Shtefanesht

Shtefanesht was a Hasidic dynasty named for the town of Ștefănești, Romania. It was one of the branches of the Ruzhiner dynasty, together with Bohush, Boyan, Chortkov, Husiatyn, and Sadigura. The dynasty lasted from 1851 to 1933 and had only two Rebbes: Rabbi Menachem Nochum Friedman, a son of the Ruzhiner Rebbe, and Rabbi Avrohom Mattisyohu Friedman, the only son of Rabbi Menachem Nochum. During the latter's reign, Ștefănești became one of the most important Hasidic centers in Eastern Europe. his six sons established their own courts in different towns. His fourth son, Rabbi Menachem Nochum Friedman (1823–1869), moved to the town of Ștefănești in Romania.

Unlike the Jews of Poland and Galicia who were well-versed in Torah study and included many Torah scholars in their midst, the Jews of Romania were simple and uneducated peasants. The Shtefaneshter Rebbes therefore engaged their flock by generously dispensing blessings and openly displaying their powers as baalei moftim (miracle-workers). Their private avodas Hashem (Divine service) was fervent and intense.

Like his father, the Ruzhiner, the first Shtefaneshter Rebbe was a regal figure. Dr. Menachem Mendel Brayer, father of the Boyaner Rebbe, saw the Rebbe during his youth in Ștefănești; according to Brayer, the Rebbe was characterized by "the light jest, the smile, the delicacy, the good cheer, the ability to penetrate without piercing and the ability to touch one point without touching the boundary. Like his father before him, he liked to tell stories of action, but did not have his father's gift for symbolic abstraction". The Rebbe built a palatial house with a large garden in Ștefănești and conducted himself like a king, including the riding of horses. After his death in 1869, the first Shtefaneshter Rebbe was buried in Iași. The area of the former graveyard was later replaced by a public park, and there is no memorial to the first Rebbe. At his brit milah, his grandfather, the Ruzhiner Rebbe, gave him the second name Mattisyohu after Mattathias Maccabee the High Priest. but they divorced after 11 years without children. who had been widowed by her husband Reb Aharon Schorr of Berdychiv. Rabbi Avrohom Mattisyohu adopted her three children; they did not have children of their own.

His influence over Romanian Jewry was immense and his following numbered in the thousands. He was revered by Jews and Christians alike. On his annual visit to Bucharest, all the shops were closed in his honor and tens of thousands of people came out to welcome him. The presence of his court turned Ștefănești into one of the most important Hasidic centers in Eastern Europe.

Three of the ten synagogues in the town were located in the Rebbe's courtyard.

The second Shtefaneshter Rebbe died on July 15, 1933 (21 Tammuz 5693). The grave of the second Shtefaneshter Rebbe became a hallowed pilgrimage site for Jews and Christians alike, attracting thousands of visitors on his yahrtzeit and the depositing of thousands of prayer notes written in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Romanian in his ohel.

In 1968 Dr. Joseph Brayer, former av beis din (head of the rabbinical court) of Shtefanesht and as of 2006 rabbi in the Tiferet Avraham Matitiahu Synagogue in The Bronx, New York, initiated a plan to reinter the Rebbe's remains in Israel. Back in Romania, Orthodox Christian peasants continued to light candles and leave prayer notes in the Rebbe's empty ohel in the hope that the Rebbe would still intercede on their behalf.