The Ribnitzer Rebbe's Silk Kippah

The Ribnitzer Rebbe's Silk Kippah

"It will be an adornment of grace on your head" (Mishlei 4:9)

White silk kippah, sleeping-kippah worn for many years by the Admo"r Rabbi Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz - "the Ribnitzer Rebbe" when he would go to bed.

Books and stories relate the well-known fact that all items which belonged to tzaddikim are a tried and true segulah. Most of all, a kippah - for a kippah is designated to increase fear of Heav-n, as it says in the gemara: "כסי ראשך כי היכא דתיהוי עלך אימתא דשמיא" ["Cover your head so that you will have fear of Heav-n"]. This is also the reason for the adornment of covering a baby's head with a tzaddik's kippah during his ritual circumcision. There is a special virtue to this sleeping-kippah, as it is known that the time spent sleeping by tzaddikim is a time their souls ascend to wander in the upper worlds. It is brought in the name of the Ar"i, z"l, that during one night's sleep he acquired secrets of the Torah that he would not manage to write in even 70 years.

The Admo"r Rabbi Chaim Zanvl Abramowitz [1898-1996] was known as "The Ribnitzer Rebbe" or "The Rimnitzer Rebbe." He was wondrously righteous and holy. It was said about him that he was "a tzaddik from previous generations." He was orphaned of his father at the age of two and a half. The wondrous tzaddik Rabbi Avraham Matityahu Friedman, "The Rebbe of Shtefanesht," who did not have any children of his own, adopted him and raised him as his own son. He would say to him, "You are my chiddush."

He was totally dedicated and nothing deterred him from fulfilling a mitzvah. He would devotedly circumcise Jewish children in Communist Russia - even the sons of senior government officials, occasionally without their fathers' knowledge. A well-known story: Once, the wife of a senior officer in the Red Army asked the rebbe to circumcise her son, without her husband's knowledge. He went there with his friend, the Chabad mashpi'ah Rabbi Mendel Futerfas. Rabbi Mendel was the sandak and the rebbe was the mohel. After the circumcision, the baby did not stop bleeding and the mother started crying out loudly. The four of them were in mortal danger. The rebbe threw his tallit over himself and the baby together and prayed: "Master of the Universe, I came here to observe your mitzvah. Please do not shame me." And the baby miraculously stopped bleeding. 

The rebbe would break through the layer of ice above the lake and though the resulting hole, he would immerse himself in the river underneath, taking the mortal risk that he might not find his way back up. Until his old age, he used to immerse himself many times in the mikveh, and would do so astonishingly quickly.

In Russia, the Ribnitzer Rebbe had two close friends with whom he studied many Talmudic topics. (He said of himself that at 18 years old, he knew the entire Talmud with Rash"i's commentary.) All three friends eventually became leaders among the Jewish people: the Rebbe, the Admor of Skver, ztz"l, and the Admor of Skulen, ztz"l.

He was known as having divine inspiration and as being a salvation-worker. Thousands came to him and were saved by his blessings. He passed away at an advanced age, close to a hundred years old. Masses visit his grave in Monsey on the day of his yahrtzeit, as well as other days. One of his well-known Chassidim is Mordechai Ben David, who dedicated the song 'Oy Rebbe' in his album Ein Od Milvado to him, and also Yvette Lieberman, for whom the Rebbe of Ribnitz was the mohel.

Diameter: 18 cm; very fine condition. Sweat marks.

Signed confirmation included from the Admo"r's attendant attesting that this is the Admo"r of Ribnitz's kippah.