Was Breslav on the border really a chilul hashem?

Last week, the past few weeks, leading up to Rosh Hashana, there were many (reports said upwards of 2500) Breslaver Chassidim sitting in no-man's land between the borders of Belarus and Ukraine trying to get into Ukraine to get to Uman for Rosh Hashana. Ukraine did not let them in and the people were waiting there at the border hoping and praying that their various efforts would pay off and that they would be let in at the last moment.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Ukraine stood firm in the decision to not open the border, and shortly before the holiday the disappointed pilgrims were dispersed into different Jewish communities in Belarus where they stayed for the holiday.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, posted to Facebook that he expects Belarus to be responsible for cleaning up the mess left by the wannabe pilgrims, as Ukraine had told Belarus that the people would not be let in but Belarus let them come in and to the border anyway, so essentially Belarus is responsible for the mess. 

The pictures Gerashchenko posted of the mess were a bit shocking. That is a pretty bad mess.

Of course this led to statements of disgust as to what the chassidishe pilgrims did, the chilul hashem caused, the lack of responsibility, avoda zara, Uman craziness, etc.

I would just say that the situation there was an unusual one. You had 2000-3000 people camped out with poor and unfavorable conditions on the street and in the woods with few supplies. Such pictures are only natural. This isnt a tourist throwing a candy wrapper on the floor instead of in the garbage can. Additionally, they were carted away at the last minute without much notice (not that the entire sojourn was justified and planned, but still, they were carted away at the last minute) - they were nto really given advance warning and time to clean up. Heck, you don't even see any garbage cans available on the side of the road even if they had wanted to clean up after themselves! According to some reports, the community in Uman sent a truck with cleaning supplies but it was stopped by the Ukranians, but true or not it does not matter. 

Yes, they should have kept it clean all along, but that is somewhat of an unrealistic demand considering the poor conditions they were subject to. 

I am not in favor of the Uman pilgrimage, nor am I opposed to it. Grown adults can do whatever they want and can make their own decisions, regardless of how silly you or I might think that decision is. No matter what I think about the annual pilgrimage to Uman, I don't think anyone can realistically have expected them to keep the area clean. It seems to me to have been an impossible task. Think of walking through a ghetto or area with homeless people or a general "underprivileged" area that receives less than stellar city services, or a refugee camp. You will feel bad for them, not blame them for making a mess. That is what happened here. For 2-3 weeks a few thousand people lived in what was basically a refugee camp with hardly any services and poor conditions. No matter how badly you think of them, cleaning up their mess just wasn't part of the equation.

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