Mordechai Hager


Rabbi Mordechai Hager - 16 March 2018, was the Admor of Vizhnitz Hasidic sect for 46 years, and had a following of tens of thousands of chassidim.

Biography

Early life

He was born in Grossverdein to Rabbi Chaim Meir Hager, later the Vizhnitz Rebbe, and Margalia, the daughter of Rabbi Ze'ev Twersky, the Admor of Rachmastrivka.
From his childhood, he followed his grandfather, the Admor Rabbi Yisroel Hager. At the age of 18 he went to study for a short period with Rebbe Yoel of Satmar. Reb Mottele also learned in Pupa under the late Pupa Rebbe.
He married Figa Malka, the daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Twersky, Zt"l, late Skverer Rebbe. After she died without children, he married her younger sister Sima Mirel and together they had 14 children, 8 sons and 6 daughters.

After World War II

After the Holocaust, on the 29th of Adar 5708, he arrived in the United States with his father-in-law and began serving as a rabbi of Vizhnitz Hassidim in the United States, first in Boro Park and later in Williamsburg.

Monsey

After a short while, he announced that he did not want to live in the crowded city and moved to Monsey.
After his father's death in 1972, his two sons were appointed as Admors of Vizhnitz as well, Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager as Rebbe in Israel, and Rabbi Mordechai as Rebbe in the United States.
He established the Kaser village in Monsey in 1990 so it could build denser housing.
He met with US President Jimmy Carter together with Rabbis Shlomo of Bobov and Moshe of Satmar.
At the time of his death, he was the oldest Hasidic rabbi in the world. He was known for his devotion to learning Torah: he studied 18 hours a day and asked his Chasidim to study at least two hours every day. He had about 30,000 followers internationally.
During the last months of his life he was hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where he died on March 16, 2018. His funeral left the central Beit Midrash of his Hasidic sect in Monsey, "Levush Mordechai," on the eve of the Sabbath, and tens of thousands participated. During the funeral 72 US Dollars was distributed, according to his will to every Torah student who studied in the kollel, and his followers were asked to learn a Gemara page every day during the year. He was buried beside his son in an Ohel in the Vizhnitz cemetery in Monsey.

Views

Rabbi Mordechai Hager had a world view similar to that of his grandfather, the Admor Rabbi Yisroel Hager. During Seudah shlishit he used to protest against loopholes in religion. He had forbidden his followers to carry on Shabbos in Boro Park and Williamsburg, despite the Hechsher given to the local Eiruv by some of the city's rabbis. He would object to eating ice cream at the end of the meal, due to halakhic doubts regarding the laws of the brokhoys before enjoyment, and also for the purpose of celibacy of the pleasures of this world which is worthy of the servant of God, as he has clarified several times. He would object to being photographed, and even appealed to the editorial offices of the Haredi newspapers not to publish his pictures. In addition to keeping a very strictly kosher diet, he was personally a pescatarian ovo-lacto-vegetarian, although he never expressed the main reason for this practice, and did not encourage others to follow his example.

Family

His wife died about a decade before him. After his death, his seven sons and one grandson were appointed to succeed him as rabbis in their respective communities.