Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlov, the great-grandson of the founder of Hassidism, the Baal Shem Tov, was born in 1772 and died at the age of 38 in 1810. Rabbi Nachman is buried in Uman, in Ukraine, where he spent his final years. His grave has become a place of pilgrimage for tens of thousands who visit and worship there over the High Holidays.

In January 2013 I traveled to Ukraine with a group of Chicago rabbis. One of our stops was at Rabbi Nachman’s grave. My mother had died six months before and I was still in the year of mourning. Because of this I had the honor of leading my colleagues in our mincha (afternoon prayers) at the gravesite. (It is a custom for a person who is in the year of mourning to be asked to lead services for a minyan if he is able).

Rabbi Nachman was well known for his connection to nature. One of his prayers, transcribed by his closest disciple, Reb Nossom, goes like this:

Master of the universe, let me seclude myself in meditation and prayer every day, going out to the fields to meditate, among the trees and grass, pouring out my heart in prayer. For all the leaves and grass, all the trees and plants, will stir themselves to greet me; they will rise to imbue my words and prayers with their energy and life force… They will combine all their spiritual power and bring my words up to their divine Source….

Although he died a young man, Rabbi Nachman gives us this stunning insight into what defines “old age”, which I came upon in my studies this week.

“A person who does not experience the mysteries of nature, who is not awed by the sunrise and sunset, who is numb to the world around him – that person’s existence is devoid of the life force. The call to renew oneself essentially implies the call to be able to fall in love over and over. The plea that we recite on Yom Kippur – “al tashlicheni l-et ziknah”—“Do not abandon me to old age” – means “even though my body may be bent over from old age, may my soul be fresh and youthful”. We also recite, “ve-ruach kodshekha al tikakh me-meni” –“May Your Holy Spirit never be taken from me”. A sign that a person has been cast into old age, that his spirit has been taken, is when creation ceases to stir in him the experience of wonder.”