The Rosh Hashana Kibbutz
Another specifically Breslov practice is the annual Rosh Hashanah kibbutz, a large gathering at the grave of Rabbi Nachman in Uman, Ukraine on the Jewish New Year. Rabbi Nachman himself said:
"My Rosh Hashana is greater than everything. I cannot understand how it is that if my followers really believe in me, they are not all scrupulous about being with me for Rosh Hashana. No one should be missing! Rosh Hashana is my whole mission."
During his lifetime, hundreds of followers spent the holiday with him; after his death, his closest disciple, Nathan of Breslov ("Reb Noson") organized an annual pilgrimage to his grave starting with Rosh Hashana 1811, the year after Rebbe Nachman's death. Until World War I, thousands of Hasidim from Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland joined the holiday prayer gathering. The Rosh Hashana kibbutz operated clandestinely and on a smaller scale under Communism, when public prayer gatherings were forbidden. The pilgrimage was officially reinstituted after the fall of Communism in 1989, and continues to this day, with upwards of 20,000 men and boys arriving each Rosh Hashana from all over the world.
Breslovers also make individual pilgrimages to their Rebbe's grave at other times of the year. Visiting the grave at any time is deemed beneficial, because Rebbe Nachman said:
"Whoever comes to my gravesite and recites the Ten Psalms of the Tikkun HaKlali ("General Remedy"), and gives even as little as a penny to charity for my sake, then, no matter how serious his sins may be, I will do everything in my power — spanning the length and breadth of Creation — to cleanse and protect him. By his very payot ("sidecurls"), I will pull him out of Gehenna (purgatory)!"
Read more about this topic: Breslov (Hasidic Group)