Rabbi Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam, author of the Shefa Chaim and Divrei Yatzi” was born in Rudnik (Rudnik and Sanem, Poland) to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Halberstam, the chief dayan (judge of Jewish law) in the city in 5665 (1905). At the age of 14 he was orphaned from his father and was ordained as a rabbi. At the age of 18 he married his relative, Pessel Teitelbaum and they had eleven children together. At the age of 25 (5690/1930) he was appointed to serve as the rabbi of the Chasidic congregation in the town and as the Rosh Yeshivah in Klausenberg (Romania).
After the Nazis invaded Hungary, Rabbi Yekutiel Yehudah was in a camp in Nadabanyah. Later, he was sent with his entire family to Auschwitz. He survived the death march, but his wife and nine of his children were murdered. His remaining sons died of typhus not long afterward. Throughout that time, Rabbi Yekutiel Yehudah did not give up on his obligations to perform mitzvot with hidur (extra beautification) even at great danger to himself. He was careful about kosher food and even made sure to have a new fruit for Rosh Hashanah.
In the displaced persons camp following the Holocaust, Rabbi Yekutiel established educational institutions and soup kitchens, took care of orphans and conducted many marriage ceremonies.
In 5706 (1946) he immigrated to the USA to establish institutions for Holocaust survivors. He married his second wife, Nechamah, and they had seven children. In 5715 (1955) he visited the Land of Israel for the first time and laid the cornerstone for Kiryat Sanz, a neighborhood in the city of Netanyah. He established the Chasidut of Sanz-Klausenberg, educational institutions, and a large yeshivah, which he headed. He also established an intensive Talmud learning program. During the Holocaust, Rabbi Yekutiel vowed that if God would save him, he would always attempt to save Jewish lives. To fulfill that vow, he established the Laniado hospital and medical center in Netanyah.
On the 19th of Kislev 5720 (1960), Rabbi Yekutiel made aliyah to the Land of Israel and settled in Netanyah. In 5723 (1963) he opened a yeshivah for boys of Sephardic descent and in 5746 initiated the establishment of the “Council for Legal Defense of Jewish Values.” When he was asked why he took practical steps for the community in the Land of Israel, in contrast to the outlook of the Satmar Rebbe (his first wife’s uncle), he answered: “We, the God-fearing, criticize and prosecute the secular state, while the secular Jews take action and create facts. I also used to think that this was the proper approach, and I would curse the heretics with great fervor, anticipating that my curses would be fulfilled. But that did not happen. On the contrary, I saw that they were becoming stronger and stronger. So, I said to myself, that perhaps it is better if we switch roles. I will build up the Land of Israel in holiness and the seculars can curse me!”
In 5732 (1972) Rabbi Yekutiel returned to the US, where he passed away on the ninth of Tammuz, 5754 (1996). He was laid to rest in Netanyah.
After the war, in a car provided by the American headquarters, the Rebbe set out to wander and search the surrounding villages with the motto: "I seek my brethren!" In these places, a few Jewish individuals had survived here and there, having hidden during the days of wrath in attics or bunkers. Due to their long isolation from the outside world, they believed, like Lot's daughters in the cave, that the Jewish people had, God forbid, been exterminated as intended by the wicked Hitler, may his name be blotted out. Some thought that they were the only Jews left, with no hope of continuing as Jews.
Every day, the holy Rebbe traveled to a different town. He would enter the center of the village or town and try to engage in conversation with the people he encountered on his way. As someone who appeared to be merely curious and inquiring about this and that, the conversation would eventually turn to the topic of Jews. Sometimes, it would be revealed, through an inadvertent slip of the tongue, that a survivor was staying in a certain house. The Rebbe, of blessed memory, would tirelessly follow every clue, hoping to trace a forgotten Jewish individual still hiding. Once he found them, he would speak to their hearts and persuade them to join him, promising to bring them to a place with many fellow Jews.
Many of these survivors followed him to Feldafing without any real desire. They were seemingly comfortable where they were residing. After all, the American occupiers provided food and support to the survivors wherever they were found, even to those who were living among the non-Jews of their own free will, without requiring anyone to go to work, earn a living, or the like. However, the Rebbe—who possessed remarkable powers of persuasion—convinced them to return to their brethren.
The people were still stunned and traumatized by the horrors they had endured. Some openly declared that after the great catastrophe that had occurred, they had no desire to return to live as Jews. However, the Rebbe, in his wisdom, knew how to respond to them, assuring them that he had no intention whatsoever of demanding such a thing from them. His sole intention was only to improve their physical well-being, so that they would no longer be at the mercy of the non-Jews. He asked, "Is it not better to be among brothers, who are your own flesh and blood?"
One particular case is known where the Rebbe persuaded a young Jew to join his camp: the young man argued that the Rebbe would surely not allow him to go to the cinema, and therefore he did not wish to follow him. However, the Rebbe promised him that when life returned to normal and a cinema opened for the refugees, he would give him money to buy tickets for the shows. The Rebbe even kept this promise for a short time until the young man emerged from his spiritual fog and returned to being an exemplary Jew.[1]
Inspired by this story, we will bring a special explanation from the Rebbe of Sanz, which begins with a story itself:
Rebbe Chaim of Sanz, the founder of the dynasty, had a young and wise son named Leibush. One time, on Shabbat when the Torah portion of Lech Lecha was read, the Rebbe told his six-year-old son to deliver a Torah teaching in front of all the chasidim. Leibush did not hesitate, and immediately began to interpret the first verse of the Torah portion: "Lech Lecha," he said, means "go to yourself." Why? Every Jew is a literal part of the Divine above, and as the Baal Shem Tov said, "one who grasps a part of the essence grasps it all." Therefore, just as there is no place devoid of Him, so too is it with a Jew: he is in everything and everything is in him. Wherever you go, you find that you have always been there, just by virtue of being a Jew.
After presenting Leibush's interpretation, the Rebbe continued to explain the rest of the verse, "and you shall be a blessing." From this verse, the sages learn that "with you, we conclude [our blessing]"—with Abraham our forefather, the first blessing of the Silent Prayer ends, "Blessed are You, God, Shield of Abraham."
The Shefa Chaim explains this—that we conclude the first blessing with Abraham—in light of the difference between Abraham and his descendants. While Isaac and Jacob were holy from the womb, Abraham was born to Terach, an idol worshipper. Whether he recognized his Creator at the age of three or at forty, by all accounts, he was not born into a house of holiness like the one he established himself. Thus, Abraham is a prototype of a ba’al teshuva (a person who has returned to Torah observance). The conclusion of the blessing in the Silent Prayer with Abraham teaches us that at the end of all generations, in the generation when the Mashiach comes, the leaders of the generation will be ba’alei teshuvah like Abraham. It can be said that this is the secret of the revelation of the crown of the circumcision, completing the transformation that Abraham himself performed in his journey to himself.
Kabbalah explains that the revelation of the crown exposes a special spiritual light: this is the same light that shone from Moses, whom the sages say was "born circumcised," and at his birth, "the house was filled with light." When a Jew reveals that the entire world is filled with Divine light, he also uncovers the crown in his soul, feeling at home everywhere in the world. A Jew who recognizes God in the world and in himself reveals the sovereignty of God in the world and also his own sovereignty—the spark of Mashiach in his soul. Thus, through the power of the ba’alei teshuvah, the sovereignty of the Mashiach is revealed.
Image by Igor Ovsyannykov from Pixabay
[1]. From Lapid Ha’eish.
