Sacred Silver

Among the dozens of holy items that were passed from father to son in the Puppa dynasty is the pure silver menorah used by the Puppa Rebbes to kindle their Chanukah lights. The menorah is unusual in that it can be transformed into candlesticks for Shabbos and Yamim Tovim which the Puppa tzaddikim used throughout the year.

The story of the Puppa menorah is the story of the wanderings and rescue of the dynasty itself told by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Neiman ztz”l av beis din of Belz in Montreal who was a student of the Vayaged Yaakov (Rav Yaakov Chizkiah Greenwald ztz”l the second Puppa Rebbe) and of his son the Vayechi Yosef (Rav Yosef Greenwald ztz”l the third Puppa Rebbe who after losing his wife and ten children in the Holocaust rebuilt the Chassidus in the United States).

With the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry innumerable holy manuscripts and responsa were destroyed. But among the objects that were rescued was the menorah that the Vayaged Yaakov had received from his students which they had constructed especially for him. It was passed down to the Vayechi Yosef and today is used by the current Puppa Rebbe shlita. This menorah — which can only be considered a borderline antique — is especially tall and majestic which is not always the case with older menorahs of previous generations. On its back are engraved the words: “Mishloach manos to the holy Rebbe shlita from his faithful students of Puppa 5698 [1938].”

With the division of the inheritance of the Vayechi Yosef his son Rav Aharon Greenwald — brother of the current Puppa Rebbe shlita and dayan of the Kehillas Yaakov community of Puppa — received the menorah.