Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Avraham ben Reb Nachman Chazan

Painting by Yitzchak Besancon

On Sunday night, Dec. 1, through Monday, December 2, which is the fifth day of Chanukah, Breslover Chassidim will commemorate the yahrtzeit of one of our greatest luminaries, Rabbi Avraham ben Reb Nachman Chazan (1849-1917).

The son of Reb Noson’s close follower Reb Nachman Tulchiner, Reb Avraham was a key figure in the Uman Breslov kehillah and later in Yerushalayim, and he passed on many oral traditions (some of which are found in his “Kokhvei Ohr”). His talmidim include Reb Levi Yitzchak Bender and Rabbi Elya Chaim Rosen, both of whom survived the Holocaust and became key figures in the Yerushalayim Breslov kehillah after WWII.

Reb Avraham ben Reb Nachman was an extreme ascetic who had nothing to do with the materialism of this world. It is said that for many years he was accustomed to leave his home on Sunday to seclude himself in the Grekko forest outside of Uman with a few seforim and a few rolls of bread, and not return until the following Erev Shabbos. His “Bi'ur HaLikkutim” is one of the most profound works ever written on Likutey Moharan.

Zekhuso yagein aleinu v'al kol Yisrael!