About the Rebbe
The Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe of Yerushalayim, Rebbe Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel שליט"א
In Yerushalayim, at the heart of Beis HaMedrash Ostrov-Kalushin, stands a Rebbe with a burning heart. A person feels it before he is told it.
The Rebbe is a son of the Ostrov-Kalushin dynasty. His father, Reb Dovid Spiegel זצוק"ל, led the Bais Medrash of Cedarhurst in the Five Towns for decades. He is the son-in-law of the Tolna Rebbe of Yerushalayim שליט"א. Three years ago the Rebbe established a beis medrash in Yerushalayim, and it has since filled with chevra, with yungeleit, and with talmidei chachomim.
And it is not only the kehilla that comes. Through the day the Rebbe receives whoever knocks. An eitzah, a brachah, a few minutes of his attention. The door opens, and so does he.
Received Without Being Asked
The first thing that meets a person at the door is the achdus.
Nobody asks him who he is or where he belongs. Every face here is known, and every Yid who walks in is received as one of the kehilla. The davening carries a hislahavus and a sweetness that is hard to put into words, and there is a neginah in the room that holds both the Torah and the tefilla.
What a man finds here does not stay behind when he leaves. It goes home with him.
Where a Man Can Be Himself
The Rebbe built it to be real.
A person walks in and is himself. He davens where he is holding, says it plainly, without fear that someone is taking his measure. That is not the accident of a friendly room. It is exactly what the Rebbe wants.
The Rebbe has one goal above all. That every single chassid should understand and find what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants from him, and do it. From him, as he actually holds. Not from someone else.
A man can find many shuls. He comes to this one to find the sweetness in his own avodah.
With the Chassanim
For years the Rebbe has taken chassanim under his wing through the first stage of marriage. Not only the chassanim of the kehilla. Any young man in the area who comes to him.
He teaches them derech Hashem and the chashivus of building a home, so no young couple walks the early road alone. They have someone to turn to, and someone who hears them.
The Kinderlach
The Rebbe holds a place for the kinderlach as well.
Heilige kinder grow up here with a Rebbe and a Rav, mekushar to Torah and avodas Hashem from the time they are small. A child who has that early does not have to go searching for it later.
How the Beis Medrash Came to Be
The Rebbe established the beis medrash in Yerushalayim three years ago, to carry forward the legacy of the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbes.
He built it to fulfill the vision of the dynasty's founder, Reb Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel זצוק"ל, who taught that the road across the ocean to America was, in truth, the road back to Yerushalayim.
He meant it plainly. The journey out was never the destination. The chassidus went to America in order to come home to the holy city.
What was carried to America is now planted again in Yerushalayim.
The Kehilla, and the Five Towns
The Ostrov-Kalushin name is carried on two continents by one family.
Today the dynasty is held by two brothers. Reb Yosef Spiegel שליט"א, the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe of Cedarhurst, leads the beis medrash there, in the same Five Towns where their father led for decades. Rebbe Naftuli Aryeh Spiegel שליט"א, the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe of Yerushalayim, leads here.
One mesorah, two batei medrash, held between them across the ocean.
Where the Rebbe Learned
The Rebbe learned:
- under his father, the Ostrov-Kalushiner Rebbe זצוק"ל
- under the Chernobyl Rebbe שליט"א
- under the Gaava"d of Yerushalayim, Rav Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss זצ"ל
- under HaRav Shamai Kehas HaKohen Gross שליט"א, Dayan on the Badatz Machzikei Hadass
- under his father-in-law, the Tolna Rebbe of Yerushalayim שליט"א