Williamsburg – In a historic event, a Sefer Torah written in the 1800’s, owned by a the Divrei Chaim, and passed down to his descendants for six generations, will be brought to the main Satmar synagogue at 152 Rodney Street on Shavuos morning (Wednesday June 8th). The procession, which will be led by the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum Shlita, will take place from 12 noon to 3 PM, and will begin at 550 Bedford Avenue.
Approximately 10,000 men, women and children are expected to attend this event.
The Sefer Torah which belonged to the Divrei Chaim (Rabbi Chaim Halberstam, the Sanzer Rebbe), is of great historical value – not only because of its age but also because many of today’s Rebbes are direct descendants of the Sanzer Rebbe.
It was bought by a Williamsburg philanthropist for the sum of $500,000 in honor of the Satmar Rebbe, himself a descendant of the Sanzer Rebbe. After being used in the Bais Medrash on Shavuos, it will be stored at an undisclosed secure location.
(Dov Gordon – YWN)
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8 Responses
Glad to hear they had so much hakaras hatov to the Rebbe that they were willing to sell it to him for a million dollars.
The funds were solicited. I wonder how many salaries of Satmar rabbeim and moros could have been increased, or paid more timely, had the solicited funds found their way into a school budget.
midwesterner (#1): What is so hard to read?:
“It was bought by a Williamsburg philanthropist for the sum of $500,000 in honor of the Satmar Rebbe”
A philanthropist bought it and donated it in honor of the Rebbe. Satmar paid nothing. The philanthropist used his own money.
Why don’t you like Jews midwesterner?
Where was it during WWII?
midwesterner-
did you read it?? a philanthropist bought in for the rebbe- it does not say that the satmar mossdos paid for it
The Torah was paid for by a G’vir. It is his money and he doesn’t have to give his last penny to all your causes.
#1 seems to think he has some inside information because the article says nothing about $1mm or funds being solicited to buy the sefer Torah.
In any case, what do funds solicited to buy a priceless sefer Torah for the Rebbe have to do with school budgets? People are allowed to do whatever they want with their money and if they choose to donate it for the purpose of buying a sefer Torah that’s their privilege.
Just think how much salaries of Satmar Rebbeim could have been increased if midwesterner did not eat meat for a year and donated the funds to the Satmar mosdos for salaries, instead!
This is not the first mention of this story on this website and others. On those other stories, it stated that the price was $1M, and that a collection was made. It does not say that in this story.
I therefore apologize for posting based only on seeing the headline, and not reading the entire story. I believe wholeheartedly that a gvir is entitled to do whatever he wants with his money.
My question was never on the donors. It was rather on the wisdom of taking up a collection by Satmar, among Satmar, for this cause. Because that will inevitably affect other collections. If a single individual (or a very small select group) was approached for this, that generally does not have a serious adverse effect on on other fundraising.
I did NOT say the mosdos paid for it. Only that they may have suffered indirectly due to this use of these community raised funds. I did NOT ask anyone to give to my mosdos. I didn’t even ask them to give to their own mosdos. Just wondering about the huge efforts that go into fund raising, and having that all expended for this project.
Of course, that was all only secondary to my question on the level of Hakaras Hatov of the sellers that rises to charging such a hefty sum. Sounds almost a teeny bit like “Eretz arba meios shekel kesef beini uveincha ma hi.”
midwest: Don’t believe everything you read; and don’t base your opinions on unsubstantiated points.