These words were said in פרשת בא, תשי"ז. Many of you may have heard it over the years, but figured it was hearsay, or exaggerated to a certain extent. But here it is.
שווארץ אויף ווייס.
"מי אני ומה אני to admonish the Jewish people." But I cannot be silent, being that
I am the only one - there is nobody else to assist me. If not for the
Satmar Rov saying it again and again, reprimanding the Jewish people,
"there would not be a minyan of Jews who believe in G-d."
Now, if you ask a
Satmar talmid he'll tell you that the
Rebbe zichroyne livruche means to say that all Jews who did not believe like him didn't believe in G-d
fully, because they were tainted by heresy. Namely ציונות. So it's not such a major statement. Kind of like the
vort from
Reb Chaim Brisker: נעבאך אן אפיקורס איז פארט אן אפיקורס. I suppose we can count the
Brisker Rov and his sons, and
Reb Amrom Bloy in his
minyan, since they were all still alive. Other than that all the few hundred
Edah'nikkes and
Toldos Ahron'ers would also not have been clean and pure.
Yossel Ashkenazi doesn't make the cut, in my opinion, either. Nor does any of the tier 1
gedolim who lived in
Eretz Yisroel in 1957. Like the
Tchenibner Rov and the
Gerrer Rebbe. You can assume that he waited until the passing of the
Chazon Ish a few years before
, and the
Belzer Rov the previous summer, to make such a statement, otherwise the world would be up in arms. So to be fair let's say that he's only counting those who were alive at the time. Those who passed away already didn't need him to teach them right from wrong.
There would less than ten true G-d fearing Jews alive in 1957 were it not for him making his points over and over again. The late
Ponovizher Rosh Yeshiva (d.
2002 2001) like to say that he always looked over his shoulder to see what the
Satmar Rov was saying, to keep him from going overboard in his quest to juggle the issues that
Haredi Jewry faced in the Holy Land. But it seems like that didn't suffice for the SR.
So I ask my many
Satmar friends here: did the SR mean this in a literal sense? that all those who are tainted by ציונות - vote in elections, take Government money, etc. -
do not believe in G-d? and if he wasn't being literal what else falls into that category? What else did he say that he didn't REALLY mean?
