25 YEARS LATER: The Historic Moment the Vizhnitzer Rebbe Returned to His Father After 18 Years

25 YEARS LATER: The Historic Moment the Vizhnitzer Rebbe Returned to His Father After 18 Years

Twenty-five years have passed since one of the most dramatic and emotional chapters in the modern history of Vizhnitz reached its extraordinary conclusion: After 18 years of separation from his father and from the center of the Vizhnitzer court, the present Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Rav Yisroel Hager, returned to the home of his father, the Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz zt”l. The photograph taken on Erev Sukkos 5762, showing the Rebbe entering his father’s home for the first time in 18 years, became one of the enduring images of that historic reconciliation. In the weeks that followed, the Rebbe resumed his place within the heart of Vizhnitz, and by Parshas Vayeira of that year, he was once again sitting at his father’s tish for the first time since the long period of estrangement had begun. For many years, the painful chapter was rarely discussed publicly. The events were well known within Vizhnitz, but the Rebbe himself refrained from speaking openly about what he had endured. That changed two years ago, on the first night of Sukkos, when he addressed those years publicly for the first time and framed the entire experience through the prism of emunah and bitachon. “About forty years ago, a harsh decree hovered over all of Vizhnitz, and I was the victim who had to go into exile for 18 years,” the Rebbe said at the time. “During those years I was distanced from my father’s table, and I went through many obstacles. Baruch Hashem, I merited not to fall into the trap of despair at all.” The Rebbe related that during those difficult years, there were people who urged him to accept the situation as permanent. Some suggested that he abandon hope of ever returning to his father’s home and instead establish his own independent institutions and framework. He refused, convinced that the separation would ultimately end and that he would return. When he spoke about the episode two years ago, the Rebbe was also confronting serious health challenges of his own. He drew a direct connection between the hope that sustained him during the 18 years of separation and the emunah with which he approached his illness. “Just as I returned to Vizhnitz even though no one dreamed that I would return, so too I will emerge from the illness, with Hashem’s help,” he said. A month later, on Leil Shabbos Parshas Vayeira, the Rebbe again revisited the events. He recalled that on that very Shabbos in 5762, he had finally merited to once again sit in the presence of his father after 18 years. “I already said that a decree was issued from Heaven upon Vizhnitz,” he said. “I know that it pained my father, of blessed memory, more than it pained me.” Over time, recordings and accounts also emerged of words the Rebbe had delivered roughly three decades earlier, while the separation was still ongoing, at his bais medrash on Rashi Street in Bnei Brak. Even then, while speaking openly about the pain of the situation, he adamantly rejected the suggestion that reconciliation was no longer possible. “There are people who tell me that one can despair and forget that there will ever again be peace between me and my father, my teacher, shlita,” he said at the time. “Baruch Hashem that I do not listen to them, and Heaven forbid to think that way, because this is ‘despair without knowledge,’ and I am certain, with Hashem’s help, that there will yet be peace and I will merit to once again be close to my father, my teacher.” In those remarks, the Rebbe compared his circumstances to those of a person battling a serious illness, explaining that faith and the refusal to succumb to despair provide a person with the strength to continue. Decades later, those words assumed remarkable personal relevance when the Rebbe employed virtually the same message while facing his own medical struggle. When he finally spoke publicly about the old dispute two years ago, however, the Rebbe made clear that he did not want the reopening of the subject to become an opportunity to reopen old wounds or settle accounts. He instructed those possessing archival materials from the years of the dispute to destroy them, declaring: “There is no need to remember the earlier sins of all those who did wrong. We are not occupied with those calculations whatsoever.” At the same time, the Rebbe expressed his gratitude to those who stood beside him during the long years of separation. He mentioned his brothers-in-law, the Belzer Rebbe and the Satmar Rebbe, as well as the numerous chassidim, courts and individuals who supported him, including members of Belz, Ger, Satmar, Vizhnitz-Monsey, Pshevorsk and Tosh. The conclusion of the story remains deeply etched in the collective memory of Vizhnitzer chassidim. On Erev Sukkos 5762, after 18 years away, the Rebbe walked through the door of his father’s home once again. He subsequently resumed his position within the Vizhnitzer court and was recognized as the mamshich. During the years that followed, he served alongside his father, the Yeshuos Moshe zt”l, and after his father’s petirah, he assumed the leadership of thousands of Vizhnitzer chassidim. Chassidim also recount an extraordinary statement attributed to the Baba Sali zt”l from the period when various askanim attempted to involve him in the Vizhnitzer dispute. According to the account, the Baba Sali said, “There is nothing to do. Neither blessings nor spells will help here,” before adding a striking prediction: “The curse will pass after 18 years.” Now, a quarter-century after that unforgettable photograph was taken on Erev Sukkos 5762, the Rebbe’s later reflections have given the image a meaning that extends beyond the history of Vizhnitz itself. When the Rebbe eventually chose to speak about those 18 painful years, he did not present them primarily as an account of a dispute or even of his eventual return. He presented them as a lesson in emunah: that even when circumstances appear utterly closed and there seems to be no conceivable path back, a Yid must never surrender to despair. {Matzav.com}