Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A Fairy Tale?

@azigra

The groom mentioned in the below article from February 24, 1954 is the current day Rachmastrifk Rebbe of Boro Park. The bride is the sister of the current Skver Rebbe of New Square. 

The article refers to another paper's report of people pushing to "touch" the bride's father Yaakov Yosef Twersky, founder of New Square. However, a family member told the reporter that "there was no such foolishness about touching the father of the bride or that kind of thing."

Did this family member lie about Chasidish thought and practice for the purposes of not appearing foolish to the general public? Even if there honestly is no concept of benefiting from touching a Rebbe, is it so much different than the other forms of Rebbe veneration shown, ie shirayim? I've seen chasidim push or wait on lines for a long time to shake a Rebbe's hand. I was even trampled over once by a crowd of non Chasidim pushing to run along side a car containing a Rebbe. 

Rebbes are miracle workers in the minds and tales of Chasidim. It is not hard to understand how the devolution of the Zaddik system resulted in this possible mind set. 


(Unnecessary disclosure: the groom was my 'sandek'.) 




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