Some are hoping for a specific salvation. Others want to connect to Rebbe Nachman. Still others have no idea why they’ve come. But the thousands of women who come to Uman annually all find something.
We’ve all heard about the tens of thousands of men who fly to Uman for Rosh HaShanah; many of us know someone who goes every year or has been at least once. What’s less well known is that each year an estimated 10 000 to 15 000 women make the same journey. They don’t go for Rosh HaShanah; Breslov rabbanim are outspoken about women not traveling to Uman for Rosh HaShanah due to tzniyus concerns. But throughout the year they make the pilgrimage.
Like their male counterparts these women come from all over the world and from every color and stripe of the Jewish world. What draws them? What do they find when they get there? And why has Tu B’Av become known in recent years as the “Rosh HaShanah for women” in Uman with well over 1 000 women making the pilgrimage?
Some women travel to Uman because they are in need of a particular yeshuah (salvation) and have heard it’s the place to go. For others the trip is an extension of their spiritual life and the study of Rebbe Nachman’s life and works. Some women are encouraged to go by husbands who find yearly inspiration from spending Rosh HaShanah there. And for yet others the reasons are unclear sometimes even to themselves.
During one of my visits to Uman a woman in tight jeans and long painted nails turned to me and asked me “Do you know why I’m here?”
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