Erev Rab-beim – Part 2 – Berenyu of Leova

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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(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.