Today, Satmar chassidim and Yidden around the globe will commemorate the yahrtzeit of Rav Yoel Teitelbaum zt”l, The Satmar Rov and author of Divrei Yoel. Today, like last night, only men will be permitted into the Kiryas Yoel cemetery. Tomorrow, the cemetery will be open exclusively for women from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Men will be restricted from entering any part of the cemetery during those hours. Tomorrow, men who have yahrtzeit for a close relative buried in the cemetery must endeavor to come before the restricted period or to conform to these restrictions. Inside the ohel, women are restricted from entering the men’s section at all times, even when empty. Kohanim are warned that entry to the ohel for them is possible only through the upper gate, near the yeshiva. Use of the lower gate pathway, which is halachically too narrow for kohanim to use, precludes their entry through the cemetery.
Visitors are requested to not block the thoroughfare by stopping to recite Tehillim or other any other lengthy tefillos. No tables for solicitation, sales of seforim, or collections of tzedakah are permitted within the ohel or anywhere inside the cemetery gates.
Permission is needed for positioning any of the aforementioned outside the gates, and is only obtainable through chevra kadisha representative Shmelka Markus at 845-783-0406. No collections are permitted in the ohel on the yahrtzeit or at any other time during the year. Needless to mention, the use of any loudspeaker system is prohibited and will immediately be dismantled.
Since the passing of Rav Moshe Teitelbaum zt”l, the late Satmar Rebbe, his son, Rav Aharon Teitelbaum, has led the Satmar kehillah in Kiryas Yoel, while his other son, Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum, leads the kehillah in Williamsburg.
Rav Aharon’s kehillah in Williamsburg is quite large and he occupies the important pulpit that his venerated great-uncle, the Divrei Yoel, established in the early 1970s. Rav Zalman Leib, resides in Williamsburg and occupies the pulpit originally established by the Divrei Yoel upon his arrival in America in 1947. The successor to that pulpit upon the passing of the Divrei Yoel was Rav Zalman Leib’s father, Rav Moshe, author of the Beirach Moshe. Rav Zalman Leib also has a considerable following in Kiryas Yoel, and they, too, have established their own growing school system and chain of shuls.
On the yahrtzeit of the Divrei Yoel today, a massive pilgrimage of Yidden will visit his kever. More than 100,000 Yidden are expected to visit the ohel where the Divrei Yoel is buried. In addition to the kever of the Divrei Yoel‘s wife, Rebbetzin Alta Feiga Teitelbaum a”h, the ohel also contains the kever of the Beirach Moshe, whose yahrzeit is on Nissan 26.
During the course of the day, thousands of people will pass through the ohel. Many will shed tears in earnest prayer, beseeching the rebbe to intercede on their behalf for good health, shidduchim and livelihood, for themselves and/or their loved ones. Many will deposit kvitlach (petition requests) as well. Chassidishe rebbes, rabbonim, roshei yeshiva and others will be found in the crowd, waiting on line to enter. The cemetery has become a requisite stop on the map of many Yidden all year long.
In earlier times, the Beirach Moshe held the yahrtzeit tish in the huge main shul of Kiryas Yoel. Beginning in 1999, the Beirach Moshe held the yahrtzeit tish in the late afternoon, after visiting the ohel during the day, near his summer residence in Swan Lake. Rav Aharon, his older son and then Kiryas Yoel rov, conducted his yahrtzeit tish in the main shul of Kiryas Yoel. After the Beirach Moshe was niftar, the yahrtzeit tish continued being conducted by Rav Aharon and Rav Zalman Leib in the two different locations.
{Rabbi G. Tannenbaum-Machberes/Dovid Bernstein-Matzav.com Newscenter}
