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Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel Says that There Was Never a Minhag of Lighting Bon-fires on Lag Be'omer "


We are old enough to remember when R' Aron Teitelbaum, Satmar Rebbe of KJ made a 20 minute speech making "choizik" of the bon-fire minhag ..... and calling those Rabbonim who light the "hadlaka" ... the "yetzer harah" ...!
He says in the video above ..just because "the guy lighting the fire wears a gartel that doesn't make him holy, he is the "yetzer hara"..

Mocking the Lag Be'omer ceremonies he continues .."even if the fire is one story tall , or even two stories or even if it reaches the heavens, this is not a custom that we ever saw by our parents, grandparents.... or great great grandparents"
"soon they will come out with sefarim instructing us how big the hadlaka has to be, what material must be gotten to make the fire etc etc"

So what changed? 
 The holy rebbe himself has made hadlakas the last few years?
What changed????

Ha ha ...lol .... he he ... ha ha .... 
wait I'm laughing so hard I can't catch my breath ... 
Water .... bring water ........ please ...some water ....
oh ok ....thanks ...
This is too funny for words....

What happened was .... 
since there wasn't any official bon fires on Lag Be'omer, Satmar boys who needed some outlet  and wanted to have some fun ... booked tickets to Israel by the thousands .....

One nice morning on a bright sunny day in Kiryas Yoel, the rebbe came into shul to daven shachris on Lag Be'omer and found the shul deserted....he ran to the mikvah to check if maybe they found a dead body there and that's why no one was in shul...but the mikvah was deserted and so was the kaveh room..

The holy rebbe went into conniptions, became very angry and decided that he will have to make a HUGE 3 STORY bon fire to keep the sheep in town and prevent them from running to the Zionists ...
So now the very same rebbe that made choizek of the "rebbe with the gartel" and who called that rebbe the  "yetzer hara" ....... 
now  dons a 1 foot wide gartel and makes the hadlaka with no apologies!

 That's how the Lag Be'Omer bon fires started in Satmar ....
By the way this is exactly what happened in New Square as well ..
the rebbe had refused to celebrate Lag Be'omer with the traditional hadlaka... so his chassidim flocked to Israel by the thousands and left the rebbe with a couple of alte kockers who didn't want to make the trip ... and so he too started the new minhag ...
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5 comments:

fyi said...

R. Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, Williamsburg Satmar Rebbe, has, unlike his brother, stuck to the old minhog of no bonfire for Lag Baomer in chutz laaretz.

(footage of him lighting in your video was during a visit to EY)

Other big Rebbes don't do so either, e.g. Gerrer Rebbe, despite being in EY, etc.

Square leader is b-i-l of KJ one, they both switched.

Do tell said...

DIN shlita, please tell us what Lag Baomer was like for you as a kid with -lhbchl"ch- R. Czapnick, Olewski, etc.

How were you yoitze without a hadlooooooooookeh?

Dusiznies said...

Do tell
Czapnik z"l was a childhood friend of mine only in the summers as we went to the same bungalow colony, we actually did make bon fires during July & August but I don't recall wearing a "gartel" I do remember roasting marshmallows together but I don't recall leaving any Shrayim...

As far as R' Olewsky z"l is concerned we learned together in the Gerer Cheder in Croen Heights, which I attended for only one year.....but I kept in touch with him all these years ....
in that class learned the great singer who calls himself MBD ....but then he was only Mordcha ... I was very close to him, but lost touch lately ....
also in that class was a guy named Berel Lipel who subsequently became the son-in-law of the Pnei Menachem of Ger..
On Lag-Beomer I recall, the rebbe R' Dovid Kviat, who later became the Rav of the 18th Avenue Agudah, taking us to Prospect Park ..
there were no bonfires anywhere..... the Bostoner Rebbe feered a Tish on President Street and would introduce a new song....
In my earlier years I attended Bobover Yeshivah and believe it or not we went to the Lag Be'Omer parade on Eastern Parkway ... SHHHHHHHHH! Dont tell anyone that Talmeidei Bobov went to the parade ...

Anonymous said...

Well CHAZAL tell us that B'IKVASE D'MSHICHA we will have PNEI HADOR K'PNAI HAKELEV,meforshim tell us that in the end of times the leaders like Aron TeitelBum will be like dogs,just like a dog who always runs in front of his master(making believe he is the master) but keeps looking back where his master is going,so too this filthy Jew and Israel hating dog who claims to be a rebbe keeps on looking back and see which way the wind of his chasidim is blowing

יישר כחך said...

Thanks DIN for sharing your memories (third comment). In addition to being interesting and important, especially for the younger generations, it also humanizes you. :)