The return of the final 20 living hostages on Hoshana Rabbah. The arrests of bnei yeshiva and the massive “Million-Man Rally.” War with Iran, missile strikes and extraordinary miracles in Bnei Brak and Arad. Heartbreaking tragedies that left the Torah world reeling. The dramatic ruling in the decades-long Ponevezh Yeshiva dispute and a shocking murder inside Kollel Chazon Ish. And, as the year drew to a close, an extraordinary scene at the White House: the two Satmar Rebbes standing side by side.
As 5786 draws to a close, it is difficult to remember a year containing so many events that seemed, at the moment they occurred, almost impossible to absorb. It was a year of gezeiros and arrests, war and loss, tefillah and chizuk, heartbreak and remarkable yeshuos — twelve months that left an indelible mark on the chareidi community in Eretz Yisroel and throughout the world.
Here is a look back at a year that will not soon be forgotten.
Tishrei
A Hoshana Rabbah of Tears and Joy: The Final 20 Living Hostages Come Home
An extraordinary wave of emotion swept through Klal Yisroel on Hoshana Rabbah, as the final 20 living hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were finally returned to Israel.
For two long years, since the outbreak of the Simchas Torah War, Jews around the world had waited, worried, cried and davened for their return. Their plight had become part of the daily consciousness of Jews everywhere, with countless tefillos offered on their behalf.
Then, on the sacred day of Hoshana Rabbah, as the final peteklach are sealed, the news that so many had desperately awaited finally arrived. The complicated operation was completed, and the remaining living captives emerged from the nightmare of Hamas captivity.
Across the Jewish world, the response was one of overwhelming gratitude to Hashem. In yeshivos, shuls and Chassidic batei medrash, spontaneous singing broke out as Jews expressed their thanks for the tremendous chasdei Hashem and celebrated the fulfillment of the great mitzvah of pidyon shvuyim.
Arrests Rock the Yeshiva World
The closing days of Tishrei brought an entirely different kind of upheaval, as a wave of arrests involving bnei yeshiva sent shockwaves through the Torah world.
Ariel Rosenzweig, a bochur learning at Yeshivas Neveh Eretz in Be’er Yaakov who had only recently lost his father, was arrested while still sitting shivah.
Then came the arrest of Ariel Shamai, a bochur at Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo, who was taken into custody by military police at his home in Ramat Gan.
Shamai’s arrest galvanized the yeshiva world. His rosh yeshiva, Rav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, had just landed in the United States when he learned what had happened. He immediately boarded a flight back to Eretz Yisroel.
A massive gathering was subsequently organized outside Prison 10, led by Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch. In an extraordinary scene, Rav Moshe Hillel delivered a shiur klali there to mark the opening of the winter zman.
Thousands of children from Ateres Shlomo institutions around the country also traveled to the prison area. Rav Sorotzkin addressed them about the battle to secure his talmid’s release and responded to criticism of comparisons that had been made between the campaign for the arrested bochur and the struggle to free the hostages from Gaza.
Cheshvan
Hundreds of Thousands Gather Against the Draft
The arrests ultimately led to one of the largest chareidi demonstrations in recent memory.
At the beginning of Cheshvan, plans were finalized for what became known as the “Million-Man Rally” at the entrance to Yerushalayim, called in response to the arrests and the ongoing battle over the drafting of bnei yeshiva.
Hundreds of thousands poured into the area on Thursday, with many beginning their journeys during the previous night. Knowing that transportation into Yerushalayim would be extraordinarily difficult, participants arrived hours ahead of time.
The yeshiva world was careful not to allow the demonstration to come at the expense of seder. Bnei yeshiva left early in the morning and dispersed among nearby batei medrash, where they learned Seder Alef before proceeding to the rally.
Gedolei Yisroel representing numerous communities and chugim participated from specially prepared balconies overlooking major intersections. The enormous gathering joined in tefillah over the draft gezeirah, amid a declaration that the chareidi community would not accept a reality in which lomdei Torah were taken from the batei medrash and imprisoned.
Dramatic Ruling in Decades-Long Ponevezh Dispute
Later in Cheshvan came a major development in one of the longest and most bitter disputes in the yeshiva world.
After decades of conflict at Ponevezh Yeshiva, Judge David Cheshin, who had spent four years serving as arbitrator between the opposing sides, issued his final ruling.
The decision ordered the faction commonly known as the “Mechablim” to vacate the yeshiva’s campus in Av 5786.
An appeal followed, and Judge Shavach subsequently issued another ruling in Elul, setting Tishrei as the time for the yeshiva operated by that faction to leave the campus.
Kislev
Tens of Thousands Gather With Rav Tzvi Meir Until 4 A.M.
Kislev saw tens of thousands gather for the annual night of chizuk led by Rav Tzvi Meir Zilberberg.
The enormous gathering stretched deep into the night. Until approximately 4 a.m. on Motzoei Shabbos, participants continued streaming forward to undertake personal kabbalos aimed at strengthening themselves in ruchniyus and protecting the sanctity of the Jewish home.
The gathering has developed into an annual event whose influence is felt across broad segments of the chareidi community.
At its center was Rav Tzvi Meir’s approximately two-hour address, delivered in Yiddish. Thousands of special headsets provided simultaneous Hebrew and English translation.
Among the subjects Rav Tzvi Meir addressed was the need for vigilance regarding technology. He also spoke forcefully about the spiritual dangers posed by artificial intelligence, describing it as one of the significant challenges confronting the generation.
Teves
Tragedy After Protest: 14-Year-Old Yosef Eisental Killed
Teves brought a tragedy that shook the yeshiva world.
At the conclusion of a demonstration in Yerushalayim against the draft law, 14-year-old Chaim Yosef Eisental, a beloved bochur at Yeshivas Ohel Torah in Ramot Daled, was fatally struck by a bus.
The inscription subsequently placed on his matzeivah described a young masmid taken in the prime of his youth while returning from a gathering of tefillah held for the preservation of Torah in Eretz Yisroel.
It also recorded the extraordinary wave of chizuk that followed his petirah, as people accepted upon themselves greater diligence in Torah learning, work on their middos, and teshuvah in his memory.
Rav Uri Lupolianski Zt”l: A Life of Chesed Comes to an End
On Thursday night, 19 Teves, painful news emerged from Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim: Rav Uri Lupolianski zt”l, the renowned founder of Yad Sarah and former mayor of Yerushalayim, had passed away following years of illness. He was 77.
Rav Uri enjoyed an especially close relationship with Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l, who held him in exceptionally high regard and viewed him as a trusted representative in matters affecting the broader community.
Those familiar with their relationship knew that Rav Uri’s public activities were conducted under Rav Elyashiv’s guidance. Rav Elyashiv publicly expressed his esteem for his devoted shaliach on numerous occasions.
Despite his enormous accomplishments, Rav Uri remained strikingly unassuming. Shem Shomayim was constantly on his lips. He walked without airs, spoke with humility and treated everyone he encountered with warmth. The smile and pleasant countenance for which he was known remained part of him under virtually every circumstance.
Shevat
Two Toddlers Lost in Romema Daycare Tragedy
At the beginning of Shevat, tragedy struck a daycare center on Rechov HaMem-Gimmel in Yerushalayim’s Romema neighborhood, where toddlers Leah Tziporah Goloventzitz a”h and Aharon Katz z”l lost their lives.
In the immediate aftermath, intense media attention focused on the daycare and accusations were directed at its operators. Parents of children attending the facility later strongly disputed the allegations and said much of what had been circulated was false.
In a letter, parents said their children were feeling the effects of the daycare’s closure and that they hoped operations would resume. They expressed their desire to continue sending their children there, describing the care as loving, devoted and responsible.
The parents also condemned rumors that had circulated following the tragedy, saying they unfairly maligned the daycare workers. They concluded their letter with an expression of grief and a tefillah that such terrible news no longer be heard among Klal Yisroel.
Another Young Bochur Killed Near Komemiyus
Barely a day after the daycare tragedy — and only weeks after Yosef Eisental’s death — another young bochur was killed.
Naftali Tzvi Kramer z”l, 17, a talmid of the Satmar yeshiva in Komemiyus, was fatally struck after returning from a demonstration against proposed autopsies of the two children who had died in the Yerushalayim daycare tragedy.
Police initially presented the incident as an ordinary traffic accident unrelated to the demonstrations in the area.
Video footage subsequently released, however, raised troubling questions about the bus driver’s conduct. Audio from inside the bus captured girls recognizing the approaching danger before the impact and screaming in alarm over the manner in which the vehicle was being driven.
The Rebbe Known as the “Tzinor HaShefa”
Shevat also saw the remarkable rise in prominence of the Krechnif Kfar Ata Rebbe, who became known among some of his American followers as the “Tzinor HaShefa.”
The Rebbe had been quietly elevated following the shivah for his father, the Krechnif-Sighet Rebbe zt”l. But it was an enormous Tu B’Shevat tish in Yerushalayim that suddenly brought him widespread attention.
Dozens — and soon hundreds — were drawn to him. Young and old, baalei batim and bnei Torah, yeshiva bochurim and working men, Jews from strikingly different backgrounds found themselves crowding around the same relatively young Rebbe.
They sang together with intense deveikus and danced with extraordinary enthusiasm. A Rebbe who had previously been known largely within a more limited circle suddenly became a phenomenon attracting Jews far beyond the traditional boundaries of his own chassidus.
Adar
Operation Roar of the Lion: War With Iran and a Deadly Strike in Beit Shemesh
On Shabbos Zachor, the joint Israeli-American offensive against Iran began, in an operation dubbed “Roar of the Lion.”
Israel sustained severe missile strikes in the fighting, with one of the earliest devastating impacts occurring in Beit Shemesh.
Nine people were killed when an Iranian missile directly struck several buildings. Another 28 people were injured, including children; two were seriously wounded, two moderately, and the remainder sustained lighter injuries. At least some of those hurt had been inside a shelter.
Amid the devastation came a striking image.
Shrapnel from the Iranian missile penetrated a Sefer Torah inside the shelter — precisely at Parshas Zachor, the very parshah that Jews around the world had read that Shabbos.
For those who discovered it, the symbolism was impossible to miss: Parshas Zachor, with its command to remember Amalek, had been read on the very Shabbos that war erupted against modern-day Persia — Iran — evoking unmistakable associations with the story of the Megillah.
Nissan
Open Miracles in Bnei Brak and Arad
The war with Iran continued into Pesach, and Bnei Brak experienced numerous missile impacts. Homes were badly damaged, yet numerous families emerged unharmed in what residents described as extraordinary miracles.
In the aftermath, signs of gratitude to Hashem appeared on damaged and destroyed homes, as families publicly expressed thanks for having survived.
An especially remarkable story unfolded in Arad on Erev Yom Tov within the Gerrer community.
Three-year-old Yedidya Rotlevy was blown from the fourth floor of his home by the force of a missile explosion. He plunged downward with a collapsing wall and became trapped beneath debris — yet survived.
When his family was finally reunited with him at the hospital, the little boy innocently described what had happened:
“לא קיבלתי שום מכה, ורק הגיעו אנשים פתאום ולקחו אותי באמבולנס”.
“I didn’t get hurt at all. Suddenly some people came and took me in an ambulance.”
His father, Rav Tzvi Meir Rotlevy, described the terrifying moments after their fourth-floor apartment sustained a direct hit. Racing into the destroyed children’s room, he discovered that two of his children had miraculously survived.
Then he saw that Yedidya’s bed was empty.
The little boy had fallen into the abyss together with the wall.
Trapped inside the devastated apartment and not knowing where his son was, Rav Rotlevy said an extraordinary thought took hold of him.
“מה שעבר לי בראש זה שאת העיר ערד הקים הרבי ה’לב שמחה’ מגור”, סיפר האב. “אמרתי לעצמי: הילד נמצא עכשיו בידיים שלו. איפה בדיוק? אני לא יודע. אבל בידיים שלו הוא נמצא”.
“What went through my mind was that the city of Arad was established by the Gerrer Rebbe, the Lev Simcha,” the father recalled. “I told myself: The child is now in his hands. Where exactly? I don’t know. But he is in his hands.”
Iyar
The Double Tragedy of the Spiegel Family
As Nissan bein hazmanim came to an end and Iyar began, an unspeakable tragedy befell the Spiegel family of Yerushalayim’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
The double catastrophe left the Torah world stunned and brought tears into thousands of Jewish homes.
On Erev Shabbos, at the Sanz beach in Netanya, two brothers — Yissachar Dov “Dubi” Spiegel z”l, 21, and Avraham Yeshaya Spiegel z”l, 17 — were swept into the sea.
They were the sons of Rav Shlomo Spiegel, a rosh yeshiva in Yerushalayim’s Beis Yisroel neighborhood.
The older brother, Yissachar Dov, was pulled from the water in critical condition. Doctors fought for his life for several days as tens of thousands of Jews around the world poured out their hearts in tefillah.
But the terrible decree had been sealed, and Yissachar Dov’s neshamah returned to its Creator.
Even as the family sat shivah, there was still no closure. Search teams continued desperately combing the sea for his younger brother, Avraham Yeshaya.
Days of agonizing uncertainty and tefillah followed.
Then came the devastating news: Avraham Yeshaya’s body had been found in the water.
The grieving family rose from one shivah to accompany a second son and brother to his levayah, before beginning another period of shivah.
The tragedy left an open wound throughout the chareidi community. Jews everywhere followed the family’s ordeal with tears, while marveling at the extraordinary strength with which the family accepted the crushing news.
Sivan
Murder Inside the Beis Medrash: Rav Yishai Por Zt”l Killed at Kollel Chazon Ish
On Erev Shavuos, an act of horrifying violence took place inside Kollel Chazon Ish in Bnei Brak.
Rav Yishai Por zt”l, one of the distinguished avreichim of the kollel, was stabbed to death. He was 52.
The accused killer, Guy Achtlinger, had reportedly repeatedly antagonized Rav Yishai.
Rav Yishai, who possessed a profound reverence for the words of the earlier Torah giants, had prepared a handwritten notice that he intended to post in the beis medrash protesting what he regarded as the degradation of the teachings of the kadmonim. He never had the opportunity to hang it.
Friends remembered Rav Yishai as a person of extraordinary yishuv hadaas. Nothing about him was hurried or impulsive.
Even his modest meals were eaten privately in a quiet corner of the stairwell, slowly and with meticulous cleanliness. Those who knew him said that his presence was always pleasant, his surroundings orderly, and his conduct measured and refined.
An Historic Shavuos in Vizhnitz
Thousands of Vizhnitzer Chassidim from Eretz Yisroel and abroad gathered in Kiryas Vizhnitz in Bnei Brak for an emotional and historic Shavuos in the presence of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe.
The Yom Tov carried an added dimension of simchah with a historic hachnosas Sefer Torah. The Rebbe, who continues to require a refuah sheleimah, had begun writing the Sefer Torah while undergoing medical treatment in Los Angeles.
The hachnosas Sefer Torah began approximately three hours before Yom Tov with a special gathering for the children of the chassidus outside the main beis medrash.
The Rebbe then emerged from his home on Rechov Toras Chaim carrying the Sefer Torah. Lining both sides of the street were dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Yeshuos Moshe and the Rebbe, including family members who had traveled especially from Skver in the United States, holding flaming torches as the procession moved forward.
Mother and Infant Die Following Horrific Crash
Another tragedy during this period became seared into the collective memory of the chareidi community.
Mrs. Ayala Davidson a”h, just 33 years old and the daughter of Rav Aharon Seler, was critically injured in a devastating car accident on Erev Shabbos Parshas Bamidbar while traveling to a postpartum recovery center. Her infant son was killed in the crash.
Resuscitation efforts initially succeeded, and Mrs. Davidson was rushed to the hospital for surgeries and intensive treatment.
For a week, doctors fought to save her.
Near Shavuos, the battle ended, and she returned her neshamah to her Creator.
The tragedy left behind five young yesomim and a grieving husband who had himself been seriously injured in the crash. With chasdei Shomayim, he subsequently emerged from immediate danger and continued his recovery.
Tammuz
Mekubal Rav Amos Kamos Chaim Guetta Zt”l Murdered in His Yeshiva
Shock and grief swept through the Torah world in Tammuz following the murder of the renowned mekubal, Rav Amos Kamos Chaim Guetta zt”l, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Rabbi Yitzchak Chai Taieb in Netanya and rav of the city’s Libyan Jewish community.
Rav Guetta, 75, was stabbed to death inside his yeshiva.
His levayah continued for hours as masses accompanied him to kevurah. In the weeks that followed, his kever in Netanya became a destination for those wishing to daven there.
His matzeivah describes a towering figure devoted to Hashem, Torah and his fellow Jews, who dedicated himself with mesirus nefesh to bringing Jewish hearts closer to their Father in Heaven.
Gur Comes to Prison 10 — and a Vehicle Protest Paralyzes the Country
Tammuz also brought an unprecedented sight in the battle over the arrest of bnei yeshiva.
For the first time, thousands of Gerrer Chassidim traveled from across Eretz Yisroel to the gates of Prison 10 at Beit Lid following the arrest of Yechiel Kutainer, a Gerrer bochur detained at an IDF recruitment office.
The demonstration was organized with little advance notice and was led by the Gerrer Rebbe, who made the special trip from Yerushalayim to the prison.
At roughly the same period came the massive “vehicle protest,” which blocked major arteries across Israel.
Within half an hour of its start, the scale of the demonstration was evident. Traffic was severely affected, the Israeli media devoted extensive coverage to it, workers began leaving their offices early, and workplaces emptied as commuters attempted to avoid becoming stranded.
For those participating, the intended message was unmistakable: the arrests and imprisonment of lomdei Torah would not pass quietly.
Av
Gedolim Convene Over Crisis Facing the Chadarim
In Av, leading Gedolei Yisroel and cheder administrators convened for an emergency gathering to confront an increasingly serious problem: the shortage of qualified melamdim.
The gathering brought together Rav Dov Landau, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rav Dan Segal, Rav Shraga Steinman, Rav Chaim Feinstein, Rav Binyamin Finkel and Rav Shimon Galai, along with prominent community rabbonim from around Eretz Yisroel.
At the center of the discussion was how to strengthen the sacred work of melamdei tinokos shel beis rabban and encourage qualified individuals to enter the field.
The Gedolim called upon community rabbonim to identify and encourage men blessed by Hashem with the necessary abilities to undertake the holy responsibility of educating the next generation — and to view becoming a melamed as a lechatchilah, not as a fallback career.
A person capable of succeeding in the sacred work of teaching Jewish children, they stressed, is a marbitz Torah in the fullest sense, whose importance to Klal Yisroel is immeasurable.
At the same time, parents and the broader community were urged to show greater appreciation and respect for the melamdim whose daily toil and devotion are building the future generations of Klal Yisroel.
Elul
Despite Arrests and Gezeiros, Yeshiva World Opens Elul With Unprecedented Growth
After a year dominated in no small measure by the battle over the draft and the arrests of bnei yeshiva, the Torah world entered Elul with remarkable momentum.
Elul 5786 was an unusually short zman, but one filled with tremendous spiritual intensity. Despite the uncertainty, arrests and continuing gezeiros, the yeshivos opened their doors to extraordinary growth and expansion.
Even as bochurim lived with the possibility of arrest hanging over them, the response inside the yeshiva world was to retreat more deeply into the daled amos of Torah and halachah.
The sounds of learning filling the batei medrash provided their own answer to a turbulent year.
The Picture No One Expected: The Two Satmar Rebbes Together at the White House
And then, in the closing days of 5786, came an image that few in the Chassidic world could have imagined seeing.
The two brothers who lead the rival Satmar communities — the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Aharon Teitelbaum, and his brother, the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum — stood side by side at the White House.
For decades, the division between the two Satmar camps — commonly referred to as the “Aharonim” and “Zalonim” — has been one of the most deeply entrenched splits in the Chassidic world.
Yet there they were in Washington, together, following a handshake and an historic conversation during a visit hosted by President Donald Trump.
At the very end of the year, before the cameras in the seat of American power, a wall that had long seemed virtually impossible to breach suddenly showed a crack.
The symbolism of the moment was difficult to overstate: the trappings of the White House surrounding two of the most prominent leaders of Satmar, brothers whose respective communities have spent decades apart, now presenting an image of unity and brotherhood.
Nor was the encounter merely accidental. It had been arranged in advance, and Rav Zalman Leib approached his older brother and extended his hand.
It was a remarkable image with which to close a remarkable year.
After twelve months of war and miracles, arrests and mass gatherings, terrible tragedies and extraordinary yeshuos, 5786 leaves behind memories that will remain with the chareidi community for many years to come.
May the coming year bring only besuros tovos, yeshuos and nechamos. May it be a year of geulah and salvation, and may we merit in 5787 to report only happy news, b’ezras Hashem.
A kesivah vachasimah tovah.
A gut yohr.
{Matzav.com}
