Late at night after chatzos, he came home – if you could call it a home. It was a tiny hole in the wall, abandoned, filthy, and unkempt. There he continued his avoda undisturbed. He normally never let anyone into his tiny room. Only in his later years when the need arose we came in and saw what went on in there. The holy Zohar with the Ramak, Rav Moshe Cordevero’s commentary, lay alongside the Sefer Yetzira, Siddur Arizal, Noam Elimelech, and other sifrei Kabbola that he studied on a regular basis. In his pocket was always a copy of Raziel HaMaloch. His Siddur Arizal was filled with comments and glosses in the margins, things he wrote while others slept.
His other forms of strange customs were avodas Hashem. He used to gather the wax drippings from all the tapers and candles in the Bais Medrash. He collected the wax, melted it down, and fashioned new candles from it. He would sit beside the recycled wax candles and recite Tehillim until they melted down. He used to tell me that the neshomos ask that the wax get used up completely. Around where he sat the smell of melting wax was ever present.
He also smoked cigars, but never allowed anyone to see him do so. If someone knocked or appeared he immediately put out his cigar. When asked why no one was allowed to see him smoke he replied that the ketores was lit and smoked privately.
I once visited with Rav Shmuel Mordechai Portugal, the son of the Skulener Rebbe. I asked Reb Moshe to gave a berocha to the father of the yungerman who stood before him. He replied, “Sholom al Yisrael,” hinting at the Skulener Rebbe’s name, a person he had never met.
After my wedding I had children – girls but no boys. I once visited with my brother-in-law, who asked Reb Moshe to bless me with a baby boy. “He has a long way to go,” was the answer. It was true – I had my first boy only twenty years after my chasuna.
During Tishrei of 5789 people spoke about the condition of the Satmar Rav. Reb Moshe interjected that “they will let him live out the year,” and so it was that only on 26 Av, at the end of the year, the Satmar Rav passed away.
