I am a man botrn as a Bratslaver/Bresloc Chassid. In English, Breslov Hassidic. This path of the Jewish REligion rests with the foundation offered by Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav. Centred in what is now he city of Uman in the Ukraine.
Rebbe Nachman, simply called Nachman, is a greatgrandson of the BESH'T, or Ba'al Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name. This man, Yisroel Ben Eleizer, Israel Son of Elieser, was a mostly illiterate man who lived in what is today Polan in the late 18th Century CE/AD. He was a cheder attendant, akin to what Westerners call a daycare.
At this time Jews, all around the world but especially in E.Europe had drawn inward. We , the People who have been to every nation in the word, rejected the physical world. We clung in terror to the hope of the Messianic Age and the AfterWorld. Study was the only path to enlightenment.
BESH'T offered that the way to enlighten,ment could only be had via closeness to the Creator. This closeness did not rst in study he taught,although study is a positive attribute, it lay in joy of worship. Singing, dancing, nature, love, psychoactive substances although less popular are another form of this expression.
By Nachman's era though, this message had become perverted to the point that those on the Hassidic path were now seen as the ultra orthadox, as indee they are viewed today. They held teachers (rabbis/rebbes) up as exalted beings who accted as their intermediaries with the Creator. They did, and do today, wait as thei teacher eats and then pocket the crumbs as religious talismans.
Nachman taught that this is perverse. Intermediaries is anthema to a true Jew and these teachers had begun creating dynastiues based on blood as opposed to their teachings that in fact exist today. Nachman taught that all one needs is joy of G-D.
When Nachman died his followers resisted the urge to appoint a figurehead and instead took his message, indeed the message of his own great granddad, to heart. Today we called the Dead Rebbe, meaning that we follow no central figurehead as we should not as Jews.
There is a shrine that is important to us, at the grave of Nachman in Uman and we try to go at our New Year, Rosh Hashana, which comes either in September or October depending on the lunar cycle.
We have important places in relation to our schools in Safed and Tiberias in Israel but our worship is not reliant upon a physical locale. Our ideal form is to sit in a natural setting, like a wodded glade or beach and after performing our absolutions,etc., we meditate. We believe though that in using psychoactive subsrtances we become elevated and thus closer to HIM. All Jews as a whole hold this true, as we are commanded to get drunk or high at the very least, 3 times a year (1st night of Pesach/Passover, Simchat Torah/Joy of Torah Day, and Purim/Feast of Esther). Additionaly, if able, we should do so at Shabbat/Sabbath which for all Jews is Friday sunset until Saturday sunset.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
