Al HaGeulah VeAl HaTemurah – First Edition – Brooklyn, 1967 – Polemic Work Following the Six Day War

Al HaGeulah VeAl HaTemurah – First Edition – Brooklyn, 1967 – Polemic Work Following the Six Day War

Al HaGeulah VeAl HaTemurah, collected discourses by R. Yoel Teitelbaum, Av Beit Din of Satmar. Brooklyn, New York: Sender Deutsch, 1967.

First edition of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum's famous polemical work against Zionism. In the work, written in the wake of the victory of the State of Israel in the Six Day War, the Satmar Rebbe exposits his anti-Zionist views at length. He claims that the victory in the war was not from the forces of holiness, but from the forces of impurity. He rules that it is forbidden to visit the holy sites conquered in the war, such as the Western Wall and Rachel’s Tomb, because “the heretics boast that they managed to conquer the holy sites with their power and strength… By going there, one greatly supports them”.

The work itself was written by disciples of the Rebbe of Satmar (based on discourses he delivered on Shabbat over four Seudah Shelishit meals in 1967, the Torah portions Naso, Behaalotecha, Shelach and Korach), apart from the long introduction at the beginning of the book which was written by the Rebbe himself (of which he once said that he wrote it with the blood of his heart, not with ink).

[3], 4-209, [1] pages. Approx. 23 cm. Good condition. Original binding, somewhat worn.

Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum of Satmar (1887-1979) was the youngest son of Rebbe Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, the Kedushat Yom Tov (1836-1904), and grandson of Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda, the Yitav Lev (1808-1883), who both served as rabbis of Sighet (Sighetu Marmației) and were leaders of Chassidic Jewry in the Maramureș region. He was renowned from his youth as a leading Torah scholar of his generation, for his perspicacity and intellectual capacities, as well as for his holiness and outstanding purity. At a young age, he was appointed rabbi of Irshava. In 1925, he was appointed rabbi of Karoly (Carei; in place of R. Shaul Brach who went to serve as rabbi of Kashoi), and in 1934, of Satmar (Satu Mare). In all the places he served as rabbi, he also maintained a large yeshiva and Chassidic court. He stood at the helm of the faithful, uncompromising Orthodox Jewry in the Maramureș region. He was one of the founding pillars of the Torah world in the generation following the Holocaust. After surviving the Holocaust, he emigrated to the United States, where he established the Satmar Chassidic community. He served as president of the Eda HaCharedit in Jerusalem, and as leader of Orthodox Jewry in the United States and throughout the world. His writings were published in dozens of books: VaYoel Moshe, Responsa Divrei Yoel, Divrei Yoel on the Torah and more.