The Kiryas Joel Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum visited Otisville federal prison on Monday December 15, the day before Hanukkah started, and while there reportedly spoke about the power of spiritual freedom.
Above: Kiryas Joel Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, left. Sholom Rubashkin, right.
Kiryas Joel Satmar Rebbe Visits Otisville Prison, Rubashkin Serves As His Translator And Gabbai
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The Kiryas Joel Satmar Rebbe Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum visited Otisville federal prison on Monday December 15, the day before Hanukkah started, and while there reportedly spoke about the power of spiritual freedom, COLLive reported today.
Otisville is the go-to federal prison for Orthodox and haredi prisoners and about 20 Jewish inmates in the medium security facility – including former Agriprocessors glatt kosher slaughterhouse VP Sholom Rubashkin – met Teitelbaum in the prison chapel and prayed Mincha with him.
Teitelbaum spent about an hour overall speaking with each Jewish inmate individually.
Rubashkin – who is serving a 27-year sentence for dozens of counts of financial fraud and for perjury – acted as Teitelbaum’s translator to English when necessary and as his ad hoc gabbai.
"Sholom Mordechai welcomed him in English. The Rebbe said Divrei Torah [Torah thoughts] in Yiddish and Sholom Mordechai translated it into English. And when they came to give 'kvitlach' [blessing and payer notes given to hasidic rebbes by hasidim] he helped as well,” a Satmar source told COLLive.
According to the report, in his most recent email to his family, Rubashkin reportedly wrote about what he sees as the "contradictions and opposites" that can be found in "the place called prison."
"Starting with the opposites used to 'bring' the prisoner to the 'correctional' facility which in truth is a punitive facility, where a person's soul is constantly being destroyed, where the body is hardly fed enough food, and "served' in a 'Dining Hall' under flowery names that hide more than reveal. [Prison is a place] where prisoner's clothes is called a 'uniform', and a prison cell is referred to 'home'; Where the claim is to promote family ties, yet the phones time with a child is limited to an impossible 9 minutes a day; Where torture of 'Solitary Confinement' is called 'Special Housing' and is for the person's 'Safety’,” Rubashkin reportedly wrote.