The "bekeshe" (kapota cloak) of Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam, author of Shefa Chaim of Sanz.
Ornamented cloak. Satin-silk and synthetic threads with a synthetic lining.
The rebbe, author of the Shefa Chaim donned this cloak for about ten years and then gave it as a gift to his mashbak (assistant) R. Avraham Yitzchak Gutfreund. Enclosed are authorizations signed by the son of R. Avraham Yitzchak Gutfreund confirming that, "This is the 'tisch bekeshe' worn by the Rebbe, author of the Shefa Chaim of Klausenburg for many years and the Rebbe donned it for the first time at the Birkat Hachamah (blessing over the sun) in 1953, as attested by my father who was his assistant in the US. After the Rebbe moved to Eretz Israel, my father asked for the cloak and the Rebbe gave it to him as a gift".
The Klausenburg-Sanz Rebbe Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam (1905-1994), was a prominent world-renowned rebbe. A holy man, Torah scholar and venerable tsaddik, he taught Torah and was active in many community projects. During the fifty years following the Holocaust, he was one of the primary builders of Torah and Chassidic life. Son of R. Zvi Halberstam Rabbi of Rudni, (son of R. Baruch of Gorlice, son of the Divrei Chaim of Sanz), married to the daughter of the author of Atzei Chaim, R. Chaim Zvi Teitelbaum Rabbi of Siget. After he lost his wife and all his children during the Holocaust, he remarried the daughter of R. Shmuel David Unger Rabbi of Nitra. From his youth, he was famed as an exceptional Torah genius, proficient in the entire Talmud and poskim. A holy person with outstanding fear of Heaven, even during the terrible Holocaust years, he did not lose his G-dly image and while laboring in the camps continued his holy service with all halachic stringencies.
After the Holocaust, he worked to re-ignite the holy spark of the Jewish inmates of the German DP camps. He established rabbinical institutions, synagogues, kosher kitchens and Torah education institutes and would travel from camp to camp to reinforce religious practice and to uplift the broken hearts of the She'erit HaPleita (the Holocaust survivors). Later, he traveled to the US and to Eretz Israel and established the large Sanz Chassidic communities in the US, Jerusalem and Netanya with yeshivas and Torah and chessed institutes. He initiated the founding of the Laniado Hospital in Netanya which until today follow his rulings. In his senior years, he founded the global Mifal HaShas, which tests thousands of Torah students on their knowledge of the Talmud and halacha each month.
His teachings of halacha, Torah and Chassidut are compiled in the series of books: Shefa Chaim, Divrei torah and Divrei Yatziv responsa. His sons and successors are the present Klausenburg Rebbes in Netanya and in the US.
Length: 130 cm. Fair condition. Tears to collar and right sleeve. Missing buttons.