Rav Avrohom Yaakov Freidman of Sadigura

Early years

Rav Avrohom Yaakov Freidman of Sadigura zy"a, known as the Emes L'Yaakov, was born in Ruzhyn, Ukraine, in 1820. His mother was Sarah, and his father was the Ruzhiner Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Freidman (1797 – 1851), who founded the Ruzhin dynasty. Rav Avrohom Yaakov was the second of the family's six sons, and he also had four sisters.

His wife was Miriam, a daughter of Rav Aharon of Karlin.

Torah and leadership

Persecution by the Tsar forced the Ruzhiner to leave Russia in 1840. He brought his household to Sadigura, a town in Bukovina, then under Austrian rule, in the Carpathian Mountains. Over the next ten years he put up a grand residence and a large shul there, and tens of thousands of chassidim were drawn to his court.

On 9 October 1850 the Ruzhiner passed away at the age of fifty-four, and his sons dispersed to set up courts in separate towns. The eldest, Rav Sholom Yosef Freidman (1813 – 1851), stayed in Sadigura to carry on his father's court, but he too passed away, ten months afterward. Leadership then passed to the next son, Rav Avrohom Yaakov, who became the first Sadigura Rebbe.

Like his father, he lived with royal grandeur, with elegant furnishings and magnificent clothing, while devoting himself deeply to Kabbalah. Hundreds of thousands of Jews sought his counsel and blessing. Among the great Torah figures who came to see him were Rav Yitzchok of Vorka, the first Gerrer Rebbe, Rav Yitzchok Meir Alter, the sons of Rav Mordechai Twersky of Chernobyl, and followers of the Sar Shalom of Belz and of the Chozeh of Lublin. People knew him for his sharp mind, his wisdom and his wit.

Princes, counts and writers came as well, and several of them published articles about him in Prague, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna and other cities. In the 1870s Laurence Oliphant arrived with a plan for a fund to purchase Palestine from the Ottoman Empire and settle Jews there. Convinced that the Rebbe was the "leader of world Jewry" and could assist him, he asked for help. The Rebbe declined; he was a Turkish citizen, he said, and traveled on a Turkish passport.

Imprisonment and recovery

The grandeur of the court, and the hope it brought to the oppressed Jewish communities in Galicia, Romania and Ukraine, aroused the jealousy of local maskilim. As they had tried with his father, they sought to bring him down. In 1856 they denounced him to the authorities as a partner of a Jewish forger whom the police had seized. In the forger's possession was a letter from the Rebbe wishing him blessing in all he did.

The Rebbe spent fifteen months in prison, in a cold and damp cell with meager food, and his health suffered badly. When he was freed, his brothers and chassidim held large gatherings of tefillah for his recovery. It is told that a young chossid, Mordechai Mishel of Linsk, asked to bear the Rebbe's illness himself, in exchange for a portion in the World to Come. He took ill that evening and died soon after, while the Rebbe regained his strength and lived many years more.

Eretz Yisroel

The Rebbe urged Jews to settle in Eretz Yisroel. As head of the Kollel Volhynia, he also finished raising funds for the Tiferes Yisroel shul, the Ruzhiner shul in the Old City of Yerushalayim. His father had begun the project and the shul was named after him. It was completed in 1872.

From the Sephardi custodians of Meron and Tzfas he purchased the right to light the main bonfire at the kever of Rav Shimon bar Yochai on Lag BaOmer. Rav Yitzchok Freidman, who became the first Boyaner Rebbe, was his oldest surviving son, and the Rebbe left the honor to him and his descendants.

Later years and passing

Grief came in 1881 with the loss of his son Rav Shlomo Freidman (1843 – 1881), and again two years later with the death of his son-in-law Rav Nochum Ber (1843 – 1883). Both were young men of great promise. The Rebbe, who had always eaten very little, now gave up eating entirely. He passed away on 11 Elul 5643 (12 September 1883), the same day on which his older brother, Rav Sholom Yosef, had died thirty-two years earlier.

He was laid to rest in Sadigura. The same plot holds the Ruzhiner Rebbe, who was his father, and Rav Dov Ber of Leovo (1822 – 1876), who was his brother.

Legacy

Afterward his sons Rav Yitzchok (1850 – 1917) and Rav Yisroel (1852 – 1907) shared the leadership of the chassidim. The brothers were comfortable with this, but many chassidim wished for one Rebbe. In 1887 the brothers decided to cast lots to see which of them would remain and which would depart.

The lot let Rav Yisroel stay in Sadigura as the second Sadigura Rebbe, while Rav Yitzchok relocated to the nearby town of Boyan, where he set up his court as the first Boyaner Rebbe.