"We know it's not you

On the occasion of the thirtieth day (Shloshim) since the passing (histalkus) of the Mashpia (spiritual guide), the Chassid Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav zt"l. We present before you a rare and fascinating excerpt from an interview conducted by the Chassid Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav zt"l for the "Hischadshus" magazine in the year 5776 (2016). In it, he recounts his journeys to Uman during the years of the Iron Curtain:

"The Rav (Rabbi Berland) never stopped inspiring us about Uman in his classes. So, one day, my wife and I decided to travel to Uman to visit our Holy Rebbe (Rebbe Nachman) with our six children." When dealing with small children, from age one and up, and in the midst of Soviet rule, the story takes on a different meaning... We knew it wouldn't be easy, and it wasn't guaranteed that we would arrive, but we did our part. Accompanied by the encouragement of our teacher, the Rav shlit"a (may he live long and good days), we left Israel for Bucharest. When we arrived in the Soviet Union, they immediately became suspicious. We wanted to reach Kyiv, from where it would be easier to get to Uman, but the Russians did not agree. The only destination they allowed us was Moscow. Seeing that we had no choice, I turned to them somewhat innocently and explicitly asked to travel to Kyiv via Uman for just a few hours. "Accompany us, and you will see that we have nothing else. We are doing nothing scary or illegal." However, the Russians would not allow us to travel to any destination other than Moscow under any circumstances. Thus, for lack of options, we returned to Israel.

"Around the year 5743 (1983), Rabbi Yitzchak Weitzhandler, who was very experienced in these holy journeys, approached me and informed me that he had prepared to travel to Uman and had already obtained a visa in his name, but in the end, he was unable to go. 'If you are interested, you can travel with my passport,' he said. Rabbi Yitzchak had an American passport in the name of Nachman Huminer, and the resemblance between me and him wasn't much... but one does not pass up such an opportunity. I traveled together with Rabbi Alon Dimermans, who held a real French passport, and with R' Uri Chanan Labartovsky, who also had a real passport. Only mine was forged. When we arrived in Russia, they took us to Moscow, where they began to interrogate me about 'my' passport. 'This isn't you,' they told me, 'it's someone else in the photo.' But I insisted that it was indeed me. They began to question me about my details over and over again, but I did not get confused at all, because besides the name I gave as it was written in the passport, I told all the true details of my life. In the meantime (adechi vehachi), I began to 'befriend' them. I offered them cigarettes, and I even took out whiskey, but they told me they were forbidden to drink while on duty. Finally, after a long interrogation, they said to me: 'We know it's not you, but we'll release you anyway.' And indeed, by the grace of Hashem (God), I merited to reach the gravesite (Tziyun) of our Holy Rebbe. Thus, the blessing of the Rav was fulfilled, as he had explicitly told me not to hold back and that I would indeed arrive with Divine assistance (B'ezras Hashem).

After this trip, I realized it wasn't sustainable to try dangerous methods every time, and I decided to obtain a passport in my own name. But how does one do such a thing? I didn't have foreign citizenship. I went to the "Ohr Somayach" Yeshiva to try to improvise a passport.

[caption id="attachment_63557" align="aligncenter" width="1080"] Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav on the way to Uman in the 1980s[/caption]

Through open miracles, I met a righteous convert (Ger Tzedek) studying at the Yeshiva, a British citizen whose non-Jewish name was Jamie Peter McLemmer, and he agreed to give me his identity... The plan was that with his identity details, I would go to the British Embassy and present myself as McLemmer, saying I had lost my passport and was requesting a new one, and here is my photo... The first problem in this story was that the name "McLemmer" is a well-known name in Britain, and I had an accent that didn't sound English at all. For this purpose, I went with one of my relatives, who spoke in my place. We explained there that I had a severe throat infection and thus speaking was difficult for me. They accepted the explanation and told us that according to procedure, they had to send my photo to Britain for verification, and then I could receive a new passport. I was under great pressure from this. What would happen if they discovered that my photo didn't look like that McLemmer they knew at all? Then I would be in trouble with the authorities as well. However, with Divine assistance (B'ezras Hashem), after a few days, the embassy called to say everything was fine and that I should come to pick up the new passport... This passport served me for ten years for trips to Uman. It's not that with this passport it was always possible to arrive. Many times the authorities stopped us under various pretexts, but almost always we eventually managed to arrive.

Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav zt"l in Uman in the 1990s with his son (may he live). From the Hischadshus magazine

The article is courtesy of the "Hischadshus" magazine.

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