Why Would Two Brothers Fight For Such A Demanding Position, To Become The Next Rebbe?
New York - Wondering if so-and-so will make a suitable spouse? Ask the rebbe. Anxious that the business venture you're considering might not succeed? Ask the rebbe. Need help resolving a thorny ethical question? Rebbe.
Thanks to the flood of news coverage last week, people who had never before heard the term "Satmar grand rebbe" now know that the 91-year-old man who held that title for more than a quarter-century was buried in Kiryas Joel on Tuesday, and that two sons are fighting bitterly to succeed him as leader of their Hasidic movement.
But what might have been lost in the obituaries for Moses Teitelbaum and in the campaign-style succession stories was a clear sense of just what a rebbe means to the estimated 120,000 Satmar Hasidim living in this Orange County village, Brooklyn, Jerusalem and other places around the world.
Samuel Heilman, a Queens College professor and expert on ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups like the Satmar Hasidim, describes the Hasidic rebbe as a father to thousands, someone whose ability to consult directly with God makes him the supreme authority on any and all questions posed by his flock, whatever the subject.
"It's a very difficult job, actually," Heilman says. "He's like a father to a huge extended family."
When a rebbe is not engaged in study or prayer, he is often greeting visitors and bestowing blessings. His assistant, or gabbai, screens callers and decides who will be granted an audience.
Visitors often come to ask for their leader's blessing on an impending marriage, an operation, a business venture - on almost any important event or decision. "There isn't a realm of life that the rebbe can't insert himself into," says Heilman, comparing a rebbe, in that respect, to a Muslim imam or mullah.
So why would two brothers fight for such a demanding position? Heilman says that aspiring rebbes in any Hasidic sect are probably motivated both by the sense of a divine mission and by the same desires that kindle presidential ambitions.
Thanks to the flood of news coverage last week, people who had never before heard the term "Satmar grand rebbe" now know that the 91-year-old man who held that title for more than a quarter-century was buried in Kiryas Joel on Tuesday, and that two sons are fighting bitterly to succeed him as leader of their Hasidic movement.
But what might have been lost in the obituaries for Moses Teitelbaum and in the campaign-style succession stories was a clear sense of just what a rebbe means to the estimated 120,000 Satmar Hasidim living in this Orange County village, Brooklyn, Jerusalem and other places around the world.
Samuel Heilman, a Queens College professor and expert on ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups like the Satmar Hasidim, describes the Hasidic rebbe as a father to thousands, someone whose ability to consult directly with God makes him the supreme authority on any and all questions posed by his flock, whatever the subject.
"It's a very difficult job, actually," Heilman says. "He's like a father to a huge extended family."
When a rebbe is not engaged in study or prayer, he is often greeting visitors and bestowing blessings. His assistant, or gabbai, screens callers and decides who will be granted an audience.
Visitors often come to ask for their leader's blessing on an impending marriage, an operation, a business venture - on almost any important event or decision. "There isn't a realm of life that the rebbe can't insert himself into," says Heilman, comparing a rebbe, in that respect, to a Muslim imam or mullah.
So why would two brothers fight for such a demanding position? Heilman says that aspiring rebbes in any Hasidic sect are probably motivated both by the sense of a divine mission and by the same desires that kindle presidential ambitions.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 4/30/2006 08:23:00 AM
1 Comments:
At 8:28 AM,
VOS IZ NEIAS said…
And then there's the adulation.
As rebbe, Samuel Heilman, Queens College professor explains, "There are thousands of people for whom every move you make is important. To walk through a room and it's like the parting of the sea - that can go to someone's head."
The men who would part the Satmar sea are Aron Teitelbaum, chief rabbi of the dominant Satmar congregation in Kiryas Joel, and his younger brother, Zalmen, the rabbi who presides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Both are in their 50s. Both have rival legions of followers. Both have already been declared rebbe with equal conviction since their father's death Monday.
The fraternal competition played out last week in surreal fashion in the mainstream media, a strange field of combat for an insular culture that shuns television and stocks only Jewish newspapers on its stands. Each side has a non-Orthodox public relations firm writing press releases and spinning reporters, as though it were a political race.
Both brothers received condolence visits last week from politicians as mighty as Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. George Pataki, underscoring other prizes at stake in their power struggle: the ability to command a large voting bloc and the political influence that comes with it.
Less clear is whether being rebbe would give either Teitelbaum brother control of the substantial Satmar properties, businesses and bank accounts.
Since 2001, their factions have been fighting in court for control of the assets of the main Williamsburg congregation. But congregations in Kiryas Joel, Borough Park, Monsey and other Satmar enclaves belong to different corporations, each controlled by its own board of directors.
Does the rebbe rule all? That might be up to the courts. Indeed, one question raised by the litigation now before an appeals court panel in Brooklyn is whether the rebbe is the supreme ruler on spiritual matters alone, or also on such temporal issues as who owns this or that synagogue.
In the meantime, the campaign continues. Both brothers planned to hold large gatherings blocks from each other in Williamsburg on Friday night, each presiding over a Sabbath dinner known as a tish.
Turnout for both was expected to be huge, a crucial test of which brother commands a larger following. Kiryas Joel residents from both sides left the village in droves on Friday afternoon to show their allegiances.
In the end, Heilman says, regardless of what any secular or rabbinical court decides, Satmar community members will likely follow the Teitelbaum rebbe they prefer - or "vote with their feet," as he put it. How exactly that plays out is difficult to predict.
"People are endlessly creative at finding solutions to all of this," Heilman says.
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