The royal court of Ruzhin has fascinated historians and laymen alike throughout the generations. Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin was an extremely influential figure for multitudes of Jews throughout Galicia, Poland, and Russia, a fact that was not overlooked by historical scholars. The fact that the Czar of Russia personally invested extensive efforts in curtailing his vast influence, even imprisoning him at one point, testifies volumes about the heilige Ruzhiner’s fame throughout the Jewish world.

Historian David Assaf presents documentation about two Scottish missionaries, Bonar and M’Cheyne, who testified that all local Jews believed “in the sacred authority of the rich chassidic rabbi from Russia who was then in prison in Kiev.” Adding to the mystery of Rav Yisrael’s sheer influence was the regal manner in which he and his family conducted themselves. Sources describe a truly aristocratic court, including royal horses and musicians who accompanied the Ruzhiner when he traveled to visit his followers. The Ruzhiner himself never fully explained his actions, although several terse remarks that he made shed some light on his rationale for choosing his unique path in avodas Hashem, and it is widely assumed that his gold boots had no soles — meaning that underneath all that opulence, he was actually walking barefoot.

Although much has been written on the subject, a short memoir authored by a great granddaughter of Rav Yisrael, Miriam Sperber (b. 1900), who frequented the Ruzhiner courts in Galicia of old, encapsulates the Ruzhiner unique path in a short paragraph:
“I have since heard criticism of the regal ways of the Hassidic Rebbes in the Ruzhin tradition. The critics judged this behavior to be an imitation of gentile nobles. But this is not at all what Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin introduced. It was rather a nostalgia for the ancient days of the Temple. These were expressions of Messianic hope and fervor. The Baal Shem Tov introduced the worship of G-d through happiness, while his disciple, Reb Yisrael of Ruzhin, practiced worship of the L-rd in beauty, as it was in the days of the Temple.”

This legacy of grandeur and spiritual splendor was the birthright that Reb Shlomenyu inherited.

Prince of Ruzhin

Rav Shlomo Chaim, known as Reb Shlomenyu, was born in 1887 in Sadigura, a town in Bukovina. He came from an extremely prestigious lineage, even by the metrics of chassidic royalty in Eastern Europe at that time. Although only 19 years old when his father, Rav Yisrael, passed away in 1906, many of his father’s chassidim chose to attend his tisch and to submit kvitlach to him — even while his older brothers held court in the same compound in Sadigura.

In fact, this was one of the reasons Reb Shlomenyu forfeited his title as “Sadigura Rebbe” just eight years later, in 1914, at the beginning of World War I. He was not comfortable being thus called when many of the chassidim were elderly and had attended the tish of his grandfather, the Sadigura Rebbe.

Reb Shlomenyu was a great-grandson of the Ruzhiner several times over, as both his father and mother were grandchildren of Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin. His father (Rav Yisrael of Sadigura) was the son of Rav Avraham Yaakov (the first), the second son of the Ruzhiner Rebbe, while his mother, Batsheva, was the daughter of the Ruzhiner’s oldest son Rav Shalom Yosef. (Many descendants of the Ruzhiner married one another, making for complex and confusing family trees.)

Considering his relatively young age while he actively served as rebbe to chassidim, his divrei Torah made a deep impression on those who heard and studied them. The common practice in Ruzhin was that the rebbes did not speak Torah in public at all, as part of their overall approach to avodas Hashem, which is that it should be practiced in secrecy. The Ruzhiner was generally opposed to the idea of flaunting one’s greatness in Torah and righteousness. To this day, all the rebbes with Ruzhiner lineage daven in a separate room adjacent to the shul called a “davenen shtibel.” One walking down Malchei Yisrael Street in Yerushalayim can see the small porch attached to the Boyaner Rebbe’s room, just above street level at the far-right corner of the main Boyaner Beis Medrash.

However, several rebbes descended from Ruzhin made exceptions to this rule and did speak divrei Torah in public, and one of those was young Reb Shlomenyu. His discourses apparently made such a great impression, that in 1906, copies of his Torah were produced and found their way all around chassidic eastern Europe. A copy reached the elderly Belzer Rebbe, Rav Yissachar Dov, who requested to receive any new material that was printed, and remarked that these deep insights into Kabbalah and chassidus are “Toras Emes.” Reb Shlomenyu conducted himself in an extremely regal and refined manner, another factor that drew in many chassidim and admirers despite his young age.

Judging by the great admiration he was accorded by chassidim of all ages, and the fame he engendered throughout the chassidic world because of his unique divrei Torah, Reb Shlomenyu was destined to greatness. But then World War I broke out, and what seemed like a promising path and brilliant future for the young rebbe was abruptly upended as chaos, uncertainty, and danger took over.

To Abdicate the Throne

While World War II lives on in history as the Holocaust that decimated European Jewry, World War I in fact was devastating for Jewish communities throughout Europe, even if Jews were not the specific target. Tens of thousands of Jews were called up to serve in the armies of their host countries, which exposed them to both physical and spiritual danger. Towns and cities were overrun and destroyed, families were torn apart, and when the war was over, the map of the continent was dramatically different than it had been before.

A vast number of kehillos were uprooted or destroyed during this terrible war, among them shtetlach and towns populated by Ruzhiner chassidim from all streams of the dynasty, including Sadigura, Tchortkov, Husyatin, Kopycznitz, Boyan, Bohush and Pashkan. When war threatened to overtake them, a majority of the Ruzhiner rebbes, with many of their chassidim, found refuge in Vienna, Austria.

An elderly Husyatiner chassid (the Ruzhiner’s youngest son became the Rebbe of Husyatin) once shared that Vienna was chosen since it had a port from which ships could travel to Eretz Yisrael. As such, the rebbes considered Vienna “a gateway to Eretz Yisrael” and refused to return to their original hometowns since “one should not distance himself further away from Eretz Yisrael.”

At the time, Vienna was a modern city, and it offered a relatively comfortable life for the many Jewish refugees that streamed to it. But providing housing, food, and other services to the refugees required intensive efforts as well as huge sums of money.

It was at this juncture that Reb Shlomenyu made a dramatic decision. Considering the fact that his older brother Rav Avraham Yaakov was alive at the time, and was actually residing in Vienna, Reb Shlomenyu resisted the request of his chassidim to open a beis medrash of his own and completely deferred to his older brother. In fact, he even went a step further and officially gave up the title of Rebbe.

Instead, Reb Shlomenyu — heir to the throne of Sadigura and promising scion of Ruzhin — found a new identity: a dedicated askan who threw his considerable talents and resources into helping the newly arrived refugees.

He invested a minimal amount of time in business ventures to support his family, mostly buying and selling coal for heating, and spent the rest of his time assisting refugees. His efforts included establishing tzedakah funds and fundraising for the much-needed money for the refugees’ day-to-day needs. He took special interest in assisting young people in starting new families, a difficult task during wartime.

Another focus of his efforts was medical askanus. Vienna was renowned for its top-notch hospitals and doctors, and people with health issues often traveled to the city to seek medical care. Reb Shlomenyu assisted desperate Yidden who came to the city for this purpose. There was once a dying Jewish patient who was thrown out of the hospital because there was nothing left to do for him, yet Reb Shlomenyu brought this person to his house and treated him until he passed away. He then searched for tachrichim for the niftar and arranged his burial. A letter in the handwriting of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook was found (recorded in the introduction to Devarim B’itam) in which Rav Kook suggests to a Jew who traveled to Vienna for health reasons to turn to Reb Shlomenyu for help and advice, “as I have not seen anyone like him who can help you as his heart pulses with the middah of rachamim.”

In addition to these relief activities, Reb Shlomenyu took special interest in young people who decided to make aliyah during this tumultuous period, when rule of Eretz Yisrael changed hands from the Ottoman Empire to the British Mandate. Due to extreme pressure from the Arab states, the British severely curtailed the amount of entry visas, causing serious delays and frustrations for those wishing to make aliyah. In addition to taking care of technical matters and collecting funds for them, Reb Shlomenyu actually established “motels” to provide temporary housing in Vienna for olim until they departed for Eretz Yisrael.

Reb Shlomenyu’s new activities were a sharp contrast to who he had been until then. He was a rebbe — a member of the “royal family” of the most regal of chassidic dynasties — and engaging in askanus, fundraising, and dealing with bureaucracy were certainly not typical rebbe behavior.  When people questioned his work and asked whether it was appropriate for a respected rebbe, he responded that while a practicing rebbe sets up his table (his tish) in one location, “I take my table with me and set it up in any office I visit in order to help other Jews in need.”

When a confidant wrote him a condolence letter after the petirah of his older brother, Rav Avraham Yaakov (known as the Abir Yaakov), and addressed him as Admor, he responded that “the Baal Shem Tov had many talmidim, and some of them had a different path, which I have adopted and through which I’ve seen much hatzlachah, and I plan to continue this path that I have chosen.”

In this letter, he alluded to the fact that several talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov chose to wander and bring Yidden closer rather than sit in one permanent court. He once mentioned two talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov by name — Rav Moshe Leib of Sassov and Rav Zusha of Anipoli — as examples of those who invested much of their time and effort in pidyon shevuyim, “and I myself am also very much involved in pidyon shevuyim when I rescue Jewish children from missionaries.”

While Reb Shlomenyu’s perspective of where he was most needed certainly was the prime reason for his abdication of the throne, so to speak, there was another factor leading to his decision. One of Reb Shlomenyu’s close confidants during his years in Tel Aviv was the renowned politician and philanthropist Reb Avraham Yosef [Munya] Schapira. Reb Munya’s sons shared a conversation Reb Shomenyu had with a family member during which he was asked why he refused to be called “Rebbe” anymore.

In response, he related that while he was still in Sadigura, “some of Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin’s chassidim, such as Reb Hirsch Lever and Reb Yeshaya Shub, were still alive, and at times they would crowd around him as a young rebbe of just 19 years old, while he remained sitting in his seat. “I could not tolerate this state of affairs and decided to stop acting as Rebbe,” he declared.

Pulled to the Promised Land

Reb Shlomenyu’s efforts on behalf of the refugees were only the beginning of his journey to the land of askanus. In time, his work came to involve areas that seemed, to all appearances, less befitting his stature and standing. One of the most dramatic turns in Reb Shlomenyu’s life was his involvement with the Zionist movement. While Reb Shlomenyu mapped out his own unique path in this area, developing an approach that differentiated between practical realities and ideological purity, it seems certain that the Ruzhiner attitude to Eretz Yisrael informed and influenced his carefully calibrated actions.

As noted, Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin created a unique path in avodas Hashem that expressed itself in a different type of relationship with his chassidim. Rav Yisrael didn’t generally speak or deliver Torah discourses in public (although he did so in private). He also was not fond of mofsim (performing miracles) but rather invested most of his time in receiving and helping Yidden in any way he could. A visitor once testified that aside for an occasional tasting of a certain type of a jam that was placed in front of him, Rav Yisrael was constantly involved in helping others with no time left for normal eating.

“It is nearly impossible to comprehend the greatness of this giant of spirit,” said Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, referring to Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin (Rabbi Dr. Shaulzon of Czernowitz in Toldot Yahadut Bukovina). “From all sides, people shower him with much gold and silver and they honor him to no end. However, his holy thoughts are focused day and night only on one matter, and this is his entire life’s mission, to publicize the honor of G-d and the honor of His Jewish nation, to elevate them to the highest possible level and to restore them their original glory.”

Rav Yisrael also invested much energy, time, and money into the Jewish settlement of Eretz Yisrael.   His first action toward this end was the establishment of a kollel to support the Jewish inhabitants of the Land.

Kollel at the time did not have the same connotation as it does today; rather, it was a framework for coordinating collecting of funds from all over Europe to send to Eretz Yisrael to sustain those Jews who risked their lives to settle there, where there was almost no way to earn a livelihood. The kollel collected and distributed these monies to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael, chassidic and litvish alike. Rav Yisrael was the main force behind the kollel and served as its nasi (president), but other rebbes participated in the effort as well.

In addition to supporting existing kehillos in Eretz Yisrael, Rav Yisrael dreamed of resettling the land with a burgeoning Jewish presence, long before modern Zionism came on the scene. He dispatched his confidant, Yisrael Beck, a businessman from Berdichev, to purchase land in the Galilee and in Yerushalayim. Beck also opened a printing press, developed neighborhoods, and built the magnificent chassidic shul in the old city called Tiferes Yisrael, named after Rav Yisrael following his petirah. In fact, contrary to how the Zionist movement portrays the events, some of the first settlers to establish towns outside Yerushalayim were chassidic Jews. Bohush chassidim (led by Rav Yisrael’s grandson Rav Yitzchak of Bohush) were the founders of the Galilee town of Rosh Pinah.

This attitude toward Eretz Yisrael filtered down to many of Rav Yisrael’s offspring, and many Ruzhiner rebbes were involved, supported, and were genuinely enthused about having the Land resettled by Jews. This influenced their attitude toward Zionism as well.

The Rebbe of Sadigura during Reb Shlomenyu’s lifetime, his older brother Rav Avraham Yaakov, was deeply gratified at the renewed opportunity for Jews to live in Eretz Yisrael. It should be noted that the Abir Yaakov was a prominent member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael and an extremely influential member of the Agudah for many years, both before and after his arrival in Tel Aviv. All that notwithstanding, an interesting video shows a different aspect of his outlook on Eretz Yisrael.

In the recording, Rav Uri Weissblum, one the elder baalei mussar of our generation and a prime talmid of Rav Shlomo Wolbe, describes a visit he paid to the Abir Yaakov as a young yeshivah bochur. Rav Weissblum’s father was a chassidishe Yid who resided in Haifa and he requested that his son travel to Tel Aviv to receive a brachah for a medical procedure he was going through at the time.

As young Uri Weissblum entered the Rebbe’s court, he realized that the tables were set for a tish, although he was not aware that it was any special occasion. The Rebbe’s gabbai informed him that since “today is the fifth of Iyar, the Rebbe will be conducting a tish for Yom Ha’atzma ut, Independence Day.”

This practice did not last long, as today none of the Ruzhiner courts conduct a tish on 5 Iyar, but during the early years of the State it was possible to be a member of the Moetzes and at the same time, to view the establishment of a haven for Jews in Eretz Yisrael as an event worthy of celebration.

Reb Shlomenyu, however, took this one step further. He was involved in many different activities relating to Eretz Yisrael during the years between the two World Wars. First, he published a periodical that was distributed throughout chassidic Europe to counteract periodicals that disseminated anti-Zionism and anti-aliyah content. In addition, he created an association of rebbes who, like him, advocated aliyah; it was named the Histadrut Chassidit Tzionit (a movement that eventually merged with the Mizrachi). Finally, upon making aliyah himself in 1938, he regularly contributed to the then-dominant religious Zionist publication HaTzofeh, especially after the State was established.

From a surface examination of those facts, it might seem that Reb Shlomenyu was a card-carrying member of the Zionist enterprise, and a proud proponent of their policies. But in fact, the opposite was true: While Reb Shlomenyu was happy that Jews were resettling Eretz Yisrael, he was a fierce critic of the new State’s policies.

A quick glance at articles he penned for Hatzofeh (and subsequently published in Devarim B’itam) following the establishment of the State and in the ensuing years reveals that Reb Shlomenyu was a vociferous opponent of the secular-dominated government. He wrote scathing articles attacking the secular atmosphere, chillul Shabbos, the lack of tzniyus in the public sphere, lack of education of Torah values, and many other issues relating to the spiritual situation at the time. Still, interspersed in his harsh words are also many words of love and admiration for the mesirus nefesh of those who risked their lives to establish the State and fight its wars.

Save the Children

Another issue that galvanized Reb Shlomenyu to action was the fact that missionaries abroad and in Eretz Yisrael were making every effort to locate orphaned Jewish children, taking advantage of their vulnerability to attract them to Christianity. Aside from writing extensively on this topic in his public essays, Reb Shlomenyu repeatedly wrote personal letters to the heads of the State to persuade them to put a stop to missionary activities in Eretz Yisrael. (Missionary activity was not prohibited in the early years of the State, perhaps because the founders wanted to be seen by the world as tolerant liberals. A law banning missionary activity was passed in 1977 — three decades after the State was founded.)

Reb Shlomenyu traveled around war-torn Europe trying to locate Jewish children in gentile homes and monasteries and bring them back. It was an expensive undertaking, and toward that end, he established the Children’s Salvation Committee in New York, together with Herman Treisser, Rabbi Leo Jung, Rabbi Immanuel Jacobovitz, Rabbi Ralph Pelcowitz, and other influential figures of the era.

One episode that he would frequently mention involved a trip he took to a coal mining town in France in order to locate a brother and his sister living among the local gentiles. He managed to take the children with him and assisted them in reestablishing their lives as Jews, eventually helping them marry and set up their new homes. In some cases, after he rescued children from these situations and helped them move on in life, his name would appear on their wedding invitations as an official mechutan.

This issue was so near and dear to his heart that after his passing, one of Reb Shlomenyu’s notepads was found, and every few pages there was a message in bold ink stating: “Don’t forget about the Jewish children.”

No Gabbai for Me

Following the passing of the Abir Yaakov in December 1960, Reb Shlomenyu faced tremendous pressure from his older brother’s chassidim and others to assume the title of Rebbe. Over time, most of the Ruzhiner rebbes had settled in Tel Aviv — and some say their decision to do so was because there was no church in the vicinity. They included Rav Yisrael of Boyan-Leipzig, who passed away in 1951; Rav Yisrael of Husyatin, who passed away in 1948; Rav Nochum Mordecahi of Tchortkov, who passed away in 1946; and the Abir Yaakov, who was the prominent Ruzhiner Rebbe in Eretz Yisrael until his passing. Rav Shlomenyu was the last of the older generation of Ruzhiner Rebbes (aside for Rav Yitzchak of Bohush, who lived until 1992, but who moved his court to Bnei Brak.) Even Rav Nochum Mordechai’s successor, Rav Shlomo of Tchortkov, passed away in 1958, before Rav Shlomenyu. It was therefore natural that the chassidim wanted Rav Shlomenyu to continue to lead the Ruzhiner court in Tel Aviv. (Today, only one Ruzhiner court remains in the city — Vasloi, descended from a daughter of Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin.)

Officially, these efforts bore no fruit, as Reb Shlomenyu adamantly refused to adopt any rebbishe conduct. He did not open a beis medrash of his own, and instead divided his time between his brother’s Tel Aviv shul (now named after him and currently the center of a kiruv kehillah led by Rav Mordechai Auerbach), and the shul of Rav Shlomo of Tchortkov, who married Reb Shlomenyu’s sister, but passed away at an early age.

Reb Shlomenyu refused to be accompanied by a gabbai, noting that his father, Rav Yisrael, did not let his gabbaim help him inside his own home. Reb Shlomenyu added, “Eretz Yisrael is my home and I do not need gabbaim to assist me at home.” Similarly, when receiving aliyos he would vehemently object if the gabbai would call him Adoneinu Moreinu V’Rabbeinu, and he hushed anyone who would call him “Sadigerer Rebbe” — responding with, “The Sadigerer Rebbe lives at number 10 Betzalel Yaffe Street,” referring to his older brother.

He made one exception to his blanket refusal: He agreed to lead the tish on the yahrtzeits of his family elders, and used those occasions to speak at length about their hanhagos and tzidkus. At those tishen, he also taught niggunim that he remembered from Ruzhin of old, and some of them were recorded (and are available on the Israel National Library website).

The Schapira brothers, the sons of Rav Avraham Yosef (Munya) Schapira, who were raised in Tel Aviv and were close to Ruzhiner courts, recall that he became extremely emotional during these tishen and those present felt that he “had temporarily left this world.” His ahavas Yisrael was evident during these gatherings and at one point, following his divrei Torah on the seventh day of Pesach, he emitted a cry and exclaimed, “Ribbono Shel Olam, enough, please bring Klal Yisrael their redemption!”

The Schapira brothers reminisce that although Reb Shlomenyu refused to become a practicing Rebbe, he remained a Ruzhiner with his entire heart and soul. He made the effort to visit the Tchortkover shtibel three times every Shabbos. Even if he davened at times in his brother’s shul, he would stop off in Tchortkov before going home. There, he would warmly greet all of the mispallelim and took an interest in their lives. These weekly visits were cherished by the chassidim for many years thereafter.

And although he eschewed the honors of a rebbe, he used his standing to help rebuild Ruzhin in Eretz Yisrael. After making aliyah in 1938, he undertook the restoration of the Ruzhiner Tiferes Yisrael shul in Yerushalayim’s Old City, which was established by the Ruzhiner Rebbe himself and completed by his son Rav Avraham Yaakov (the first).

Due to a massive outflux of residents from the Old City when new neighborhoods opened up outside its walls, the shul fell into disrepair. Reb Shlomenyu urged the other Ruzhiner Rebbes alive at the time to gather in the shul on special occasions and yahrtzeits, and this helped infuse the shul with new life until its destruction with the capture of the Old City in 1948 by the Jordanian army.  Upon the liberation of the Old City in 1967, he invested efforts once again in order to restore the shul to its former glory. (Just a few years ago, a cornerstone-laying ceremony was held at the site of the shul, restarting the ongoing efforts to rebuild Tiferes Yisrael, which competed with the famed Churva Shul in height and glory back in its day. When walking to the Kosel from the Churva, one can see the construction site of the shul on the right.)

So who was Reb Shlomenyu? The paradoxes in his life story seem irreconcilable, given the tendency in this day and age to categorize people in boxes.

In an essay he penned in 1968, he stated that pragmatically, he was of the opinion that chareidi Jewry cannot cut themselves off from society. The common chareidi hashkafah was and remains that integration carries dangers to the spiritual welfare of the frum community. Yet Reb Shlomenyu felt that by erecting impenetrable barriers between themselves and the surrounding society, chareidi Jews were in fact surrendering the battle over the religious character of the newly formed state to the liberal secularists.

This was the reason he wished to flood the Land with frum immigrants who would counterbalance the dominating secular influence. At the same time, he expressed a sincere admiration for those who built the land with sweat and blood.

Likewise, his decision to write for HaTzofeh was grounded in the idea that he could have much more influence on current matters via this platform, considering that the National Religious party was at the time at the peak of its political influence. Writing for an Agudah newspaper would not have helped him reach those he sought to influence through these essays.

Despite his bold ideological approach, he maintained the respect of the mainstream. While Reb Shlomenyu was not an official rebbe, many of the rebbes of his generation, including the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz, always referred to him with the title “Sadigerer Rebbe” — even without his consent.  Moreover, his personal conduct in the privacy of his home was that of a tzaddik and rebbe, such as his intense kavanah when davening and sheer emotion upon singing Hallel at the amud and when teaching young chassidim niggunim of old.

The well-known gabbai tzedakah, Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Cohen, was once involved with Reb Shlomenyu in a chesed case that required him to frequently call various people in positions of power and influence. One day during Chanukah, Reb Chaim Yitzchak approached Reb Shlomenyu and asked him to call a certain person at one o’clock in the afternoon.

“That would be impossible,” Reb Shlomenyu responded. “At 1 o’clock, I am busy preparing to light my Chanukah lecht.”

“How many hours do you need to roll your wicks and prepare the oil for the hadlakah?” Reb Chaim Yitzchak asked in surprise.

“I actually meant a different type of preparation,” Reb Shlomenyu replied. “I am preparing myself to reach a state of dveikus before the hadlakah.”

It was a simple response — but it explained so much of the enigma that was Reb Shlomenyu. For all that he was a trailblazer and an innovative thinker, who consciously chose to tread a different path than those of his illustrious forebears, and for all that he discarded the trappings of royalty that were part and parcel of his heritage, Reb Shlomenyu was always and forever a child of Ruzhin.

Tracing the Rebbe Trail

T

aking into account that the Ruzhiner dynasty is so complex (partly because offspring of the Rebbes married their first or second cousins, making them related several times over), the following will focus on two sons of the Ruzhiner Rebbe and their offspring, which are relevant to this account.

During the Ruzhiner’s lifetime, the dominant son in his court in Sadigura (after he escaped from Ruzhin in Russia) was his oldest child, Rav Shalom Yosef. Years of suffering, imprisonment, and fleeing his tormentors from the Russian Czarist regime took a toll on Rav Yisrael’s health and Rav Shalom Yosef found himself running the day-to-day affairs of his father’s court. Although many kehillos wished to appoint him as their rav, he repeatedly refused the offers, preferring to remain close to his father so that he could assist him as much as possible.

At times, Rav Shalom Yosef felt it was his obligation to explain his father’s actions to those who were perplexed by his unique avodah. Signaling his great admiration for his son, Rav Yisrael requested that he receive visitors to the Ruzhiner court in Sadigura and even accept kvitlach, a clear sign that he was his father’s intended successor when the time would come.

Indeed, upon the Ruzhiner’s passing, Rav Shalom Yosef’s brothers all accorded him deep respect as the dominant leader of the chassidus, yet Rav Shalom Yosef fell ill not long after. He traveled to the hot springs in Germany in order to recuperate, and while in Leipzig, he suddenly passed away, just ten months after his own father’s passing, at the age of 39. He was buried there in the local Jewish cemetery. (A grandson of his brother Rav Avraham Yaakov later established a chassidic court in Leipzig, a modern German city with no major chassidic population. He became known as Rav Yisrael of Boyan-Leipzig.)

Due to the age gap between Rav Shalom Yosef and some of his brothers, at the time of his passing, his oldest son, Rav Yitzchak, was approximately the same age as the Ruzhiner’s youngest son. When the decision was made that each of Rav Yisrael’s children open a court of his own, Rav Yitzchak — a grandson —was included in this directive. As such, alongside the courts of Sadigura, Tchortkov, Stephanesht, and Husyatin, the court of the young Rebbe Rav Yitzchak was established, first in Potok, Sadigura, and eventually in Bohush in Romania.

Rav Shalom Yosef also had a daughter, Batsheva, who played an important role in the family story.

Following the petirah of Rav Shalom Yosef in 1851, the mantle of leadership was transferred to the second in line and the elder of the remaining brothers, Rav Avraham Yaakov (the first), who is referred to as “Ha’Admor Hazaken,” the Elder Rebbe. At this stage, however, only he remained in Sadigura (more precisely, on the Potok estate, purchased from a gentile count during Rav Yisrael’s lifetime). The other brothers each established courts of their own in towns throughout the region and beyond. The fact that many new courts were established did not diminish Rav Avraham Yaakov’s influence, and he remained the dominant figure in Ruzhin throughout his lifetime.

To give an idea of Rav Avraham Yaakov’s standing in his generation, an early Christian Zionist and famed diplomat named Laurence Oliphant, who wished to assist in resettling the Jews in the Holy Land, arranged a meeting with the Rebbe:

“On 4 May, at the final train stop just before the Moldovan border they disembarked, as here in Sadigura, Laurence was to meet the great Hasidic rabbi, Avrohom Yaakov Friedman. Oliphant had sought him out, believing the famous rabbi to be ‘the leader of world Jewry.’” (Philip Steele, Fathom)

A magazine named Blackwood shared a description of his arrival in Sadigura: “The whole Jewish community of Sadigura awaited our arrival, lining both sides of the street to see the gentile coming to their rebbe. […] I was led into a room, much like a princely court, furnished with precious gold and silver antiques. There I met the rabbi, accompanied by two servants. Regal authority was in his face… I was… convinced that he could lead and command his people with just the barest gesture.”

When Rav Avraham Yaakov passed away in 1883 after 30 years of leadership, Ruzhin in general, and Sadigura in particular, were thrust into a new era of multiple courts and sub-courts throughout eastern Europe. Aside from his brothers who established separate courts in his lifetime, but still recognized him as the supreme authority, Sadigura itself was first divided into two sub-courts. Rav Avraham Yaakov had eight children, four of them sons. Two of his sons predeceased him, but the two remaining sons, Rav Yitzchak and his younger brother Rav Yisrael, were each respected by the chassidim and worthy of the title of Rebbe. Eventually, an arrangement was reached under which the younger Rav Yisrael remained Rebbe in Sadigura, while the older brother Rav Yitzchak (known as the Pachad Yitzchak) left Sadigura and established his court in the town of Boyan (not far from Sadigura). This branch of Sadigura was henceforth known as Boyan, and it exists to this day as a major branch of Ruzhin. Boyan (or “Boiany,” now in western Ukraine), was not previously known as a town with a large Jewish population, but following Reb Yitzchak’s relocation, many chassidim flocked to the town to live near their Rebbe.

Rav Yisrael, the younger brother, remained in Sadigura and is considered the father of the Sadigura dynasty as it is known today. Both his first and second wives were grandchildren of Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin. The first wife, Esther, was the daughter of Rav Yitzchak of Bohush, and following her passing, he married his first wife’s aunt Batsheva, the daughter of Rav Shalom Yosef, the oldest son of the Ruzhiner. Rav Yisrael led his flock for more than 20 years and passed away at the age of 54 in 1906. While the previous split created the new branch named Boyan, the aftermath of Rav Yisrael’s petirah brought about multiple courts all named “Sadigura,” hence the confusion in trying to follow the varying courts.

Rav Yisrael had 13 children, eight of them sons. Two of his sons predeceased him, but five of his remaining sons went on to establish courts of their own under the name “Sadigura.” While one of the sons, Rav Aharon, was accepted by many of his father’s chassidim as his successor, he passed away in 1912, only six years after his father’s petirah.

This is where things really become complicated. Alongside the coronation of Rav Aharon’s only son, Rav Mordechai Shalom Yosef (on his wedding day, as announced by the Pachad Yitzchak of Boyan), many chassidim of Rav Yisrael now split into an additional four active courts: Rav Shalom Yosef in Czernowitz,  Rav Avraham Yaakov (the second) in Sadigura, Rav Shlomo Chaim — Reb Shlomenyu, the topic of our article — in Sadigura as well, while the youngest, Rav Yitzchak, known as the Rebbe of Sadigura-Rimanov, eventually traveled to the United States and tragically passed away there at a young age. (His story was recounted in an article entitled “Silent to Safeguard,” in Mishpacha issue 939.)

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1026)