I came across an article on the current feud in Satmar yesterday in World Jewish Digest which first appeared in New York Magazine. The picture they painted about the war between the two brothers who each claim to be heir to the throne of Satmar was quite bleak. The two brothers are the older Rabbi Aaron, 57 and Rabbi Zalmen, 55. It isn’t an ideological feud. It is much worse than that. It is an outright war with violent behavior on the part of the constituents of each brother… behavior which is not only tolerated but seems to be approved of. Those who are in the know in the world of Satmar, predict that there will be a split. Two Satmar Chasidus will result each claiming to be the authentic one, each with their own Rebbe claimed as the authentic Satmar Rebbe. There is no dividing of an empire here which was once the stated goal of their father. It is an all or nothing game it seems.
A few years ago, Rabbi Aaron was summoned by his father, the Satmar Rebbe who told him that Satmar has grown to be too big for just one Rebbe. So he offered Aaron the choice of either being the Rebbe of Kiryas Joel where he had been the defacto Rebbe for many years… or being the Rebbe of Williamsburg which is the seat of power then but would become its own separate domain. Aaron being the older brother had been groomed to become the next Satmar Rebbe and was quite upset by this turn of events. But the Satmar Rebbe had made a decision and gave the older brother the choice of domain. He chose Kiryas Joel where he had already been Rebbe for many years. To say the least he was not happy about this. But as a dutiful son he accepted his new fate... for now. Williamsburg went to Zalmen.
Some time between then and now there was a reversion by the Satmar Rebbe to the idea of having only one Rebbe of Satmar. From all indications it seems that the Satmar Rebbe, had decided to give the throne to the younger Zalmen., who although less brilliant and less charismatic than his older brother, had a more even temperament. The Satmar Rebbe felt that this was a necessary requirement for leadership. And there was a last will and testament giving Rabbi Zalmen the leadership role. But, Aaron accused his brother Zalmen of manipulating his father into it. When the Beis Din of Satmar Paskin’d in favor of Zalmen, Aaron complained that the judges were biased. The fight ensued and along the way, blood has been drawn.
Make no mistake about it. This nothing more than a power struggle between two brothers. And at stake is the control of millions of dollars of assets a huge worldwide infrastructure, and the loyalty of over one hundred thousand Chasidim.
This does not bode well for the future of Chasidus, at least as we know it. Satmar is the largest Chasidic group in the word. When one pictures a Chasid, it is usually the image of a Satmar Chasid. They are the prototype for that image. But Satmar is about to become permanently divided with an unending Machlokes as part of its future.
But Satmar is not alone in having major problems. Lubavitch seems to be self destructing for entirely different reasons. There the divide is not about who will be the future Rebbe. That has been settled for all eternity as far as they are concerned. The last Rebbe will not have a successor. How then will this Chasidus proceed… who will lead? Well, there is more than one school of though there. One school of thought believes he is still alive and laying in wait until he reveals himself as the Messiah. Another school of thought believes that he did actually die, but will be resurrected in a second coming as the Messiah. Still others while not insisting that this will definitely happen allow for at least a remote possibility that it will and that in any case the Messiah will come in our own time. (There are even fringe groups that claim that not only will he be resurrected in a second coming but that he is indeed the essence of God himself. But these are beliefs are condemned by most Lubavitchers. I point this out just to show the extremes the slippery slope their Messianism can take.) These divisions which may not seem so significant to non Lubavitchers have been the cause of some really violent clashes between those groups… some where blood was drawn.
So there you have it. Two Chasidic dynasties that at one time were ruled by great leaders are now in the midst of infighting that cannot bode well for their future. Lubavitch does not seem affected in the short run but the battle amongst themselves is far from over and could get more violent yet. At some point they are going to have to face the fact that their movement does not have a leader and never will. How will this movement fare without a Rebbe that Chasidus, especially Lubavitch is so dependant on? Right now they are not really dealing with the issue in the false belief that the Rebbe will be resurrected as the Messiah or at the very least that the Messiah will come in this generation as the Rebbe had promised. Well it’s been about 12 years since he died and at some point they are going to be hit in the face with reality. Moshiach may very well not come this generation, not in the form of a resurrected Rebbe or in any other form.
And if Satmar splits in two, what will happen to them? Both opposing Satmar groups will claim legitimacy of their leader and the illegitimacy of the other. Which one will be the real one? The battle royal will continue and what the outcome will be is anybody’s guess. This is a prescription for self destruction.
It won’t be immediate. There is too much at stake and there with an infrastructure that is global well entrenched and very effective in their operations, especially Lubavitch. But I cannot see Chasidism which is so dependent on the concept of a Rebbe surviving without one, or in the case of Satmar with two heads each denying the legitimacy of the other.
Whatever happens in either Chasidus, this is not the way Judaism should be practiced. To me this is but one more indication of the bankruptcy of Chasidism, a philosophy which by its very nature is doomed to failure over the long haul. It is too Rebbe centered. The focus is too much on a human Rebbe and not enough on God. Sure… they believe in God and their theology is Torah based. But they consider the Rebbe their conduit to God and without a Rebbe, Chasidus looses its central focus. It is the Rebbe that is the conduit whereby God is encountred. As such it cannot survive. (Breslover Chasidm are a notable exception which I cannot quite explain. But they have never been totally accepted and have recently had plenty of their own problems to deal with.)
Chasidism is not the way Judaism was intended to be practiced. It was an invention of the 18th century …perhaps needed for it’s time. That time has no long since passed. There would be no better time than now for Satmar and Lubavitch Chasidim… the two with the largest number of people, to abandon this departure by its founding Chasidic masters from the Judaism of their pre Chasidic forefathers and… come home.
