On the occasion of the yahrzeit of his Great grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, Rabbi Yekusiel Yehuda (Zalman Leib) Teitelbaum, Satmar rebbe of Williamsburg, sharply attacked the Belz chasidim who recently reached an agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Education. The agreement will provide special budgets for Belz educational institutions which maintain certain criteria, including higher-level secular studies.
The rebbe said in a Tuesday evening speech that “in our great sins, we see that the things foreseen by the Rebbe Zts’l (referring to the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum) 40 years ago regarding the prohibition of joining atheists and evil apikorsim by receiving budgets from the government, which he called ‘bribes’, have become reality.
“Unfortunately, in recent times those who broke ranks and joined them have deteriorated further to the point that they agreed to place their fate in the hands of the secular government and committed to studying their curriculum in their Talmudei Torah, thrusting a sword into the Torah study of children and bringing impurity into the holy sanctuary, in a way which never happened before.
“We see that things which the tzadikim warned about 40 years ago regarding maintaining alliances with evil people, which were mocked and despised by many, we now see what is happening when Talmud Torah is placed in the hands of the forces of impurity.”
The Admor quoted the Bilgoray Rav, brother of the Belzer Rebbe Zts’l and father of the current rebbe, who said that “Al Tigu B’Mshichai’- ‘don’t touch my annointed ones’ – refers to children in Talmud Torah. The Admor said that his father had understood this to mean that Moshiach will come from a child in Talmud Torah and not an angel from heaven and therefore any minor deviation in the traditional way of education can harm the future Moshiach.
