Hundreds of Hasidim and community figures gathered Wednesday night in the large study hall of the Shevet HaLevi court in Bnei Brak’s Zikhron Meir neighborhood to celebrate the wedding of the rebbe’s granddaughter to the grandson of the Shaatz rebbe, the son of Rabbi Yisachar Dov Moskovitz. The bride is the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Eliezer Wosner. The ceremony was the first time since the Hasidic dynasty was founded that a family wedding was held inside the main beit midrash on Rabbi Dessler Street.
The decision was intended to set an example of reducing wedding expenses for the rebbe’s descendants and for followers, as is customary in other major courts. Ahead of the event, the rebbe summoned community organizers and gave strict instructions because the wedding was taking place in the sanctity of the study hall. He ordered that women not enter the hall at any time during the celebration, including during the traditional mitzvah tantz, when the bride and women were to remain only in the adjacent lobby and outer entrance. He also instructed that a proper halachic partition be erected between the ark and the eastern honor table.
The rebbe cited his grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, author of Shevet HaLevi, recalling his fiery remarks at the funeral of burned Torah scrolls in the main beit midrash of Kiryat Vizhnitz, where he blamed the tragedy on disrespect for the holiness of the study hall. The rebbe said the duty to guard the venue this time was therefore doubly important. He also asked the musicians and orchestra to sing only sacred melodies composed by God-fearing performers.
During the celebration, a striking and unexpected political moment emerged amid the nationwide car protest that had paralyzed roads across Israel that same day. One of the official protest signs reading “עד כאן” was brought into the wedding hall, and the Shevet HaLevi rebbe himself lifted it high before the hundreds present, using it to encourage the crowd’s singing. The moment drew particular attention when the guests sang “He is our King and we are His servants” as the rebbe waved the sign. The festive evening, attended by dozens of leading rabbis and rebbes, ended in the early hours of the morning with the rebbe’s mitzvah tantz before the bride.
