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Prayers for the well being and good health of R. Jekutiel Judah ben Hayya Mindel Halberstam, Klausenburger rebbe. This small book of prayers, bound in purple wrappers, is unusual and ingenious in that the prayers are comprised of Psalms and arranged so that the initial letter of each Psalm spells the name Jekutiel Judah ben Hayya Mindel.
R. Jekutial Judah ben Hayya Mindel, presumably, although not specifically stated, refers to the renowned Klausenberger rebbe, R. Jekutiel Judah Halberstam, son of R. Zevi Hirsch Halberstam of Rudnik. When his father died the fourteen year old R. Jekutiel Judah delivered the eulogy. He was subsequently brought up by his great-uncle R. Shalom Eliezer of Ujfeherto, studied under R. David Zevi Zehman, and was ordained by R. Jehiel Meir Halstock of Ostrowiece, R. Samuel Engel, and R. Meir Arik. R. Jekutiel Judah married the daughter of R. Hayyim Teitelbaum of Sighet in 1921, and lived with his father-in-law for five years, when he became rabbi of the Hasidic community of Klasenburg. During the war he was sent to Auschwitz, where his wife and ten children were murdered and the eleventh child died of typhus. After the war, working in camps for displaced persons, R. R. Jekutiel Judah soon became widely known as a wonder rabbi. Though it had been the Klausenburger Rebbe’s wish to move to the Land of Israel, he felt that he would be needed more in America and emigrated there in 1947. The Rebbe began a wide scale movement to increase Jewish observance. He founded many Jewish day schools and institutions of higher learning. He launched revolutionary programs for comprehensive study of the Talmud. He created a program called Mifal HaShas, in which students would master thirty folios of the Talmud in one month. His influence permeated areas as far as Canada, Mexico, and Israel.
The Rebbe wrote a 7 volume Responsa covering all aspects of Jewish law called Divrei Yatziv. In the late 1950s, the Rebbe finally was able to get his wish to move to Israel. He emigrated there and founded the Kiryat Sanz community on the outskirts of Netanya. The community is well known for its hospital, the Laniado Hospital, which is famous for its excellent service abiding strictly to halakha. They are also famous for their so called “Haredi beach”, it being one of the places that has separate beaches for men and women. When the Rebbe died in 1994, over 200,000 people attended his funeral. This was not anticipated by the police, even after advice from the Hasidim, causing the entire city of Netanya to shut down for one day.
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