The Hasidic Rebbe you never heard of who was a ardent Zionist, later left Judaism but eventually returned. The fascinating and little known tale of the Yabloner Rebbe, Rabbi Yechezkel Taub.
Giving the lecture is Rabbi Pini Dunner. He is the person who did all the research on this fascinating story.
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18 Responses
יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת
very interesting
my grandfather; niftar Y2K at the age of 100 told me that he was there in 1924-25 from poland and brought a fortune to buy that land. i asked him what happened to it, and the story went on…
This is a staggering story, that goes beyond any true understanding. Tears come to the eye when hearing of his pain and then redemption. This episode has laid hidden for decades, emerging now, a week before Rosh Hashonah. We must see from it the hope and power of Klall Yisroil’s connection with Hashem. Thank you for this, and may we all see a kesivah vechasima Tovah
Beautiful story
Had there been more such Rebbes in Europe perhaps more Yidden would not have been slaughtered by the Nazis
His Zionism took him off the derech. Giving up the Zionism brought him back on the derech.
My wife’s zaydie Yaakov was one of the chassidim that left Poland with the hopes of moving to Kfar Chassidim. As noted in the video this did not work out and Yaakov ended up living in Haifa with his wife and six children. He was also a Rav, but made a subsistence living making paper bags. The story as told by my wife’s mother differed in several respects from the video- so I don’t know if the video is 100% accurate or complete, e.g. Rabbi Taub also purchased some land in Bnei Brak and many ended up selling this land to survive.
This story is not an unknown story. The Yabloner Rebbe is mentioned in R’ Alfasi’s book on Chassidic Rebbes printed in 1979. His bio states that he lived a stormy, tragic life, founded Kfar Chassisdim, and that he currently resides in Los Angeles. So there are no big scoops by Dunner, rather maybe a bit of loshon hora, which is probably the reason it hasn’t been publicized……..until the “daas Torah” of Yeshiva World and Dunner ruled that it was permitted.
This is on Wikipedia (hebrew).
The true story is about the yablomer rebbe as a yungerman was influenced by the founder of hapoel mizrachi to move to Israel. He was told by the Gerrer Rebbe the Imrei Emes not to go but he would not listen. He went against daas Torah and failed miserably. In his old age he became frum again. The zionists in their usual way, have distorted the true story and painted him as a hero. A major chillul hashem to even mention this story.
We may not retell the former wrong behavior of a baal Teshuva, I don’t think this story may be retold as facinating as it is. The niftar may be having tzaar from all of us knowing his misdeeds.
The question is whether the chasidish derech was really the right derech for him. Being a chasid doesn’t mean having peyos and a beard. It isn’t something that’s inherently passed on.
@joseph
No, his Zionism did not take him off the derech, he was frum in Israel. America, die goldene medinah did. B”H he returned. I am sure his has a high place in Gan Eden.
To Joseph…
“His Zionism” saved generations of Jews. Does that not count at all in your view?
There is nothing at all in this amazing story to suggest that Zionism made him go OTD. Please listen to it again.
K’tiva v’chatima tova to all.
mfmf,
there would have been
but Labour and Weizmann
pushed against such immigration
this story
is representative of a multitude
of others all over the globe
Apparently, there’s a lot missing from this story….. Can we just be inspired by this video clip without adding mud & garbage?
Of course, you just knew that the anti-Zionists geeks just can’t help themselves, and smear their smelly refuse whenever they can whether true or not.
Haimy- that is incorrect. You may not tease or cause pain to a baal teshuva by reminding him of his previous sins but it is clear that saying stories of teshuva is muttar. We learn this from the fact that the story of Reish Lakish is brought down.
When someone does teshuva m’ahava, their chatayim become zechuyos because the chatayim were used to bring the person close to HKBH. That being said, telling the story of a life like his may not be loshon hara because in essence there were no chatayim.
Also, many people use zionism and many many other things to justify their inner anger and bitterness. Finding something to hate and blame bad things on is their way of rationalizing this inner anger and allowing them to be hateful at something that they deem to be evil and/or tameh. It also allows them to feel good about themselves, which they clearly were never imbued with earlier in life and carried that into their current life situations. They can elevate themselves on the backs of those that they deem are bad people and evil philosophies. It’s sad that they can only find their personal redemption in the sins of others.