The Foundational Roots of Sefer VaYoel Moshe!
The First Teshuva on the Laws of the Three Oaths in the Holy Handwriting of the Satmar Rebbe – A Fierce Clarification Against Joining Agudah!
Four Large Pages in the Holy Handwriting of the Satmar Rebbe, written before the war in the city of Satmar. This is the very first teshuva in which the Rebbe elaborates on the halachic foundations of the Three Oaths and the severity of the prohibition against joining Agudas Yisroel, which aligned itself with the Zionists.
A Precursor to Sefer VaYoel Moshe
In this early teshuva, the Rebbe already lays down the fundamental principles that he would later repeat and expound upon for decades, warning of the severe prohibition and grave danger of assuming sovereignty before the arrival of Moshiach. Many years later, the Rebbe would expand on these topics at length and in great detail in his seminal sefer, VaYoel Moshe.
This teshuva was published in Shu”t Tiv Levav (Siman 7) and in Igros Maharit (Siman 1). There, in a footnote beneath the text, the publisher writes that the Rebbe authored this teshuva only once and instructed his personal aide to copy and send it whenever he was asked about this issue.
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“The Torah Shall Not Be Changed” – The Cause of the Holocaust
It is well known that in the introduction to VaYoel Moshe, the Rebbe explains that the suffering and tragedies of Klal Yisroel during the war were a punishment for violating the Three Oaths. However, the Rebbe did not only write this after the war—even in this holy letter before us, the Rebbe warns explicitly that the Zionists endanger Klal Yisroel by violating the Oaths, which Chazal tell us carries the dreadful punishment of “I will permit your flesh”.
The Rebbe also laments the actions of the Zionists, explaining that because of them, the Arabs and the British government closed the borders of Eretz Yisroel, preventing those who sought refuge from escaping during the darkest times.
Later in the teshuva, the Rebbe alludes to a deliberate omission in the second edition of Shu”t Zikaron Yehuda by the Gaon HaKadosh Rav Yehuda Greenwald of Satmar. In the original first edition, Siman 200, the author had written at great length bemoaning Agudas Yisroel’s actions—but in the later reprint, this teshuva was removed!
The Rebbe, referencing this incident, writes:
"See Shu”t Zikaron Yehuda,
first edition, Siman 200, where the Gaon HaTzaddik Maharig ZT”L, who was Av Beis Din of our city, pours forth his bitter anguish over those who join this Agudah…”
