The passing of the Satmar Rov zt"l is certainly an
appropriate occasion for reflection and clarification of our
relationship to that large and very successful community.
We are very happy about their success. They are undoubtedly a
community that is part of Am Hashem and their growth
is an expansion of the precincts of kedushoh in the
world. Overwhelmingly, their families remain committed to
Torah and avodas Hashem, and their increase has been
remarkable.
Reb Yoelish zt"l, author of Vayo'el Moshe, with
his powerful abilities, built a holy community in America
virtually from scratch after the destruction in Europe. His
successor, HaRav Moshe zt"l, oversaw its consolidation
and growth. By all estimates the worldwide Satmar community
is over 100,000 strong, kein yirbu, with significant
communities in Eretz Yisroel, Europe and America, although
the largest communities are in America. As we wrote earlier,
it was estimated that the Satmar schools in New York are the
fourth-largest school system in the state, only smaller than
the public school systems of New York City, Buffalo and
Rochester! Some media reports focused on the money of the
community, but to our thinking their children are a far
greater and more important resource.
Today, Satmar's reputation is of a community that is an
important center of Torah, chessed, yiras Shomayim,
and strict preservation of all the letter and spirit of the
lifestyle of their forefathers, rooted in the Hungarian
communities of prewar Europe. As the Steipler wrote in
Karainoh De'Igarto (p. 339): "The reason that the
Hungarian communities were more successful in Torah and
shemiras haTorah than other communities is that they
separated themselves from those who do evil and who cause
others to turn to bad ways, as is well known."
After the heretics and inciters associated with the Zionist
movement managed to take control of many affairs of Klal
Yisroel in the world, differences in approach among the
gedolim developed in how to fight against those who
wanted to undermine the traditional values of Klal
Yisroel, and how to survive in the face of the serious
threat they presented of destroying all traces of
kedushoh in the world. In our opinion this is a
machlokes lesheim Shomayim — a difference of
opinion both sides of which have full intention to fulfill
the will of Heaven — whose destiny is to persist.
The approach of the Satmar community under the leadership of
its rabbonim has been different — in practice and
tactical theory — from the approach taken by our
rabbonim zichronom livrochoh and shlita.
Yet it was always clear that this difference in approach does
not express any difference in analysis of the reality and in
evaluation of the substance of the situation. We are united
in our determined and uncompromising struggle against the
nationalist circles, the secular Zionists and other
compromising circles that are drawn after them. We both see
the situation in the same way, but we differ in what to do
about it.
This has been reflected in the way gedolei Yisroel
spoke about each other. For example, when HaRav Schneur
Kotler zt"l was niftar, the Satmar Rov HaRav
Moshe zt"l said that HaRav Schneur was the same as his
father, and he specifically mentioned the Chazal that his
uncle the Vayo'el Moshe had applied to HaRav Aharon in his
hesped of R' Aharon: "The Torah tells us that the
praise of Aharon was that he did not stray [from the Divine
commandment]."
And we also recall what Maran HaRav Shach said at the passing
of the Vayo'el Moshe, when he mentioned that the strong
position taken by the Admor zt"l was essential for the
entire generation. He said that when there is a strong
opponent, it influences even those who do not stand with him,
and without that strong stand it becomes that much harder to
swim against the mighty opposing flow.
The Torah-true camp can encompass diversity within the
acknowledged boundaries. There is a real and actualized
possibility of following different streams, under the
guidance of gedolei Yisroel. Opposition may be strong
and clear, but so may the recognition that both are "the
living words of G-d."
