For the past few weeks, I have been complaining about many Rebbes being on their summer vacation and how hard it was, finding a Tish in Mea Shearim. Well, this wasn't the case last Friday night.
The great holiday of Rosh HaShana is coming up and, Baruch HaShem, Jerusalem is packed with chassidic Rebbes. Spending the high holidays in the Holy City is always something special and I don't envy you at all living abroad. I know too well how it is spending any Jewish holiday in Chutz La'Aretz. An acquaintance of mine always likes to call it "Shmutz La' Aretz".
It might be different in Brooklyn, London or Antwerp but if a religious Jew lives in Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Cape Town or anywhere else, as soon as he leaves the synagogue he is in a different goishe world. Traffic, stores, church bells, etc. Business as usual and no holiday atmosphere.
Anyway, last Erev Shabbat we first went to the Tish of Toldot Aharon. As usual. But also in their synagogue, one can already feel the coming up holiday. The Tish was packed with Chassidim and I suppose that all the Toldot Aharon members who live in Beit Shemesh are moving to Jerusalem over the Chagim.
The women's side upstairs wasn't too busy and most Toldot Aharon women had stayed at home. The usual benches were taken away and will be replaced by regular benches before Erev Rosh HaShana.
One of the female members told me that Toldot Aharon don't have any particular customs on Rosh HaShana. The prayer service is according to chassidic custom a little different but that's about it.
After an hour we went on to the Shomrei Emunim synagogue in Mea Shearim Street. As I already mentioned before, we had been to their synagogue but at that time, there wasn't a Tish. Rebbe Avraham Chaim Roth lives in Bnei Brak and he is 84 years old. He doesn’t come to Jerusalem too many times in order to give a Tish. So, last Friday night we were lucky and the Rebbe was there.
The women's entrance to the small Shomrei Emunim synagogue is a little hard to find and if you ask anyone in the street, no one really knows anything about the group. The Shomrei Emunim are a small chassidic group since they split away from Toldot Aharon in 1947.
We climbed upstairs over shaky dark stairs in the synagogue's backyard. As soon as we opened the door, a women anxiously made us a sign to keep quiet. Not that we ran in making noise or anything. However, it seems that whenever their Rebbe speaks, sings or does anything, the group members keep quiet and listen.
At Todot Aharon or Avraham Yitzchak the women talk and sometimes it rather seems like a social event, but the women of Shomrei Emunim only whisper.
It was a very nice Tish but more for the men than for the women. We were squeezed in behind a terrible Mechitzah and could hardly see the Rebbe. If you don't catch a place in the front row behind the Mechitzah, you are lost. No chance of seeing the Rebbe singing or making Kiddush. We just took a glimpse. Of course, you can stand at a different place but from there you only see the Tish and the other Chassidim.
The women don't seem to be used to visitors and we were being watched for some minutes. Nevertheless, as soon as the Rebbe started singing, the whole attention went over to him. Despite his age he has a great loud voice and we liked their songs. What we didn’t like was the tight Mechitzah.
The Shomrei Emunim Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Chaim Roth
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