Translated comments from Shivivei Or 365 (week ending June 28th, 2024)

Over the course of the week, the Rav was in the hospital, and the cholkim (opponents of the Rav) publicised all sorts of rumours about the condition of the Rav, may their mouths be filled with ashes.

And this was told to the Rav, and the Rav mamash derived vitality from this, and said that in the merit of this, he would ‘lengthen his days’, and the ‘Tzaddik hai v’kayam’ and doesn’t die.

If [the cholkim say that he’s] ‘dead’ – then 40 more years are added on.

This is the gematria of ‘mem’[1], like with Moshe Rabbenu, when Eldad and Medad said that Moshe was going to die, but [instead] he lived for another 40 years.

==

On Friday, the Rav returned to his home from the hospital, and there was a brit for Yechiel Stern[2], but afterwards, we didn’t merit for the Rav to come out to the prayers, because the Rav was very weak – even though the Rav really wanted to come out for the prayers.

Only around 10.30pm prayed ma’ariv of erev Shabbat.

And the Rav really ‘sacrificed’ himself to stand up throughout the prayers, even though he was offered a chair. He wasn’t prepared to sit down, instead he leant with all his weight against the chair – and afterwards, suddenly, the the Rav felt better.

So the Rav said, we said [Blessed is He who] ‘revives the dead’ – there really was here ‘revival of the dead’! Every word of the prayers is secrets. It was really ‘the revival of the dead’.

==

Afterwards at the meal, the Rav exerted himself to sing the songs.

The Rav sang Yah Ribon Olam with the Breslov niggun (this is not the melody usually used by Shuvu Banim).

When ‘Koh Echsof’ was sung, in order for the Rav not to over-exert himself, one of this grandsons speeded-up a bit, and on sang [the parts that says] v’yihiyu rachmaicha only three times.

And it appeared to him that the Rav was not entirely pleased by this, but the Rav didn’t say anything.

==

Afterwards, the Rav was speaking in praise of this song, and that every word is great secrets of the initials of [H-v-a-y-a – Hashem’s ineffable name], and that ‘Aharon v’nishma’ refers to R Aharon of Karlin, who wrote this song.

And then, the Rav began from the beginning to sing all of the Koh Echsof.

==

[Today, Sunday June 30, is the yahrzeit of R Aharon of Karlin.]

==

And the Rav told over some stories praising the Rabbanit [his wife, the Rabbanit Tehilla], and said how the Rabbanit had performed tahara [the purification process for a dead Jew before they are buried] for her grandmother, who passed away two years after the Rav’s wedding.

==

[The author of this update in Shivivei Or continues:]

I heard that the Rav said that now, there are harsh dinim, so the sefer of the Rabbanit[3] needed to be reprinted.

When the Rabbanit heard this, she said that she wants to have it reprinted, but that she’s not prepared to take out any more loans or have more debts.

==

Ed. Note: they are collecting the money to get this printed now, a woman in the community took the project on to raise the cash required. If you want to help, contact me via email (or on the contact form) and I’ll give you the details.

==

Ad kan, from Shivivei Or.

It’s actually incredible, to see what is going on with the Rav at the prayers.

He stays standing up for one and a half to two hours, trying to get all us ‘exhausted’ younger, healthy people clapping a bit, dancing a bit, singing a bit, to help ‘sweeten the judgments’.

You just don’t see this anywhere else.

(If you have the eyes to see what is really going on with the Rav…. Which sadly, most people don’t.)

Ashreynu!

==

FOOTNOTES:

[1] ‘Dead’ in hebrew is met, mem taf.

[2] A great-grandchild of the Rav.

[3] Called: B’or Pnei Melech – a commentary on Rebbe Nachman’s Likutey Moharan.

From where I sit, I see so many of us are running out of steam for all this.

I just got an email from a good friend in the US, who was telling me about all the scary ‘pro-Palestinian’ stuff (aka: ‘anti-Jewish) going on there…. And the never-ending traffic jams from ‘construction’ that seem to have been timed to appear, like clockwork, across the planet.

Here too, there are never-ending traffic jams.

It started three years ago, and it’s never stopped.

They are digging up the whole country to lay the cables for the 5….. g, to make everything a ‘smart city’, where you can get fined for drinking your milk past its sell-buy date.

Lovely.

====

I am yearning for peace.

I am yearning for ‘calm’.

But it doesn’t look like that’s coming any time soon, so in the meantime, I have to figure out some other coping strategies to ensure I have the endurance, patience, stamina and emuna required to keep going.

====

Yesterday, I got in the car and went for a long drive, while I was doing a six hour hitbodedut.

Probably like a lot of people, I have had my house full of people for 4 years now, one way or another, and even though my youngest is 20, with all the crazy expense involved with even renting a place these days, she’s still at home.

(And even though my oldest is married, BH, she’s also at home way, way more than I thought she would be, with her husband. This is a complement, I know, and I’m very grateful. And at the same time, sometimes, I need more ‘space’.)

==

So, driving by myself in the car, where I can pick the music or the silence, and I can set the aircon as high or low as I want, or not, suddenly struck me as a great blessing.

I’ve just finished a course on using healing crystals, and at some point, I hope to start writing way more about it. As usual, the whole subject is mixed up with ‘avoda zara’ stuff, and it needs a lot of birur, but not for nothing there were 12 gemstones on the Kohen HaGadol’s choshen.

And done right, I think it can be very useful, and help a lot of people.

Point is – going to stones shops across the country has become my ‘escape route’ and ‘retail therapy’ at the moment.

So I ended up in the industrial area of Rehovot yesterday, pawing through buckets of green aventurine, as part of my six hour hitbodedut.

==

On the way home, I took a left into Mazkeret Batya, where I’ve never been before but it was right by the side of the road.

When we first made aliya, my husband brought me a book about the pioneers of Mazkeret Batya, a small group of observant farmers, who fought so hard to keep the shmitta year in the land.

The ‘Baron’s Men’ were having none of that, and basically crushed them.

So many of those early pioneers in Mazkeret Batya died from malaria, and from other illnesses (which probably stemmed directly from a broken heart.)

The ones who lived saw most of their descendants leave the religious way of life they’d fought so hard to maintain.

It’s a sad story.

And I felt a bit teary as I drove down ‘Rothschild Boulevard’ in Mazkeret Batya, where many of the first houses have been preserved (like in Zichron Yaakov, but way, way less touristy).

====

Eretz Yisrael has always been acquired with yissurim.

Always.

That’s how you know you’re actually acquiring it, and not just squatting here until the next squall chases you away to Cyprus, or America, or Thailand.

It’s so worth it.

But it’s still, sometimes, so painful.

==

So, my patience is about zero per cent.

My energy is about zero per cent.

My optimism is about 3% (up from zero per cent, last week).

And in the meantime…. there is still quite a long road to travel, it seems, until ‘the madness’ ends.

Only the hitbodedut, the TKs and the Rav is keeping me going.

====

I just wanted to end with a couple of random things.

1. My phone has been playing up for weeks and weeks.

There are some people it just never lets me call, ever. Then, there are some people that it sometimes lets me call. Then, there are people who are trying to get hold of me, and it’s not letting them call me, either.

A few other people without smartphones are also having this problem.

I don’t know if it’s part of the ‘push’ to get everyone on brain-frying 5…..you-know-what and off the nokias.

Is anyone with a smartphone also experiencing this?

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2. I’ve been thinking a lot about how all the ‘abusers’ in the world love to yell so loudly about the laws of lashon hara.

This is how they shut down all the victims of the pedos, all the people getting scammed by the rebbes-with-palaces-paid-for-by-charidee, all the whistle-blowers, how were trying to warn the public about the manufactured ‘psak from Bnei Brak’, and also, others who are trying to point out some of the myriad wolves in sheep’s clothing, including the missionaries, still targeting the Jews in so many ways.

I learnt the laws of lashon hara really, really well.

More than once.

There is an obligation to say the bare minimum to warn people properly of potential danger, potential abuse.

The listener is forbidden from *believing* what they are told 100%, unless they themselves have first-hand evidence.

But, they are also obligated to take action to *protect themselves*, in case the information is true.

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And here’s the bit all the abusers who keep ranting about ‘gossip’ and ‘lashon hara’ always forget:

There is an obligation to warn a fellow Jew about some potential danger they may be facing, in order to help save them from harm.

The listener is *forbidden* from believing what they are told 100%, and the teller has to be very careful not to take this as licence to say whatever the heck they want – but it’s an OBLIGATION to warn people of danger.

====

And lastly, information that is known by more than three people is not considered to be ‘lashon hara’, as it’s already in the public domain.

What I do here on the blog is comb through stuff that was already published, and just join the dots.

You want to tell me less than three people are reading Wikipedia….. that’s up to you.

But it’s interesting to me, that the people yelling the loudest about ‘gossip’ and ‘lashon hara’ are the ones with abusive tendencies themselves.

That’s how it is.

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Shabbat shalom.

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PS: It looks like the Wikileaks online dump yesterday was connected to this:

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Julian Assange has finally been freed.

I also find that remarkable – and quite strange.

Remember, it’s ‘St Trump’ who pushed to extradite him to the US, so he was kept in Belmarsh prison in the UK, in horrible conditions, for five years.

St Trump is probably the biggest ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ to sit in the White House…. ever.

He’s for sure ‘coming back’ – that’s why they engineered all this stuff against him, so his ‘base’ will believe in his credibility again, after he locked everyone down and initiated ‘Operation Warp Speed’.

I dread to think what he’s being primed to do in his second term as President.

Keep asking God to show you what’s true.

If you do that, this stuff gets way, way, way easier to figure out.

Those aren’t my words…. they are the description of R Chaim of Sanz.

In this post, we’re going to continue investigating the ‘dispute’ that erupted between R CHAIM HALBERSTAM of Sanz and the extended ‘rebbes-with-palaces’ family of ISRAEL of RUZHIN, aka MOSHE TZVI WERTHEIMER of SAVRAN.

Before we do that, I just wanted to tell you why I keep emphasising that this family of RUZHINERs are actually, really WERTHEIMERS.

==

Most of the Wertheimer family of ‘connected’ court Jews very quickly devolved into Frankists, maskilim, satanic-masons and all the rest of it.

But before they did that, they were actually staunch supporters of SHABTAI TZVI and all his false prophets – and ‘big rabbis’. R’ SAMSON WERTHEIMER helped to fund at least part of the Sabbatean ‘prophet’ YEHUDA CHASSID’s trip to Eretz Israel in 1700.

So, most of the WERTHEIMER family went full ‘Frankist’ a 100 years later – but not all of them did. And the ones who ‘stayed behind’ in the Jewish community fought pretty hard to ensure they stayed at the very top of the ‘rabbinic’ pecking order, and later, at the top of the ‘chassidic Rebbe’ pile.

==

Point is…. It’s always the same intermarried family, the same yucky people, who are trying to rule the Jewish community and control it, and its money, regardless of how the ‘branding’ changes externally.

It doesn’t mean every single member of this family is ‘bad’ – not at all.

The good ones try to escape, anyway they can, from being ‘Jewish leaders’. But if they stay as leaders and try to ‘fight for good’ – they are mercilessly opposed and persecuted by this family mafia.

That certainly happened to the Baal Shem Tov, at least initially, who married into a leading ‘Sabbatean’ family. It also happened to Rabbenu, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, descended on his father’s side from another leading ‘Sabbatean’ family.

And Rav Natan had MOSHE TZVI WERTHEIMER himself to contend with…. But I think Rav Natan himself also comes from an interesting family, just I haven’t managed to track it all down yet. (And maybe, I never will.)

==

OK, so now let’s get back to what was really going down between R CHAIM HALBERSTAM of SANZ and the wider RUZHINER clan of Erev Rab-beim-with-palaces-paid-for-by-charidee.

Back on the Hebrew Wiki page HERE, the story of ‘BERENYU the heretic’ continues with the sanitised, very possibly faked, version cooked up by a ‘chassidic historian’ with close ties to the family of SHEINDEL TWERSKY, BERENYU FRIEDMAN’s estranged wife.

Snippet:

[Berenyu] decided to return to Sadigura to the court of his brother, Rabbi Avraham Yaakov of Sadigura. He was greeted with great joy by the Hasidim, many of whom flocked to his table on the first Saturday of his return.

And he published a “Kol koreh” in which he denied that he was the one who wrote the”open letter”, and declared that all his evil deeds occurred when he was not of sound mind.

The “open letter” together with the warm welcome Berenyu received at the Sadigora court and the way the Hasidim continued to see Berenyu as a rebbe worthy of leading them created many ripples, and also outrage.

In letters, Rabbi Chaim of Sanz strongly attacked all the Hasidim of Rozhin, seeing in this case the ‘detail’ that came to teach about the general rule.

Sanz followers called Sadigura’s followers the “evil cult.”

==

At this stage in history, so much has been distorted and covered-up and ‘re-written’, it’s hard pinning all this down.

However, from what is still available, it seems as though R CHAIM HALBERSTAM of SANZ did not pursue an ostentatious lifestyle himself, and was accustomed to giving away his last penny before going to sleep at night.

(This is something Rav Berland also does, or at least, used to do when it wasn’t ‘illegal’ to give him pidyonot. These days, he has no money at all.)

==

We’ll try and ‘place’ R CHAIM of SANZ a bit more precisely in the wider picture, including who he links to, family-wise, in a moment.

But before we do that, let me draw your attention to a document that was very widely circulated all over the English-speaking web a few years ago.

It’s called:

THE MODERN EREV RAV.

(Click the title to go to the PDF that you can download, if you want to do that.)

==

There were long years when I knew large swathes of this document by heart, when I was trying to figure out whether the ‘Erev Rav’ can ever actually make real teshuva.

For my conclusions, you can read: Unlocking the Secret of the Erev Rav.

(The punchline is: anyone can make teshuva, if they acknowledge what they’re doing wrong. But for some people, that just never happens.)

The author of THE MODERN EREV RAV quotes a bit of the DIVREI CHAIM’s writings.

Now we have more of the context of what was going on back then, it’s even more eye-opening.

Snippet:

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“Before the coming of the Mashiach most of the Rabbanim will be from the Erev Rav etc.

Because Israel in themselves are holy, but the Erev Rav work only for their own benefit as we can clearly see that the Rabbanim and the Chassidim and many regular Jews of the generation are, due to our many sins, mostly from the Erev Rav and want to rule over the public.

And all their actions are only for their own sake, to acquire honor and money, and one should therefore only join with those who truly serve, who sacrifice themselves to Hashem not in order to receive any benefit”.

(Divrei Chaim, Parashas Vayakhel, ‘Omissions’)

==

OK, so back on the Wiki page about the ‘dispute’, it says this (translated from Hebrew):

There followed a series of scathing letters, in which Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz called on various communities in Galicia to excommunicate and persecute the “Chasidei Passul’ [passul means ‘unkosher’], i.e. The followers of Bernayu’s brothers).

And to view them as a renewal of the Sabbatean belief.

After this, the controversy erupted fiercely.

==

I bet it did!

But the real question for us, from a distance of 150 years later, is was R CHAIM wrong to warn that the ‘Sabbateans were back’, when it came to the RUZHINER wunderwurker rebbes-with-palaces?

Remember, they changed their name from WERTHEIMER – known to be a family of Sabbateans. But does a leopard ever really change its spots?

Let’s see if we can figure this out a bit more.

==

Back on the Wiki page with the story of ‘the dispute’:

[Later on] Rabbi Chaim of Sanz wrote his most scathing letter against the House of Rozhin, to the point of forbidding them from eating and marrying them.

Among other things, he refers to the followers of the Sadigura [Rebbe] as “ignoramuses” “a cult of evil doers,” “blasphemers of the Holy Torah” and “apikorsim.”

==

R CHAIM of SANZ also calls on the community to stop eating from their shechita and to not intermarry with them.

This was the same call made about the leading Sabbateans, including Jonathan Eibshitz and his son the ‘Sabbatean prophet’ Wolf Eibshitz.

And then again 30 years later, about the so-called ‘Frankists’ in Poland, who were all from Sabbatean families, with the twist of being even more openly evil, and following Frank’s teachings that only by converting xtianity (externally) could they free the ‘sparks’ stuck in Edom.

And now, 100 years later…. They’rreee backkkkk!!!!

==

The dispute turns nasty, but as usual, nothing really happens, because ‘other big rebbes’ decide to defend the House of Rozhin.

Snippet:

Rabbi AHARON of CHERNOBYL, one of the most senior Rebbes at the time, stood beside Sadigora and strongly attacked the Rabbi of Sanz.

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You know why?

Because it was his daughter, SHEINDEL, who was married to BERENYU FRIEDMAN the heretic of Leova.

Not only that, AHARON of CHERNOBYL was also the father-in-law of Berenyu’s brother, DAVID MOSHE FRIEDMAN, the Rebbe of Chortkov.

If the Friedmans’ ‘yichus’ went down the toilet, his family’s pedigree was going to be following very closely behind.

That’s why.

==

Not that SANZ were angels, it seems they weren’t.

They apparently killed one butcher who was a Sadigora chassid in Sniatyn by pouring boiling water on him in the mikva.

So, the war is going full-force, when NISSAN BAK, the ‘Rebbe of Ruzhin’s’ right-hand man in Eretz Israel (and a closet maskil himself…) decides he’s going to ‘excommunicate’ R CHAIM of SANZ at the Kotel, of all places.

Snippet:

About 100 people gathered near the Western Wall, blew trumpets and Nissan Bak announced the wording of the ban of excommunication. This excommunication was considered particularly bold and provoked strong opposition.

According to Hasidic traditions, the son of Rabbi Chaim of Sanz, Rabbi Yechezkel Shrarga Halberstam of Shinawatra, traveled specifically to the Land of Israel in order to persuade Sadigura’s Hasidim to lift the boycott.

==

The Wiki page goes to great pains to reassure us that no, the Rebbe of Sadigura had NO IDEA his main guy in Israel was going to do that!!! Honestly, no idea at all!!!!

It’s called ‘plausible deniability’. They still use that trick today. A lot.

==

Meanwhile, almost 200 rabbis in Israel, many of whom have (secret….) Sabbatean leanings themselves (when they aren’t hanging out with xtian missionaries and converting to xtianity themselves) – are the ‘rabbis’ who sign on the excommunication of R CHAIM of SANZ, with the encouragement of the maskil NISSAN BAK.

(Who can make this stuff up?)

And they send many copies of this ‘excommunication’ back to Galicia-Poland, which is when a whole bunch more Rabbis there who have been staying on the sidelines join the fray.

Mostly, on the side of R CHAIM of SANZ.

==

Snippet:

Among the rabbis and Admorim who wrote letters in favor of Rabbi Chaim of Sanz: Rabbi Yosef Shaul Nathanson,

Rabbi Yitzhak Aharon Itinga President of the Galicia Kollel,

Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Eichenstein of Zyditshev and

Rabbi Yisrael Yehoshua of Kutna.

Rabbi Chaim Elazar Wachs of Kalish wrote a scathing letter [against the House of Ruzhin] and this letter was signed on, by, amongst others:

Rabbi Shimon Sofer Rabbi of Krakow, Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried,

Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Orenstein,

Rabbi Yosef Babad,

Rabbi Menachem of Ungvar, and

Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda Teitelboim

Rebbe Yehuda Horowitz of Malitz

Rebbe Meshulam Yissachar Horowitz of Stanislav.

==

So many of these names are SO INTERESTING, at least to me.

There is a lot more stuff to check into here.

But long story short, R CHAIM of SANZ gathers together 1,000 men in Israel on the festival of Shavuot, and tries his best to totally excommunicate the rebbes of RUZHIN.

But…. The attempt fails.

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R CHAIM of SANZ dies in 1876…

And very soon after that, the wider Ruzhiner ‘rebbes’ take over in Eretz Yisrael, and also in Europe in a very big way.

Maybe if I can be bothered, we’ll do another post tracing what all these secret-Sabbatean FRIEDMANS got up to, going forward – and who was supporting them.

I’m sure we’ll learn a great deal, about why we have so very many problems in our Jewish community, and why they just never seem to go away or get resolved.

At least, until Moshiach finally comes.

==

OK, that will do for today.

The way these people always seem to work is that whoever stands against them, they make a big effort to subvert and corrupt that person’s descendants.

That’s part of what makes all this so hard to ‘unpick’, as even the good guys, the really awesome Tzaddikim, seem to have a ‘weak link’ in their family going forward who gets targeted, exploited and ‘turned to the bad’ in some way.

(Exactly as happened with the Rav….)

==

I have a load of homework to do now, not least with AHARON OF CHERNOBYL, BARUCH OF MEDZHIBOZH, and of course, the wider ‘FRIEDMANS’.

But each time we revisit this subject, we uncover more of the truth that they have tried so very hard to keep buried for centuries.

And that has to be worth something.

==

UPDATE:

CHAIM HALBERSTAM of SANZ is a great-grandkid of the CHACHAM TZVI.

Like this:

CHACHAM TZVI > R DAVID ASHKENAZI ABD YERTCHOV >ISRAEL MESHULAM ZALMAN > DAVID ASHKENAZI OF TARNOGRAD > MIRIAM ASHKENAZI m ARYEH LEIBUSH HALBERSTAM ABD TARNOGRAD > R CHAIM of SANZ.

So, how did this next chapter of the saga of the EREV RAB-BAIM begin?

The story begins with a book called:

The Jewish World of Yesterday (1860-1938), which one of my readers dropped in, as he had a hunch I might find something interesting there.

Did I ever.

On page 70, I found this picture:

It was entitled: Palace of the Rebbe of Czortkow (Galicia), Moische David Friedman, Ca. 1900.

==

What the heck?!

I knew – we all know – that these Rebbes had and have ‘chassidic courts’.

But when I saw this super-fancy palace, with its sculputured gardens and marble-pillared entrance, it changed the whole picture for me. At least for the ‘Rebbes’ of RUZHIN, we are talking about real, actual palaces.

That cost a massive fortune to buy.

==

Which led me onto this next thought:

Since when did ‘Rebbes’ in Poland and the Ukraine have so very much cash that they could literally buy palaces from the local gentile rulers?!

That’s when I remembered what the Rav had said a few weeks back, that led to a whole flurry of posts unpicking the ‘Eretz Yisrael Charidee Gravy Train’ operation.

Let’s bring his words again, from HERE.

==

The Rebbe came to eat on Shabbat.

He didn’t want to steal their food from them, like Shuvu Banim, who steals food. He came to them nicely, he said, can I eat with you?

[They said to him] You are a criminal! You are coming to go against the people of Eretz Yisrael, you are the son of the Komarna!

==

At that time, the Komarna was the chief opponent against the people of Eretz Yisrael.

It was said that all the money was going into private pockets.

There was a kupah (charitable collection) for Eretz Yisrael, that the Baal HaTanya was in charge of. And there was a machloket (disagreement) about who the money was going to.

One person said it was going to the zionists, it was going into private pockets.

He was against hamaot [giving the small change] for Eretz Yisrael. There was the Kupat Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, there was the Machazit HaShekel.

In the end, [text missing] took it all for themselves.

Not a penny got to the chareidim.

This was all ‘chareidi people’ that did this, and they took it all for themselves.

This is the true story, according to its most simple telling.

==

Spoiler-alert:

After taking a bit of time to try and put their family trees together, I realised that all these super-rich ‘rebbes’ with palaces in Eastern Europe were directly connected to the charidee operations raising money ‘for the Holy Land’.

We’re going to start piecing that more together, below.

And I thought that was the ‘main story’ I was going to be writing about in this post. But that’s before I tripped over the story of how one of these ‘rebbes with a big palace’ got drugged and kidnapped by his own family ostensibly to prevent him from publically converting to xtianity…

And a lot more besides.

It’s another wild ride….. Buckle in.

==

It all begins with GRAND RABBI MOSHE DAVID (or DAVID MOSHE) FRIEDMAN (1827-1903) of CHORTKOV (aka CZORTKOW / CHORTKOW / CZORTKOV).

He’s the son of ‘ISRAEL OF RUZHIN’ (aka MOSHE TZVI of SAVRAN, the great persecutor of Breslov chassidut, and especially, R Natan Sternhartz.)

You’ll recall from THIS post, how we set out the violent tactics of the ‘Rebbes’ who were ‘anti’ Breslov – even going as far as ordering a hit job on R Natan of Breslov, where a different man called ‘Natan’ was murdered in his bed in Breslov by mistake….

Well, the more I dig into these people, the more it seems that mafia tactics proved to be ‘the rule’ and not ‘the exception’, when it came to their efforts to maintain their grip on the Jewish community – and especially, all the charidee money being collected for Eretz Yisrael.

==

Here’s a machine-translated snippet about MOSHE DAVID FRIEDMAN, the Rebbe of CHORTKOV, from the ‘DailyZohar’ site HERE.

When his father passed away in 1850, he settled in Zlotipotuk and in 1865 moved to Chortkov and erected the Chortkov Chassidic Court there.

He and his followers bought the palace from the Runehima Borovska Graf.

However, settling in the city created considerable tension with the city’s rabbi and supporters.

==

Yup.

As it always did (and still does…)

(BTW, if you go to the Ukrainian Wiki HERE you find a bunch more postcards of ‘Chortkov Hassidut’. Like this fine specimen, showing the synagogue the CHORTKOVER rebbe also apparently built (top), and how massive his palace really was (bottom), although here, it’s called the KLOYZ):

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If you go to the Shtetlroutes website (translate it from Ukrainian) HERE you’ll find more info about this palace, that was bought from the local Sadovsky family of rulers by the Friedmans in 1865. It was called ‘the New Palace’.

MOSHE DAVID FRIEDMAN dies in 1903, and his son is this scary-looking guy:

R ISRAEL FRIEDMAN of CHORTKOV, who is meant to be the Rebbe of R Meir SHAPIRO, of Daf Yomi fame, and a bunch of other ‘rebbes’ besides.

R ISRAEL FRIEDMAN, with great siyatta di shmeya, moves to Vienna less than a month before WW1 breaks out and Chortkov is invaded by the same Russian empire that imprisoned his grandpa, MOSHE TZVI WERTHEIMER / ISRAEL OF RUZHIN, on the charge of murdering Jewish ‘informers’ (amongst other things…)

A bunch of other super-rich FRIEDMAN Rebbes-with-palaces also congregate in Vienna, at this time.

==

At this point in the research, God decided to send me something I wasn’t even looking for.

I was actually trying to track down more info about JACOB FRANK’s mother, who was from RZSESZOW, on the JewishGen page for that city. RZESZOW was quite the Sabbatean stronghold, before JACOB FRANK became synonymous with scandal and satanic rituals, and everythingl got hushed-up as much as possible.

Before you read on, remember that ‘SADIGURA’ Chassidut was officially begun by another super-rich Rebbe-with-a-palace, who was apparently the son of ISRAEL of RUZHIN, called AVRAHAM YAAKOV FRIEDMAN.

(Pictures of his palace from THIS site):

He is the brother of the MOSHE DAVID FRIEDMAN who has his palace in Chortkov, above.

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So, I’m going through that whole page on Rzeszow, when I suddenly trip across this piece of information:

Rabbi Reuven Plasker, who was the head of the rabbinical court of Rzeszów, and his deputy Rabbi Chaim Wallerstein, who was the rabbi and head of the rabbinical court….[were both] tied to the frightful event that was known in its time as “the dispute of Sanz and Sadagora.”

The first spark from which this fire arose came forth from Rzeszów.…

This began when the two aforementioned rabbis wrote a letter to the Gaon and Tzadik Rabbi Chaim Halberstam. The contents of this long letter mentions that the Hassidim of Sadagora worshipped together with them in a single kloiz, and they suddenly began to act improperly.

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[The rabbis of Rzeszow write]:

“It has now been many years since a group of strongmen of the generation gathered here. They did not respect their elders, and tied themselves to the tree of Sadagora. Since we were unable to chase them away, they gained in strength to the point where the G–d fearing individuals who were followers of the holy Admor were forced to leave the kloiz and found their own house of worship.

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“Now, on account of our great sins, we have heard the news that will make the hair of the listener stand on edge (referring to the incident with the son of the Ruzhiner, Rabbi Dov of Liba)…

“We sent to call them and speak to their hearts without desecrating the Divine Name. We had thought it would quiet things, but they still opened their mouths with words of strife and curses… We heard from their mouths in public words for which it would be fitting to rend one’s garments… For they said, “Why is it that you speak to us such words, when you do not understand this path, that is highest of the high…”

….From that time, all sorts of internecine disputes broke out, such as the one we are discussing as well as others that came latter between various Hassidic groups from various Hassidic courts.

==

So, I’m reading this, and of course I start wondering, what is:

[T]he incident with the son of the Ruzhiner, Rabbi Dov of Liba

I’ve been writing about these people for years, and this is the first I’ve heard of it.

When I plugged in his name, I got to this shortish video by Pini Dunner, that gives a good overview of the scandalous story – but totally plays down the bit talking about how ‘Rabbi Dov of Liba’ publically says he wants to convert and hangs out with xtian missionaries…

Speed the video up to 1.5, then watch this for 13 minutes. It’s actually worth it, for once.

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It’s only when I started looking for other sources talking about this same story, that I realised how ‘de-emphasised’ the xtian angle actually was in Dunner video.

Why?

Maybe, because ‘converting to xtianity’ is one of the main warning signs that tells a person they could very well be dealing with yet another high-profile ‘Sabbatean-Frankist’, publically going off the rails.

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Let’s bring some machine-translated snippets from the Hebrew wiki page about the ‘dispute’ between Sanz and Sadigora. (I couldn’t find anything in English, except for Pini Dunner…. Feel free to prove me wrong.)

First, there’s some more background about ISRAEL OF RUZHIN (aka MOSHE TZVI WERTHEIMER of SAVRAN):

Even in the life of Rabbi Yisrael of Rozin, there was resistance from some of the greatest rabbis in Galicia against his way of behaving in royal manner.

After his death, the resistance expanded and erupted in full force with the association of Dov Be’er, the son of Rabbi Yisrael, with the congregation of the maskilim.

Some Galician rabbis saw this as a direct result of the “royal way” of the House of Rosin.

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This family were associated with division and discord right from the start.

So, what’s the actual story of DOV BER FRIEDMAN, the son of ISRAEL OF RUZHIN who henceforth we will call ‘BERENYU’?

He’s married at age 14 to SHEINDEL, the daughter of MORDECHAI, the MAGGID of CHERNOBYL.

According to Pini Dunner, it’s a terrible marriage, she’s a horrible, manipulative woman, and while BERENYU no longer wants to be a Rebbe anymore, she insists that he keeps at the job, so ‘the show can go on’.

(In their super-expensive palace in Leovo, in Romania….)

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This version of events is very ‘kind’ to BERENYU – and totally plays-down what appears to be his ties to the maskilim, and also, to ‘xtian missionaries’, and his publically-stated wish to ‘convert to xtianity’.

(BTW, this story sounds so, so similar, in parts to the scandalous story of MOSHE SCHNEURI, son of the ALTER REBBE, who also converted to xtianity and then started working as a missionary to convert Jews on behalf of the Tzar…. But I digress.)

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In the other version you find on Hebrew Wiki (based on more scholarly sources and research), it seems BERENYU is beset with doubts about his lifestyle, and also about his beliefs. He does want to divorce SHEINDEL and marry someone else – because she hasn’t given him any sons.

Sheindel refuses to divorce and insists ‘the show must go on’.

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In the meantime, BERENYU is reading maskilic literature, and following the advice of his maskilic personal physician. When there is a cholera epidemic raging in Leova, the physician tells BERENYU he should announce that people need to eat on Yom Kippur, to keep their strength up….

BERENYU is also refusing to go to shul, even on Yom Kippur, and when his wife arranges for some ‘helpers’ to physically drag him down the street and into the synagogue building, that’s when BERENYU makes the loud statement in public that if you don’t leave me alone, I am going to convert to xtianity!!!

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In the meantime, the Leova court is full of rumours of extra-marital affairs and scandals on both sides of the marital fence.

Here’s another machine-translated snippet from the Hebrew Wiki page, HERE:

Isaac Raphael, in his book “On Hasidim and Hasidism,”…[writes] that in the same year there was a rumor among Christians that Jesus was going to be revealed again that year, and some thought that this revelation would be reflected in [BERENYU] Friedman’s conversion.

When a suspicion arose in [SHEINDEL] his wife’s heart that he was about to convert, she invited her brother the current Admor of Chernobyl[1], and they took him by force to Sadigura, to the house of Rabbi Avraham Yaakov of Sadigura, brother of BERENYU.

When the maskilim in the city of Cernovitch near Sadigora heard about the affair, they went to Sadigora and took Friedman with them, and placed him in the house of one of the most important members of the community of maskilim in Cernovich.

From this house came a maskilic “Kol Korehl,” published by Friedman, in which he calls for abandoning the old Jewish customs that the Jews brought up with them from Babylon.

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Let’s unpack this a bit more.

SHEINDEL, together with her brother, AHARON TWERSKY, the Grand Rebbe 3 of Chernobyl, actually drug BERENYU, shove him in a carriage while he’s unconscious, and ‘kidnap’ him to the palace of his brother, the SADIGURA Rebbe against his will.

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All this happens after that fateful Yom Kippur where he is heard publically yelling in the street that he will convert to xtianity, and refuses to go to shul to pray – whilst also telling all his followers that they should eat on Yom Kippur because of the cholera epidemic.

Before he is ‘kidnapped’, tho, BERENYU apparently tries to ‘run away’ from his own court, and takes refuge in the house of the local xtian postmaster – whilst also hanging out with ‘xtian missionaries’.

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I would not be at all shocked if these ‘xtian missionaries’ are more Jews-turned-xtians who were preying on the Jewish community in Europe and Israel in great numbers, at this time. Many, if not most of these ‘Jewish-xtian-missionaries’ actually came from leading (Sabbatean….) rabbinic families, and had impeccable yichus….

They also had a lot of ‘twisted kabbalistic’ arguments inherited from Shabtai Tzvi and then Jacob Frank, about how geula would only happen once the Jews descended into the ‘klippot’ of Islam, and then ‘Edom’ (i.e. Xtianity) by converting, to ‘raise up the sparks’ stuck there.

He was probably much, much closer to converting than anyone is letting on…. (read on).

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What happens next?

The maskilim in Cernowitz hear that BERENYU is being kept a prisoner in his brother’s palace in SADIGURA – and they inform the police.

Meanwhile, his two brothers DOVID MOSHE FRIEDMAN (with the big palace in CHORTKOV) and AVRAHAM YAAKOV of SADIGURA are trying to ‘persuade’ their brother to return to the chassidic fold, and go back to the business of being a super-rich rebbe-with-a-palace. And that argument is apparently getting violent, in parts.

When the police show up, together with the leading maskilim, BERENYU is located – and then he goes to stay at the house of a leading maskil lawyer in Cernowitz,Yehuda Leib Reitman , who doesn’t keep shabbat and openly eats traif.

This is the house that BERENYU stays at for three years, between 1866-1869, and it appears he has renounced his orthodox faith.

Whilst he’s there, with the encouragement of the maskilim he’s hanging out with, he publishes a Kol Koreh denouncing chassidut in the Maggid periodical, on February 24th, 1869.

You can see an original facsimile of what he wrote on the National Library site, HERE.

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I’m not going to translate it all (if you want to do that and let me have it, I’m very happy to stick it up below as an update.)

Here’s a little of what he says, although the Hebrew is quite clunky to translate into English:

“I have not removed the fear of the Lord from me, but I have driven away from me the multitude of foolish, false guards who have been planted [?] on me….

I have faith in God in my heart, which I will adhere to for the rest of my life, and I am faithful to my law and to the Sages of Israel that go forward and not backward.”

[Ed. Note: BERENYU seems to be publically identifiying the maskilim with these true ‘Sages of Israel’ he’s writing about.]

He then writes that his goal is: “to eradicate the thorns from the vineyard of the House of Israel, to cleanse his faith from the customs that have no substance in the Law of Israel.”

==

Are these ‘thorns’ referring to chassidut generally, the rich-wunderwerker-rebbe practices of his own family – or something much ‘deeper’, i.e. A return to the sadducean-xtian-karaite attacks against the ‘oral Torah’ that have been continuing on and off for 2,000 years?

At this stage, it’s impossible to know for sure.

But what we can say is that BERENYU’s ‘open letter’ sets off a fire-storm across the Jewish world.

==

In the next post, I want to take a closer look at how the rabbis of the time who are not part of this super-rich, rebbe-with-a-palace family with close ties to charidee for the Holy Land react to all this.

It’s very interesting.

But for now, let’s bring this post to a close with how BERENYU’s story ends.

==

As you might expect, there are varying versions.

One version says that BERENYU actually never moves out of the home of the Cernowitz maskil, and dies there.

The maskilim themselves claim that BERENYU literally went mad, became a ‘pagan’ – and that there are even rumours that he did actually convert to xtianity, in the end.

Another version of the story, the one promoted by the RUZHIN dynasty itself, as part of the ‘great cover-up’ that begins as soon as this open letter is published, claims that in the end, BERENYU makes peace with his family and returns to the fold.

In that last, Disney-fied version, BERENYU’s nephew, we are told that:

(Snippet from HERE):

Rabbi Yitzhak of Bohushi, grandson of Rebbe R. Yisrael of Rozin and nephew of R. Dov B’er, met with his uncle in Cernovitz and influenced him to return to Sadigura to his brother’s court.

Indeed, after a two-month stay in the City with the maskilim, R. Dov B’er returned to Sadigura, where he was assigned a special wing.

Rabbi Dov B’er was imprisoned under the ‘protection’ of a special guard, where he repented and lived in solitude and sadness for about 6 years, until his death in 1876.

He was buried some distance from the grave of his father, Rabbi Israel of Rozin.

==

(Again, is it just me, or does this story have some strong overtones of what is meant to have been happening with MENACHEM MENDEL OF KOTZK, at around the same time?)

Apparently, BERENYU even writes a ‘letter of repentance’, according to the chassidic scholar S. A. Horodotsky in his book ” Hasidism and Hasidim.”

(BTW – the HORODETSKYs are close family with SHAINDEL TWERSKY and the CHERNOBYL dynasty. I’m sure that’s just a CO-IN-CID-ENCE.)

And this famous photograph of BERENYU is taken, to ‘prove’ to the public that he never cut his payot or shaved his beard:

Except…. There are no extant photographs of any of the other RUZHINER super-rich rebbes, just really bad ‘sketches’.

So we just have their word for it, that this picture really is BERENYU – and not his brother DAVID MOSHE FRIEDMAN, the person it is most commonly ascribed to, across all the sites I’ve looked at.

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With these people, the scandalous stories never end.

And so it is, that we will continue to take a wider look at more details from the ‘Sanz-Sadigura Dispute’ in the next post.

Until then.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] This would appear to be GRAND RABBI AHARON TWERSKY of CHERNOBYL (1784-1871). He is married to the daughter of R BARUCH of MEDZHIBOZH – another Rebbe with palatial taste, and is the president of the R Meir Baal HaNess Charidee fund for Israel (of course….) on behalf of ‘KOLLEL VOLHYN’.

There seems to be a whole other can of worms hiding out here, too. We’ll explore that more another time.

I wrote a whole long rant that I just decided to delete.

There are so many ‘false beliefs’ and ‘fake information’ circulating, it’s kind of disheartening.

But the bottom line is that people are free to believe what they want to believe, and at the end of the day, each person will have to live with the consequences of what they choose to believe.

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So instead of pointlessly ranting, I am putting up these two prayers for the health of the Rav.

That’s a much more constructive thing to do.

As mentioned previously, the Rav’s health takes a nosedive whenever the situation of Am Yisrael is approaching ‘critical’ again.

Around 2-3000 people showed up for the tefillot at the Kotel yesterday, reciting 7 Tikkun Haklalis, and at the end R Yaakov Ades added on some more prayers.

It was quite the sight from the women’s section, to see all the men’s heads bobbing over the mechitza when they were jumping and singing Tehillim 150 so loudly.

I got a lot of strength from it.

But honestly?

I’m still not feeling very optimistic about what comes next.

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BH, whatever God decides is going to happen with the Rav, may he continue until 240, it’s for the greatest good.

My job with that is just to keep following the Rav’s instructions, to keep doing the praying required, the real teshuva required, to try and get the Rav’s Torah completed, so the war can finish.

(They got to 70% on the fundraising. I’ll put a link at the bottom for where you can donate to help get it finished.)

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But when it comes to the wider Am… I  have to say, I am starting to give up.

So many people are so good, so sincere, doing their best.

But also, so misguided, so following after false prophets and fake ideas…. that I am kind of approaching the point of ‘giving up’.

At least, I’m starting to lose hope that geula can actually come the sweetened way, where people have the ‘pain’ of attending prayer rallies at the Kotel, and the ‘pain’ of having to recite 7 TKs a day, and the ‘pain’ of having to pay some money as pidyonot, and the ‘pain’ of having to lengthen their skirts and chuck out their smartphones….

Instead of having the ‘pain’ of being totally dispossessed of house and home, or God forbid, having the ‘pain’ of seeing themselves or their family members getting blown to smithereens, whether in uniform, or out of it.

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Rebbe Nachman teaches us clearly:

When people are not prepared to suffer ‘a little bit’, they end up suffering a lot.

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In the Kitzur Likutey Moharan (translated as ‘Advice’ in English), Rabbenu says this (in the chapter entitled: Tzaddik):

Draw close to the Tzaddikim and walk in the paths they guide you along.

Follow their teachings, and then the truth will be inscribed within you and you will attain true emuna and prayer, and be worthy of coming to the Land of Israel and seeing miracles.

This is how the redemption will come.

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He says a lot more besides, including this:

Before a person draws close to the Tzaddik, his heart is fat, his ears are heavy etc.

This means that his heart and his ears are shut and his eyes are blind to the truth. He is unable to come to his senses and return to God.

But when he binds himself to the Tzaddikim and follows their guidance, his heart, his eyes and his ears are opened. He sees, hears and understands the truth and becomes worthy of returning to God.”

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People don’t like to hear this stuff, I know.

But if you don’t agree with it, you are arguing with Rebbe Nachman, not with me.

Bottom line:

If you want geula the sweet way, without wars, harsh suffering, more deaths – then:

Draw close to the Tzaddikim and walk in the paths they guide you along.

But if you prefer to have missiles rain down on you 24/7, to get kicked out of your home, and for the ‘wars’ to continue in Gaza and up North…. then ignore all this, don’t say 7 TKs a day, and for sure don’t make the effort to come to prayer rallies at the Kotel, and just carry on doing exactly what you’re doing.

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Here are the prayers for the Rav’s health, the longer one is already a couple of years old, and I am not translating it into English.

The short one is fairly new, and I will translate it into English.

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NEW PRAYER FOR THE RAV’S HEALTH – TRANSLATION:

Answer, Merciful and Compassionate [One].

Create for Rav Eliezer ben Ettia a new lung and a new heart, as it’s written:

“Create a heart that is pure for me, Elokim, and renew within me a steadfast spirit.” (Tehillim 51:12)

And I will merit that by way of the lung resting upon the heart, to have holy ruach navua (a spirit of prophecy), as it’s written in Yoel (3:1):

“And it will happen after this, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy; your elders will dream [prophetic] dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even also upon the slaves and upon the maidservants in those days I will pour out My spirit.”

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I apologise I’m not more upbeat.

I’m having a few days off again, to go and work on my emuna that whatever God chooses to do, it’s all for the best.

Ultimately, everything is just a function of ‘free choice’.

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If you want to help get the last 30% of the Rav’s Torah completed, and the war to end:

20,000 ($5,500) pays for a section of Torah parchment – and get your names inscribed in the Rav’s personal Torah scroll.

5,000 pays for a page.

But any amount is gratefully received.

Specify it’s for the Rav’s Torah Scroll in the comment box.

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Am Yisrael is really so beautiful, so many of us are so caring, so good.

Just, the false prophets and the fake leaders and ideologies keep derailing all that ‘good’ we contain, and delivering it to the dark side.

And I don’t know what it’s going to take to really get that to stop, and to have redemption the sweet way.

May we just hear good news.