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Friday, July 9, 2021

Satmar Rebbe permitted building a Mikvah for a Reform Congregation



Handwritten & Autographed Halachic Responsum Regarding Building a Mikvah for a Reform Congregation by the Admor Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar. Brooklyn, 1960


Harav Chanina Yom Tov Lipa Deutsch wrote in his work Taharas Yom Tov, "Behold I have merited to inspire many communities to build mikvaos, and I endeavored to build a mikvah in a synagogue… where there is no mechitza between men and women. Some have become angered with me saying that by building a mikvah in such a synagogue, I am endorsing such a synagogue. Therefore I asked the… Admor of Satmar shlita, and this is his answer…"


Harav Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar rules that by endorsing the kashrus of a mikvah, one does not endorse the community itself. On the contrary, he writes, there is a duty to construct a mikvah for them in order to spare them from serious transgressions.


He supports his ruling by recounting that when the communities in Hungary split, a decree was passed that one may not enter their synagogues, or rely on their ritual slaughter, yet “I remember that they would still circumcise their sons and no one objected…


“And to those that claim that he should not construct a mikvah in order to distance himself from a community that does not conduct itself according to the law, here the son must ask, 'What has changed? Does not everyone attend a synagogue or beis midrash that doesn't act in accordance with halachah for a few coins…' It is a distorted generation…"


A long and fundamental halachic response detailing when to embrace estranged Jews versus when to distance them, as well as discussions in the laws of Rebuke. Handwritten and autographed by the Admor Harav Yoel Teitelbaum, author of Divrei Yoel.


Brooklyn, 1960. 13 leaves. Handwritten and autographed. Published in Divrei Yoel, Yoreh Deah, Ch. 59. Good condition. 



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