| Magazine Feature |

Enduring Testimony

By Yisroel Besser and Yisroel Groweis | August 19, 2020

Seven blessed years: mourning the Rebbe of Sadigura, Rav Yisroel Moshe Friedman ztz”l

Photos: Shuki Lehrer, Mishpacha archives

Seven years.

That’s all it’s been, but they were “seven years of plenty,” years of spiritual abundance and bounty. Years in which a vibrant, passionate, learned rebbe led and breathed new life into a chassidic court that dates back to the earliest tzaddikim.

Reb Avraham Yaakov Zilbershlag, a maggid shiur in the Sadigur beis medrash and transcriber of the Rebbe’s Torah, reflects on the uniqueness of the dynasty.

“Sadigura,” he says, “boasts an uninterrupted lineal succession, father to son, starting with the Baal Shem Tov’s closest talmid and successor, the Maggid of Mezritch zy”a, and continuing to this very day, son following father, so that the heilige Ruzhiner’s surname, Friedman, came down through the generations. Even within the courts of Ruzhin, this is unique.”

But Rav Yisroel Moshe, who passed away last week at 65 after an illness, had so much more than the right last name. The seventh rebbe in the dynasty, and third in Eretz Yisrael, lived up to the exalted station of a Sadigura Rebbe in every way.

Over the past century, only three admorim reigned in the court: Rav Mordechai Sholom Yosef (known as the Knesses Mordechai), who led for 66 years; Rav Avraham Yaakov (the Ikvei Abirim), who led for 33 years; and the most current Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Moshe — the name Yisroel was for the holy Ruzhiner, while Moshe was in memory of the Rebbe of Boyan-Krakow — who led for just seven and a half years.

“Those familiar with the history can’t help but notice the connection,” reflects Rabbi Zilbershlag, “because unlike most of the rebbes of Ruzhin, who concealed their greatness and knowledge, Reb Moshe’nu of Boyan was revered as a lamdan and gaon, serving as nasi of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. Anyone who met him saw immediately that what interested him was a chiddush in learning — and our Rebbe, who carries his name, was unique in this way as well.”

Torah Defined Him

The Rebbe’s journey to greatness was carefully laid out.

He was born in Brooklyn in 1955, where his grandfather, the Knesses Mordechai, had been forced to move for medical reasons, and where his father, Rav Avraham Yaakov, had a shul in Crown Heights during the 1960s. Several years later, though, the Knesses Mordechai returned to Eretz Yisrael and his grandson, just bar mitzvah, was sent to learn under his grandfather.

He imbibed Torah, yiras Shamayim — and the essence of the Ruzhiner chassidus.

The Rebbe’s brother-in-law, Rav Pinchas Shapira, rav of the Sadigura kloiz in Tel Aviv and son-in-law of the Ikvei Abirim, is grappling with the fresh pain and shock of the loss.

As he speaks, his mind’s eye returns to the old beis medrash in Tel Aviv led by the Knesses Mordechai. “The Zeide had 26 elderly chassidim who still remembered the heilige Ruzhiner, and the whole atmosphere was connected to Ruzhin of old. My brother-in-law, the Rebbe, imbibed that air. He was a young prince and he acted like a prince — the hopes of everyone pinned on him.”

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Comments (1)

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Y.M. Goldstein
5 years ago
Reply

Thanks for a brilliant article about the Sadigerer Rebbe ztz”l. As longtime Golders Green residents we had a close connection to the Rebbe, and if I may daresay, we held a special place in his heart. The article truly created a portrait of a great person.
A couple of points: The Rebbe always considered himself primarily a talmid of Hagaon Rav Dovid Povarsky, rather than Rav Shmuel and Rav Shach. This paragon of Ruzhiner humility was drawn to the Kelmer humility of Rav Dovid, especially to his pedantic way of covering the complete thoroughness of the sugya without focusing on “arum and arum” which defined the other Roshei Yeshivah.
(In fact, the Rebbe told us in private conversation that he wanted to learn under the Gramad HaLevi shlita in Brisk, and he was even farhered and accepted. He was amused when many years later, a neighbor’s child went to learn there and related to the Rebbe that when he was introduced to the Gramad he remarked, “a grandchild of the Sadigerer Rebbe was accepted into my yeshivah 30 years ago and he didn’t come.” The story, besides displaying the Gramad’s remarkable memory, also showed the impression the young lamdan made on an adam gadol.)
The rebbe will undoubtedly be remembered by the neighbors for the stories he told the children after the weekly Chevra Tehillim. At the time it seemed normal to us that a future rebbe, a moreh hora’ah and Ponevezher talmid — and a gvir — would devote Shabbos afternoon to relating stories to English schoolcap-wearing children who were not part of his kehillah.
His impeccable kibbud av va’eim toward his parents-in-law will always be remembered. He split his seemingly expandable time between Stamford Hill and Golders Green, always allowing a couple of children to spend the Seder with his shver, as rebbe even leaving the chassidim for Yamim Tovim so that his wife, a bas yechidah, would be able to take care for her father.
His clarity of hashkafah was remarkable, and virtually unmatched in the UK. As rebbe, he clearly delineated the difference for Sadigerer chassidim between true ahavas Eretz Yisrael — a bedrock of his father’s life — and Zionism, was actively involved in the Moetzes, and spoke strongly against the draft attempts in Eretz Yisrael without endorsing all the demonstrations.