New / old demonstrations and a new Tish

B"H

As usual, my friend a me went to a chassidic Tish in the Mea Shearim neighbourhood last Leil Shabbat. First we wanted to go to Rabbi Mordechai Machlis for dinner. As we passed Shivtei Israel Street in Mea Shearim, we found the street blocked for the traffic. Well, the whole neighbourhood is usually shut down for traffic on Shabbat but this time, also the road nearby was closed by the police.

The reason was that another demonstration was taking place. At 7.30pm, the Toldot Aharon group planned a gathering right in front of the police station on the Russian Compound. They were demonstrating for those haredim who got arrested at the anti - Gay Parade demonstrations in the town of Beit Shemesh and who are still sitting in jail. Some chassidic kids tried to provoke the police but nothing further happened.

After finishing dinner we went back to Mea Shearim. It is anything but easy finding a chassidic Tish these days, as most of the Rebbes went away for their summer vacation. Already during the week, a friend of mine told me about a chassidic group having a Tish. So, we ended up going to the Slonim, a group I hardly knew about. However, I try to gather more information about them and then write an article.

When my friend and I go for a Tish, we always face two problems. The first one is finding out if also women are permitted to the Tish, and the second problem is finding the women' s entrance into the synagogue. Sometimes this is not as easy as you might think.
Exactly those two problems we were facing in front of the Beit Knesset of the Slonim in Mea Shearim. The building seems to be almost brandnew and it has coloured very nice looking windows.

No one else was in the street so we walked up and down in order to find someone to ask. Suddenly we saw some women coming and followed them. However, we were too slow and lost them. Then we ended up choosing the wrong entrance and three men walked in as well. They almost fainted when they saw us. Nevertheless, we did not get stoned but were rather told in a nice way where we could find the women's entrance.

The women sit on the second floor and when we arrived, we hardly found any women. Later, I was told that the Slonim in Jerusalem have the custom that their women do not participate in the Tish. However, some of them were there, including some guests.

If one looks at the Slonim he might get the impression that they look very similar to the Gerer chassidim. But there are differences. Especially the shape of the head, the Streimel and the way they wear their pants.
The Slonim seem to be very disciplined and all of them were waiting what the Rebbe did. Did he start to sing or give out wine. No one dared to speak but just concentrated on the Rebbe.
Many guests entered the men's section. One of the reasons was that there was hardly another Tish available.

What we realized was that the Slonim have a doorman near the entrance to the men's section. Someone told me that the reason for this is that they were facing problems in the past. Litvaks and other outsiders came in and started trouble.
We could see that. As soon as a young Litvak group walked in, the doorman jumped on them and obviously told them to behave.

As far as we saw, the Rebbe did not have a meal and neither made Kiddush. They passed around some wine and had a LeChaim. Kugel and cake was also available. Not for the women, I have to add. We were lucky that we had eaten already. One thing we did miss - the air-condition. The men had one downstairs, upstairs we did not.
We only stayed for a little more than an hour and that is why I cannot say too much. The songs sounded rather sad but there was one thing we really liked. At a certain time, many chassidim lined up in front of the Rebbe and bowed down to give him Kavod. This is a very nice Minhag, I have to say.
We are planning to go back to their Tish and stay longer.

After we left the Slonim, we walked down to the Dushinsky group. Unfortunately, we were told that they did not have a Tish that night. What a surprise ? Everything is shut down before Tisha Be' Av.

We walked up Strauss Street again and passed the Satmar construction site. In Elul, the Satmarer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, is coming to Jerusalem to lay the foundation stone for a new 10 - floor - apartment complex. As we passed the exact site we could hear loud disco music. About 150 Meters far away, Satmar is going to face a Russian disco with noisy music. Once the apartment building will be finished, Satmar has to react in order to have a quiete Shabbat.