[Page 126]

Sandz was a small city where the Jewish population was predominantly orthodox. The city was basically devoid of industry and was a relatively small, dormant city where life flowed like the three rivers in the city. Then appeared on the horizon a Jewish scholarly star named Rabbi Chaim Halberstam, originally Halberstadt.^[1]

Rabbi Halberstam then remained for the rest of his life in Sandz from 1830 to 1876 and became known affectionately throughout the world as Rabbi

“Chaimel the Sandzer.” Sandz became a center of Hasidism^[2] with the residence of Rabbi Halberstam. Not only Hasidim of Galicia came to the court but also Hasidim from all over Eastern Europe. Thousands of Hasidim came to the rabbi on Saturday and holidays from Galicia, Slovakia, Carpathian Russia, Hungary and the other parts of Poland. Together with the Hasidim also came famous rabbis and pious Jews, especially from the center of Galicia.

The economic factor cannot be minimized. The thousands of Hasidim that visited the rabbi had to eat, sleep and buy some souvenirs to bring home. The city's business community dominated by the Jewish merchants benefited tremendously from the large inflow of visitors to the city. The city of Sandz became a familiar place on the Jewish map. Even the Polish railway placed special trains at the disposal of the Sandzer Hasidim when there was a special occasion.^[3]

All of his daughters married Hasidic rabbis in Galicia. The family became a very influential force in Jewish life in Galicia. The influence of the family was extremely powerful among the Jewish masses in Galicia. The rabbi himself assumed the leadership of Hasidism in Galicia and shaped it into a powerful instrument of conservatism. In many respects he accepted pragmatism but when it came to religion or religious tradition he would not budge an iota from the past.^[4]

Rabbi Chaim Halberstam passed away in Sandz on April 19, 1876, three days after Passover. His son, Rabbi Aharon Halberstam, was appointed Rabbi of Sandz. The funeral was a massive event in Sandz. Many stores closed, most yeshivas and study halls stopped studying that day. A special memorial building was designated and built at the cemetery of Sandz for the rabbi. The rabbi was buried in the center of the hall. Later, his son Rabbi Aharon Halberstam, would be buried on the Rabbi's right side and Rabbi Myer Nosom Halberstam on the Rabbi's left side. Added were the Rabbi of Siniawa, Rabbi Moshe and his son Rabbi Rabbi Leibush Mordechai. These five graves were fenced in.

The memorial building where Rabbi Chaim Halberstam was buried in Sandz (Courtesy of Yad Vashem archives)

The memorial gravestone of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

The gravestone of Rabbi Arieh Leibush Halberstam (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

The gravestone of Rabbi Shulem Halberstam (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

Tombstone of Rabbi Yechezkel Shrahgai Halberstam (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

The tombstone of Rabbi Mordechai Ze'ev Halberstam and Rabbi Baruch Halberstam (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

The renovated memorial building of the Halberstam family in Sandz (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

Memorial plaque in honor of Yaacov Miller, a native of Sandz who came from Sweden to supervise the remodeling and reconstruction of the Halberstam memorial building in Sandz (Picture donated by Jean Krieser of Paris, France)

Notes:

1. Rabbi Chaim Halberstam was born in the city of Tarnogrod in the Lublin region in 1793, the year of the second partition of Poland. His father, Arieh Leibush, was a great scholar and later assumed the post of “moyre–hoyroe” or spiritual supervisor of Przemysl. His mother, Miriam, was the daughter of Rabbi David in Brod. On his father's side, he was a descendant of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh. According to tradition, the rabbi altered his name to Halberstam in order not to grant recognition to a non–Jewish place (Halberstadt is the name of a German town). Rabbi Chaim traced his paternal lineage to the “Maharashal” or Solomon Luria (1510–1574), one of the great Ashkenazi teachers of his time] and on his mother's side to the learned Rabbi, the Chacham Tzvi Ashkenazi of the 17th century.

   Rabbi Chaim was lame as a child and, it seems, he was lame his entire life. However in the Hasidic tradition of Sandz, the story is told that the “belfer” or assistant teacher hit him on his leg, causing a permanent injury. Tradition also has it that he cursed the assistant teacher all his life. Even as a young student he displayed great intellect and erudition and was famous as a great ilui or Talmudic genius. At the same time, he was fascinated and drawn to Hasidism. His first Hasidic rabbi was Yosele Halewi, a brother of the “Hozeh” or “Seer” of Lublin who lived in Tarnogrod.

   Rabbi Chaim was so impressed by him that he continued to visit him until the “Hozeh” passed away in 1814. Even after his death, Rabbi Chaim always honored the memory of the Rabbi of Lublin and frequently quoted him or his writings and referred to him as our great saintly Rabbi of Lublin.

   His great Torah idol was the rabbi and head of the Yeshiva of Leipnik in Moravia, present day Czechoslovakia: Rabbi Baruch Teumim Frenkel, who later became world famous as the author of the “Baruch Teum” book. Rabbi Chaim Halberstam married, at the age of seventeen, the daughter of the Rabbi of Leipnik, Rachel. He lived with his father–in–law for a full year and studied at his yeshiva. At the home of the Leipniker Rabbi, Halberstam developed a great interest in the book “More Nevuchim” – Guide for the Perplexed – by the Jewish religious philosopher Rabbi Maimonides. He continued to study Maimonides and became very familiar with his rational philosophy.

   At the age of 18, Rabbi Chaim Halberstam was appointed Rabbi of Rudnik in central Galicia. The place was near the shtetl of Ropczyce where the famous Rabbi Naphtali “Ropshitzer” lived. The relationship between the two rabbis was very smooth despite the great age difference. The older rabbi treated the young rabbi as an equal. Rabbi Halberstam fell under the spell of the Ropshitzer Rabbi, adopting many of his views, notably with regard to charity, and the combination of Hasidism with scholarship. All three elements were basic forms of the Sandzer rabbinical dynasty. Rabbi Chaim always considered himself a student of the Ropshitzer Rabbi and always referred to him as “my saintly teacher and rabbi.” He was imbued with the intelligence of the Ropshitzer court and borrowed from it many tunes that he brought to Sandz.

   Following the death of the Ropshitzer Rabbi in 1827, Rabbi Halberstam became restless and decided to leave the small hamlet of Rudnik. In 1828 he was invited to become “moyre tzedek” or righteous teacher of Sandz. The offer of rabbi could not be made since there was a rabbi functioning, in the person of Baruch ben Moshe Dawid Landau. Rabbi Halberstam did not accept the invitation. He left Rudnik for the small shtetl of Zolin in the same area. He remained for a short period of time in Zolin and moved to the city of Kalow in Hungary where he remained rabbi for two years. He finally accepted, in 1830, the position of Rabbi of Sandz when the officiating rabbi passed away. return

2. The city of Sandz became a Torah center. Rabbi Halberstam alone headed a yeshiva until age 70 and only then hired a supervisor to continue with the job. The first head of the yeshiva was Moshe Shmuel and when he died, the post was assumed by Fishel Gorlitzer (the father of one of the rabbi's biographers, Raphael Raker). Besides the yeshiva, the rabbi wrote and published a great many publications that spread the Hasidic word throughout the Jewish world with his questions and answers letters. He received many questions pertaining to Jewish law and answered them. He became renowned as an authority on “Halacha” or Jewish religious law. A great, steady stream of questions reached the rabbi's court from practically every Jewish community in Galicia. His answers were published and became familiar to the Jewish world. Sandz became a Hasidic and Torah center that inspired Jewish communities throughout Eastern Europe and even beyond. return
3. To Rabbi Halberstam the concept of charity was one of highest pillars in his kind of Hasidism. He not only espoused the concept but practiced it daily himself and saw to it that his Hasidim also adhered to it. He had a list of poor people and each morning distributed charity. He also used to distribute money to poor people who surrounded him. On his return from morning prayers he would usually distribute money to poor students who waited for him so that they could save and buy themselves shoes or clothing. Following evening prayers he distributed charity to the poor visitors (those invited to partake of the supper meal) with him. Saturday evening the rabbi would distribute money to the poor Jews so that they could have the traditional final meal of the day. The rabbi himself ate the meal on Sunday morning. On the fast of Esther and on the eve of the Sukkoth holiday, the rabbi would distribute large amounts of money. He would say that God loved the poor people and so did he.

   The rabbi never liked money hanging about the house and always distributed it among the needy. This beautiful concept of charity was deeply ingrained in his personality. The concept was not only derived from the Hasidic predecessors like the Baal Shem Tov but there is also a direct reference to it in the Talmud where there is an inference to the fact that rich people merely hold the money to be distributed to the needy. Many Hasidic courts indeed became vast charitable institutions that received vast sums of money and distributed them to the needy in the form of money or food, such as the large meal gatherings at the homes of the rabbis.

   Rabbi Halberstam not only distributed charity but was also a very capable organizer of various schemes to raise money for charity. Chanukah or Purim would be excellent occasions to organize special affairs to raise money for charity. The Sandzer court was a very effective money raiser for the poor. The rabbi also took great interest in the weddings of the poor. He encouraged his followers to help entertain the bride and groom. When he was invited to the meals that followed the wedding of an orphan, he would always make sure that there was wine on the table (the wine was usually provided by the burial society where his grandson Shloymele was an active member, musician and a jester).

   Rabbi Chaim Halberstam married three wives in succession. The first two were daughters of the Leipniker Rabbi mentioned above. He had a large family as one can see by looking at the genealogical chart. The rabbi had seven sons and seven daughters. The sons were:
   

   Rabbi Yechezkel Shragai Halberstam (1814–1898), Rabbi of Siniawa
   Rabbi Duvid Halbershtam (1821–1894), Rabbi of Chrzanow
   Rabbi Myer Noson Halberstam (1827–1855), father of Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam , the first Bobover Rebbe
   Rabbi Aharon Halberstam (1828–1903), succeeded his father in Sandz
   Rabbi Borouch Halberstam (1829–1906), Rabbi of Gorlice
   Rabbi Shulem Lazer Halberstam (1862–1944), Rabbi of Ratzfert, who was murdered by the Germans in the Shoah
   Rabbi Yeshaye Halberstam of Czchow (1864–1944), who was also murdered by the Nazis.
   Aryeh Leibish Halberstam, died at age of 7 return

4. He opposed education, even Jewish education. He vehemently supported the traditional “cheder” system and the yeshiva. Although himself an erudite scholar, he did not support such ideas for the majority. He insisted on absolute faith and devotion to it without hesitation. He wrote extensively and interpreted religious law. He answered and solved many theological questions that were written to him from many places. He has volumes of questions and answers that reveal a great deal of the period in question. He was accepted as a religious authority and as leader of the Jewish community of Galicia, especially the smaller townships. He was basically opposed to industrialization and sought the delay of implementing modern means of communication like the train. return

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