The Satmar Rebbe Does’tBeo Excusve to Satmar

Marking the day the SatMar rebbe waS liberated

Rabbi Frankel at the lectern, SatmarRebbe Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaumright (gold bekeshe)

AMi MAgAzinE

// december 21, 2011

// 25 kislev, 5772

LAST WEEK we saw the Satmar Rebbe helping everyone regardless o afliation.THIS WEEK we see why the Rebbe’s day o liberation should be celebrated by all o Klal Yisrael.

tanding this past Motzei Shab-bos as the guest speaker of the

evening in ront o thousandsupon thousands o Satmar

chassidim in the Williamsburgarmory, where they had come to celebrate

the Rebbe’s liberation rom the Nazis, myprimary thought was that this celebrationdoesn’t belong solely to Satmar, but to allo

Klal

Yisrael

. The Satmar Rebbe was thesavior o the entire Torah, and one o theleading

gedolim

o the Jewish nation. The

Satmar

kehilla

does indeed lay claim to theRebbe, yet he is not exclusively theirs. All

o

Klal Yisrael

should rejoice on

Kuf-Alef

Kislev

Let me try to explain the Rebbe’s ar-reaching inuence by way o illustration.In 1950, one o the prominent yeshivasin America held a undraising dinner. Yetthe

roshei yeshiva

, all respectable

talmi-dei chachamim

, had to leave beore it wasover. Do you know why? Because ater themeal there was mixed dancing. Today, thissounds very ar-etched. Mixed dancing atthe undraising dinner o a noted yeshiva?

But, unfortunately, back then this was com-monplace.

In the ’40s and ’50s the

rebbetzins

o

many

roshei yeshiva

did not cover their hair

with a

sheitel

. Not,

chas veshalom

, because

they weren’t

rum

, but this is how it was in

America. Then the Rebbe arrived, and he

made a revolution. Even people who never

met him were inuenced by him and his

stringencies.

The same held true with respect toZionism. It used to be that someone whosaid he was an anti-Zionist was ostra-cized. Today, the Rebbe’s philosophy is so

renowned, accepted, and understood.How did the Rebbe do it? This is a ques-

tion that nagged at me as I delivered myspeech. He sat within the our cubits o

his room and hardly ever left it. Occasion-ally, he asked me or someone else to drivehim somewhere. Yet he took America and

turned it upside down.

Yiddishkeit

sud-

denly started blossoming in this heretoforebarren country. He revolutionized

Yiddish-

keit

not only in America, but around the

globe.

How

did

the Rebbe do it? I honestly

don’t know. But if I had to venture a guess,

I would say that he succeeded becausehe did not have a single ulterior motive.Everything he undertook was solely orthe sake o Heaven. This level o sincerityreverberated throughout the world. Everyperson and place was inuenced by his

singular spirituality and holiness.

I spoke or 32 minutes, yet hardlytouched upon the Rebbe’s greatness. I not or two very tall, husky ellows whostood behind the podium, and sent me a

message that due to the evening’s lineup of

distinguished speakers my time was up, I

I spoke for 32 minutes, yet hardly touched upon theRebbe’s greatness. If not for two very tall, husky fellowswho stood behind the podium, and sent me a messagethat due to the evening’s lineup of distinguishedspeakers my time was up, I could have gone on and on.

The crowd in the Williamsburg Armory

25 kislev, 5772

// december 21, 2011 //

AMi MAgAzinE

By RABBi HERTz FRAnkEl

could have gone on and on.One of the things I relayed half-jokingly,

which I believe the audience appreciated,was that when I frst met the Rebbe he

tested me for an hour and a half. Only then

did he oer me a job. He didn’t test me,though, in the our volumes o the

Shul-chan Aruch,

but in the fth—he primarily

wanted to know whether I was a

mensch

. Ihope, I believe, he found me acceptable.

My personal estimate o the crowd wasthat there were between six and seventhousand people present in the Wil-liamsburg armory, under the leadershipo the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Zalman LeibTeitelbaum. I was told that there was

approximately the same number of peoplegathered in the armory in Crown Heights,under the leadership of the Satmar Rebbe,Rav Aharon Teitelbaum.

My fnal exhilarating thought that eve-ning was

Am Yisrael Chai

. These may beZionistic words, but I could fnd no better

words to express my feelings.

Klal Yisrael

—

the chassidic and Orthodox community—has continuity. There are our generationso Satmar chassidim, who received their

chinuch

in the Satmar school system in

America, who are

shomrei Torah

and

mitzvos

on account o the Rebbe and continue hislegacy. This, along with all o

Klal Yisrael

,will grow and perpetuate itsel,

iy”h,

until

the coming of Moshiach.

•

“t Pcp” s  ss  r hz F-, o s  es pcp of to Vscoo fo os  bs roc scoo fo s, poso  s  sc 1959. w o u-  scoos,  s c s “Scof S” fo  Sm r, rv yo t-um,

zt”l

The crowd in the Crown Heights Armory

AMi MAgAzinE

// december 21, 2011

// 25 kislev, 5772