Rabbi Odesser never explained why he had kept the petek secret for so many decades

I would like to share the story of the “petek,” which I found in 1922.…

That year, I failed to fast on 17 Tammuz. As a result, I fell into a deep depression, feeling crushed inside. I was filled with such immense pain that I thought I would lose my mind.…

When I attended yeshivah on Sunday, the talmidim, who were all opposed to Breslov, mocked me and declared, “This is the end of all Breslov chassidim, in the end they all lose their minds and go insane.”

I suffered greatly from their taunting. I davened to Hashem to relieve me from my depression.… I resolved to go to my room and choose at random a sefer from my bookshelf, open it to a random page, and the Torah on that page would restore my soul. Though the words of Rabbeinu Nachman enliven the soul, it failed to restore my spirits, and my depressive state remained.

When I was about to return the sefer to the shelf, I noticed that there was a thin piece of paper with writing on it. At first, I paid no attention to this, but when I started to read it and realized that it was a letter from Rabbeinu Hakadosh [Rebbe Nachman]. Upon this discovery, I immediately experienced a complete recovery. I was filled with such happiness and rejoicing that I began to sing and dance in my room.…

That is the story of the “petek,” which I found in a miraculous fashion.

—Rabbi Yisrael Ber Odesser

The 1837 earthquake in the Galilee devastated the local Jewish communities, and recovery took decades. Only by the end of the 19th century was Jewish life again flourishing in Teveria, home to a strong chassidic community since the end of the previous century.

Several chassidic courts had established outposts in Teveria, most prominently Karlin and Slonim. A prominent Breslov chassid named Rav Yisrael Halperin, known as Rav Yisrael Karduner for his city of origin, arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 1903 and alternated between Tzfas, Meron, and Teveria. In Eretz Yisrael, as in Europe, Breslovers were a tiny minority of the chassidic community, often facing opposition and even hostility for their practices and beliefs. Rav Yisrael Karduner disseminated the Torah of Rebbe Nachman among the youth he encountered, and influenced some to adopt the ideals and ways of Breslov chassidus.

His closest protege was a young Teveria native from a family of Karliner chassidim named Yisrael Ber Odesser (c. 1888–1994). Eventually Odesser fully adopted the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and moved into his mentor’s home. He imbibed the teachings of the Breslov elders in Yerushalayim as well. In 1922, while he was still associated with Teveria’s Ohr Torah yeshivah, adjacent to the kever of Rabi Meir Baal Haneis, he claimed to have discovered a mysterious note, or “petek” (as it later became known). He believed it had been written by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, niftar 112 years prior.

The original note, which was either destroyed or stolen from Rabbi Odesser’s daughter’s home in 2001, contained an inspirational message from Rebbe Nachman and mystical hints regarding the redemption, including the famous phrase, “My fire will burn until the arrival of Mashiach.” The most distinctive feature of this note was the way Rebbe Nachman’s name appeared, spelled out in a kabbalistic acrostic: “Na Nach Nachma Nachman mei’Uman.”

The authenticity of the petek has been hotly disputed. Many in the establishment Breslov community assert that a classmate in the Ohr Torah yeshivah played an innocent prank to try to lift the spirits of the downtrodden Odesser, in the wake of the aforementioned Shivah Asar B’Tammuz debacle. The followers of Rabbi Odesser, or “the Saba,” as he was affectionately known, contend that the document was an authentic revelation from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov to his student generations later.

Whatever the truth regarding the petek itself, Rabbi Yisrael Odesser kept its very existence a closely guarded secret for more than 60 years, revealing it only to his children. This changed in the early 1980s when the Saba was a resident of a Raanana old age home, and was discovered by a group of immigrants from France who had recently adopted religious observance. Inspired by the wise, elderly Breslover chassid, these baalei teshuvah gravitated to him, and he soon divulged the existence of his special petek. By the end of the decade, the Na Nach movement emerged, gaining adherents, and spreading their message of joy through such means as bumper stickers, billboards, highway graffiti, and of course, music.

Rabbi Odesser never explained why he had kept the petek secret for so many decades, nor why he ultimately decided to disclose its existence to a group of French baalei teshuvah. But when he passed away in 1994, likely at the extremely old age of 106, a new movement was just beginning. Over the ensuing years the Na Nach movement became a fixture, and the legacy of the Saba, the “Baal Hapetek,” Rabbi Yisrael Ber Odesser, continues to have an influence within Breslov and beyond.

Rosh Hashanah in Israel?

Rabbi Odesser embarked on a controversial project toward the end of his life that didn’t materialize: transferring Rebbe Nachman’s remains from Uman, Ukraine, to Israel. In addition to publicly opposing his entire approach and leadership, the Breslov rabbinical establishment also opposed this attempted transfer, citing Rebbe Nachman’s desire to be buried in Uman in close proximity to a mass grave of Jews who had been killed al Kiddush Hashem.

Incredibly, Rabbi Odesser was successful in convincing Israeli president Chaim Herzog to formally submit a request to exhume and transfer the kever to Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of independent Ukraine. Even more astounding, Kravchuk seemingly acquiesced to this request, and it wasn’t carried out only because of the protest raised by the mainstream Breslov community against transferring the tzaddik.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1036)