New York, USA - The dispute over which son of Moses Teitelbaum will succeed him as the grand rabbi of the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews raged in and out of court for the last six years of his life.
Some stood on window ledges Tuesday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, hoping to see inside for the reading of the grand rabbi's will.
Rabbi Teitelbaum's death on Monday night appears unlikely to bring the controversy to a close. If anything, the battle seems to be escalating.
Less than two hours after the rabbi died — as tens of thousands of mourners went through the streets of Satmar enclaves for his funeral in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and his burial in Orange County — supporters of the rabbi's eldest son, Aaron Teitelbaum, obtained an order from a judge in Orange County Court.
To an untrained eye, the order appeared aimed at maintaining civil decorum during the mourning period that will follow — "a community-friendly purpose," as a spokesman for Aaron Teitelbaum's faction put it.
But supporters of the third of the rabbi's four sons, Zalmen Teitelbaum, saw in the order a sneak linguistic attack intended to solidify Aaron's claim to power. So yesterday, they went to court themselves, this time at the appellate level, and emerged with a ruling that struck much of the wording to which they objected.
The volleys continued into the evening. The Satmar rabbinical court proclaimed that Moses Teitelbaum, in his will, had named Zalmen to succeed him. A spokesman for Aaron's supporters, Richard J. Schwartz, said that it was the Satmar board of directors, not the grand rabbi or the rabbinical court, who would appoint the next grand rabbi.
And so the bitter struggle continued, even as 100,000 Satmars the world over mourned the loss of their longtime leader. People who have been observing the dispute for years do not expect a quick capitulation by either side.
"Since 2001," said David M. Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, "every facet of this disagreement has ended up in the civil courts. I would expect that the issue of succession will go there, too."
The stakes are high both materially and spiritually. The Satmars, a fast-growing sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, based in Williamsburg but spread around the world, run a vast private school system. They also have real estate holdings worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a famed matzo factory and a network of social services.
Like other Hasidim, the Satmars vest tremendous authority in their grand rabbi; he is the arbiter of every aspect of their spiritual lives as well as the community's guiding voice.
Moses Teitelbaum, who was 91 when he died, named Zalmen the head of the sect's main synagogue in Williamsburg in 1999. Years before, he had named Aaron head of the congregation in Kiryas Joel, a Satmar settlement in Monroe, N.Y., about 55 miles northwest of Manhattan. Both brothers are in their mid-50's.
Zalmen's supporters, most of whom live in Brooklyn, said the Williamsburg appointment made him the logical successor to the grand rabbi. Supporters of Aaron, most of whom live in Kiryas Joel, disagreed.
The dispute has occasionally erupted into violence. More than two dozen people were arrested in a fight in the Williamsburg synagogue last year after the judge in Orange County, Stewart A. Rosenwasser, issued another ruling that supported Aaron's position.
Despite the gathering and dispersing of huge crowds yesterday, there was little unrest. Before dawn in Kiryas Joel, the roads were jammed with the procession taking Rabbi Teitelbaum's body to the cemetery. Onlookers stood on the window ledges outside the grand rabbi's residence on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg in the afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the reading of the will.
Several men who were inside said that Zalmen requested God's blessing in leading the sect and asked, "Who am I to take over this holy seat?"
In the courtrooms, the jockeying went on as ever. Judge Rosenwasser's order on Monday night instructed the New York Police Department to assist the board president of the pro-Aaron faction, Berl Friedman, "in generally carrying out his duties and obligations as president."
The wording echoed a decision that Judge Rosenwasser issued in February. But that decision was appealed, and in March, an appellate panel stopped it from taking effect until appeals were resolved. The lawyer for Zalmen's supporters, Scott E. Mollen, called the new order "an obvious effort to do an end run around the appellate division's order of March 2006."
Yesterday afternoon in Brooklyn, a judge in the appellate division, Justice Joseph Covello, struck the parts of Judge Rosenwasser's order that granted powers to Mr. Friedman.
Mr. Schwartz, the spokesman for Aaron's supporters, said he hoped that the appellate ruling would not affect the mourning process.
"Now that some of the controls have been removed from the initial ruling," he said, "we trust that all members of the community will continue to behave as orderly and peacefully as they have thus far."
David Weber, one of the thousands of mourners who gathered outside the grand rabbi's residence, said that while the question of who succeeds Moses Teitelbaum was crucial, peace was paramount.
"We hope whatever is going to be, will be very peaceful," he said. That, he added, would be "the best way to honor the rebbe."