Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum Superstar

B"H

If anyone in New York or elsewhere wants to know how Jerusalem received the Satmarer Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum won't be too surprised: Mea Shearim and Ge'ulah were celebrating and running wild to see him.

Of course, my friend and I wanted to see the Satmarer Tish as well. As we are not in Williamsburgh or Kiryat Yoel, we do not have any possibility to see a Satmarer Tish. So we ran to Mea Shearim at 11 pm last night. We entered Rehov Mea Shearim through Shivtei Israel. Toldot Aharon as well as Toldot Avraham Yitzchak are still on vacation. However, the street was packed with people.
The only thing we knew so far was that Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum had set up a huge tent at Kikar Supnik. But where was Supnik ? A look on the map didn't help and also other friends had no idea about the location.

We decided to follow the crowd and were right. People ran to Supnik which turned out to be a schoolyard I had known before. Right at Kikar Shabbat and in front of the offices of the Edah HaCharedit.
On our way we met a very nice lady with her three children. She was laughing when she heard that we are going to the Satmarer Rebbe. "Too crowded, no chance", so she said. She told us that 1000 Satmarer Chassidim came from New York and that Rebbe Aharon still hast lots of followers in Jerusalem. Although people say that most of his followers are in Bnei Brak and that his brother Zalman Leib rules about Jerusalem.

She was from Twerski and told us about other different chassidic groups which get along even if they are at war. When I asked her how the two Satmar groups get on in Jerusalem, she said "Mistadrim - they manage".
However, it was great of her taking us to Supnik where we were standing in front of a huge tent. Thousands of people were there from all kinds of chassidic groups. Even Chassidei Gur were there as well as litvishe haredim and the national religious.

The tent had a women's and a men's entrance and we were streaming into the women's entrance. It was unbelievable; people everywhere, everybody was pushing and squeezing himself inside. The rows where the Chassidim stood were packed. People even tried climbing up the poles of the tent. They were hanging down just to see the Rebbe.
Well, we gave up and walked out. But outside the same story. People, people, people. Mea Shearim was there and it turned into a social meeting. Especially the women were standing with their kids outside and talking to each other.
The men didn't give up and tried getting into the tent. Without any success. In the end the tried to lift up the tent cover in order to have a look inside. It didn't really work too well. Unfortunately,we didn't hear what was going on inside, as the generators for the air condition were too noisy.

Then we decided to move on to the Tish of Chassidut Dushinsky. We had just arrived and 15 minutes later, their Tish was finished. The Rebbe said "Gut Shabbes" to all his Chassidim and left.

Back to Satmar. In the meantime everything got much worse. More people had arrived. Same picture everywhere. Men trying to get into the tent and women socialising outside. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was great and people behaved well. No one got crazy or anything. More or less, everybody was very disciplined.
According to rumour, Rebbe Teitelbaum will be in Bnei Brak tomorrow.
Actually we will be also in Bnei Bral tomorrow. Not because of him but to get some further information about Shomrei Emunim, Vishnitz, Sadigora, etc.

To all the Satmarer Chassidim: Rebbe Aharon Teitelbaum surely had a great time in Israel and was very much welcomed by the religious. He should come more often !!!