Who is afraid of Gur ?

B"H

When you ask people about Chassidut Gur (Gerer Chassidim), almost everyone is going to tell you the same things. Even the Gerer Chassidim themselves.

The Gerer Rebbe is the absolute number one in their society. What the rebbe says is law. No discussion about that.
Gur is like an army and they stand behind their rebbe. No matter what.

And, the Gerer Chassidim are very much into modesty (Zniut). Unfortunately, they do not allow women coming to the rebbe's Tish. Instead I was offered to come to the synagogue. The Zniut laws make it almost impossible to talk to a Gerer chassid in the street, and I am very lucky to know a few of them, as I sometimes buy in a shop run by the Gerer. They were very excited when I told them that I am writing about Chassidut and, of course, emphasized the importance of their rebbe. In other words, Gur is the most important Chassidut in the world.

Recently I asked them about the Gur - Satmar connection and one of the Chassidim gave me a long list of how the previous Gerer rebbes had all met with the Satmarer rebbes. Also when Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum lived in Israel (in 1946), he met with the Gerer rebbe at that time. Both sides keep up the connections until today but, as far as I found out, only the rebbes are in touch. The Chassidim are not although they see each other all the time in haredi areas in Jerusalem.

People sometimes wonder how a woman is able to get in touch with Chassidim such as Gur or others. Let me tell you from my experience that it very much depends on the circumstances. It is easy talking to Gur in the shop but it makes it even easier when the Chassidim see that someone knows something about religion and Chassidut. Especially someone female. Then they become curious and want to know more. And after that stage, they suddenly have friends who can add some more information and so on. And Gur is no exception.