The Rebbe told a story of the famed Divrei Chaim of Sanz, Rav Chaim Halberstam. One of the highlights of the year was the kreppel Torah, the intricate and complex shiur the Rebbe     would deliver at Kiddush on Shavuos to the scholars and yeshivah bochurim. One year, as Shavuos approached, the Rebbe was intensely busy raising funds for a vital cause and asked the gabbai to gather the town’s wealthier citizens in the beis medrash. Instead of the scholarly shiur, the Rebbe asked them to reach into their pockets and give generously, concluding “And this is the kreppel Torah for this year.”

Rebbe Zalman Leib shrugged. “These preparations, raising funds, will be the drashos for this trip.”

 One of Satmar’s philanthropists was asked to assist, and he brought the Rebbe a generous check. He then leaned close and suggested that he would add another check. “The Rebbe is going for his einekel’s chasunah, after all, and a zeide tries to help his family; there are personal expenses too. I would like to add another amount for the Rebbe’s personal use.”

The Rebbe didn’t hesitate. “Giving me funds with which to help other Yidden is the most personal thing you can do for me.”

In Israel today, rumors abound that if a person hands in his teudat zehut (which he must present to vote) to Satmar on Election Day, he’ll receive $100 (or is it $1,000?). “Patently false,” says one of the trip’s organizers. “It’s a media campaign, so in case the chareidi parties will make a poor showing, they’ll have what to blame it on.” He said that the Rebbe plans to spend Election Day in the Galil visiting mekomos kedoshim, out of sight of newshounds and out of earshot of media, as he used to do with his yeshivah during the years he served as rav of the Satmar community in Jerusalem.

Three Generations

The red brick house on Bedford Avenue seems regular enough from the outside, but those bricks were witness to three generations of Satmar Chassidus. The first resident was Rebbe Yoel of Satmar, the founder of the Chassidus on American shores, who purchased the home during the 1960s to be used as the Satmar beis medrash. It was here that the author of Vayoel Moshe laid the iron foundations of his fierce opposition to Zionism. This building is the cornerstone of the set of principles that views the State of Israel as the source of all the Jewish People’s woes.

When Rebbe Yoel passed away and the masses of Satmar chassidim lost the man whom they viewed as their father in the spiritual and material sense, his nephew, Rav Moshe Teitelbaum of Satmar — the Beirach Moshe — took his place. For close to three generations, the Beirach Moshe preserved the legacy of his illustrious uncle and sought to continue carrying the torch while taking care to avoid introducing any innovations of his own. The only change that took place during the Beirach Moshe’s tenure was the result of natural development: Satmar’s numbers multiplied many times over, until it was the largest Chassidus in the world. From this house at the corner of Bedford and Ross began a massive movement that opposed anything that represented the slightest trace of Zionism, but a movement that, at the same time, exemplified chesed, was at the forefront of Bikur Cholim endeavors, and was gracious and welcoming to any Jew of any stripe who knocked on its doors.

The third generation was the one in which Satmar split into two camps. Rebbe Yekusiel Yehuda (Zalman Leib) Teitelbaum, the Beirach Moshe’s third son, leads the group based in Williamsburg, while his older brother, Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum, is based in Kiryas Joel in Monroe. Reb Lipa Teitelbaum, the Beirach Moshe’s second son, was his father’s assistant in his private life and is aligned with his younger brother in Williamsburg. Today, in Williamsburg there are about 8,000 families, 5500 of which are followers of Rebbe Yekusiel Yehuda.

As I made my way from one beis medrash to another, I encountered hundreds of outstanding yungeleit who believe with all of their hearts and souls that the most difficult struggle facing this generation is the nisayon of Zionism. Many of them have never visited Eretz Yisrael, and those who will join the Rebbe on his visit to Eretz Yisrael next week have been instructed by the Rebbe to learn repeatedly through the seforim of Al HaGeulah v’Al HaTemurah, the Maamar Yishuv Eretz Yisrael, and the drashah of parshas Vayishlach, 5717, from the writings of Reb Yoel of Satmar, in order to avoid being trapped, chalilah, in forbidden thoughts in praise of Zionism. Despite all this, many of them are intimately familiar with everything taking place in Eretz Yisrael. During my few days there, the Williamsburg residents kept me posted on the preelection political upheavals in real time.

Standing With the Crowd

Satmar is known for its rigorous isolation from those who do not follow its path. Yet when there are communal causes that require collaboration between different communities, Satmar says it does join forces with the other circles that make up the whole of chareidi Jewry.

“The Rebbe ztz”l [the Vayoel Moshe] used to stand together with all of the chareidi circles when religious issues were at stake,” said the Rebbe’s spokesman. “The Rebbe ztz”l once organized a national kinus and invited rabbanim from every sector in order to discuss contemporary religious issues. Whether it was desecration of graves, the forced conscription of girls, and so forth — we went along with the others. We separate ourselves from them when they trample our mesorah, and we collaborate with them when they wish to benefit Klal Yisrael.

“Just recently, based on the ruling of the beis din here, Satmar participated in Klal Yisrael’s Asifa, along with thousands of others. There were certain rules and stipulations made in order to ensure that the Asifa would meet the parameters of our tradition, including that no speeches be made in their impure tongue [modern Hebrew], and that no speakers with Zionist leanings be permitted to speak. But we went. And baruch Hashem, we achieved great things. There was a worldwide tumult regarding the prohibition of Internet, with which people here had previously allowed themselves to be very lenient.”

The decision for Satmar to take part in the national Asifa was not reached easily. It followed extensive discussions and consultations with the members of the Satmar beis din. There were two conflicting considerations: the needs of the generation, on the one hand, and the fact that Satmar does not usually join forces with other groups that do not adhere to its principles, on the other. Rebbe Aharon of Satmar, for instance, refused to express his support for the Asifa,

And despite the pressure from their own communities, the Skulener Rebbe together with Lakewood mashgiach Rav Mattisyahu Salomon paid the Rebbe a visit at home and spoke fervently of the need for all of Klal Yisrael to join forces against the scourge that has made devastating inroads throughout the Torah world.

For the Rebbe, the only cause whose importance rivals that of the struggle against Zionism is the battle against the dangers of the Internet — for which he has established a committee called the Vaad Mishmeres, which is responsible for monitoring Internet use in the community, protecting it from breaches of propriety, and providing kosher alternatives. Last Shavuos, the Rebbe went so far as to announce in a drashah before Akdumos that whoever would maintain unfiltered Internet would be permanently thrown out of the kehillah. The Rebbe has personally raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and invested huge sums from his own pocket in establishing an office staffed with technicians who are on call to make computers and telephones Internet-free.

When the Satmar policymakers were approached by the Asifa organizers, they presented a list of detailed conditions which would allow them to promote and participate in the Asifa — although they assumed those conditions would be too extreme for the mainstream participants and the organizing committee. Those conditions stipulated that all speeches would be in Yiddish (with simultaneous English translation), that no rabbanim who promoted or were affiliated with  Zionism in any way would be permitted to speak, that Satmar would have the right to appoint speakers of their own, and the content of those speeches would also include Satmar’s position on the Torah’s forbidding of the establishment of a state in Eretz Yisrael before Mashiach’s arrival, and the State’s policies that contradict halachah. To their surprise, the Asifa’s organizing committee agreed to adhere to all those conditions — to the satisfaction of the Satmar beis din.

The members of the Satmar beis din, all of whom served as dayanim during the lifetime of Rebbe Yoel, include Rav Yisrael Chaim Menashe Friedman, Rav Shlomo Leib Weinberger, Rav Zalman Leib Piloff, Rav Moshe Menachem Tirnauer, and Rav Chaim Dovid Katz.

In the end, the Rebbe expressed uncharacteristic full support for the Asifa. He even went so far as to issue a letter of support, knowing full well that such a step was likely to elicit protests from various elements in the Satmar camp.  

“The oilam has a tremendous respect for the Rebbe,” says Reb Shabsi Kestenbaum, a sharp-witted yungerman from Williamsburg. “When the Rebbe came out in favor of participating in the Asifa, everyone followed, despite the fact that there had previously been some passionate disputes on the subject.”

During the days preceding the event, a close group of chassidim were in the Rebbe’s inner sanctum, and one of them wondered aloud if it was really the Satmar way to participate. The Rebbe asked the young man to hand him his telephone, and — seeing he had no choice — the chassid uncomfortably obliged. The Rebbe handed the phone to an electronics wiz who he brought in, who studied the unfiltered device while the chassid stood there, forced to watch. Finally, the Rebbe handed it back with a smile. “Dont worry about ‘the derech’. You can go to the Asifa,” he said pointedly.

 According to the chassidim, the Rebbe actually saved the Asifa. Shortly after his support for the event was announced, masses of chassidim descended on the ticket sale locations. About 10,000 Satmar chassidim streamed to Citi Field stadium where the Asifa was held, yet the Rebbe refused a request by the planning committee to speak. “I don’t want people to think I’m promoting my own honor,” the Rebbe explained.

Open Hearts

Yet alongside its rigid policy of separation, there is no group like Satmar when it comes to hachnassas orchim and generosity. “Satmar,” says the Rebbe’s meshamesh as he writes down my name for a brachah, “symbolizes original, authentic Yiddishkeit, the genuine version of Yiddishkeit that was not swayed by the winds of change. It is the Yiddishkeit of the Chasam Sofer and his talmidim; it is characterized by pleasantness and kindness, coupled with an adamant refusal to give in to the dictates of contemporary trends.”

On one hand, the chassidim are insular, but on the other, so many spend their days in the working world and interface constantly with secularism and modernity. The chassidim say one of the things that protects them most is their chassidishe levush, in which they take great pride. There isn’t a chassid who would attend any kind of business meeting without wearing the traditional garb. No one has ever felt he lost out as a result.

In fact, although Satmar has no official kiruv institution, it might loosely be called the first kiruv movement. When Rebbe Yoel came to America after the war, he drew close every single Yid, even those who had traveled far from the Yiddishkeit of their youth. Over the years, the Rebbe ztz”l established various organizations such as Rav Tov, which facilitated the escape of hundreds of Jews from Iran and other countries of peril; this included financing legal papers, travel expenses, interim expenses in Vienna and other HIAS centers, and travel and set up costs in America. Yet the Rebbe gently channeled them to schools that were right for them, not insisting they join the Satmar community. The Rebbe ztz”l also established a school for Moroccan and other immigrant girls in Bnei Brak which is still funded by Satmar, but has no connection with the Chassidus. Likewise, organizations such as Mikvah USA, which funds construction of mikvaos across the country, have no affiliation with Satmar — although the donors are primarily Satmar chassidim.

Rebbe Yoel of Satmar infused his chassidim with the message of communal responsibility, and this trait was passed down to his great-nephew, Rebbe Zalman Leib. During the hours when he sees the public, the current Rebbe dispenses wisdom and tangible assistance to anyone who seeks it — you don’t have to be a Satmar chassid for the Rebbe to be your advocate.

The Rebbe’s driver reported an incident that sums it up. The Rebbe asked to be driven to NYU Medical Center to visit a patient, yet when they entered the room, it was obvious to the driver that this young man, hooked up to tubes and wires and unable to talk, was not “one of theirs.” That didn’t stop him from nearly toppling over his IV drip and flailing his arms from the excitement of seeing the Rebbe. After the driver brought the Rebbe back to Williamsburg, he was curious to find out what relationship this young man had with the Rebbe, and so he turned around and headed back to Manhattan to speak with the man’s escort in his hospital room.

The story he heard was as follows: This young man was a recently-married Breslover from Beit Shemesh, whose father promised an apartment but never came through. Meanwhile, just two months after the wedding, the young man came down with a rare illness that settled in his back, and his young wife, without an apartment or a healthy husband, wanted out of the relationship and was thinking of leaving him. He was broken when he arrived at the Rebbe’s doorstep to pour out his woes; but soon, the Rebbe was putting him back on his feet. He promised to raise the funds for an apartment, paid $100,000 to a top physician who would handle the case, and contacted the newlywed’s estranged wife, convincing her to stay in the marriage and even sent her a plane ticket to New York to be with her husband until he’d recuperate.

But for all the success of three generations of Satmar rebbes on American shores, you’d never know it by the entourage — or lack thereof — accompanying the Rebbe. While other chassidic groups center their focus on the rebbe, both Satmar groups refrain from cultivating extreme admiration for their leader. From their perspective, the rebbe is a rav and spiritual leader, but there are no stories of wonders and miracles performed by the Rebbe, no anecdotes about the halo of kedushah that surround him. And it is rare to find the Rebbe surrounded by an eager crowd of followers vying to approach him as he comes and goes.

Because it has become so massive, rarely is there a gathering where all of Satmar is gathered together in one venue. The exception is the 21^st of Kislev, the date of the rescue of the Rebbe Yoel ztz”l, celebrated by thousands of chassidim since his lifetime. On this day, all of Satmar takes off from their work and businesses to gather in a massive hall on the outskirts of Williamsburg or Crown Heights, and the two streams alternate using the two halls in the area that are capable of holding such a massive crowd.

On His Shoulders

It’s a Friday afternoon in Williamsburg with only an hour until Shabbos, but the streets are still bustling with activity. The communal fleish gesheft adjacent to the central beis medrash on Rodney Street is filled to capacity. In grocery stores, children are making their families’ final purchases before Shabbos. Most of the mikvaos in the neighborhood are still half empty; the mikveh traffic will begin only as shkiyah approaches. A little more than an hour after shkiyah, the minyanim will come together in the local batei medrash and begin Ashrei, according to the minhag of many chassidim.

At this hour, I enter the office of Rabbi Yehuda Eliezer Jacobowitz, the secretary and director general of the Satmar kehillah. Despite the imminent arrival of Shabbos, at his modest office on Rodney Street, it seems like a regular weekday.

The office from which the entire kehillah is run looks like it’s in an abandoned building. It is sparsely furnished and decorated, and there is a leak in the ceiling, and a groaning air conditioning unit mounted in the window. The modesty of the office belies the steady flow of money through the fingers of the man who sits here.

Rabbi Jacobowitz is a busy man, and our conversation is interrupted repeatedly. “Half-a- million,” “a million and a half,” he haggles with anonymous people on the other end of the phone. Every conversation begins, “A gutten Erev Shabbos. Have you eaten toameha yet?”

Now we see the true dimensions of Satmar. Its educational institutions in Williamsburg occupy 20 buildings. Ten thousand children are enrolled in schools under the aegis of the Rebbe. Over 1000 are learning in the yeshivah gedolah, and according to Rabbi Jacobowitz, the enrollment in Satmar’s schools grows by about 500 students every year.

“The Rebbe,” Rabbi Jacobowitz relates, “separated the material management from the spiritual, and he separated the yeshivah gedolah from the other mosdos. But the burden is still very heavy. There is at least one building of our mosdos every two blocks in Williamsburg, yet we still suffer from a lack of adequate space.

“Each of the 11 Satmar batei medrash in Williamsburg has its own dayanim and gabbaim. Every shtiebel has a beis hora’ah. And the entire network is managed from this office. The Rebbe is in charge of it all, and we act on his behalf.”

In this building, which was purchased during the lifetime of the Vayoel Moshe, all Satmar’s battles are waged. Every proclamation, every ban, every call to the public, and every letter of support emanates from here. Here, Rabbi Jacobowitz says, is where the batei medrash are run, the conventions ofyungeleit are organized, the collection of membership dues is processed, guidance for chassanim is arranged, chavrusas are set up, and the Vaad HaKashrus, the butcher shop, the mikvaos, and the matzoh bakery are all run.

And there is something else that happens here, too: Jobs are arranged for the yungeleit of the kehillah.

“True, our resources are small,” Rabbi Jacobowitz admits. “All the Satmar communities throughout the world come knocking on this door.”  The Satmar Rebbe, he adds, is involved in every detail. “That includes this check,” he says, pointing to a check for half –a-million dollars that is sitting on his desk. “Everything goes through the Rebbe. Before the holidays in Tishrei, we had seven meetings in his office. On Chol HaMoed, we had a private meeting in his succah.”

With so many obligations and limited resources, have the two streams thought about collaborating? Rabbi Jacobowitz’s answer is hesitant. “There are some connections on issues of religious observance, such as kashrus, tzniyus, and the Internet,” he says. But six years after the split, it seems that there is still a long way to go before the two come together again at the beis medrash on Rodney street. According to Jacobowitz, the Rebbe refuses to move the center of his Chassidus to a different location, since this is the place where his forebears davened. Near the Rebbe’s home stands a large building that was erected in the final years of the Beirach Moshe’s life. This building is capable of holding about 10,000 chassidim, but the last bit of construction has been held up due to legal entanglements.

“On Kol Nidrei night,” says Rabbi Jacobowitz, “the Rebbe walked between the chassidim carrying the sefer Torah of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. It was pikuach nefesh; the crowding was horrendous. On Motzaei Yom Kippur, when he came home, the Rebbe told us, ‘The Kohein Gadol used to hold a celebration when he left the kodesh unharmed. When I went up to the aron kodesh for Kol Nidrei, I looked around and saw the huge crowd that had gathered here. I was terrified by the size of the congregation. Therefore, I will also be making a celebration after having left the sanctuary unharmed.’

“The Rebbe is completely devoted to his chassidim,” the community manager relates. “The Rebbe takes care of the yungeleit in his community and places them even before his own children. During the last chasunah, we found out that his glasses were broken. We were in shock. We asked him why he hadn’t told us about it before the chasunah. He answered, ‘Did I have time?’

“Every day,” Jacobowitz continues, “the fax machine in the Rebbe’s home prints out hundreds of letters and pleas for help with both individual and communal problems. The struggles of the Eidah Chareidis of Yerushalayim are fought here: against the destruction of graves, chillul Shabbos, the draft, shmittah desecration, and the arrests of senior officials in the Eidah Chareidis. All of these subjects are brought by fax to the Rebbe’s home. A few months ago, while the Rebbe was holding a dinner in his home on behalf of the Yetev Lev institutions in Yerushalayim, the red telephone rang. On the line was Reb Yitzchak Shlomo Blau, the secretary of the beis din of the Eidah Chareidis. He had bad news: ‘Reb Amram Shapira, the secretary of the Gaavad, has been arrested!’ The Rebbe went out in a series of protests and declared that he was appalled at the Israeli government’s move. ‘They are not after the gabbai; they’re after the Gaavad himself!’ was his position.”

One of the most complex tasks to fall on Rabbi Jacobowitz was the purchase of the cemetery in Kiryas Joel, Monroe. The Satmar chassidim of Williamsburg were unable to bury their dead in the cemetery Satmar had been using for the past few decades.

Then the Rebbe ordered his chassidim to cease the conflict and to purchase a large plot of land near the cemetery, which would serve the chassidim of Williamsburg. The purchase, for five million dollars, was concluded in a flash, donated by Reb Avraham Ber Jacobowitz, a prominent Satmar philanthropist and the first to be buried in the new cemetery.

“When we went to inform him that the deal had been concluded, the Rebbe was in Kiryas Joel,” Jacobowitz relates. “On his table was a pile of halachah seforim that deal with the halachos of sanctifying a cemetery. He was pacing back and forth, and when he saw me, he understood that the deal had been closed and exclaimed, ‘I can tell you one thing — a great weight has been lifted from my heart. The older members of the kehillah were coming to me and asking what type of burial they would have after 120. Now I have an answer for them.’$$$seperatequote$$$”

A Day in His Life

The aroma of a just-extinguished Havdalah candle filled the home of Reb Shmuel Teitelbaum, the Rebbe’s shammash, when I entered his home on Motzaei Shabbos. Since 1999, when Rebbe Zalman Leib was appointed by his father to serve as leader of the Williamsburg kehillah, Reb Shmuel Teitelbaum has been the Rebbe’s constant companion. He spends anywhere from eight to ten hours with the Rebbe, while the rest of the day is spent receiving hundreds of calls — from urgent requests for a name to be submitted for prayer, to medical emergencies, and pressing communal matters that cannot be delayed.

The Rebbe’s day begins at 5:30 a.m., when the Rebbe’s long-time chavrusa, a maggid shiur in the Satmar yeshivah, comes to the Rebbe’s home. “Even if the Rebbe went to sleep only at three, he’ll get up at five and go to the mikveh,” Rabbi Teitelbaum relates. The Rebbe and his chavrusa learn the sugyas being studied in the yeshivah in Queens where the Rebbe is rosh yeshivah, along with halachah and Chassidus. Then the Rebbe closets himself in his room until Shacharis, which he davens in Queens with the bochurim.

“The Rebbe leaves his home at 8:15 and heads for Queens,” Rabbi Teitelbaum goes through the Rebbe’s day. “At 8:45 he arrives in the beis medrash, and he davens there until 10:00. He then sits down, clad in his tallis and tefillin, to recite Tehillim and to learn his daily Chumash with Rashi. The Rebbe remains in his room in the yeshivah until 3:30 in the afternoon. Once in a while, he enters the beis medrash, speaks with the rebbeim, participates in assemblies, and keeps track of the bochurim. He delivers a shiur in the yeshivah once a week. Every problem, individual and communal alike, is brought to his door. He administers tests and serves as a maggid shiur for the oldest level. He eats lunch, consisting of cooked food that the Rebbetzin sends from Williamsburg every day, in his room in the yeshivah. After Minchah at 3:30, he returns to Williamsburg.”

During the nine weeks of summer vacation, the Rebbe stays with his talmidim in the summer camps in the Catskill Mountains, davening with them three times a day and having every Shabbos seudah with them.

While he sees the public at night, the Rebbe devotes the hours between 3:30 and 6:00 to meetings dealing with communal issues. During those hours, his home is visited by askanim, rabbanim¸ principals of schools, and representatives of the Eidah Chareidis. In recent months, the Rebbe has been swamped with questions about New York’s new regulations regarding bris milah. He has been meeting often with askanim involved in the struggle, among them Rabbi Moshe Duvid Niederman, Satmar’s “foreign minister.” Recently, the Rebbe attended a conference of rabbanim along with his brother, Rebbe Aharon, in an effort to find some resolution to the Health Department’s agenda.

“The Rebbe has an uncanny ability to dissect a problem down to the smallest details,” Rabbi Niederman told me during a visit to his office. “It is known in Satmar that an askan who hasn’t studied his case sufficiently is better off not going to the Rebbe at all. Quite often, the Rebbe won’t go to sleep until the matter at hand has been resolved. Influential people who are close to the Satmar Rebbe are accustomed to receiving phone calls from the Rebbe at any hour, no matter how early or late.

“The Rebbe interrupts these meetings, no matter how important, when he gets word that the first chassan for whom the Rebbe is supposed to serve as mesader kiddushin that evening is already waiting in the street. The Rebbe is meticulous about not having a chassan and kallah wait for him, so he often leaves in the middle of an urgent conference.”

Rabbi Teitelbaum relates that the Rebbe attends three, four, or five weddings every night. Williamsburg alone contains ten simchah halls, and there are weddings every day in Monroe and in Boro Park, as well, but the Rebbe travels to those simchahs less often. “Every year, 400 couples get married in our Satmar community, and every chassan and kallah goes through the Rebbe.”

 To help these new couples, one of the Rebbe’s most sacred projects is to find ways for people to save money while still protecting their dignity. Among his first tasks when appointed as rav in Williamsburg under his father the Beirach Moshe was to create an innovative chasunah loan and gemach plan. The Chasunah Package includes a shtreimel, jewelry, linens, pots and pans, and all the other basics for a ridiculously small token sum. In addition to offering high quality goods, all chassidim who purchase these items through the plan and stick to the other takanos are eligible for an additional $10,000 loan.

Satmar was the pioneer in this, and today many kehillos in around the Jewish world have implemented such a plan. Furthermore, the Rebbe personally raised large sums to build chasunah halls that could compete with the for-profit ones in decor, aesthetics, and convenience for a fraction of the price.

The Rebbe’s concern runs deep; does he have a personal connection with the thousands of his flock? “I can’t answer you about that,” says Rabbi Teitelbaum. “I believe not. Do you know how many people are members of the Satmar community? There are thousands of families. The Rebbe probably knows each one to a different degree — some more and some less. But is it possible for one person to know thousands of people by name? There are 8,000 Satmar families in Williamsburg alone.”

The Satmar Rebbe’s drashos, which have been collected in a series of seforim entitled Mahri’i Ta’v demonstrate his broad knowledge base, yet according to his shammash, the only real time the Rebbe has to prepare is on Friday, when he sits alone in his room and pores over his seforim. Every year, at the end of Cheshvan, he packs suitcases full of seforim and sets out for a brief vacation in an undisclosed location, in order to prepare for his drashah on the 21^st of Kislev, as well as the sichos he will deliver in all of the yeshivos and talmudei Torah of Satmar in New York — about 30 addresses in all.

One of Rabbi Teitelbaum’s jobs is to write the kvittlach, the notes that chassidim bring with them when they approach the Rebbe. “I write the person’s name, followed by his mother’s name, and add ‘for health of the body and soul.’ Many of those who visit the Rebbe ask for simple advice along with his blessings. The Rebbe is very practical and he gives sage advice in every realm. Sometimes the Rebbe will stop a person in the beis medrash and ask what happened with regard to a certain subject that they discussed. The Rebbe also has an uncanny ability to settle disputes between partners and to resolve problems in shalom bayis. Women can come to the Rebbe together with their husbands, or with the Satmar Rebbetzin, or one of the gabbaim.”

A visitor who enters the Rebbe’s room need not fear that he’ll find himself under scrutiny about his spiritual state. On the contrary, the emphasis of the Rebbe’s interest will be on his material well-being, his livelihood, and his children. Occasionally the Rebbe may inquire, almost as a side point, about whether he maintains set times for talmud Torah, but the main question will be regarding how he is managing materially.

“Our tzaddikim held that if a person’s gashmiyus is good, then his ruchniyus will follow it,” explained Rabbi Teitelbaum. “The Vayoel Moshe never asked a person if he was learning or what type of spiritual condition he was in; he always took an interest in the person’s parnassah. That was the tradition he received from his rebbeim.”

From Yerushalayim to Williamsburg

Rebbe Yekusiel Yehudah (Zalman Leib) Teitelbaum, 61, first rose to fame in Satmar on the day his father, the Beirach Moshe, became the Satmar Rebbe in 1979. It was a day of transition, when darkness and light mixed — the day the first rebbe, Rebbe Yoel of Satmar, passed away. Rebbe Yekusiel Yehudah’s chassidim relate that on the final Friday night when Rebbe Yoel publicly appeared, he honored his nephew, Reb Yekusiel Yehudah, with bentsching over a kos. The following day, Rebbe Yoel became bedridden with his final illness.

That was when the Beirach Moshe’s third son became his father’s right hand man on issues of chinuch and was designated the rav of the Sighet Beis Medrash in Boro Park, a position that the Beirach Moshe himself had held until he became the Rebbe. In 1984, Rav Yekusiel Yehudah was appointed to the position of rosh mesivta for the Satmar youth, and he quickly began to flourish in that position.

He delivered shiurim to groups of students and became known as a master of clarity. During those years, Rav Yekusiel Yehudah developed thousands of bochurim into lamdanim. At the time, it was said that his older brother, Rav Aharon, excelled in incisive analysis, but the “blatt learners,” those who swallowed up pages of Gemara and attained a wide breadth of knowledge, could be found by Rav Zalman Leib.

Rav Yekusiel Yehudah served as rosh mesivta until 1997, when Reb Moshe Aryeh Freund, the Gaavad of the Eidah Chareidis in Yerushalayim and the rav of the Satmar chassidim in the city, passed away. After Reb Moshe Aryeh’s passing, Satmar chassidim in Yerushalayim asked the Beirach Moshe for a new spiritual leader to guide them, and so he chose his third son, Rav Yekusiel Yehudah, who moved to Yerushalayim and became the leader of the chassidim there. He was humble and had not yet revealed his greatness, yet soon he became beloved by the community and the Satmar chassidim of Yerushalayim became his main admirers. During this time, his older brother Rav Aharon was serving as the rav of the massive Satmar community in Kiryas Joel, Monroe.

In the summer of 1999, Rav Yekusiel Yehudah was requested by his father to take over the leadership of the community in Williamsburg, after his head gabbai Rabbi Moshe Friedman worked hard to advance his appointment. The chassidim of Satmar always remember that Motzaei Shabbos of parshas Mikeitz, December 1999, when the official installation ceremony took place in a huge hall on the outskirts of Williamsburg.

In 2006 the Beirach Moshe passed away and Rav Yekusiel Yehudah took his place in Williamsburg.

During the wedding of the Rebbe’s grandson, I met up with Reb Ezriel Glick, an elderly chassid who once served as the Vayoel Moshe’s shammash. I asked him about the division of the leadership in the Chassidus, and he had an interesting response. “The Beirach Moshe told me, ‘I have two sons who are fit to serve as leaders — Reb Aharon and Reb Yekusiel Yehudah. I am giving the rabbanus to both of them. Everyone should go to whichever rebbe he desires; I can’t force anything on anyone.’$$$seperatequote$$$”

Over the years, the huge community was split between the two brothers, with Rav Aharon developing his base in Kiryas Joel while the institutions in Williamsburg, including the beis medrash on Rodney Street and most of the mosdos that had been built in the neighborhood by Rebbe Yoel, fell under the aegis of Rav Yekusiel Yehudah.

When issues related to Eretz Yisrael are brought to him, the Rebbe generally calls his son, Reb Chaim Hersh Teitelbaum, who has taken over his previous position as the leader of the community in Yerushalayim. He also often consults with Rav Yitzchak Tuvia Weiss, the Gaavad of the Eidah Chareidis.

The Rebbe once told the rosh yeshivah of Satmar in Queens, Rabbi Naftali Blumenfeld:,“In most chassidic groups, a person who doesn’t follow the rebbe in every way, down to the smallest possible detail, receives no attention at all. By us, you will never hear of anything of the sort. Anyone who adheres to our holy principles will receive the full respect he deserves.”

Recently, additional chassidic courts in Eretz Yisrael — including those of Rachmistrivka and Bohosh — have been added to the circle of those supported by Satmar philanthropists, due their disconnecting themselves from government funds.

THE REBBE AND THE VOTE

With the upcoming elections stirring the hearts of those chareidim who were taught that they are obligated to vote, a visit to the Satmar sanctuary becomes an occasion that alone justifies the transatlantic journey. With the sword of secularism dangling over the heads of yeshivah students, a strong chareidi presence in the Israeli legislature seems to be the surest way to combat the campaign to empty the yeshivos. Doesn’t that seem logical?

No, according to the Rebbe’s spokesman Rabbi Yaakov Jacobowitz, who is skilled at giving over the nuanced of the Rebbe’s philosophy. “Show me one area in which the chareidi representatives in the Knesset have accomplished anything, other than securing funds — about which it is said that bribery blinds the eyes of the wise.

“During the most recent administration,” he adds, “the Emmanuel episode took place, and everyone saw that there is nothing to gain from having chareidim in the legislature. The public adopted the policy of Satmar, and everyone went out into the streets to protest. Parents allowed themselves to be placed in prison for the sake of Hashem’s honor.

“When the integrity of educational institutions was threatened by the ‘core curriculum,’ we did not see that those chareidi representatives succeeded in doing anything. The edict against chareidi education in Eretz Yisrael is still hovering over their heads, and the representatives are remaining silent.

“The decree to draft the bnei yeshivos is also still in force. Other than creating far-reaching compromises that cause damage to chareidi Judaism, those representatives achieve nothing.”

With such an anti-Zionist stand on one hand, how does the Chassidus relate to the extremists on the other side, those that meet with the enemies of the Jewish People — terrorist organizations, Ahmadinejad, and the like? Does this have a place in Rebbe Yoel’s legacy?

“These people take the pure name of Satmar in vain!” the spokesman is emphatic. “Our holy Rebbe, the Vayoel Moshe, used to say that they cause even more destruction than the Zionists themselves. We make every effort to divest ourselves of all of those extremist groups. When they went to Iran, the Satmar beis din issued a sharp letter against them.”