Back when I was still teaching English, I would sometimes teach Chaim Herzog's wonderful book, The Chosen. For those of you not familiar with the book, it deals with the friendship between two young Talmud scholars in New York City -- one the son of a liberal professor, the other the annointed heir of the head of a Hasidic community. It is a short, easy read, but also a fantastic teaching tool on many levels. I'd encourage folks to read it.

I cannot help but flash back to that novel as I read about the death of Satmar Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum,, who led the largest Hasidic sect for many years. The body was not yet cold when a serious power struggle erupted between two of the rebbe's ons over the control of the group -- which has assets of over a billion dollars.

A Hasidic king was buried Monday night, even as two of his sons fought in secular and religious courts to claim his throne.

Satmar Grand Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum, the 91-year-old leader of the world's largest and most powerful ultra-orthodox Hasidic sect, had been dead only three hours when thousands of Hasidim -- bearded and wearing black felt hats -- jammed into the main synagogue in Brooklyn for his funeral.

The scene was from another age -- 17th-century Eastern Europe, to be precise. Teitelbaum's sons loosened high-pitched wails and bowed again and again in prayer toward his wooden coffin. Male mourners, pressed so tightly together that breathing was difficult, surged across the floor, pushing, shoving, elbowing to get closer to the casket.

Upstairs, Satmar women watched, unseen, from behind wooden screens.

Outside the synagogue, loudspeakers pumped out the sons' eulogies and prayers into the night air, their cries echoing off the tenement walls of the Williamsburg neighborhood. More than 20,000 Satmar followers packed the streets, sat shoulder-to-shoulder on brownstone stoops, climbed trees or watched from rooftops and balconies.

* * *

But no one has devised a clear process for picking a new grand rebbe -- succession wars and angry splits are common among Hasidic sects. In theory, the grand rebbe anoints a successor, a rabbinical court agrees, and the choice meets with approval.

In the case of the Satmar, Teitelbaum's eldest son, Aaron -- who is chief rabbi in Kiryas Joel -- expected to succeed his father. But in his later years, Moses Teitelbaum came to see Aaron as headstrong and, perhaps, not capable of leading the entire sect.

So the father appointed a younger son, Zalmen, to run the Williamsburg congregation, splitting his empire.

Aaron never fully accepted the decision. Save for a few brief words of commiseration Monday evening, the middle-aged brothers have not spoken to each other in more than seven years, say advisers to the two men. Most Satmar Hasidim have lined up behind one brother or the other -- the sides are known as the "Zalis" and "Aaronis" -- and the past decade has been punctuated by fistfights, broken legs and arms, torched cars and homes.

May God grant these men the grace and wisdom to settle their differences amicably, for the sake of their followers and their father's memory.

And may I suggest to them that they consider which woman Solomon decreed to be the rightful mother of the babe -- the one who indicated her willingness to give up her on child, not the one willing to see it cut asunder.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 578 words, total size 4 kb.