On Lag BaOmer, the Rebbe left his home in Medvedevka, heading toward Nikolayev.¹⁰ #156). Rabbi Menachem Mendel had settled in Israel in 1777 and passed away in 1788, eleven years later. There he found a ship transporting grain and took it as far as Odessa.¹¹ #29).

footnotes: ¹⁰ That year Lag BaOmer fell on a Friday. Rebbe Nachman spent the next day, Shabbat, in Sokila, where he saw Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk in a vision (see Tzaddik ¹¹ The Rebbe spent the festival of Shavuot in Kherson, where he heard the thunder of Mount Sinai (Tzaddik

At that time, emissaries and other Jews traveling to the Holy Land were afraid to go by way of Odessa, as the route was rumored to be dangerous. But the Rebbe realized immediately that it was better to take a ship from Odessa for many reasons. First of all, the way from his home was much shorter than by the alternative route through Galatz.¹² Also, this route avoided a more serious peril, for the route through Galatz involved great danger in sailing from the Danube River¹³, corresponding to its Germanic name, Dunav. into the Black Sea. Therefore, the Rebbe ignored the rumors and departed from Nikolayev, taking the route through Odessa to Istanbul.

footnotes: ¹² Galati, now in Romania. ¹³ In Hebrew, Tuna