The Bobov-45 Rebbe gifts his kehillah the crown of Torah

Photos: Mareches Beis Tzadikim, JDN

The chassidim of Rav Mordechai Dovid Unger knew their new rebbe was a gaon and tzaddik with the entire Torah at his fingertips. But he also became a pillar of support for his community and beyond, urging them to detach from worthless materialism and to focus on bringing nachas ruach to the holy rebbes who preceded him. Eighteen years in, as Bobov-45 is flourishing, the Rebbe is a fount of inspiration for his own kehillah, and for all those facing today’s grueling challenges

It’s Friday night in Boro Park, and on the second floor of a corner building on 45th Street and 15th Avenue, over a hundred bochurim are gathered as they listen to the man sitting at the head of the table, speaking from the depths of his compassionate, fatherly heart — a star mechanech who has boundless love for his students:

“V’achaltem lachmechem lasova… lachmechem, your bread, is Torah. If you eat your bread to satiation, if you invest yourselves entirely in the Torah hakedoshah, in the morning with a shiur iyun, in the afternoon with a shiur bekius, in the evening with halachah, mussar, and chassidus, and every spare minute in between is spent learning — then ‘v’yeshavtem lavetach b’artzechem.’ You won’t need to worry about the nisyonos of the earthy, material nature that is ingrained in each person. It won’t disturb your avodas Hashem.”

These moments were the peak of my visit to the Bobov-45 empire, my shtreimel concealed behind the tight rows of chassidic bochurim with their “shich un zocken” and “fertel shich” (their knee socks worn with chassidic “quarter” shoes, a slip-on with a low front), a window into one of the most modest chassidic courts.

Those moments illustrated for me, more than any abstract description, the unique figure of their leader, the Bobov-45 Rebbe. Far beyond his astonishing success in establishing an empire of Torah and chassidus that has thousands of followers is his extraordinary ability to fuse his many roles. From being a leader of chassidim who adhere to his every word to the compassionate father figure whose heart is open to the chassidim nonstop; from the lofty figure to whom the chassidim are bound to the ascetic oved Hashem who detaches himself from materialism; from the gaon who has all of Torah at his fingertips to the venerated maggid shiur who dances with joy at another chiddush.

The latter is the position he served in for most of his years, long before anyone could fathom that the young gaon and masmid whose world was centered around Torah and avodas Hashem would become one of the leading rebbes in the chassidic world.

I have long been curious about this court, which doesn’t even have a beis medrash of its own, but whose thousands of chassidim live in the New York area and its environs, and which has branches throughout Eretz Yisrael and Europe.

“You don’t have a chance,” said Reb Berel, a Bobover yungerman who was my address for any possible news from the chassidus. “The Rebbe won’t cooperate,” he declared with certainty.

The chassidim also wouldn’t like the idea — why did they need any publicity?

Yet only a few hours later, I found myself sitting in the dining room of Reb Avraham Chaim, Reb Berel’s father, who would be my Shabbos host. He is a Bobover talmid from the days of Rebbe Shlomo of Bobov, and was one of the close confidants of his son, Rav Naftoli Tzvi. Today, he’s an ardent chassid of the Bobov-45 Rebbe. (Reb Avraham Chaim was a long-time melamed in the Bobover cheder, and when he moved to the new court, he became a melamed in the new mosdos.)

In order to understand the new court, perhaps a bit of history is in order: The first Rebbe Shlomo of Bobov was the beloved grandson of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz, who was succeeded by his son, Rav Bentzion Hy”d, was known as the Kedushas Tzion for his sefer, which was published after he was killed at the hands of the Nazis. Under the Kedushas Tzion, the prewar Bobover court grew briskly and took root throughout Galicia. The Rebbe himself led Yeshivas Eitz Chaim, which produced countless talmidei chachamim and bnei aliyah. Bobov was a vibrant center of Torah and chassidus, as well as the home of prolific chassidic compositions. The Rebbe composed more than a hundred niggunim in his lifetime.

The Kedushas Tzion’s son, Rebbe Shlomo, survived the Holocaust, miraculously spared together with his young son, Naftoli Tzvi, while his wife and other children perished. While Naftoli Tzvi traveled to Eretz Yisrael to learn under the sages of Jerusalem for several years, Rebbe Shlomo settled in America, where he resurrected the ruins of his father’s court, gathering the remnants from here and there, and infused them with a new spirit of Torah and chassidus. With his combination of sweetness, endless patience, and iron will, he was able to draw them into the warm embrace of Bobover chassidus.