Boruch Dayan
ha-Emes – it is with the greatest sorrow that we announce the passing of one
Breslov’s most beloved teachers, Rabbi Nachman Yisrael ben Moshe Burstein of
Yerushalayim. Reb Nachman had suffered a heart attack and several strokes in
recent years. Yet despite all hardships and physical maladies, he came to Uman
for Rosh Hashanah, including this past year 5574 / 2013. Prior to the opening
up of travel to Uman, Reb Nachman had been the Rosh Hashanah Baal Musaf in
Meron for decades. He was also a renowned baal tefilah in the Kataman
neighborhood of Yerushalayim, and a popular speaker and teacher in the Breslov
community and wherever he was invited to speak. His devotion to Rebbe Nachman
and his spiritual legacy was a sterling example to all Breslover Chassidim.
Reb Nachman's expertise in the traditional melodies of Breslover
Chassidim was unparalleled. He also had encyclopedic knowledge of Breslov oral
histories and customs. Moreover, he was a solid talmid chokhom and
halakhist, who was respected by the leading scholars of Eretz Yisrael. His
father, Rabbi Moshe Burstein (1914-2011), was also a leading figure in Breslov
in Yerushalayim and a talmid chokhom of stature. Reb Moshe was born in Poltosk,
Poland and arrived in the Holy Land in 1935 with his wife and infant son,
Nachman. Reb Moshe was one of Rabbi Avraham Sternhartz's closest disciples, and
Reb Avraham lived in the Burstein home after his wife’s petirah. Thus, Reb
Nachman knew Reb Avraham throughout his youth, until the latter’s passing in
1955, when Reb Nachman was 21.
Only this past year (2013), the first volume of Reb Nachman’s
talks was finally published: Otzar Nachmeini (available through http://www.everythingbreslov.com/works-of-various-disciples/otzar-nachmeini/prod_1222.html).
But of course, nothing and no one can take the place of Reb Nachman
Burstein, zatzal, with his unforgettable beautiful smile, as he spoke words of
Torah and chizuk, or sang niggunim with great hisorerus and retold the stories
of tzaddikim with emunah and simchah and hislahavus. May he have a “lechtigeh
Gan Eden” and intercede above for his family, talmidim, and countless friends
from all walks of life, and for the entire Jewish people, amen.
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