HaGaon Rav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, Rosh Yeshiva of the mosdos, has landed in Uman on Thursday and checked into the Hotel Zakopna ahead of Rosh Hashanah, making him, according the first Litvish Rosh Yeshiva to spend Rosh Hashanah at the tzion of RebNachman of Breslov.

The move breaks sharply with Rav Sorotzkin’s own longstanding practice. In previous years, he spent the Yamim Noraim period in the United States, meeting with philanthropists and Tomchei Torah to raise funds for his sprawling network of institutions.

This year marked a turn: a senior donor made a different kind of demand.

According to the report, the donor, a close supporter of the Rosh Yeshiva, committed to a massive gift, in the range of millions of dollars and tens of millions of shekels, toward sustaining the Torah and chesed institutions under Rav Sorotzkin’s leadership. But he attached a clear condition: the Rosh Yeshiva would have to join him in Uman for the Yom Tov itself.

Facing that condition, and with thousands of Ateres Shlomo avreichim owed three months of stipends, Rav Sorotzkin chose to accept the arrangement, securing his institutions’ financial footing for the year ahead.

After a phone consultation last night with a Gadol B’Yisrael, Rav Sorotzkin gave the go-ahead: “Transfer the money, and I’ll come.” By this morning, thousands of Kolell families were notified that three months of stipends had been deposited into their accounts ahead of Rosh Hashanah.

Photos from the private Jet show Rav Sorotzkin deep in discussion with his traveling companions en route to Uman, among them Tzali Chap, Sol Heller, Tuli Saffrin, and Zevi Fried.

The exact donation figure and donor identity have not been independently confirmed by Belaaz.