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So, I’ve heard of him, also seen his picture hung up in stores as a segula against mice etc. However, this year, everywhere you turn you’re inundated with signs & campaigns & going to his tzion. So my question is, why this year more then previous years. When did everybody suddenly become his chasidim so to speak. I’m not here to make choizik, just befuddled.
Oh I forgot people even started going to his brothers tzion in Staten Island too!I’ve been going for years (15-20) already One of the main changes that happened recently that could be responsible for the change in the amount of visitors is the Hachnosas Orchim houses that are open 365 days a year. There is now a Minyan in BodrogKeresztur every day. As far as his brother is concerned, it’s not a recent phenomenon as he has the same Zchus Avos that his brother has.
I sense in your last sentence that you are trying to make choizek.
Why should you object to a great tzaddik being honored and Yidden from all walks of life turning to him?
You needn’t be his chosid to seek a tzaddik.
Probably because of the story that took place this year with the Buildings Department made him very famous
When you and you friends go to Yankees games do you also do such introspection as to do I really belong there ? People hear of tzadik so they go to his kever to da en. Very nice
It’s become more popular recently since yhe excellent book by Yisroel Besser came out
Became the next big thing. Uman Rosh Hashana got expensive.
Some story about a building in Manhattan was going to get cited with massive violations, the frum foreman mentioned this Rebee’s name to the non Jewish inspector, upon which he went back to his car for a while and came back and issued a minor violation.
Was all over social media when it happened. Very recentlyTravel agents who see good business have tapped into this. They’ve advertised in all Yiddish publications, and now all over English speaking media which fueled the latest “in”.
Not knocking the pilgrimage per se, but people are desperate for yeshuos and this is now the hottest spot.Dear Long Island Yid
The answer to your question is simple. Someone realized that this is a big money maker.
The expenses are minimal and the potential income is huge.
People are looking for a quick fix to their tzaros (demand), and this project provides it (supply).
The supply fills the demand.
Business is business.When they look for a segula for the mice, are they asking Hashem for help or are they asking the tzaddik?
If Hashem, does Hashem help the issue of mice more at this Tzaddik, then at other tzaddikim?
How exactly does it work?
For many yidden, the whole concept of various mosdos “selling segulahs” in the name of Tzadikim promising everything from miracle cures to marriages to resolution of IRS disputes reeks of goiyeshe new age apikorsus. But its a free country and there is no law against scamming some simple minded or desparate yid. I suspect you could find a photo of some “rebbeshe” looking guy from the Alte Heim, create a chassidus under some silly made-up name, and be fairly successful selling segulos online.
I see this much more in Litvish / Yeshivish mosdos using p oi skim gedolim and Rosh Yeshiva then Chassidic mosdos (that usually don’t need to resort to such methods to fund raise).
Sadly, because money.
If I am counting correctly this will be about the 5th time I am deleting this content. In case you are confused by what that means, it means you need to stop posting it.
צדיק גוזר והקב’ה מקיים
So suddenly it became ok to say “rebbe helf mir”?
He’s the new marketing symbol of whatever tzedaka is raising funds that week. Until the next yahrtzeit, of course, then he is old news relegated to the backburner while the rebbe whose yahrtzeit that week is suddenly the hot marketing item. I know this is crass, but, there is no other way to explain the use of a rebbes image, memory and tzidkus as a marketing symbol.
The entire subject of segulos is to the frum Yid what technology is to the goy. It is the instant gratification disease. Tell someone that warming food will take a half hour instead of a few minutes in the microwave, you become archaic and prudish. Tell someone that being a recipient of Hashem’s shefa requires earning it with zechusim, mitzvos and maasim tovim, the refraining from issurim, and you are similarly archaic. It sounds like the story of the quite ignorant chossid who was single who believed that going to a particular tzaddik for a brocho was all that was needed to have children.
The inyan of segulah is mentioned countless times throughout Torah, and it is found all over Shas. But it was never intended to supplant the rigorous tasks of the Taryag Mitzvos.
It s also noteworthy that the trend to visit kevarim is astronomically greater than it ever was in our history. Yes, Kalev went to Me’oras Hamachpeilah. Yes, Yosef Hatzaddik visited Kever Rochel. But the excursions of masses would be unrecognizable to the earlier generations. Among most chassidim, the graveside visits were limited to close family going for a yahrtzeit or to invite to an upcoming wedding. Kivrei tzaddikim were not ignored, but were not a source of marketing for funds or expressions of publicity.
Has anyone heard the troves of stories of Chassidishe Rebbes of Europe going to kevarim of the Baal Shem Tov and the Magid of Mezrich? How about the Litvishe Gedolim of Europe visiting the kevarim of the Vilna Gaon, the Chofetz Chaim, or Rav Chaim Brisker? I believe that occasional visits happened. I bet that more visit all of the kevarim now than when there were thriving communities in proximity. Again, kivrei tzaddikim are places where tefilos can be special. But we downplay the role of tefiloh with a tzibbur in the local beis hamedrash, as if this is mundane and less meaningful. I suspect that the tzaddikim we speak of, would be displeased by such an attitude.
Actually, the true meaning in our lives is found between the pages of the seforim written that contain the Divrei Torah spoken by these tzaddikim. Would the Chofetz Chaim prefer that one learned his precious seforim, rather than spend the time and money to visit his kever? One should wonder. Rav Nachum of Chernobyl specifically asked that his seforim be studied rather than going to the kever.
But the belief that one can accomplish at the kever instead of the the Avodas Hashem of daily life of Torah and Mitzvos is plainly ignorant. But trends toward ignorance are not uncommon these days.
The little I know
“Has anyone heard the troves of stories of Chassidishe Rebbes of Europe going to kevarim of the Baal Shem Tov and the Magid of Mezrich? ”It’s well known that tens of thousands went to the kekevorim of Sanz,Kalev,Ihel,Ziditchov,Lizensk and the Remah , just to mention a few,on the day of their yortzeits, before the war.
Daniel45:
I am old enough to have known many people who survived the Holocaust. This subject was discussed several times. There were not these huge pilgrimages. People did visit kevarim, but it was occasional, and usually involved the chassidim who were local plus family who may not have lived in the area. The productions we see today did not even exist then on a smaller scale.
The Remah’s yahrtzeit is on Lag Baomer, and there was a rather sizable pilgrimage to Krakow for his yahrtziet. It also became a locality where there were many weddings, often well over a hundred that spanned from the night of Lag Baomer, again in the morning hours, afternoon, and again before nightfall. I heard this from people who lived in Galicia. But this was exceptional, probably a substitute for Meron, which was then a huge distance to travel.
The little I know
Yes they were these huge “pilgrimages”
The Beirach Moishe of Satmar spoke about the huge crowds etc when he went to the yortzeit of the Zanzer Rov together with his grandfather R Shulem Eliezer of Ratzfert. There are also pictures open things of the yortzeit in Zanz.
In Kalev ,where the Beer Menachem had there was a big yeshiva , and there were many talmidim who survived, including the Tosher Rebbe ztl (who brings it in his sefer) it was well known it was like lag bomber and all the Rabbonim and Rebbes were there definitely from the whole of Hungary but from other places as well.
The Divrei Yoel Spoke about it as well.
In Ziditchov it was said that a hundred thousand people came to the yortzeit. So even if only a 10th actually were there it’s still ten thousand people not just immediate family
In Ihel and Dinov Riminov it’s well-documented in the Seforim of the Rebbes who went there and brought down in many seforim.
So just because you heard from a few people who never traveled out of their little town that it was so doesn’t change the historical fact the same way for some reason you are trying to make as if just a few people went to the Rema.
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