Shtefanesht (Hasidic dynasty)
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After the passing of Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhin in 1851, his fourth son, Menachem Nuchem Friedman, born in 1823, settled in the town of Shtefanesht, Romania, and subsequently founded the Shtefanesht Hasidic dynasty. In 1869 he died and his only son, Avraham Mattisyahu succeeded him.
Reb Avraham Mattisyahu was born in 1847 in Sadigura. At the behest of his grandfather he was named Avraham after Reb Avraham HaMalach his direct ancestor, and Mattisyahu after Mattathias Maccabee as he was born during the festival of Hanukkah.
In 1862 he married the daughter of Reb Yitzchok Reich.[1] Eleven years past without her conceiving at which point they divorced and Reb Avraham Mattisyahu remarried his cousin Sarah Zipporah, a daughter of Reb Yosef Mansohn of Berdychiv[2] who had been widowed by her husband Reb Aharon Schorr of Berdychiv. She brought three children into the marriage.
In 1869 aged 21, his father Reb Menachem Nuchem died and after much pleading and approval of his uncle Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Friedman, (1820-1883, the 1st Rebbe of Sadigura), Reb Avraham Mattisyahu agreed to fill his fathers position, a role he held nearly 65 years.
He was considered to be one of the hidden tzaddikim of his generation. His influence over Romanian Jewry was immense and he had a large following which numbered in the thousands. Reb Avraham Mattisyahu died on the 21st Tammuz 1933 and his funeral was held in town of Iaşi. As he was never blessed with offspring, Reb Avraham Mattisyahu had invited Reb Menachem Nuchem of Itskani to Shtefanesht in order to succeed him. However, he died a few months before Reb Avraham Mattisyahu‘s own passing.
In 1969 his remains were transferred to the cemetery in the Nachalat Yitzhak neighborhood of Tel Aviv for reburial in the Ruzhin plot.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ A son-in-law of either Reb Asher Yeshaya of Ropshitz or Yechiel Rubin, son of Reb Asher Yeshaya of Ropshitz
- ^ Son-in-law of Rabbi Yisroel Friedman, husband of Gitl Friedman.
[edit] Sources
- Ner Yisrael, vol. 6, (Chaim Dov Stern), Bnei Brak, 1994.
- Encyclopedia Lechasidut, (Yitzchak Alfasi), Mossad Harav Kook, Jerusalem, 2005
