Different articles collected:
Early life
Rav Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam was born in 1905 in the town of Rudnik, Poland. He was a great-grandson (through the direct male line) of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (the Divrei Chaim), one of the great Hasidic leaders of Polish Jewry, and a grandson of the Gorlitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Baruch Halberstam (1829–1906). His father, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Halberstam, the Rav of Rudnik, instilled in the young Yekusiel Yehudah a love of Hasidut and Torah scholarship, sharing with him stories of how the Divrei Chaim learned, prayed and conducted his tish (Shabbat and Jewish holiday celebratory table).
When Yekusiel Yehudah was 13, his father died. Afterwards he studied with other leading Hasidic rebbes, including Rabbi Myer Yechiel of Ostrovtza, Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapiro (the Munkatcher Rebbe), and his great-uncle, Rabbi Shalom Eliezer Halberstam of Ratzfert. During this period, Yekusiel Yehudah became known as the "ilui ("genius") of Rudnik,". In later years he would periodically return to Rudnik to visit with his followers, who remained loyal to him even after the appointment of his first cousin Rabbi Benyumin Teitelbaum-Halberstam as Rabbi in 1924.
In 1921, Halberstam married his second cousin, Chana Teitelbaum, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum, the Rabbi of Sighet, Romania. She was also a descendant of the Divrei Chaim: her grandfather, Rabbi Sholom Eliezer Halberstam, was one of the seven sons of the Sanzer Rav. The young couple lived in her father's house for the next five years.
In 1927, at the age of 22, Halberstam accepted the post of Rabbi of Klausenburg, the capital city of Transylvania (western Romania). Although he was relatively young, he impressed the largely non-religious community with his charismatic personality, wisdom, and warmth toward Jews of all backgrounds. During the 16 years that Halberstam led the Klausenberg community, he exhibited many of the qualities that would set him apart during his imprisonment by the Nazis. He slept only three hours a night, often on a synagogue bench, and he often ate only one meal a day, reserving bread for the Sabbath. He spent much of his day in prayer and study. His love for and faith in God was legendary. He also paid special attention to children, founding a yeshivah in which 100 students learned in Klausenberg.
The Rebbe's reputation spread throughout Romania and Hungary, and even reached Israel. In 1937 Halberstam was offered a seat on the Jerusalem rabbinical court. Uncertain as to whether he should accept the seat or stay with his community, Halberstam wrote to his mother in Rudnik for advice. She advised him to stay where he was, saying he was too young to accept such a position.
Holocaust period
When World War II broke out, the Jews of Hungary and Romania were not immediately affected by the German offensive against Polish and Lithuanian Jewry. However, local anti-Semitism flourished. Following the Vienna Accords of 1940, which divided Transylvania into three countries—Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary—the city of Klausenberg was taken over the Hungarian Magyars, who were Nazi collaborators. Jews were pulled off the streets and taken to forced-labor camps.
In 1941, a new law required all Jews living in Hungary to prove that their family had lived in and paid taxes in Hungary back to 1851. Suddenly thousands of Jews, including the Rebbe (who was born in Poland), were placed in jeopardy. The Rebbe, his wife and eleven children were arrested and brought to Budapest, where the family was separated. The Rebbe was jailed with a group of leaders who were eventually sent directly to Auschwitz. Thanks to the efforts of friends and supporters, the Rebbe was released and the family returned to Klausenberg.
Despite the danger, the Rebbe refused to leave his followers and made no effort to save himself from further searches. Instead, he threw himself into helping refugees from Nazi-occupied lands and tending to his followers. Between 1941 and 1944, the Rebbe never stopped studying Torah and praying for the Jewish people.
On March 19, 1944 the Germans invaded Hungary and Gestapo chief Adolf Eichmann immediately organized the round-up, ghettoization, and deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Klausenberg ghetto was established on May 1, 1944, and was liquidated via six transports to Auschwitz between late May and early June. Knowing that the Gestapo targeted community leaders first, the Rebbe hid in an open grave in a cemetery for several weeks. He then fled to the town of Banya, where he was conscripted into a forced-labor camp along with 5000 other Hungarian Jews. Though hunger was not a problem here—the barbed-wire enclosure had a back exit through which Jews could buy bread and milk from non-Jews—the Hungarian soldiers constantly badgered and searched inmates for their valuables. The Rebbe was forced to shave his beard, but he did not lose his composure or faith in God. He continued to conduct prayer services and even a Shabbat tisch.
Auschwitz
About a month after the Rebbe's arrival, the labor camp was liquidated. All the prisoners were loaded into cattle cars and dispatched to the Auschwitz death camp. At exactly the same time, the Rebbe's wife and nine of their children who remained with her were sent to Auschwitz on a transport from Klausenberg. They were gassed to death on June 2, 1944. Halberstam, however, survived the selection by Dr. Josef Mengele and was sent to work.
In Auschwitz, Halberstam seemed to live in another world. The bits of food that other prisoners hungered for and fought over were, in the Rebbe's eyes, less important than their use for mitzvot. He decided early on to try to keep every Torah commandment he could, and even the minhagim that he had learned from his forefathers. Thus, he would often choose to use the bit of water he had to wash his hands for prayer, rather than to wash his hands to eat. He never touched non-kosher food and refused to eat food cooked in a non-kosher pot. Often he went hungry. His staunch faith gave spiritual strength to many. He assured his fellow inmates that God was with them in the valley of death, and would not abandon them.
In 1944, a year after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Halberstam was assigned to a special labor detail to clear out the ruined ghetto. He and 6000 other prisoners searched for valuables and demolished the ruins by hand and with rudimentary tools so that the Nazis could sell the bricks and steel to Polish contractors. As they beheld skeletons piled in the street, and uncovered bunkers in which Jews had died by gas or shooting, the Hungarian prisoners realized for the first time the extent of the annihilation of European Jewry.
This time the Rebbe did not shave his beard, which is considered a mark of holiness for Hasidim. He wrapped his beard and face in a handkerchief, pretending he had a toothache. This charade was accompanied by the fact that he cried all day as he worked, praying and communing with God.
When the prisoners began to hear rumors that their labor detail was about to be liquidated, they decided to try to escape rather than let the Nazis kill them. However, the Rebbe encouraged them to adopt a "wait and see" attitude. In response to one plan, in which prisoners would storm the camp gates and make a run for the forest, where they would connect with partisans, the Rebbe advised, "Until we see that the Nazis are about to exterminate us, it is prohibited for anyone to sacrifice his life and put himself in a situation of certain death. But one must remain vigilant, and as soon as it becomes clear that the Nazis are ready to attack us, we must do everything in our power to rise up against them." The prisoners decided to follow his advice. Some time later, after most of the prisoners had been transported from Warsaw, 500 remaining prisoners did stage a revolt. The Nazis killed every one of them.
As the Russian Army moved closer to Poland, the Germans decided to liquidate the special ghetto-clearing unit of which Halberstam was a member. All the prisoners were taken to a field outside of Warsaw, told to undress and stand near open pits, where soldiers prepared to machine-gun them. At the last moment, however, a car sped into the field. A high-ranking officer jumped out and communicated the special order from Berlin to stop the execution and send the prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were needed as slave laborers.
This unexpected reprieve, however, led to a brutal death march. For the next week, the prisoners were forced by SS soldiers wielding wooden clubs and steel bars to march 21 miles a day at top speed. In the blazing July heat, the emaciated prisoners were deprived of food and water and allowed to rest only at night. Those who couldn't keep up were shot.
On the third day, strained to the length of their endurance, the group was finally brought to rest for the night in a field surrounded by SS officers. As the guards slept, the Rebbe passed the word around: "Everyone should dig beneath himself. God's salvation comes in the blink of an eye." Each prisoner began to dig with his fingers, spoons, or pieces of wood. Remarkably, each found water, and small springs began to pop up everywhere, quenching everyone's thirst and giving them new life.
On the fifth day, the surviving marchers were packed into cattle cars for the rest of the journey to Dachau. Over the next few days, many succumbed to the overcrowding, lack of water, stench and heat in the cattle cars. Of the 6000 that set out on the death march, less than 2000 made it to Dachau alive. The Rebbe was one of the survivors.
When World War II broke out, the Jews of Hungary and Romania were not immediately affected by the German offensive against Polish and Lithuanian Jewry. However, local anti-Semitism flourished. Following the Vienna Accords of 1940, which divided Transylvania into three countries—Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary—the city of Klausenberg was taken over the Hungarian Magyars, who were Nazi collaborators. Jews were pulled off the streets and taken to forced-labor camps.
In 1941, a new law required all Jews living in Hungary to prove that their family had lived in and paid taxes in Hungary back to 1851. Suddenly thousands of Jews, including the Rebbe (who was born in Poland), were placed in jeopardy. The Rebbe, his wife and eleven children were arrested and brought to Budapest, where the family was separated. The Rebbe was jailed with a group of leaders who were eventually sent directly to Auschwitz. Thanks to the efforts of friends and supporters, the Rebbe was released and the family returned to Klausenberg.
Despite the danger, the Rebbe refused to leave his followers and made no effort to save himself from further searches. Instead, he threw himself into helping refugees from Nazi-occupied lands and tending to his followers. Between 1941 and 1944, the Rebbe never stopped studying Torah and praying for the Jewish people.
On March 19, 1944 the Germans invaded Hungary and Gestapo chief Adolf Eichmann immediately organized the round-up, ghettoization, and deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Klausenberg ghetto was established on May 1, 1944, and was liquidated via six transports to Auschwitz between late May and early June. Knowing that the Gestapo targeted community leaders first, the Rebbe hid in an open grave in a cemetery for several weeks. He then fled to the town of Banya, where he was conscripted into a forced-labor camp along with 5000 other Hungarian Jews. Though hunger was not a problem here—the barbed-wire enclosure had a back exit through which Jews could buy bread and milk from non-Jews—the Hungarian soldiers constantly badgered and searched inmates for their valuables. The Rebbe was forced to shave his beard, but he did not lose his composure or faith in God. He continued to conduct prayer services and even a Shabbat tisch.
Auschwitz
About a month after the Rebbe's arrival, the labor camp was liquidated. All the prisoners were loaded into cattle cars and dispatched to the Auschwitz death camp. At exactly the same time, the Rebbe's wife and nine of their children who remained with her were sent to Auschwitz on a transport from Klausenberg. They were gassed to death on June 2, 1944. Halberstam, however, survived the selection by Dr. Josef Mengele and was sent to work.
In Auschwitz, Halberstam seemed to live in another world. The bits of food that other prisoners hungered for and fought over were, in the Rebbe's eyes, less important than their use for mitzvot. He decided early on to try to keep every Torah commandment he could, and even the minhagim that he had learned from his forefathers. Thus, he would often choose to use the bit of water he had to wash his hands for prayer, rather than to wash his hands to eat. He never touched non-kosher food and refused to eat food cooked in a non-kosher pot. Often he went hungry. His staunch faith gave spiritual strength to many. He assured his fellow inmates that God was with them in the valley of death, and would not abandon them.
In 1944, a year after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Halberstam was assigned to a special labor detail to clear out the ruined ghetto. He and 6000 other prisoners searched for valuables and demolished the ruins by hand and with rudimentary tools so that the Nazis could sell the bricks and steel to Polish contractors. As they beheld skeletons piled in the street, and uncovered bunkers in which Jews had died by gas or shooting, the Hungarian prisoners realized for the first time the extent of the annihilation of European Jewry.
This time the Rebbe did not shave his beard, which is considered a mark of holiness for Hasidim. He wrapped his beard and face in a handkerchief, pretending he had a toothache. This charade was accompanied by the fact that he cried all day as he worked, praying and communing with God.
When the prisoners began to hear rumors that their labor detail was about to be liquidated, they decided to try to escape rather than let the Nazis kill them. However, the Rebbe encouraged them to adopt a "wait and see" attitude. In response to one plan, in which prisoners would storm the camp gates and make a run for the forest, where they would connect with partisans, the Rebbe advised, "Until we see that the Nazis are about to exterminate us, it is prohibited for anyone to sacrifice his life and put himself in a situation of certain death. But one must remain vigilant, and as soon as it becomes clear that the Nazis are ready to attack us, we must do everything in our power to rise up against them." The prisoners decided to follow his advice. Some time later, after most of the prisoners had been transported from Warsaw, 500 remaining prisoners did stage a revolt. The Nazis killed every one of them.
As the Russian Army moved closer to Poland, the Germans decided to liquidate the special ghetto-clearing unit of which Halberstam was a member. All the prisoners were taken to a field outside of Warsaw, told to undress and stand near open pits, where soldiers prepared to machine-gun them. At the last moment, however, a car sped into the field. A high-ranking officer jumped out and communicated the special order from Berlin to stop the execution and send the prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were needed as slave laborers.
This unexpected reprieve, however, led to a brutal death march. For the next week, the prisoners were forced by SS soldiers wielding wooden clubs and steel bars to march 21 miles a day at top speed. In the blazing July heat, the emaciated prisoners were deprived of food and water and allowed to rest only at night. Those who couldn't keep up were shot.
On the third day, strained to the length of their endurance, the group was finally brought to rest for the night in a field surrounded by SS officers. As the guards slept, the Rebbe passed the word around: "Everyone should dig beneath himself. God's salvation comes in the blink of an eye." Each prisoner began to dig with his fingers, spoons, or pieces of wood. Remarkably, each found water, and small springs began to pop up everywhere, quenching everyone's thirst and giving them new life.
On the fifth day, the surviving marchers were packed into cattle cars for the rest of the journey to Dachau. Over the next few days, many succumbed to the overcrowding, lack of water, stench and heat in the cattle cars. Of the 6000 that set out on the death march, less than 2000 made it to Dachau alive. The Rebbe was one of the survivors.
Muldorf
From Dachau, the Rebbe was dispatched to the Muldorf Forest, where the Nazis were building an underground airport, hangar and missile batteries in order to bomb major European cities. He and thousands of other prisoners were forced to work 12-hour shifts, carrying 110-pound bags of cement from the rail depot to the cement mixers inside the hangar. Halberstam grew very weak from this difficult work. When he collapsed under his burden, he was beaten. He refused to work at all on Shabbat, which brought on more beatings. Finally, his friends persuaded the camp managers to give him to the job of camp custodian, allowing him to sweep and tidy the barracks while engaging in prayer the entire day.
Despite the hardships and privations, Halberstam was a beacon of strength and hope for his fellow prisoners. When one died in the infirmary—hardly a noteworthy occurrence in those days—the Rebbe stood up and eulogized him for having been a great Torah scholar in Hungary. He refused to eat non-kosher food or food cooked in the non-kosher kitchen, subsisting only on bread and water during his nine months in Muldorf. Moreover, he would not eat the bread until he had ritually washed his hands, and would often wait for days to find some water for this purpose. One prisoner watched him stand beside the cement mixer for hours at a time, collecting the drops of water that dripped from the tank.
As the war wound down in spring 1945, the Germans disbanded the Muldorf camp and sent the inmate population on yet another death march, chasing them from place to place without food or rest. Sometimes they were loaded aboard rail cars and driven to and fro. On Friday, April 27, the train suddenly stopped in a small town and SS officers jumped aboard, declaring, "You are free!" and ripping the Wehrmacht badges from their uniforms. Many prisoners believed them and jumped off the train. But Halberstam told the people around him, "Today is the eve of Shabbat. Where will we go?" Then he added, "My heart tells me that not everything here is as it should be." Suddenly, SS soldiers rode in on bicycles from all directions, firing machine guns and killing hundreds of people. At the same time, American bombers dove in, strafing the field. Only Halberstam and those who stayed with him on the train escaped injury. Two days later, their real liberation came when the train stopped near a village and the Nazi guards deserted them. American soldiers boarded the train with smiles, candy and chocolates.
The group was brought to the Feldafing DP camp near Munich, exhausted, demoralized and penniless. Here Halberstam's leadership qualities rose to the fore and he became the spokesman and leader of the religious survivors. He immediately arranged for the proper burial of those who had died by the train tracks, and demanded kosher food for the survivors. On the first Shabbat after liberation, he led the public prayer services in a newly-opened synagogue and delivered a two-hour lecture, quoting from memory scholarly writings that he had last seen years before.
Halberstam's wife and ten of his children were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. His eldest son survived the war, but succumbed to illness in a nearby DP camp before his father even knew that he had survived. Yet Halberstam never complained of his lot, and avoided depression by reaching out to others. He spent much time listening to and comforting people of all ages, and brought hundreds of people back to religious observance through his passionate public speeches.
From Dachau, the Rebbe was dispatched to the Muldorf Forest, where the Nazis were building an underground airport, hangar and missile batteries in order to bomb major European cities. He and thousands of other prisoners were forced to work 12-hour shifts, carrying 110-pound bags of cement from the rail depot to the cement mixers inside the hangar. Halberstam grew very weak from this difficult work. When he collapsed under his burden, he was beaten. He refused to work at all on Shabbat, which brought on more beatings. Finally, his friends persuaded the camp managers to give him to the job of camp custodian, allowing him to sweep and tidy the barracks while engaging in prayer the entire day.
Despite the hardships and privations, Halberstam was a beacon of strength and hope for his fellow prisoners. When one died in the infirmary—hardly a noteworthy occurrence in those days—the Rebbe stood up and eulogized him for having been a great Torah scholar in Hungary. He refused to eat non-kosher food or food cooked in the non-kosher kitchen, subsisting only on bread and water during his nine months in Muldorf. Moreover, he would not eat the bread until he had ritually washed his hands, and would often wait for days to find some water for this purpose. One prisoner watched him stand beside the cement mixer for hours at a time, collecting the drops of water that dripped from the tank.
As the war wound down in spring 1945, the Germans disbanded the Muldorf camp and sent the inmate population on yet another death march, chasing them from place to place without food or rest. Sometimes they were loaded aboard rail cars and driven to and fro. On Friday, April 27, the train suddenly stopped in a small town and SS officers jumped aboard, declaring, "You are free!" and ripping the Wehrmacht badges from their uniforms. Many prisoners believed them and jumped off the train. But Halberstam told the people around him, "Today is the eve of Shabbat. Where will we go?" Then he added, "My heart tells me that not everything here is as it should be." Suddenly, SS soldiers rode in on bicycles from all directions, firing machine guns and killing hundreds of people. At the same time, American bombers dove in, strafing the field. Only Halberstam and those who stayed with him on the train escaped injury. Two days later, their real liberation came when the train stopped near a village and the Nazi guards deserted them. American soldiers boarded the train with smiles, candy and chocolates.
The group was brought to the Feldafing DP camp near Munich, exhausted, demoralized and penniless. Here Halberstam's leadership qualities rose to the fore and he became the spokesman and leader of the religious survivors. He immediately arranged for the proper burial of those who had died by the train tracks, and demanded kosher food for the survivors. On the first Shabbat after liberation, he led the public prayer services in a newly-opened synagogue and delivered a two-hour lecture, quoting from memory scholarly writings that he had last seen years before.
Halberstam's wife and ten of his children were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. His eldest son survived the war, but succumbed to illness in a nearby DP camp before his father even knew that he had survived. Yet Halberstam never complained of his lot, and avoided depression by reaching out to others. He spent much time listening to and comforting people of all ages, and brought hundreds of people back to religious observance through his passionate public speeches.
In the DP camps
In fall 1945, Halberstam moved to the new DP camp of Föhrenwald, a larger location in Munich which he turned into the center of religious Jewish life for all the DP camps. Here the Rebbe created a communal survivors organization called She'aris Hapleitah ("the surviving remnant"), which operated religious schools for boys and girls and yeshivos for young men in 19 different DP camps. In addition, Halberstam set up a kosher slaughterhouse; built a kosher mikveh; acquired and distributed religious articles such as tzitzit, tefillin and mezuzot; raised money to help couples marry; and established Halakhic (Jewish legal) guidelines for men and women who had no proof of their spouse's death, enabling them to remarry and start new families.
On Yom Kippur, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the camps and came to see Halberstam, who had received a reputation as a "wonder rabbi". However, the Rebbe would not speak with him until he had finished his prayers. Afterwards he told the general, "I was praying before the General of Generals, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He. The earthly general had to wait." Impressed by the rabbi's leadership and frankness, Eisenhower asked him if there was any way he could help him in his efforts. In typical fashion, Halberstam asked for a small sample of the Four Species so that the survivors could properly celebrate the upcoming Sukkot holiday.
In spring 1946 the Rebbe made a special fund-raising trip to New York on behalf of She'eris HaPleita, raising $100,000, a huge sum in those days. That fall, he embarked on another fund-raising trip and decided to resettle in New York to strengthen the American Jewish community there and to continue working for Holocaust survivors from that side of the Atlantic. He established his court in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
In fall 1945, Halberstam moved to the new DP camp of Föhrenwald, a larger location in Munich which he turned into the center of religious Jewish life for all the DP camps. Here the Rebbe created a communal survivors organization called She'aris Hapleitah ("the surviving remnant"), which operated religious schools for boys and girls and yeshivos for young men in 19 different DP camps. In addition, Halberstam set up a kosher slaughterhouse; built a kosher mikveh; acquired and distributed religious articles such as tzitzit, tefillin and mezuzot; raised money to help couples marry; and established Halakhic (Jewish legal) guidelines for men and women who had no proof of their spouse's death, enabling them to remarry and start new families.
On Yom Kippur, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the camps and came to see Halberstam, who had received a reputation as a "wonder rabbi". However, the Rebbe would not speak with him until he had finished his prayers. Afterwards he told the general, "I was praying before the General of Generals, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He. The earthly general had to wait." Impressed by the rabbi's leadership and frankness, Eisenhower asked him if there was any way he could help him in his efforts. In typical fashion, Halberstam asked for a small sample of the Four Species so that the survivors could properly celebrate the upcoming Sukkot holiday.
In spring 1946 the Rebbe made a special fund-raising trip to New York on behalf of She'eris HaPleita, raising $100,000, a huge sum in those days. That fall, he embarked on another fund-raising trip and decided to resettle in New York to strengthen the American Jewish community there and to continue working for Holocaust survivors from that side of the Atlantic. He established his court in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Remarriage
On Friday, 22 August 1947, he married his second wife, Chaya Nechama Ungar, the orphaned daughter of the Nitra Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Ungar. The match was made by Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, Rabbi Ungar's son-in-law who had survived the Holocaust and re-established his yeshiva in Somerville, New Jersey. The tenayim were held in Weissmandl's Nitra Yeshiva, while the chuppah and dancing were held at Yeshivas She'aris Hapleitah, the Rebbe's yeshiva in Somerville.
Although the Klausenberger Rebbe had gone to great lengths to allow agunos and widowers to remarry after the Holocaust, relying on testimonies from people who had seen their spouses being led "to the left" in the Nazi selections rather than documented evidence, the Rebbe did not rely on the testimonies of his first wife's death. Instead, he sought the approval of 100 rabbis and sat on the ground for half an hour in mourning for his first wife before he remarried.
He and his second wife had five daughters and two sons. His sons, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam and Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Halberstam, succeeded him, respectively, as Sanzer Rebbe of Netanya and Klausenberger-Sanz Rebbe of New Jersey.
On Friday, 22 August 1947, he married his second wife, Chaya Nechama Ungar, the orphaned daughter of the Nitra Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Ungar. The match was made by Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, Rabbi Ungar's son-in-law who had survived the Holocaust and re-established his yeshiva in Somerville, New Jersey. The tenayim were held in Weissmandl's Nitra Yeshiva, while the chuppah and dancing were held at Yeshivas She'aris Hapleitah, the Rebbe's yeshiva in Somerville.
Although the Klausenberger Rebbe had gone to great lengths to allow agunos and widowers to remarry after the Holocaust, relying on testimonies from people who had seen their spouses being led "to the left" in the Nazi selections rather than documented evidence, the Rebbe did not rely on the testimonies of his first wife's death. Instead, he sought the approval of 100 rabbis and sat on the ground for half an hour in mourning for his first wife before he remarried.
He and his second wife had five daughters and two sons. His sons, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Halberstam and Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Halberstam, succeeded him, respectively, as Sanzer Rebbe of Netanya and Klausenberger-Sanz Rebbe of New Jersey.
Kiryat Sanz, Netanya
The Rebbe's decision to move to the United States was not a permanent one. Throughout his travails in the Holocaust, he always had in mind the goal of settling in Israel. Toward that end, he established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in the beachside city of Netanya in 1956. In so doing, he was the first Rebbe to establish a Haredi neighborhood in an Israeli development town. Over the next few years, he raised money for the establishment of key institutions to serve this neighborhood, including girls' and boys' schools and yeshivas, an orphanage, and an old-age home. He also laid the cornerstone for a community hospital to be run according to the strictest standards of Halakha. This hospital, which would eventually take the name of two bankers from Switzerland, the Laniado brothers, whose estate provided a $300,000 donation for the Rebbe, opened in 1975; today it encompasses two medical centers, a children’s hospital, a geriatric center and a nursing school, serving a regional population of over 450,000.
The Rebbe moved to Israel in 1960, settling in Netanya and directing both the community there and in Williamsburg. He also founded battei medrash and schools in other cities in Israel, and established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem as well.
In 1968 he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya.
The Rebbe's decision to move to the United States was not a permanent one. Throughout his travails in the Holocaust, he always had in mind the goal of settling in Israel. Toward that end, he established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in the beachside city of Netanya in 1956. In so doing, he was the first Rebbe to establish a Haredi neighborhood in an Israeli development town. Over the next few years, he raised money for the establishment of key institutions to serve this neighborhood, including girls' and boys' schools and yeshivas, an orphanage, and an old-age home. He also laid the cornerstone for a community hospital to be run according to the strictest standards of Halakha. This hospital, which would eventually take the name of two bankers from Switzerland, the Laniado brothers, whose estate provided a $300,000 donation for the Rebbe, opened in 1975; today it encompasses two medical centers, a children’s hospital, a geriatric center and a nursing school, serving a regional population of over 450,000.
The Rebbe moved to Israel in 1960, settling in Netanya and directing both the community there and in Williamsburg. He also founded battei medrash and schools in other cities in Israel, and established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood of Jerusalem as well.
In 1968 he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya.
Mifal HaShas
In addition to his achievements in rebuilding the Sanz-Klausenberg dynasty and establishing many communal institutions, one of the Rebbe's most far-reaching accomplishments was his establishment of "Mifal HaShas" ("Talmud Factory") in 1982. This worldwide project encourages thousands of Jewish men and boys to study copious amounts of Talmud and Shulchan Aruch and complete written tests on 20-30 pages per month in return for a monthly stipend. Mifal HaShas continues to operate today worldwide. The Israeli and European operations are under the leadership of Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, the Rebbe's oldest son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Israel. The North American operations are under the leadership of Samuel David Halberstam, the Rebbe's son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn.
The Rebbe recorded his Torah novellae in Shefa Chayim and She'eilos Uteshuvos Divrei Yatziv.
Halberstam died on June 18, 1994, and was buried in Netanya. In his will, he divided leadership of the Sanzer Hasidim between his two sons, His elder son, Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe (also known as the Sanzer Rebbe) of Netanya, and Samuel David Halberstam became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn.
In addition to his achievements in rebuilding the Sanz-Klausenberg dynasty and establishing many communal institutions, one of the Rebbe's most far-reaching accomplishments was his establishment of "Mifal HaShas" ("Talmud Factory") in 1982. This worldwide project encourages thousands of Jewish men and boys to study copious amounts of Talmud and Shulchan Aruch and complete written tests on 20-30 pages per month in return for a monthly stipend. Mifal HaShas continues to operate today worldwide. The Israeli and European operations are under the leadership of Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, the Rebbe's oldest son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Israel. The North American operations are under the leadership of Samuel David Halberstam, the Rebbe's son and current Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn.
The Rebbe recorded his Torah novellae in Shefa Chayim and She'eilos Uteshuvos Divrei Yatziv.
Halberstam died on June 18, 1994, and was buried in Netanya. In his will, he divided leadership of the Sanzer Hasidim between his two sons, His elder son, Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe (also known as the Sanzer Rebbe) of Netanya, and Samuel David Halberstam became the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe of Brooklyn.
Prophecy of Mumbai Attack
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks it had become very widely discussed among Orthodox Jews that the event was prophesied by the Rebbe in 1981 in an audio-recorded lecture.
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Ben Gurion met the Klausenberger Rebbe, and asked him what’s the minimum he’d want to see religiously in Israel and what’s the most he’d want to see. “The minimum,” the Rebbe said, “is that I should be able to wear a shtreimal openly—the most is that *you* should wear one too!”
-------------
The Klausenberger had an especially keen interest in children. Immediately following World War II and its accompanying atrocities against the Jewish People, the Rebbe opened a yeshivah and a Bais Yaakov school in a Displaced Persons camp. The conditions were dismal and lamentable, but Torah study, the lifeblood of our People, has to continue.
One day, the Rebbe was told about Meshulam, a young man who had succumbed to the heresy that followed Hitler's holocaust of our People. Until the age of sixteen, Meshulam had exhibited signs of becoming a superior Torah scholar. He was exceptionally diligent in his Torah study and meticulous in his mitzvah observance. Then came the Holocaust. Having lost most of his family and observed the tragedy that befell so many others, he rejected his Judaism, undermining any attempt to bring him back to observance.
The Rebbe was not a person to take "no" for an answer, especially when a Jewish soul hung in the balance. He asked that the bachur, young man, be brought to him. When Meshulam entered the Rebbe's room, the Rebbe motioned for him to sit down next to him. "I am told that you are the son of Reb Laibish, whom I knew very well," the Rebbe said. "Yes," Meshulam responded, glibly. He was not going to be lulled into any conversation about Judaism and faith in G-d. He knew it all, and he had rejected it after Auschwitz. For him, the world of religion was something of the past.
"They tell me you were once exceptionally diligent in your studies, back home. Is this true?" the Rebbe asked in a non-confrontational tone. Knowing fully well the significance of Torah study to the Rebbe, he decided not to give the Rebbe the pleasure of telling him that at one time he had conformed to the demands of religion and loved Torah study. He simply nodded to the Rebbe's question.
"But, now you are angry," the Rebbe said in a soft, soothing tone.
"Of course, I am angry," he blurted out. "How could I tolerate the heinous, brutal destruction of so many people? The best were taken from us, the finest are lost forever, and you expect me not to be angry!"
The Rebbe lovingly extended his hand and touched Meshulam's face, telling him, "You are so right. I also suffered heavy losses. They took my beloved wife and eleven children and murdered them. I was left alone, with nothing. You are right. The best were taken from us and look at what is left." With these words the Rebbe suddenly burst out in tears and began to sob. As the pent-up emotion poured from him, Meshulam also began to cry. Together, the Rebbe and Meshulam mourned their losses on each other's shoulders.
It was no longer necessary for the Rebbe to say anything. Rebuke was not and had never been a factor. There was so much bitterness bottled up in Meshulam that only needed a release. The Rebbe was that catalyst. Words were not necessary. Tears, streams of tears, an outpouring of emotion is what Meshulam needed. The Rebbe understood this -- while others, regrettably, did not. Meshulam returned to the traditional ways of his people, because the Klausenberger Rebbe understood his need.
-------------
Wherever the Rebbe went, he clearly felt Hashem’s presence accompanying him. Upon entry into Auschwitz, confronted by the brutal German soldiers with their disparaging curses and vicious beatings, the Rebbe encouraged his fellow Jews, “Do not be frightened! HaKadosh Baruch Hu is present even in this place. He has preceded us here, and He is waiting to save us. There is no place in the world where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not present.”1 Seeing three young yeshivah students who had arrived in the camp on his transport, the Rebbe walked over to them and began encouraging them to take strength in their faith in the Almighty. With great emotion, he asked them, “Do you believe that the Creator is here with us?”
The boys answered, “Yes, we do.”
The emotion in his voice rising, the Rebbe said with great emphasis, “Remember, the Ribbono shel Olam is here with us. He will redeem us. In the merit of your emunah you will be saved and will live to leave this place.” All three young boys did indeed survive the war.2
A short time later, when a despondent inmate cried out in agony, “We are all going to die here!” the Rebbe told him, “You have no right to say such a thing about me. I am certain that you and I will both be saved. If you do not believe that, you may say what you want about yourself, but do not say such things about me.”
“How do you know that we will be saved, Rebbe?” asked the man.
The Rebbe answered, “HaKadosh Baruch Hu is here with us, and He will certainly rescue us.”3
The Rebbe lived through Auschwitz with the verse “Though I shall walk in the valley of death I shall not fear, for You are with me” (Tehillim 23:4). He fulfilled the teaching of the Sages, “Even when a sharp sword is lying on one’s neck, he should not despair of mercy” (Berachos 10a). No matter what befell the Rebbe, he never stopped believing in and clinging to the Almighty.4
The Rebbe once found several torn pages covered with Hebrew letters in the garbage between the barracks in Auschwitz. He bent down to retrieve the pages and saw that they came from Pirkei Avos. The Rebbe hurriedly gathered up the torn pages with trembling hands and kissed them with deep emotion. Later, the inmates secretly gathered around the Rebbe in a corner of the barracks to satisfy their spiritual thirst with the life-giving elixir of Pirkei Avos.5
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks it had become very widely discussed among Orthodox Jews that the event was prophesied by the Rebbe in 1981 in an audio-recorded lecture.
---------------
Ben Gurion met the Klausenberger Rebbe, and asked him what’s the minimum he’d want to see religiously in Israel and what’s the most he’d want to see. “The minimum,” the Rebbe said, “is that I should be able to wear a shtreimal openly—the most is that *you* should wear one too!”
-------------
The Klausenberger had an especially keen interest in children. Immediately following World War II and its accompanying atrocities against the Jewish People, the Rebbe opened a yeshivah and a Bais Yaakov school in a Displaced Persons camp. The conditions were dismal and lamentable, but Torah study, the lifeblood of our People, has to continue.
One day, the Rebbe was told about Meshulam, a young man who had succumbed to the heresy that followed Hitler's holocaust of our People. Until the age of sixteen, Meshulam had exhibited signs of becoming a superior Torah scholar. He was exceptionally diligent in his Torah study and meticulous in his mitzvah observance. Then came the Holocaust. Having lost most of his family and observed the tragedy that befell so many others, he rejected his Judaism, undermining any attempt to bring him back to observance.
The Rebbe was not a person to take "no" for an answer, especially when a Jewish soul hung in the balance. He asked that the bachur, young man, be brought to him. When Meshulam entered the Rebbe's room, the Rebbe motioned for him to sit down next to him. "I am told that you are the son of Reb Laibish, whom I knew very well," the Rebbe said. "Yes," Meshulam responded, glibly. He was not going to be lulled into any conversation about Judaism and faith in G-d. He knew it all, and he had rejected it after Auschwitz. For him, the world of religion was something of the past.
"They tell me you were once exceptionally diligent in your studies, back home. Is this true?" the Rebbe asked in a non-confrontational tone. Knowing fully well the significance of Torah study to the Rebbe, he decided not to give the Rebbe the pleasure of telling him that at one time he had conformed to the demands of religion and loved Torah study. He simply nodded to the Rebbe's question.
"But, now you are angry," the Rebbe said in a soft, soothing tone.
"Of course, I am angry," he blurted out. "How could I tolerate the heinous, brutal destruction of so many people? The best were taken from us, the finest are lost forever, and you expect me not to be angry!"
The Rebbe lovingly extended his hand and touched Meshulam's face, telling him, "You are so right. I also suffered heavy losses. They took my beloved wife and eleven children and murdered them. I was left alone, with nothing. You are right. The best were taken from us and look at what is left." With these words the Rebbe suddenly burst out in tears and began to sob. As the pent-up emotion poured from him, Meshulam also began to cry. Together, the Rebbe and Meshulam mourned their losses on each other's shoulders.
It was no longer necessary for the Rebbe to say anything. Rebuke was not and had never been a factor. There was so much bitterness bottled up in Meshulam that only needed a release. The Rebbe was that catalyst. Words were not necessary. Tears, streams of tears, an outpouring of emotion is what Meshulam needed. The Rebbe understood this -- while others, regrettably, did not. Meshulam returned to the traditional ways of his people, because the Klausenberger Rebbe understood his need.
-------------
Wherever the Rebbe went, he clearly felt Hashem’s presence accompanying him. Upon entry into Auschwitz, confronted by the brutal German soldiers with their disparaging curses and vicious beatings, the Rebbe encouraged his fellow Jews, “Do not be frightened! HaKadosh Baruch Hu is present even in this place. He has preceded us here, and He is waiting to save us. There is no place in the world where HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not present.”1 Seeing three young yeshivah students who had arrived in the camp on his transport, the Rebbe walked over to them and began encouraging them to take strength in their faith in the Almighty. With great emotion, he asked them, “Do you believe that the Creator is here with us?”
The boys answered, “Yes, we do.”
The emotion in his voice rising, the Rebbe said with great emphasis, “Remember, the Ribbono shel Olam is here with us. He will redeem us. In the merit of your emunah you will be saved and will live to leave this place.” All three young boys did indeed survive the war.2
A short time later, when a despondent inmate cried out in agony, “We are all going to die here!” the Rebbe told him, “You have no right to say such a thing about me. I am certain that you and I will both be saved. If you do not believe that, you may say what you want about yourself, but do not say such things about me.”
“How do you know that we will be saved, Rebbe?” asked the man.
The Rebbe answered, “HaKadosh Baruch Hu is here with us, and He will certainly rescue us.”3
The Rebbe lived through Auschwitz with the verse “Though I shall walk in the valley of death I shall not fear, for You are with me” (Tehillim 23:4). He fulfilled the teaching of the Sages, “Even when a sharp sword is lying on one’s neck, he should not despair of mercy” (Berachos 10a). No matter what befell the Rebbe, he never stopped believing in and clinging to the Almighty.4
The Rebbe once found several torn pages covered with Hebrew letters in the garbage between the barracks in Auschwitz. He bent down to retrieve the pages and saw that they came from Pirkei Avos. The Rebbe hurriedly gathered up the torn pages with trembling hands and kissed them with deep emotion. Later, the inmates secretly gathered around the Rebbe in a corner of the barracks to satisfy their spiritual thirst with the life-giving elixir of Pirkei Avos.5
Determined to Serve His Creator
Even during the most terrible times, the Rebbe never lost his focus on avodas Hashem. Right under the noses of the Nazis, he studied Torah, davened, and observed the mitzvos. Without regard for his personal safety, he avoided the most minor transgression of Torah law. A survivor named Asher Brenner recalled, “In Auschwitz I was placed in the same group as the Klausenberger Rebbe. The Rebbe suffered even more than the rest of us because of his stubbornness. He refused to eat nonkosher food. He had managed to bring his tefillin into the camp with him, and he put them on every day. Notwithstanding the great danger, he organized daily minyanim for prayer services. We often forgot about Shabbos completely, but the Rebbe avoided desecrating Shabbos every week and made sure that no one else did the work that was imposed on him.
“All this, of course, drew the attention of the Kapos, and they punished the Rebbe with vicious beatings. (The Rebbe accepted the beatings calmly, whispering to himself, ‘For G-d is righteous and I have rebelled against his words’ or ‘May it be Your will that my death be my atonement.’ He also sometimes murmured, ‘Because you have not served Hashem with joy.’) But slowly a change in attitude took place among the Kapos. Looking at him with new respect, they started to treat him more kindly. They finally came to recognize the Rebbe’s unique character, principles and total devotion to Hashem.”6
Later in the Rebbe’s life, he told one of his followers, “In Auschwitz I wore only a torn, thin garment, even in the bitter cold. I preferred it to the other rags we were given because the buttons were sewn on the left in the custom of my holy ancestors. Who knows – perhaps because I was so careful about what I wore I was allowed to live.”7
On another occasion, overcome by emotion, the Rebbe related, “When I was imprisoned by the Nazis, I walked around in wooden shoes. One day I found a shoe padded with a piece of leather. When I lifted it up to look at it, I saw that the leather was really a piece of parchment from a tefillin scroll. It read: ‘Be very careful lest your hearts be seduced.’ I began to cry over the desecration of the holy tefillin and over the message that had been sent to me from Heaven.”8
Even during the most terrible times, the Rebbe never lost his focus on avodas Hashem. Right under the noses of the Nazis, he studied Torah, davened, and observed the mitzvos. Without regard for his personal safety, he avoided the most minor transgression of Torah law. A survivor named Asher Brenner recalled, “In Auschwitz I was placed in the same group as the Klausenberger Rebbe. The Rebbe suffered even more than the rest of us because of his stubbornness. He refused to eat nonkosher food. He had managed to bring his tefillin into the camp with him, and he put them on every day. Notwithstanding the great danger, he organized daily minyanim for prayer services. We often forgot about Shabbos completely, but the Rebbe avoided desecrating Shabbos every week and made sure that no one else did the work that was imposed on him.
“All this, of course, drew the attention of the Kapos, and they punished the Rebbe with vicious beatings. (The Rebbe accepted the beatings calmly, whispering to himself, ‘For G-d is righteous and I have rebelled against his words’ or ‘May it be Your will that my death be my atonement.’ He also sometimes murmured, ‘Because you have not served Hashem with joy.’) But slowly a change in attitude took place among the Kapos. Looking at him with new respect, they started to treat him more kindly. They finally came to recognize the Rebbe’s unique character, principles and total devotion to Hashem.”6
Later in the Rebbe’s life, he told one of his followers, “In Auschwitz I wore only a torn, thin garment, even in the bitter cold. I preferred it to the other rags we were given because the buttons were sewn on the left in the custom of my holy ancestors. Who knows – perhaps because I was so careful about what I wore I was allowed to live.”7
On another occasion, overcome by emotion, the Rebbe related, “When I was imprisoned by the Nazis, I walked around in wooden shoes. One day I found a shoe padded with a piece of leather. When I lifted it up to look at it, I saw that the leather was really a piece of parchment from a tefillin scroll. It read: ‘Be very careful lest your hearts be seduced.’ I began to cry over the desecration of the holy tefillin and over the message that had been sent to me from Heaven.”8
In Honor of Shabbos
On Shabbos afternoon, the Rebbe would go from barracks to barracks and beg his fellow inmates for a bit of onion so that he could fulfill the custom of his ancestors to eat an onion in honor of Shabbos. His eyes lit up when someone gave him a few edible scraps of onion that had miraculously been obtained from the camp kitchen. Who but the Klausenberger, in the midst of this hell, had no other worries except finding an onion for Shabbos?9The Rebbe never failed to say words of Torah to himself on Shabbos, particularly in the late afternoon, at the time of seudah shelishis. Covering his head with the bottom of his shirt or with the thin blanket from his bunk, he would recite words of Torah to himself.10
An irreligious Jew was once standing near the Rebbe and overheard him explaining the verse from Tehillim, “Sing to G-d a new song for He has performed amazing feats. His right hand and holy arm have helped Him.” The Rebbe translated the verse into Yiddish and then gave an explanation.
“I did not understand what he was saying,” recalled the man, “but the verse enraged me. Where were G-d’s amazing feats? Where was His outstretched arm? Many years and life experiences later, however, I recalled the explanation that the Klausenberger Rebbe had given and the idea entered my mind, Wasn’t that in and of itself an amazing feat? In the hell of Auschwitz there was a Jew who was still faithful to the Almighty and took strength in the amazing feats that He had promised to perform in the future. This thought caused me, late in my life, to begin to return to our faith.”11
Years after the Holocaust, the Rebbe’s followers noted that the Rebbe never failed to expound on the Torah at seudah shelishis, even when he was alone and no one else could hear him. Once they asked the Rebbe the significance of saying words of Torah at that particular time. He gave a short and mysterious reply: “The Torah must be expressed in this world; it has a purpose.
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The Rebbe was forced to help demolish the Warsaw ghetto, where he saw ghastly piles of naked, dead Jews covering the streets. He realized for the first time the awful extent of the annihilation of European Jewry and Jewish life.
Because of his piety and prominent religious status, the Rebbe was selected for special torture and public mockery by the Nazis. Although he was beaten constantly, and still did not know the fate of his wife and children, the Rebbe was a tower of strength to his fellow prisoners.
Forced on a death march to Dachau, he was marched mercilessly while Jews around fell from exhaustion and died. He himself was shot, and would have bled to death if he had not improvised a bandage from leaves and branches. The Rebbe was one of the few who survived.
It was at this moment that he vowed, “If God granted me life and I was healed, for I looked like a walking skeleton… and if I left this place and the evil Nazis, then I would build a hospital.”
After liberation, the Rebbe learned that his wife and ten children had been murdered. His oldest son survived the war, but tragically died of illness before being reunited with his father.
Despite surviving unimaginable tragedy, the Rebbe never complained but devoted himself to inspiring others. On the first Shabbat after liberation, right after receiving the terrible news about his family, he delivered a passionate speech to hundreds of fellow survivors in a Displaced Persons camp, exhorting them to maintain their faith in God and dedication to religious observance.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the DP camps and wanted to meet the Rebbe, having heard about his saintliness. The Rebbe would not speak with Eisenhower until after he’d finished his prayers. He later said, “I was praying before the General of Generals, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He. The earthly general had to wait.”
The Klausenberger Rebbe moved to Israel in 1947, where he married fellow Holocaust survivor Chaya Nechama Ungar, with whom he had seven more children. He devoted his life to rebuilding Jewish communities in Israel and America, raising money for schools, orphanages and old-age homes.
One of the Rebbe’s most notable projects is the establishment of Laniado Hospital in Netanya, Israel. Run according to Jewish law, the hospital is a non-profit organization serving a wide variety of patients, including religious and secular Jews, and Arabs.
At the cornerstone laying for the hospital in 1980, the Rebbe said, “I was saved from the gas chambers, saved from Hitler… They murdered my wife and 11 children, my mother, my sisters and my brother – of my whole family, some 150 people, I was the only one who survived… I promised myself that if, with God’s help, I got well and got out of there, away from those wicked people, I would build a hospital in the Land of Israel where every human being would be cared for with dignity. And the basis of that hospital would be that the doctors and nurses would believe that there is a God in this world and that when they treat a patient, they are fulfilling the greatest mitzvah in the Torah.”
The great and saintly Klausenberger Rebbe died in Netanya in 1994. He was survived by his second wife Chaya Nechama and seven youngest children.
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During the Holocaust, his entire family was sent to Auschwitz, and Rabbi Halberstam tragically lost his wife and 11 children. Nonetheless, he did not lose faith and continued to serve as an inspirational leader for the Jews in the camps. During a 1944 death march that took place on Tisha b’Av, the Rebbe recited the traditional Kinot as the Nazis tortured the Jews. Since it was Tisha b’Av, the Jews took off their leather shoes, so the Nazis used the opportunity to make the Jews march on broken glass. They then left them to die of thirst in the summer heat. As reported by several survivors, the Rebbe asked everyone to start digging in the earth. When they did so, water miraculously emerged out of the soil. The Jews were saved, and the bewildered Nazis left them alone.
The Rebbe then said: “Here we have proof that despite all the troubles and the apparent concealment of God’s face, the Holy, Blessed One still loves us.”
The Rebbe survived.
First, he stayed at the DP camps to run soup kitchens and care for the countless orphans. He established and headed the She’erit haPletah (“Surviving Remnant”) organization, which built mikvehs, set up Jewish schools, organized chuppas, and raised money for the victims. During this time, he met General (and future US president) Dwight Eisenhower, who was inspired by the “wonder rabbi”.
Rabbi Halberstam then moved to New York, got remarried, and had seven more children. In 1960, he made aliyah and settled in Netanya.
The Rebbe opened both a Hasidic-Ashkenazi yeshiva, and a Sephardic yeshiva, established the town of Kiryat Sanz and, to fulfil his Holocaust vow, founded the Sanz Medical Centre/Ladiano Hospital. Today, the hospital serves half a million people, runs strictly according to Jewish law, and has the distinction of being the only hospital in Israel that has never closed—not even for a worker’s strike. Famous for his deep love and concern for every Jew, Rabbi Halberstam was beloved by everyone who knew him, secular and religious, Ashkenazi and Sephardi.
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Chasidus, the movement that started with the Ba’al Shem Tov in the mid-1700s, adopted many practices that raised halachic eyebrows. That included a looser regard for zemanei tefillah, the readiness of Hasidim to pray at times that seemed too late, in the name of having proper kavvanah, proper intent and attention, before praying.
Shu”t Divrei Yatziv Orach Chayyim 99, dated 12 Iyyar 5743, responds to a man who raises this question, wonders why R. Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam, the Sanz-Klausenberger rebbe, prays Minchah, the afternoon service, after sunset. The questioner anticipated one possible answer, that he accepts the view of Rabbenu Tam (who is commonly understood to have held that sunset is much later than what we usually call sunset; in BDD 14, 2004, I argued that this misunderstands Rabbenu Tam, but that is the assumption of both parties to this responsum).
The questioner argued that that did not justify the practice, since Tosafot Zevachim 56 said that Rabbenu Tam nonetheless agreed that the blood of sacrifices must be sprinkled before what we call sunset (in the usual reading of Rabbenu Tam’s two sunsets). If so, the sacrificial day of the Temple ended before sunset according to Rabbenu Tam as well, which should be the latest time to recite Minchah.
Questioning the Past
Before he deals with any substance, R. Halberstam chides the questioner for questioning a longstanding custom, one adopted by many important rabbis. His own ancestor, the Sanzer rebbe, would say Minchah when it was already the dark of night, with tachanun (there’s a stronger custom to not say tachanun after sunset).
Nor is this a solely Hasidic practice. R. Halberstam’s first father-in-law (his entire family was murdered by the Nazis) had told him that in the Chatam Sofer’s shul, they would say Minchah later than in Hasidic Sighet, a story confirmed by a great-grandson of Chatam Sofer’s.
R. Halberstam himself, as a youngster, had been present when the Belzer rebbe started Minchah 70 minutes after what we call sunset, rushed the davening, and finished before the stars come out (note that this assumes one must in fact finish Minchah before nightfall—the early Hasidim did not care about times of prayer, but the claim here seems to be that one may pray Minchah only until Rabbenu Tam’s version of nightfall).
Minchah’s Until the Blood Becomes Invalid; When Is That?
Berachot 26a presents two views about the end time of Minchah, that of Rabbanan, the general view of the Sages, that it goes until nightfall, and R. Yehudah that it stops at pelag haMinchah (about an hour and a quarter before sunset). Talmidei Rabbenu Yonah there points to the passage in Zevachim we’ve seen this questioner raise, to note that “nightfall” in Berachot cannot mean when the stars come out, must mean only until sunset.
He bases that explicitly on the fact that the Minchah prayer corresponds to the afternoon public sacrifice, the essence of which was the sprinkling of blood on the altar. Once that was no longer possible, at sunset, Minchah must no longer be possible.
Sha’agat Aryeh 17 questioned those certainties. He discussed the issue at length, and concluded that Tosafot and Rambam agreed that the blood only becomes invalid once the stars come out, which he thinks means one can pray Minchah all that time as well. Support for that view comes also from R. Mordechai Banet, who thought that was the correct way to read Rabbenu Yonah himself, and Shu”t Torat Chessed pointed out that Rabbenu Tam himself in Sefer HaYashar linked the blood’s becoming invalid to the end of sunset, and Hagahot Mordechai asserted that common custom is to pray until nightfall.
I cannot review all the sources that R. Halberstam cites to that same effect, but three more seem worth mentioning. Minchat Kohen took for granted that when Rashi says Minchah goes until dark, he meant tzeis, when the stars come out. Maharik noted that the time for eating matzah on Seder night is referred to as “ba-erev” in the Torah, and we know that that’s after the stars come out, so the Mishnah’s permitting praying Minchah until erev, it should also mean until then.
The clincher might be Rema Orach Chayyim 233;1, who says “until nightfall” goes until the stars come out. [R. Halberstam does not mention that Rema sees this as a bedi’avad, a practice acceptable only after the fact or where there’s some significant pressure, as does the comment of Magen Avraham to which he points us. R. Halberstam also discusses whether we have to leave some blank space between Minchah and Ma’ariv, for bein he-shemashot, citing authorities who say we do not. Were I to discuss this further, I would question his claims, so I’ll leave it here].
In Practice
The Gemara ruled that one may follow either view [and, indeed, the passage in Rema that R. Halberstam quoted thought common practice was to say Ma’ariv as early as pelag haMinchah, as many people still do in the summer]. However, many rishonim required following Rabbanan, to pray Minchah until nightfall (and only then allow oneself to say Ma’ariv).
On the other hand, in 261;10, Magen Avraham understood that pelag haMinchah is three minutes before what is called Rabbenu Tam’s first sunset; were Rabbanan to have meant we may only pray Minchah until that first sunset (called techillat ha-sheki’ah, the beginning of sunset), they and R. Yehudah would have argued over three minutes, which seems unlikely. So that supports the idea that we can pray until nightfall.
Guaranteeing Minchah or Keri’at Shema
He introduces his next discussion by saying u-midei dabberi bazeh, once I’m discussing this, and then takes up the possibility that Minchah has a Biblical component. Rashi toTa’anit 28a says that, which raises several kinds of problems (as Gevurot Ari pointed out, the Gemara seems to say that Chazal established the prayers).
He mentions several answers, such as that Rashi meant it has more of a source in the Torah than other prayers (since the words used for Yitzchak’s praying of Minchah, as tradition had it, are more explicit than the ones for Avraham and Ya’akov). The other answers more or less offer the idea that we treat Minchah seriously, as if it were a Biblical commandment, for various reasons (such as that it’s the last opportunity to pray that day; were Rashi to have agreed with Rambam that once a day prayer is obligated by the Torah, Minchah is the last chance to fulfill that).
He concludes that it’s still fundamentally true that Minchah is Rabbinic, which matters here because the night-time Shema, clearly Biblically obligated, must be said after the stars come out. (Tur says that it’s not enough to say it during bein ha-shemashot, the time between sunset and full night; if said then, it would need to be repeated later).
That matters for us because (he assumes) his shul has to choose between saying Minchah a little late or Ma’ariv a little early. In that choice, the reasons he’s given for delaying Minchah right up until full nightfall have added support, since they will allow saying Ma’ariv (with Keriat Shema) at the right time.
[Of course, many Jews today say Ma’ariv before the stars have come out, and then remind each other to repeat Shema later.] R. Halberstam worries that people will forget or get too tired, and therefore wants to structure the prayers such that that’s not an issue.
More than anything, he says, he’s written to defend common custom, which was his starting point as well, that it was wrong of his questioner to doubt that which many important Jews have done over generations. Minchah can reasonably be said, according to R. Halberstam, right up until the stars come out.
[We have a recorded audio shiur about this teshuva]
On Shabbos afternoon, the Rebbe would go from barracks to barracks and beg his fellow inmates for a bit of onion so that he could fulfill the custom of his ancestors to eat an onion in honor of Shabbos. His eyes lit up when someone gave him a few edible scraps of onion that had miraculously been obtained from the camp kitchen. Who but the Klausenberger, in the midst of this hell, had no other worries except finding an onion for Shabbos?9The Rebbe never failed to say words of Torah to himself on Shabbos, particularly in the late afternoon, at the time of seudah shelishis. Covering his head with the bottom of his shirt or with the thin blanket from his bunk, he would recite words of Torah to himself.10
An irreligious Jew was once standing near the Rebbe and overheard him explaining the verse from Tehillim, “Sing to G-d a new song for He has performed amazing feats. His right hand and holy arm have helped Him.” The Rebbe translated the verse into Yiddish and then gave an explanation.
“I did not understand what he was saying,” recalled the man, “but the verse enraged me. Where were G-d’s amazing feats? Where was His outstretched arm? Many years and life experiences later, however, I recalled the explanation that the Klausenberger Rebbe had given and the idea entered my mind, Wasn’t that in and of itself an amazing feat? In the hell of Auschwitz there was a Jew who was still faithful to the Almighty and took strength in the amazing feats that He had promised to perform in the future. This thought caused me, late in my life, to begin to return to our faith.”11
Years after the Holocaust, the Rebbe’s followers noted that the Rebbe never failed to expound on the Torah at seudah shelishis, even when he was alone and no one else could hear him. Once they asked the Rebbe the significance of saying words of Torah at that particular time. He gave a short and mysterious reply: “The Torah must be expressed in this world; it has a purpose.
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The Rebbe was forced to help demolish the Warsaw ghetto, where he saw ghastly piles of naked, dead Jews covering the streets. He realized for the first time the awful extent of the annihilation of European Jewry and Jewish life.
Because of his piety and prominent religious status, the Rebbe was selected for special torture and public mockery by the Nazis. Although he was beaten constantly, and still did not know the fate of his wife and children, the Rebbe was a tower of strength to his fellow prisoners.
Forced on a death march to Dachau, he was marched mercilessly while Jews around fell from exhaustion and died. He himself was shot, and would have bled to death if he had not improvised a bandage from leaves and branches. The Rebbe was one of the few who survived.
It was at this moment that he vowed, “If God granted me life and I was healed, for I looked like a walking skeleton… and if I left this place and the evil Nazis, then I would build a hospital.”
After liberation, the Rebbe learned that his wife and ten children had been murdered. His oldest son survived the war, but tragically died of illness before being reunited with his father.
Despite surviving unimaginable tragedy, the Rebbe never complained but devoted himself to inspiring others. On the first Shabbat after liberation, right after receiving the terrible news about his family, he delivered a passionate speech to hundreds of fellow survivors in a Displaced Persons camp, exhorting them to maintain their faith in God and dedication to religious observance.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the DP camps and wanted to meet the Rebbe, having heard about his saintliness. The Rebbe would not speak with Eisenhower until after he’d finished his prayers. He later said, “I was praying before the General of Generals, King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He. The earthly general had to wait.”
The Klausenberger Rebbe moved to Israel in 1947, where he married fellow Holocaust survivor Chaya Nechama Ungar, with whom he had seven more children. He devoted his life to rebuilding Jewish communities in Israel and America, raising money for schools, orphanages and old-age homes.
One of the Rebbe’s most notable projects is the establishment of Laniado Hospital in Netanya, Israel. Run according to Jewish law, the hospital is a non-profit organization serving a wide variety of patients, including religious and secular Jews, and Arabs.
At the cornerstone laying for the hospital in 1980, the Rebbe said, “I was saved from the gas chambers, saved from Hitler… They murdered my wife and 11 children, my mother, my sisters and my brother – of my whole family, some 150 people, I was the only one who survived… I promised myself that if, with God’s help, I got well and got out of there, away from those wicked people, I would build a hospital in the Land of Israel where every human being would be cared for with dignity. And the basis of that hospital would be that the doctors and nurses would believe that there is a God in this world and that when they treat a patient, they are fulfilling the greatest mitzvah in the Torah.”
The great and saintly Klausenberger Rebbe died in Netanya in 1994. He was survived by his second wife Chaya Nechama and seven youngest children.
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During the Holocaust, his entire family was sent to Auschwitz, and Rabbi Halberstam tragically lost his wife and 11 children. Nonetheless, he did not lose faith and continued to serve as an inspirational leader for the Jews in the camps. During a 1944 death march that took place on Tisha b’Av, the Rebbe recited the traditional Kinot as the Nazis tortured the Jews. Since it was Tisha b’Av, the Jews took off their leather shoes, so the Nazis used the opportunity to make the Jews march on broken glass. They then left them to die of thirst in the summer heat. As reported by several survivors, the Rebbe asked everyone to start digging in the earth. When they did so, water miraculously emerged out of the soil. The Jews were saved, and the bewildered Nazis left them alone.
The Rebbe then said: “Here we have proof that despite all the troubles and the apparent concealment of God’s face, the Holy, Blessed One still loves us.”
The Rebbe survived.
First, he stayed at the DP camps to run soup kitchens and care for the countless orphans. He established and headed the She’erit haPletah (“Surviving Remnant”) organization, which built mikvehs, set up Jewish schools, organized chuppas, and raised money for the victims. During this time, he met General (and future US president) Dwight Eisenhower, who was inspired by the “wonder rabbi”.
Rabbi Halberstam then moved to New York, got remarried, and had seven more children. In 1960, he made aliyah and settled in Netanya.
The Rebbe opened both a Hasidic-Ashkenazi yeshiva, and a Sephardic yeshiva, established the town of Kiryat Sanz and, to fulfil his Holocaust vow, founded the Sanz Medical Centre/Ladiano Hospital. Today, the hospital serves half a million people, runs strictly according to Jewish law, and has the distinction of being the only hospital in Israel that has never closed—not even for a worker’s strike. Famous for his deep love and concern for every Jew, Rabbi Halberstam was beloved by everyone who knew him, secular and religious, Ashkenazi and Sephardi.
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Chasidus, the movement that started with the Ba’al Shem Tov in the mid-1700s, adopted many practices that raised halachic eyebrows. That included a looser regard for zemanei tefillah, the readiness of Hasidim to pray at times that seemed too late, in the name of having proper kavvanah, proper intent and attention, before praying.
Shu”t Divrei Yatziv Orach Chayyim 99, dated 12 Iyyar 5743, responds to a man who raises this question, wonders why R. Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam, the Sanz-Klausenberger rebbe, prays Minchah, the afternoon service, after sunset. The questioner anticipated one possible answer, that he accepts the view of Rabbenu Tam (who is commonly understood to have held that sunset is much later than what we usually call sunset; in BDD 14, 2004, I argued that this misunderstands Rabbenu Tam, but that is the assumption of both parties to this responsum).
The questioner argued that that did not justify the practice, since Tosafot Zevachim 56 said that Rabbenu Tam nonetheless agreed that the blood of sacrifices must be sprinkled before what we call sunset (in the usual reading of Rabbenu Tam’s two sunsets). If so, the sacrificial day of the Temple ended before sunset according to Rabbenu Tam as well, which should be the latest time to recite Minchah.
Questioning the Past
Before he deals with any substance, R. Halberstam chides the questioner for questioning a longstanding custom, one adopted by many important rabbis. His own ancestor, the Sanzer rebbe, would say Minchah when it was already the dark of night, with tachanun (there’s a stronger custom to not say tachanun after sunset).
Nor is this a solely Hasidic practice. R. Halberstam’s first father-in-law (his entire family was murdered by the Nazis) had told him that in the Chatam Sofer’s shul, they would say Minchah later than in Hasidic Sighet, a story confirmed by a great-grandson of Chatam Sofer’s.
R. Halberstam himself, as a youngster, had been present when the Belzer rebbe started Minchah 70 minutes after what we call sunset, rushed the davening, and finished before the stars come out (note that this assumes one must in fact finish Minchah before nightfall—the early Hasidim did not care about times of prayer, but the claim here seems to be that one may pray Minchah only until Rabbenu Tam’s version of nightfall).
Minchah’s Until the Blood Becomes Invalid; When Is That?
Berachot 26a presents two views about the end time of Minchah, that of Rabbanan, the general view of the Sages, that it goes until nightfall, and R. Yehudah that it stops at pelag haMinchah (about an hour and a quarter before sunset). Talmidei Rabbenu Yonah there points to the passage in Zevachim we’ve seen this questioner raise, to note that “nightfall” in Berachot cannot mean when the stars come out, must mean only until sunset.
He bases that explicitly on the fact that the Minchah prayer corresponds to the afternoon public sacrifice, the essence of which was the sprinkling of blood on the altar. Once that was no longer possible, at sunset, Minchah must no longer be possible.
Sha’agat Aryeh 17 questioned those certainties. He discussed the issue at length, and concluded that Tosafot and Rambam agreed that the blood only becomes invalid once the stars come out, which he thinks means one can pray Minchah all that time as well. Support for that view comes also from R. Mordechai Banet, who thought that was the correct way to read Rabbenu Yonah himself, and Shu”t Torat Chessed pointed out that Rabbenu Tam himself in Sefer HaYashar linked the blood’s becoming invalid to the end of sunset, and Hagahot Mordechai asserted that common custom is to pray until nightfall.
I cannot review all the sources that R. Halberstam cites to that same effect, but three more seem worth mentioning. Minchat Kohen took for granted that when Rashi says Minchah goes until dark, he meant tzeis, when the stars come out. Maharik noted that the time for eating matzah on Seder night is referred to as “ba-erev” in the Torah, and we know that that’s after the stars come out, so the Mishnah’s permitting praying Minchah until erev, it should also mean until then.
The clincher might be Rema Orach Chayyim 233;1, who says “until nightfall” goes until the stars come out. [R. Halberstam does not mention that Rema sees this as a bedi’avad, a practice acceptable only after the fact or where there’s some significant pressure, as does the comment of Magen Avraham to which he points us. R. Halberstam also discusses whether we have to leave some blank space between Minchah and Ma’ariv, for bein he-shemashot, citing authorities who say we do not. Were I to discuss this further, I would question his claims, so I’ll leave it here].
In Practice
The Gemara ruled that one may follow either view [and, indeed, the passage in Rema that R. Halberstam quoted thought common practice was to say Ma’ariv as early as pelag haMinchah, as many people still do in the summer]. However, many rishonim required following Rabbanan, to pray Minchah until nightfall (and only then allow oneself to say Ma’ariv).
On the other hand, in 261;10, Magen Avraham understood that pelag haMinchah is three minutes before what is called Rabbenu Tam’s first sunset; were Rabbanan to have meant we may only pray Minchah until that first sunset (called techillat ha-sheki’ah, the beginning of sunset), they and R. Yehudah would have argued over three minutes, which seems unlikely. So that supports the idea that we can pray until nightfall.
Guaranteeing Minchah or Keri’at Shema
He introduces his next discussion by saying u-midei dabberi bazeh, once I’m discussing this, and then takes up the possibility that Minchah has a Biblical component. Rashi toTa’anit 28a says that, which raises several kinds of problems (as Gevurot Ari pointed out, the Gemara seems to say that Chazal established the prayers).
He mentions several answers, such as that Rashi meant it has more of a source in the Torah than other prayers (since the words used for Yitzchak’s praying of Minchah, as tradition had it, are more explicit than the ones for Avraham and Ya’akov). The other answers more or less offer the idea that we treat Minchah seriously, as if it were a Biblical commandment, for various reasons (such as that it’s the last opportunity to pray that day; were Rashi to have agreed with Rambam that once a day prayer is obligated by the Torah, Minchah is the last chance to fulfill that).
He concludes that it’s still fundamentally true that Minchah is Rabbinic, which matters here because the night-time Shema, clearly Biblically obligated, must be said after the stars come out. (Tur says that it’s not enough to say it during bein ha-shemashot, the time between sunset and full night; if said then, it would need to be repeated later).
That matters for us because (he assumes) his shul has to choose between saying Minchah a little late or Ma’ariv a little early. In that choice, the reasons he’s given for delaying Minchah right up until full nightfall have added support, since they will allow saying Ma’ariv (with Keriat Shema) at the right time.
[Of course, many Jews today say Ma’ariv before the stars have come out, and then remind each other to repeat Shema later.] R. Halberstam worries that people will forget or get too tired, and therefore wants to structure the prayers such that that’s not an issue.
More than anything, he says, he’s written to defend common custom, which was his starting point as well, that it was wrong of his questioner to doubt that which many important Jews have done over generations. Minchah can reasonably be said, according to R. Halberstam, right up until the stars come out.
[We have a recorded audio shiur about this teshuva]
