Progress moving backwards

The Satmar Rebbe was buried early this morning, bd"h. According to some reports, his family members all signed a contract agreeing to every detail of the funeral, most importantly who would be allowed to speak and in which congregation (Williamsburg or Monroe). The internal family struggle doesn't concern or interest me, but when I read this at Modern Orthodox Woman some time back, I was absolutely flabbergasted--I think it's appropriate to repeat today.

When the former Satmar Rav (R'Joel Teitelbaum) died in 1979, his wife eulogized him at his funeral. This came to light during a discussion on whether a women is permitted to speak divrei Torah before a crowd of men in a shul where a sefer Torah is present. One commenter brings the opinion of the Satmar Rav who, in line with the movement's philosophy on women's modesty, considered it strictly forbidden for a women to speak in shul. At his funeral, however, his Rebbetzin spoke at the mike of the main congregation in Monroe before thousands of chassidim and hundreds of Rabbanim. According to the first hand account, the Rebbetzin wept for five minutes in a kol rom. (There should be tapes of the event, but they are obviously kept under wraps.)

I believe something like this in the Satmar community would cause enormous controversy today as well, but a community can only handle so much strife, and chassidim is slowly reaching a breaking point. I doubt anyone signed the Rebbetzin a permission slip to speak at her husband, the great Rav's funeral; I'm also sure that her actions, which directly disobeyed her husband's ruling, were a shock to many and perhaps even an offense to some. But notice that the things that cause a stir today are not indicative of change, growth or breaking from irrelevant or unproductive ways of the past; today's controversies are a very sad reflection of our concerns.

The Invisible Women of Satmar

My title, Tien Mao's photo (HT Dovbear): last night's funeral procession in Williamsburg.