87 Bachelors Engaged After Rebbe's Purim Blessing

This week, as the Jewish calendar turned to the month of Tammuz, chassidim tallied the results with astonishment: not 80, but 87 bachelors from the Vizhnitz Monsey community had become engaged since Purim, a figure that exceeded even the Rebbe's original blessing.

Rabbi Steiner immediately returned to the Rebbe's private chambers to share the miraculous news. But the badchan's visit carried another purpose: he noted that one particular age cohort within the yeshiva remained largely unmatched, with older bachelors still awaiting their salvation.

The Rebbe's response demonstrated the same spiritual confidence that characterized his Purim promise. Without hesitation, he issued a new blessing: by Rosh Hashanah, an additional 50 bachelors from that older cohort would find their matches, b'siyata d'Shmaya (with Heaven's help).

Historic Meron Pilgrimage Takes Shape

The engagement wave comes as the Vizhnitz Monsey chassidus prepares for what community insiders describe as an unprecedented spiritual journey: a mass pilgrimage of yeshiva students to the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, scheduled for Shabbat Parshat Ki Tavo in the coming month of Elul.

The Rebbe announced the trip last year during the month of Av, stunning hundreds of students at the Vizhnitz yeshiva in Nyack with the news that he would personally accompany them to the holy site in Israel, a gesture typically reserved by chassidic courts for major donors and community leaders, not students.

The pilgrimage represents the Rebbe's distinctive approach to honoring Torah scholarship. In previous years, he has organized similar trips for students to graves of European tzaddikim, treating yeshiva bachelors with the same reverence other courts show their wealthiest supporters.

Logistical preparations have reached extraordinary scale. Two charter flights from the United States have already been fully booked with Vizhnitz Monsey chassidim, marking what sources describe as an unprecedented mobilization in the court's history. Registration for a third charter flight opened this week in response to overwhelming demand.

The trip is restricted to students who maintained consistent attendance and successfully completed examinations covering two years of Talmudic study.

On Thursday, the Rebbe's grandson Rabbi Zev Hager traveled to Meron alongside prominent chassid Rabbi Chaim Meir Gafner to conduct an advance inspection of the site. The delegation met with production coordinators Yisrael Shnur and Levi Klugaft to finalize arrangements for what promises to be a Shabbat that will be remembered in Vizhnitz annals for generations.

Vizhnitz Monsey Chassidim view the fulfilled blessing as validation of their Rebbe's spiritual stature and a harbinger of continued divine favor as they prepare for the historic journey to the Land of Israel.

The story has resonated far beyond Vizhnitz circles, circulating rapidly through haredi communities worldwide as an example of emunas tzaddikim — faith in righteous leaders — and the power of blessing issued at moments of spiritual elevation.