel agents will have to reduce their prices or be left with the expiring inventory. Maybe a rebbe can make a takkunah where nobody is permitted to purchase coach tickets for more than $X, and the travel agents will have to comply.
Memo from Shamayim to Breslov: “Stay home with your families for yom tov….I will hear your tefillos from WHEREVER you are davening. Give the money you would waste on overpriced airline tickets to tzadakah rather than lining the pockets of a few greedy travel agents and some of the biggest anti-semitim in the world…..”
Simple solution: These people should be headed to Uman now and remain through R”H. Most, if not, all these travelers to Uman don’t work anyway. Travel now and avoid the steep fares.
They should appreciate the Tefillos said Al Admas Kodesh in Eretz HaKodesh. In the time of Rab Nachman it was a lifelong dream of every Tzaddik to be able to step into eretz Yisroel and daven at the Mekomos hakedoshim even just once in their lifetime.
Im not trying to belittle the loftiness of Rab Nachman and his kever – for people of Eastern Europe who cannot fathom making it to Eretz Yisroel – it’s certainly an island of holiness. But for 20000 people to leave Eretz Yisroel the hoky land for the holy days to go on a pilgrimage to filthy Ukraine, many spending money that they don’t have, is ridiculous and a sad picture of the fragile spiritual reality that we are now living in.
start from eilat and from there to uman ///
that says it all
STAY HOME
and spend the money on your wife and kids
Got a better idea: let them stay at home here in Artzeinu Hakedosha. If their tefillos are to the Eibishte, it is said that tefillo from Eretz Yisroel is accepted as well. A useful and nice byproduct would be that the “pilgrims” could get time to spend with their families and not have to go begging or throw money at the Ukrainian antisemites. Why is Deri getting involved anyway? Why is it that Israeli politicians think they need to stick their noses into everything?
Oh, and by the way, travel agents are in business to make a parnossa. We can assuem that if they are genuine haredim, they give their tzeddoka. Helping people fly overseas is not a tzeddoka.
Good, leave the prices higher. Maybe this will knock some sense into those that run away from their families for Rosh Hashana.
They can cut the costs by 50% easily.
Make ’em one-way
As every anti-Semite knows, Jews control the price of everything, not just plane tickets to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. As every capitalist knows, increased demand drives up prices.
I think that all of the issues brought up by the previous posters have already been addressed over the years.
1. When the Broslovers started to move to Eretz Yisrael about 100 years ago there was a question if travel to Uman was appropriate from Israel. Some said yes, others said no. In the end it was decided by most, though not all, that because the שלחן ערוך allows travel to חוץ לארץ to visit a רבי it’s מותר to travel to Uman to visit R. Nachman, who the Broslovers continue to believe in.
2. It is an old tradition to travel to צדיקים for the ימים נוראים. My grandfather told me that he travelled with his father or grandfather to the chechnov Rebbe in Poland before the war for ראש השנה without the women. He made it sound like many people did the same.
3. While it’s hard to understand how it works because God is everywhere, there is a concept of holy ground. Eretz Yisrael is an example. It is easier to connect to God in holy places. The holiness is in the place and it affects noticeably the psyche of the person there. That’s why people daven at kivrei tzadikim.
Who uses a travel agent anymore? What is this, the 1950s?
The whole thing is a money making scam. The maximum amount of people that went before the war 60 people. They weren’t taken seriously as the notion of going to a grave equals going to your Rebbe has always been foreign to Yidishkeit.
A few years back they starting giving away free tickets to Baalie Teshuva. and made it into a yearly Woodstock for people who want to rave, bored of staying home, or enjoy paying lots of money to get an Aliyah by Reb Lazer, or pump their fists in the air and feel they are at a rap concert Erev R’H . In the meantime smart capitalists who saw that they can manipulate a trend cashed in with hotels and and expensive tickets.
Let the capitalist capitalize. If one less person participates in this insanity Moshiach will come sooner.
They used to be embarrassed by their wacky brethren. Now they are defiant and braze and look at you like your being judgmental because you can’t hear the logic of communing with the dead in a blood soaked country on Yom HaDin.
May All Of The Commenters Merit To Spend At Least One Rosh HaShanah in Uman, Amen!
Replying to most comments
How can you you be moitzi laz on 50000to70000 people where you ever there that you know the feeling of being by a Tzadik
THINK BEFORE YOU TALK
In response to the poster called “the truth”
You make a claim but you bring no evidence. I have evidence to the contrary.
Your claim is that “the notion of going to a grave equals going to your Rebbe has always been foreign to Yidishkeit.”
In fact, it was R Noson of Nemirov who declared that when R Nachman said to come to him for Rosh Hashanah he meant after the passing of R Nachman. R Noson instituted the current tradition of traveling to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. He wrote many letters about it, published in the official collection of his letters. He also explains the theory in detail in Likutei Halachot.
R Yisrael Odesser is the one who identified the heter to travel to חוץ לארץ to travel to the קבר of the צדיק based on the שלחן ערוך though the siman escapes me right now. That was in the 1930s. R Abraham Bar Nachman held the same way even earlier. So did R Yisrael Karduner before WW1.
In short it’s an old tradition that becomes more popular as R Nachman gains more followers.
The reason that Broslovers dance and do things that bring on happiness is because Broslovers believe that sadness causes people to be distant from God while happiness frees the mind and allows for תשובה.
Being by a Tzadik means a living Tzadik, someone you can learn from.
In the history of Klal Yisrael no one in their right mind has ever confused davening at the grave of a Tzadik with being by a Tzadik.
Being at a grave and thinking you are by a Tzadik is being by own imagination.
Nobody went to be by the Baal Shem Tov’s grave for Yom Tov, they went to Reb Dov Ber. Nobody went to Reb Dov Ber’s grave for Yom Tov they went to ….
Going to dead people for Yom Tov isn’t Yiddishkeit.
But in Broslev they do go to the קבר of R Nachman when they wish to go to the צדיק because that’s what R Noson said to do.
I think the reason for the difference is that other Hasidic groups follow new rebbes in every generation but Broslev only accepts R Nachman as their Rebbe.
The reason it seems unfamiliar and new is because Broslev only became popular and well known over the past 30 years or so, esp. in the past 15 years.
R Nachman also said, “How can people not argue with me, aren’t I teaching a totally new path. Even though it is the ancient path that are fathers have always walked on, it is totally new.”
Because one person who was a student and not a Gadol BTorah said to go to a Rebbe after he dies grave makes it an old tradition? Please ! Because a person named Odessa, nebach was so not well that he thought he received a letter from a hundred years ago makes it a tradition?! It’s the antithesis of all Chasidus. All of the Tzadikim of Ukraine rejected non-Jewish idea of having a dead Rebbe. It was well know in Belz before the war that if a man was found out to be learning Breslov sefarim a woman could ask for a Get.
Breslov was an embarrassment then and they only bring greater shame and embarrassment to Klal Yisrael . Will rap concerts before Yom HaDin also become a tradition ?! Breslov mocks all that is sacred.
No.
The old tradition is to travel to צדיקים for ראש השנה.
R Noson taught that the tradition applies to R Nachman even nowadays.
R Yisrael Karduner and R Yisrael Odesser taught that this should be done even by those who reside in Eretz Israel.
They are all Gedolei Torah in נגלה and נסתר.
How is this antithetical to hasidut?
You are right that many of the צדיקים of Ukraine were misnaged to R Nachman. That’s not a חידוש.
Is music mockery of the holy? Broslev just takes the advice if the צדיקים seriously. It looks funny sometimes, but the צדיקים recommend song and dance for תשובה.
It’s an old tradition to travel to Tzaddikim who are alive.
It’s an old tradition to daven at the Kivrei Tzaddikim.
There is NO tradition that spending time at a grave equals going to a Tzadik.
No form of Judaism believes that salvation happen through people who are dead.
It a antithetical to everything the Baal Shem Tov established which was to strengthen the connection to a living Tzadik.
Breslov brazenly defied this and that is why they were and remain repugnant among Chasidim and Misnagdim alike.