Shever Poshim [vehement polemics against R. Dov Baer Friedman of Liova and his supporters, the Chassidim of the various branches of the Rizhiner dynasty]

A rare pamphlet concerning the dispute between the two Galician Chassidic dynasties of Sanz and Sadigora. Most copies of this first edition were destroyed and it was later republished with other pamphlets under the name Yalkut HaRoim. At the center of the controversy lies the tragic figure of R. Dov Baer Friedman of Liova (1817-76), son of R. Israel Friedman, the famed Rebbe of Rizhin, who turned from Chassidic Rebbe to Maskil. This act of “apostasy” brought down the wrath of the preeminent halachist R. Chaim Halberstam of Sanz upon the entire Rizhiner dynasty. When in turn, Nissan Bak and other Rizhiner Chassidim in Jerusalem declared a ban (“cherem”) on R. Chaim Halberstam, numerous outraged rabbinical figures (including many Mithnagdic rabbis) rose to the defense of their colleague R. Halberstam, who was broadly regarded as one of the “poskei hador” (halachic decisors of the generation). For details concerning this controversy, see Y. Raphael, Aresheth, Vol. VI pp. 211-21 and especially D. Assaf, Hezitz VeNifga (2012).