History
After the death of the Kotzker Rebbe in 1859, the vast majority of his Hasidim chose Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter, the Kotzker Rebbe's brother-in-law and his closest disciple, as their new rebbe. At the time, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir lived in Warsaw and led the main Kotzker shtiebel there (on ul. Zelazna). Shortly after accepting the leadership of the Kotzker Rebbe's Hasidim, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir was appointed as Rav and Av Beit Din (head of the rabbinical court) of Ger. Relocating to Ger, he became the founding rebbe of the Gerrer dynasty. During his seven years of leadership, the Chassidus flourished, causing it to be known as the "seven years of plenty".
After Rabbi Yitzchak Meir's death in 1866, his Hasidim wanted his eighteen-year old grandson, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, to succeed him. When Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib refused to accept this position, most of the Hasidim became followers of the elderly Hasid, Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin, formerly rabbi of Prushnits and Krushnevits and now retired to Alexander. After Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh died in 1870, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib (who became known posthumously as the Sfas Emes) acceded to the request of the Hasidim to become their next rebbe. Despite his youth, he was quickly accepted amongst the rebbes of Poland.
The Gerrer movement flourished under the leadership of Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib and his eldest son and successor, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (known as the Imrei Emes). In 1926, in a bold departure for Polish Hasidim, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai established a yeshiva in Jerusalem, naming it for his father, the Sfas Emes. The first rosh yeshiva was Rabbi Nechemiah Alter, a brother of the Imrei Emes. Today the yeshiva remains the flagship of the Gerrer yeshivas. A branch was set up in Tel Aviv, later to be called Yeshivas Chiddushei HaRim.
Read more about this topic: Ger (Hasidic Dynasty)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Indeed, the Englishman’s history of New England commences only when it ceases to be New France.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)