Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Shloshim of Rabbi Dovid Zeitlin z''l

The Zeitlin family recently sponsored a dinner in memory of Rabbi Dovid Zeitlin, zal, a founder of the Breslov Center, at the Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin elementary school hall in Flatbush, which is catered by Yissachar Dov Zeitlin. A large and diverse group attended this moving event. Mordechai Zeitlin kindly provided these video clips of the various hespedim. Most are in Yiddish or a combination of Yiddish and English, but Rabbi Fund's and Shmuel Zeitlin's are in English. Reb Dovid will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Many women also attended by they don't appear in the videos due to separate seating, in keeping with Orthodox tradition. Reb Dovid's 90 year old mother, Mrs. Perel Zeitlin, may she have many more good years of health and nachas, was also present. 

Thursday, April 23, 2015

“Hinei Rakevet”: The Train From Lublin


Otzar Nachmani, sec. 169
From the collected talks of Rabbi Nachman Burstein
Translated by Dovid Sears, unedited

[Rabbi Nachman Burstein relates about the Breslover Chassidim in Poland before World War II:]

I heard from Rabbi Itche Meir Korman that after Rosh Hashanah, when the Breslover Chassidim would returned home from the kibbutz (gathering) in Lublin, they traveled by train, each disembarking at his own home town.  Various groups of other Chassidim were on this train, as well, and once a debate took place as to which group was bigger. One said that his group had so many Chassidim, while another claimed that his group had so many Chassidim, etc. Finally, one Chassid exclaimed, “What are these numbers you’re bragging about? For us, there were so many Chassidim pressed together that it was mamash sakonas nefoshos, actual mortal danger!”

When the debate began to wind down, they turned to the group of Breslover Chassidim, and asked them provocatively, “And how was it for you? What could have happened without a Rebbe?”


One of the Breslovers (probably Reb Mordechai Sokolover, zal) replied, “Vos zogt ir, az bie eikh iz gevvezn mamash sakanas nefashos? What are you saying, that for you there was ‘mortal danger?’ Bie inz iz gevvezn mamash mechayeh nefoshos! For us, it was actual new life!”

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Breslov Campus - Spring Semester Starts Thursday!

BreslovCampus.org’s Spring Semester is Starting Thursday, April 21st

7 New and Thought-Provoking Courses, 2 New Teachers, &; Even More Classes for the Introductory-level Student.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Shloshim Seudah for Rabbi Dovid Zeitlin, zal

Received by e-mail from Mordechai Zeitlin

סעודת שלושים וסיום משניות לכבוד אבינו מורינו הרה״ח ר׳ אליעזר דוד בן ר׳ יוסף צייטלין ז״ל 
יתקיים ביום ראשון לסדר אחרי-קדושים, ז׳ אייר תשע״ה בשעה 5:00 בערב
The Shloshim for our dear father Eliezer Dovid ben Yosef Zeitlin will take place at:

Yeshiva Chaim Berlin Elementary School
911 East 13th St., Brooklyn NY.
Sunday, April 26th 2017 at 5:00 pm

Men and women are invited.

Rav Elazar Kenig of Tsfat shlit"a plans to attend and share some of his memories of Reb Dovid, zal.

New Movie: Rebbe Nachman's Stories!

Here's a "first": A group of professional movie-makers and actors are creating a movie of the Rebbe's stories. Two versions are planned, one in Hebrew and one in English. Please watch the trailer. It will definitely leave you wanting to see the rest!


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

A “Treasure Trove” of Wonder


Otzar Nachmani, sec. 182
Collected talks of Rabbi Nachman Burstein
Translated by Dovid Sears
[The Hebrew word “yirah” may be translated as wonder, fear or awe.]

[Rabbi Nachman Burstein relates:]

I heard from Reb Levi Yitzchok [Bender] that the chassid, Reb Moshe Shmuel of Uman (one of the anshei ma’amad, those appointed to oversee the Breslov Kloyz), often attended Reb Avraham b’Reb Nachman Halevi Chazan during his last years. [Reb Moshe Shmuel] used to accompany him wherever he needed to go, and he used to escort him to the Rebbe’s holy tziyyun (grave site). Reb Moshe Shmuel told how once when he prostrated himself at the tziyyun, he overheard [the saintly Reb Avraham b’Reb Nachman] entreating with deveykus, “Ribono shel Olam! Master of the Universe! Have pity on me! Help me, that I should love You, and that I should fear You!” He repeated these words again and again.

[Reb Nachman Burstein adds:]

In Likutey Moharan I, 17, it states that holy love and fear cannot be received except through the tzaddik ha-dor, who reveals love and fear; see wondrous things there. The Rebbe once said, “I’m a treasure trove of yiras shomayim [fear of heaven; wonder or awe]” (Chayei Moharan 294). And it is brought in the Zohar (Tikkuney Zohar, Tikkun 10): “Torah without fear and love does not ascend above.” And the directive is brought in the Talmud Yerushalmi (Berakhos, end): “Act out of love, act out of fear”—on which the commentaries explain that love is the source of the 248 positive commandments, while fear is the source of the 365 negative commandments. From all this, it may be understood that the Rebbe’s tziyyun is the place to entreat Hashem for holy love and fear, in the merit of the tzaddik ha-dor who lies there; for he reveals love and fear.  

Sunday, April 12, 2015

A Good Beginning

Otzar Nachmani, sec. 177
From the collected talks of Rabbi Nachman Burstein
Translated by Dovid Sears

[Reb Nachman Burstein relates:]

I heard from [Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Bender] that Rabbi Avraham b’Reb Nachman once said: “When one begins the day by studying the Rebbe’s teachings, this instills in him holy desire and enthusiasm for all the Torah study of the rest of the day.”

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Barukh Dayan ha-Emes: Rabbi Dovid Zeitlin, zal


With a heavy heart, we announce the passing of Rabbi Dovid Zeitlin—Eliezer Dovid ben Perel and Yosef—on Erev Pesach, 14 Nissan, in the early hours before dawn at Brooklyn Hospital.

Shortly before Shavuos last year Reb Dovid was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor (GBM). When informed of the test results, he thanked the doctor and told his family at his bedside, “Whatever Hashem wants, I accept.” His emunah was unshakable, and as always, he never complained.

A descendent of the Baal ha-Tanya on his father’s side, and Rabbi Yechiel Schlessinger, a talmid muvhak of the Chasam Sofer and father of the Lev Ivri, on his mother’s side, Reb Dovid was born in New York in 1950. His parents, Reb Yosef, zal, and Perel (may Hashem give her strength at this time of grief), survived the Holocaust and settled in America after World War II. He attended the Viener Yeshiva as a boy, during the years when the melamdim were all Holocaust survivors, and often broken, traumatized men; lacking funds, the yeshiva was often forced to move from place to place, and its facilities consisted of the bare necessities. However, one of the highlights of his youth was his relationship with Rabbi Yonah Forst, zatzal, Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra, renowned for his shiurim in Chovos ha-Levavos, which had a profound effect on Reb Dovid. A spiritual seeker, Reb Dovid also became close with the old Skulener Rebbe and Reb Herschel of Spinka, and also felt a connection with the Satmar Rov, Shoproner Rov, Rav Moshe Bick, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zikhron tzaddikim levrakha. Throughout his teenage years, he assiduously studied the classics of Chassidus, such as Be’er Mayim Chaim, Maor va-Shemesh, Yosher Divrei Emes, Likkutim Yekarim, Tanya and the Chabad teachings. Then one day his father came home with a dozen seforim for him—which Reb Dovid later noted was the only time in his life that his father did such a thing—telling him that they were being sold in shul for very little money, and he thought that his intellectual son might be interested in them. These were the Breslov seforim that he would spend the rest of his life exploring, and whose teachings he would follow with exemplary devotion.

His main teachers in Breslov were Rabbi Gedaliah Kenig, zatzal, and his son Rav Elazar Kenig, shlit”a, the mara de-asra of the Tsfas Breslov community, whom he attended devotedly during the latter’s many visits to America, particularly before and after Rav Kenig’s lung transplant surgery some ten years ago. He was also one of the founders of the New York Breslov Center, and author of a still-unpublished translation of Rabbi Gedaliah Kenig’s Chayei Nefesh, and in more recent years, Breslov Eikh she-Hu on Breslov minhagim and hanhagos tovos (both co-authored with Dovid Sears). He first went to the Rebbe’s tziyyun in Uman with several friends during the early 1980s, during the Soviet years. During that period, he would travel to Meron for Rosh Hashanah to join the Breslover gathering near the tziyyun of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. After it became possible to attend “the Rebbe’s Rosh Hashanah” in Uman, beginning in 1989, he traveled there every year with mesirus nefesh until the last year of his life. He fully intended to go to Uman for Rosh Hashanah, even when he could no longer walk or feed himself, and traveling was impossible.

Reb Dovid was a talmid chokhom who learned bi-hasmadah throughout his life, even while working in various clerical positions, but who finally achieved his goal of studying full-time in kollel more than fifteen years ago. He was highly knowledgeable in both nigleh and nistar, and, although he held no formal rabbinic position, was fluent in halakhah. For most of his life he faithfully attended the Shabbos morning Shulchan Arukh shiur of Rabbi Ben Zion Strasser, shlit”a, Nitra Rov of Borough Park, who was his lifelong mentor and friend, as well as a relative through marriage. Ironically, another relative through marriage of Reb Dovid, the esteemed Rav Shmuel Wosner (author of the halakhic responsa Shevet HaLevi and Rosh Yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin in Bnei Brak), zatzal, passed away at age 101 on the same day.

According to Chazal, petirah on Erev Shabbos is an auspicious sign. Surely Reb Dovid Zeitlin’s neshamah tehorah went straight to gan eden.


May Hashem comfort and give strength to his mother, Mrs. Perel Zeitlin; his brother Hillel Zeitlin in Los Angeles and sister Mrs. Sheindel Vider in Brooklyn; his devoted wife, Mrs. Malka Zeitlin; his daughters Mrs. Gitty Brown and Mrs. Hindy Hecht; his sons Ben Zion, Yissachar Dov, Mordechai and Shmuel; his many grandchildren, as well as his extended family, friends and neighbors. May he be a meilitz yosher for them and for Klal Yisrael. Yehi zikhro barukh, may his memory be a blessing, amen.

Barukh Dayan ha-Emes: Rabbi Mayer Wasilski, zal


We are sad to announce the petirah of Rabbi Mayer Yitzchok Ben Tzvi Yosef Wasilski, zal, on Pesach. Reb Mayer was the Gabbai of the Breslov Shtiebel on 16th Ave and 55TH St in Borough Park for many years and worked on behalf of the Lakewood Yeshivah. A son of the prominent Breslov leader, Rabbi Herschel Wasilski, zatzal, he was born and raised in Breslov Chassidus. After attending Yeshivah Torah Vodaath, where his father was a respected melamed and maggid shiur, he attended the Breslov Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. He was a talmid of Rav Bergstein, the Rosh Yeshiva there, and had close relationships with Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Bender and Rabbi Elya Chaim Rosen, zatzal, since his childhood. As this unhappy news came to us unexpectedly, we don’t have enough information to write a fitting obituary yet. But Reb Meir was one of the key figures in the New York Breslov kehillah, and his loss will be keenly felt by all. May Hashem comfort his rebbetzin, children, brothers, sisters, extended family and friends, and may we soon see the day when Hashem will “wipe away the tears from all faces.”