אברהם יעקב פרידמן

Rebbe Avrohom Yaakov Friedman of Sadigura (20 Cheshvan 5580/1819–11 Elul 5643/1883) was the second son of the holy Ruzhiner, Rebbe Yisrael of Ruzhin, and the founder of the Sadigura dynasty — the principal heir, in his generation, of the royal derech of Ruzhin. He married Miriam, daughter of Rebbe Aharon of Karlin, the Beit Aharon. When the Ruzhiner — driven from Russia by the Tsar’s persecution to the Austrian town of Sadigura — was niftar in 5611, and his eldest son Rebbe Sholom Yosef followed within the year, Rebbe Avrohom Yaakov took up the leadership, and led it for exactly thirty-two years.

He kept his father’s court in its full malchut — the palace, the splendor, the bearing of royalty — and within it lived a life immersed in Torah and the hidden wisdom; the joining of the two drew hundreds of thousands to Sadigura, and the great men of the generation came to see: the Chiddushei HaRim of Ger, the sons of Chernobyl, the talmidim of the Chozeh and of Belz. He knew suffering as well as splendor: imprisoned on a slanderous charge from Nisan 5616, his release on 23 Tammuz 5617 is kept as a day of celebration by Sadigura and Boyan chassidim to this day; and the great machloket of those years over the royal derech of Ruzhin swirled about his court without bending it.

He was know for his great love of Eretz Yisrael and its inheritance: like his father he headed Kolel Volhynia, sustaining the chassidim of the Land, and by his exertions the Tiferet Yisrael shul in Yerushalayim — begun in his father’s day and carrying his father’s name — was completed. He was niftar on 11 Elul 5643 and rests in Sadigura beside his father. His sons carried the crown onward: Rebbe Yitzchak, the Pachad Yitzchak, founded Boyan, and Rebbe Yisrael, the Ohr Yisrael, succeeded him in Sadigura.