My Rebbe, My Rebbi  

The chassidim of Rav Mordechai Dovid Unger knew their new rebbe was a gaon and tzaddik with the entire Torah at his fingertips. But he also became a pillar of support for his community and beyond, urging them to detach from worthless materialism and to focus on bringing nachas ruach to the holy rebbes who preceded him. Eighteen years in, as Bobov-45 is flourishing, the Rebbe is a fount of inspiration for his own kehillah, and for all those facing today’s grueling challenges

It’s Friday night in Boro Park, and on the second floor of a corner building on 45th Street and 15th Avenue, over a hundred bochurim are gathered as they listen to the man sitting at the head of the table, speaking from the depths of his compassionate, fatherly heart — a star mechanech who has boundless love for his students:

“V’achaltem lachmechem lasova… lachmechem, your bread, is Torah. If you eat your bread to satiation, if you invest yourselves entirely in the Torah hakedoshah, in the morning with a shiur iyun, in the afternoon with a shiur bekius, in the evening with halachah, mussar, and chassidus, and every spare minute in between is spent learning — then ‘v’yeshavtem lavetach b’artzechem.’ You won’t need to worry about the nisyonos of the earthy, material nature that is ingrained in each person. It won’t disturb your avodas Hashem.”

These moments were the peak of my visit to the Bobov-45 empire, my shtreimel concealed behind the tight rows of chassidic bochurim with their “shich un zocken” and “fertel shich” (their knee socks worn with chassidic “quarter” shoes, a slip-on with a low front), a window into one of the most modest chassidic courts.

Those moments illustrated for me, more than any abstract description, the unique figure of their leader, the Bobov-45 Rebbe. Far beyond his astonishing success in establishing an empire of Torah and chassidus that has thousands of followers is his extraordinary ability to fuse his many roles. From being a leader of chassidim who adhere to his every word to the compassionate father figure whose heart is open to the chassidim nonstop; from the lofty figure to whom the chassidim are bound to the ascetic oved Hashem who detaches himself from materialism; from the gaon who has all of Torah at his fingertips to the venerated maggid shiur who dances with joy at another chiddush.