singular! A personal and cordial letter from the Tzaddik Rabbi Yoel of Satmar, to his Rebbetzin Alta Feiga for the ...

singular! A personal and cordial letter from the Tzaddik Rabbi Yoel of Satmar, to his Rebbetzin Alta Feiga for the New Year in Yiddish.

יחידי! מכתב אישי ולבבי מהגה"ק רבן של ישראל רבי יואל מסאטמר אל הרבנית הצדיקת לקראת השנה החדשה בשפת האידיש.

הרבי מתחיל שכאן הכל נהוג באופן הכי טוב וכותב להרבנית שלא ידאגו בכלל ממה שקרה כאן. הרבי כותב: "זעה נאר זיך גוט אויסריען פאר די הייליגע טעג". גם הרבי מבקש שישאר למנוחה בבית החולים לכל הפחות שמנה ימים שלמים. "ובזה הנני בעלך המצפה לרחמי שמים במהרה בכל הענינים"

המכתב מאד נדיר באופן יוצא מן הכלל, משום כמה סיבות. אין עוד מכתבים מהרבי ידועים שנכתב בשפת האידיש, ומכתב כזה להרבנית כולו בכתב ידו וחתימתו זה מאד מאד מרגש והיסטורי!

The Admo"r Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar [1887-1979] leader of the largest Chassidic court in the world, was a son of the Kedushat Yom Tov of Sighet, and younger brother of the "Atzei Chaim, " successor to his father in Chassidic leadership. He was the first Admo"r of Satmar Chassidism. His greatness was known even before the Holocaust, and at seventeen years old, when his father passed away, the Chassidim were drawn to him and they gathered around him from then on. He was a congregational leader and served as a rabbi of prominent communities for over 70 years. He was miraculously saved from the Holocaust via the Kastner train, and Satmar Chassidim celebrate 21 Kislev as the Admo"r's "Yom HaHatzalah." He ascended to the Land of Israel and then immigrated to the United States, where he was one of those who established the Chassidic world there. He raised the crown of Chassidism, which had lost most of its children in the Holocaust, and inspired the spiritual desolation among the survivors to blossom. He worked tirelessly to found institutions of Torah study, of prayer, and for the restoration of Judaism after the European destruction. He is known for his zealous and uncompromising stance against Zionism and is considered its primary and most bitter rival. He authored: VaYoel Moshe, Imrei Yoel, Divrei Yoel, and more.

Faige Teitelbaum was the wife of the late Satmar rebbe, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum (died 1979). She was a leader of the Satmar Hasidic community and often performed the role of a Hasidic rebbe. In this powerful role, she was undoubtedly the best-known woman in the Hasidic world.

Faige (Shapiro) Teitelbaum was born on April 19, 1912, in Czenstichov, Poland, the daughter of a well-known Polish Hasidic leader, Rabbi Avigdor Shapiro, a scion of the Kosnitz Hasidic dynasty. In 1936, she married Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, thereby becoming the Satmar rebbetzin Rabbi Teitelbaum’s first wife, with whom he had three daughters, had died several years earlier. The Teitelbaums were rescued from the Nazi regime of Hungary in 1944 and relocated to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1947. The Rebbetzin was particularly active in various charitable activities in the Satmar community. She collected and distributed enormous amounts of money to Jewish people in need around the globe. Because of her particular interest in assisting brides and young mothers, she was instrumental in establishing several rest homes for women with young children. These hostels were located in the metropolitan New York area and were open to all Orthodox mothers at little or no cost. Because of Teitelbaum’s charitable work, many followers of the Satmar rebbe regarded her as a saintly woman in her own right. Faige had no children and following Joel Teitelbaum’s death in 1979, many Satmar Hasidim regarded Teitelbaum as a spiritual leader and as a symbol to preserve the memory of their beloved rebbe. she was clearly a major influence in her own society. Revered in the Hasidic community in general and the Satmar community in particular, Feige Teitelbaum died on June 2, 2001 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.