Portrait of the Rybnitser Rebbe and ways of communication with him

Abstract

The article examines the practices associated with the veneration of the portrait of the Rybnitser Rebbe (Chaim Zanvl Abramovich, 1902–1995) that are currently common among natives of Rybnitsa (now Transnistria). The study is based on field research in Rybnitsa in 2011–2019, as well as on the analysis of hagiographic literature in Yiddish and Hebrew, published in the United States after the death of the rebbe. The ambivalent attitude towards the depiction of the tzaddik is studied in the context of general ideas concerning portraits of rabbis in Hasidism. In many oral narratives, the motive of the constant justification of the practice of referring to the portrait of Chaim Zanvl remains. The image of the rebbe, a portrait printed on canvas, is kept in almost every family that remember the Rybnitser rebbe. The portrait was given to the people of Rybnitsa by the rebbe’s widow, who in the early 2000s collected materials for writing a hagiographic book about her husband. The photograph for the portrait was made in the classical style of rabbinical portraits of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Rebbe is depicted sitting over a holy book, in ritual dresses such as tallit with tefillin on his head, looking straight at the viewer. Despite the fact that it is not customary for Jews to have icons, pictures, etc., the interviews reveal the fact that the portrait of the tzaddik functions precisely like holy image. People talk to the portrait and pray to it; they hang it in a significant place at their homes; they keep it as a card in a wallet or as a small picture on key chains, in cars and on phone screensavers. In addition, for people from Rybnitsa the portrait of Chaim Zanvl becomes an icon of Jewish identity, a tool of social connection within the community and beyond.