Person · 5608–5693 AM · 1848 CE — 1933 CE
Rabbi Avraham Matityahu Friedman of Shtefanesht רבי אברהם מתתיהו פרידמן משטפנשט
the second and last rebbe of Shtefanesht; the tzaddik of silence
The son of Rabbi Menachem Nachum; he took the court in 1869, at twenty-one, and led it until his death—sixty-four years, longer than anyone in the house of Ruzhin.
Silence. The Ruzhin reserve he carried to its limit: he hardly spoke words of Torah, received people in silence, and in that silence people saw strength. Romanian Jewry—and not Jewry alone—came to him for blessing.
The end of the court. He had no children. After his death on 21 Tammuz 5693 (1933) the court did not continue, but the pilgrimage to the grave at Shtefanesht did not cease; decades later his remains were moved to Eretz Yisrael.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- The chronicles of the house of Ruzhin — the silence, the childlessness, the end of the court
Scholarship
- Reference works on the chasidic courts of Romania — the dates and the reburial
Basis: documents and evidence.