OCTOBER 2006 • TISHREI 5767 VOL. XXXIX NO. 7 USA $3.50 (Outside NY area $3.95) Foreign $4.50 SUBSCRIBE TO THE JEWISH OBSERVER! CLICK HERE CLICK HERE FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS This is the full Table of Contents of the print edition of the Jewish Observer. The web edition contains only a selection of articles (indicated in COLOR). Click on the title to go to the beginning of that article. Navigate using your browser’s menu and other options. THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published IN THIS ISSUE monthly, except July & August and a combined issue for 6 January/February, by the Agudath Israel of America, 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004. Periodicals postage paid in New 6 FAITH OUT OF CHAOS, Rabbi Moshe Young York, NY. Subscription $25.00/year; 2 years, $48.00; 3 years, $$69.00. Outside of the United States (US 10 THE SATMAR REBBE, REB MOSHE TEITLEBAUM l”xz funds drawn on a US bank only) $15.00 surcharge per year. 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CLICK HERE. O c t o b e r 2 0 0 6 Rabbi Chaim Moshe Stauber A Wound Not Healed health, the pain for us of his passing is Yisroel is baruch Hashem blessed with By Time still severe and throbbing. The loss is the unprecedented resurgence of Torah particularly painful for those of us who and Chassidus, both in the Diaspora hey say that time heals all wounds. were fortunate to be close to him. The and in Eretz Yisroel, we nevertheless lag Not so with the deep gash of hav- huge void created by his absence will sadly behind in the emergence of such Ting lost our Rebbe, a true manhig not easily be filled. figures. After all, it took more than 91 Yisroel who was one of a handful who As long as the Rebbe was alive, our years to produce such a Rebbe. Besides were left from pre-War Europe. Passage youth had an authentic glimpse into all the decades of limud haTorah coupled of time only makes us realize how pro- the past. His hadras pannim – a patri- with avodas Hashem that the Rebbe had found our loss really is. archal face and demeanor that spoke amassed bikedusha vetahara (in sanctity Although the Rebbe lived to an volumes – reminded us of the previous and purity), his body had also become advanced age of 91, and for a num- Rebbe, as well as of other tzaddikim sanctified and elevated as a result of ber of his last years he was in failing in previous generations. Even as Klal his life’s ordeal, enduring so much personal tragedy and suffering that it camps for brutal treatment, beatings and had turned many ordinary survivors can be said that he hardly had a good punishment. They murdered his young into holy beings – prominent among day in his life. wife and three children, and his brothers them, the Rebbe. The Rebbe told us how he had been and sisters and their families, including singled out by the Nazis in forced-labor his older brother Reb Zalman Leib d”yh l”xz, Sigheter Rav, who was taken to the In a Cradle of Kedusha Rabbi Stauber is a talmid of the previous gas chambers together with the entire Rebbe, and was zoche to be close to both transport from Sighet – the old and the he Rebbe was born in Ratzfert, Rebbes. For many years he served as the editor of Der Yid, and a klal askan who, very young Yidden from his kehilla. He Hungary, where his maternal among other causes, had founded Pesach refused to part with them during the Tgrandfather, Hagaon Reb Shulem Tikvah – a non-profit mental health agency “selection,” and was sent “to the left” al Eliezer Halberstam d”yh l”xz had lived. in Williamsburg. kiddush Hashem. Such suffering alone The Belzer Rebbe, Reb Yissachar Ber 10 The Jewish Observer Rokeach l”xz, who lived in Ratzfert Rav l”xz) and the Biksader Rebbe l”xz, Rebbe and had many tens of thou- due to World War I, was his sandak. had stood in awe before the Rebbe even sands of Yidden (bli ayin hara) as his Young Moshe was rather weak from before he was bar mitzva. Chassidim in the Satmar Kehillos world- birth, and apparently, that was one of The Rebbe recalled how he had wide, he continued to conduct himself the reasons he was named after the immersed himself in learning Torah, with modesty and incredible humility. Yismach Moshe. The Rebbe remembered his father putting him to sleep in his sefarim shtieb (library), where he personally kept vigil over him. There, he observed and In addition to being a gadol baTorah absorbed his father’s avodas hakodesh, leaving an indelible impression on his vehora’a, and one of the most prominent neshama. rabbanim of the she’eiris hapleita, Many years ago, the Rebbe himself told this writer of the special bonding with a vast knowledge and experience in and feeling of closeness between himself kashrus, shechita, mikvaos, dinei Torah, etc., and his famed father, Hagaon Hakadosh Reb Chaim Tzvi1 l”xz (known in the he was outstanding in his ahavas Yisroel. Chassidishe world as the Atzei Chaim, after his sefer). The Rebbe was not yet 12 years of age when he was orphaned from both his parents; yet, he had already been blessed with a unique capacity for When someone had pointed out to the recognized as being especially bright and memorizing, while striving to plumb the Rebbe that it was not in keeping with sincere – an emerging talmid chacham depths of every inyan (topic) he learned. his kavod that the Rebbe’s gabbai – Reb whose exceptional hasmada in Torah It was for his erudition in Torah and Moshe Friedman – be called at the study and total immersion in avodas exceptionally refined middos that his tisch by the same name as the Rebbe Hashem foretold greatness. family was resolved to keep him in the (“Moshe”), his answer was: “This way fold, and thus arranged that he marry I am reminded what my real name is…. his first cousin, the daughter of his In the View of Older uncle, the Sassover Rebbe, Hagaon Reb Boruch S., a nephew of mine in Chassidim Henoch Mayer l”xz (son-in-law of the the hosiery import business, had Kedushas Yomtov, Reb Lipa Teitelbaum an entire shipment of merchandise y father, Reb Yecheskel l”xz). Thus, the previous Rebbe, Reb Yoel from Europe impounded by U.S. Menachem ben Reb Shlomo Teitelbaum l”xz, was his uncle from two Customs. The customs agent told MTzvi l”z, who passed away a sides. He also was his spiritual mentor, him that due to tighter scrutiny little over a year ago at age 92, was a and related to him like a father. in this post-Sept. 11, ’01 era, it shochet and mohel in Antwerp for close As the Rebbe himself had said at his would take considerably more time to 30 years.