Uman Rescue – Part 2 of 5

Uman Rescue – Part 2 of 5 – Speaker: Rabbi Nasan Maimon. (Recorded in November and December 2011.)

• 00:00 Events in May/June 1979: Reb Yechiel Michel Dorfman zal arrives in the U.S. from Jerusalem. He and R’ Nasan Maimon first travel to Monroe, New York, to meet with Grand Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum zal, the Satmar Rebbe, concerning the rescue of Rebbe Nachman’s gravesite in Uman.
• 01:40 Reb Michel introduced himself to the Satmar Rebbe by saying: “I was the messenger sent to pray for you at the gravesite of Rebbe Nachman for Rav Yoel ben Chana.” [Correction needed: instead of “about 14 years ago” it should be “about 12 years ago”.]
• 03:00 Rabbi Maimon relates the background story: On the 23rd of February, 1968, the Satmar Rebbe suffered a stroke. His life was in danger and Reb Michel was appointed by the Breslov community to pray on his behalf at Rebbe Nachman’s tziyun. Reb Michel traveled to the Ukraine from his home in Malakhovka near Moscow: first he flew from Moscow to Kiev, and then took the 3-4 hour bus trip to Uman. When he reached the tziyon, Rebbe’ Nachman’s gravestone was covered with snow. Reb Michel shoveled it clear and then spent three hours face down on the gravestone, crying in the dead of winter on behalf of Rabbi Teitelbaum’s recovery and, as he freely admitted, for his own difficulties.
• 06:45 Background story behind the warm welcome Reb Michel received in February 1968 from the Zabeda family, the non-Jews who lived in the house adjoining the gravesite.
• 15:00 Reb Michel had a mysterious encounter with a beggar and then on the bus trip back to Kiev he suffered a severe stabbing pain in his leg. After being rushed to a hospital Reb Michel learned that a vein had burst in his leg at about the same time the obstruction in the Satmar Rebbe’s brain had suddenly and inexplicably dislodged and his life was saved.
• 18:00 Although he couldn’t speak, the Satmar Rebbe acknowledged that he understood and gave his blessing for success in the mission to protect the gravesite of Rebbe Nachman and the 30,000 martyrs in Uman.
• 18:40 Meeting with the Rebbe of Lubovitch who advises Reb Michel and R’ Nasan to meet with Rabbi Pinchas Teitz zal. In praise of the many accomplishments of Rabbi Teitz in the Soviet Union – among them the publication of a siddur in Russian.