חסדי ה'. בעסערונג ביים רבי'ן. 11 AM מיטוואך

New York - Aides sitting vigil with Satmar grand rebbe Moses Teitelbaum at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan say he's still gravely ill but has improved since yesterday.

"His blood pressure is holding up. All other tests are improving," Joseph Deutsch, the rebbe's personal paramedic, said this morning outside the intensive-care unit where the 91-year-old spiritual leader lies unconscious. "So there is hope."

It was a more upbeat assessment than what Satmar community members circulated on Tuesday, when the rebbe fell unconscious and was placed on a respirator. He had been admitted to the hospital on Thursday for an infection he developed while receiving radiation treatment for a spinal tumor, aides say.

Aides and family members remained gathered this morning in a waiting room outside the Mount Sinai intensive-care unit. Among them was the rebbe's former butler, Moshe Wertheimer, who said Teitelbaum had regained some ability to breathe on his own.

"He's only on the respirator 35 percent today," he said. "He's breathing 65 percent on his own."

Shortly after he spoke, two sons of the grand rebbe who are bitter rivals and potential successors to the throne narrowly missed crossing paths on the steps outside the Upper East Side hospital.

As Zalmen Teitelbaum, chief rabbi of the main Satmar congregation in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, prepared to pull away onto Fifth Avenue in a black sport-utility vehicle just after 10:30 a.m., his brother Aron - leader of the dominant Satmar congregation in Kiryas Joel - pulled up in a black Cadillac and swept into the hospital with his entourage. No words were exchanged.

The two brothers, whose warring legions of supporters are locked in an endless court battle for control of the Williamsburg congregation and its assets, have waited together in the same hospital room since their father was stricken but haven't spoken, Wertheimer said.

When the rebbe passes away, both factions agree there will be two funerals - first one in the Satmar synagogue in Williamsburg, then a second in Kiryas Joel, where Teitelbaum will be buried beside his uncle and predecessor, Satmar founder Joel Teitelbaum. Thousands of mourners are expected to pour into Orange County for the Kiryas Joel ceremonies.