Belz Hasidic dynasty: Encyclopedia - Belz Hasidic dynasty

Belz (Hasidic dynasty)

Belz (חסידות בעלז) is a Hasidic dynasty named after the town of Belz, a small town originally located in eastern Poland, presently in Ukraine. The dynasty dates back to the 19th century.

Belz Hasidic dynasty - History

The founder of the dynasty was Rabbi Shalom of Belz, also known as the Sar Shalom, who was inducted as rabbi of Belz in 1817. A great Torah scholar and legendary miracle worker, Rabbi Shalom personally helped build the city's large and imposing synagogue. Dedicated in 1843, the building resembled an ancient fortress, with three-foot thick walls, a castellated roof and battlements adorned with gilded copper balls. It could seat 5000 worshippers and had superb acoustics. It stood until the Nazis invaded Belz in late 1939. Though the Germans attempted to destroy the synagogue first by fire and then by dynamite, they were unsuccessful. Finally they conscripted Jewish men to take the building apart, brick by brick.

When Rabbi Shalom died in 1855, his youngest son Rabbi Joshua of Belz (1855-1894), became the next Rebbe. Belzer Chassidut grew in size during Rabbi Joshua's tenure and the tenure of his son and successor, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I)(1894-1926).

Unlike other groups which formed yeshivot in pre-war Poland, Belz maintained a unique yoshvim program which produced many outstanding Torah scholars. The yoshvim were married and unmarried men who remained in the synagogue all day to study the Talmud, pray, and derive inspiration from their Rebbe. They were supported by local businessmen and their food and other necessities were brought to them so they wouldn't have to leave the synagogue for even a short time. Some yoshvim even slept in the synagogue on a bench. They typically remained in this program until the rebbe would tell them to return home to their wives and families.

With the passing of Rabbi Yissachar Dov in 1926, the mantle of leadership fell on his eldest son, Rabbi Aharon of Belz, who was 49 years old at the time. A deeply spiritual, almost mystical man, who studied much and slept and ate little, Rabbi Aharon was known for his saintliness and his miracle-working capabilities. Many of his followers reported experiencing miraculous recoveries or successes after receiving his blessing, and flocked to his court by the thousands.

Belz Hasidic dynasty - Escape from Belz

With the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi takeover of Poland, the fate of Belz was thrown into turmoil. After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which gave the Soviet Union control over eastern Poland, where the town of Belz was located, Rabbi Aharon advised many of his followers to accept Soviet citizenship, as he did himself. Though many followers were promptly deported to Siberia for the remainder of the war, Rabbi Aharon's prescience became clear when they returned to Poland afterwards, only to find that their families and cities had been destroyed by the Nazis.

The "Wonder Rebbe" was at the top of the Gestapo's "wanted list" of rabbis targeted for extradition and extermination during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Thanks to the untiring efforts and cash inflow from Belzer Hasidim in Israel, England and the United States, the Rebbe and his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgorai, 22 years his junior, managed to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in one miraculous escape attempt after another. Notwithstanding the watchful presence of Gestapo patrols at every turn, the pair was spirited out of Belz and into Sokal, then Premishlan, then to the Cracow ghetto, and then to the Bochnia ghetto.

In their most hair-raising escape attempt, the brothers were driven out of occupied Poland and into Hungary by a Hungarian counter-intelligence agent who was friendly to Jews. The Rebbe, his brother and his attendant, shorn of their distinctive beards and sidelocks, were disguised as Russian generals who had been captured at the front and were being taken to Budapest for questioning. To quell rumors of the Rebbe's disappearance from the ghetto, one of his Hasidim dressed up in Rabbi Aharon's clothing and sat in his inner sanctum all day, imitating the way the Rebbe immersed himself in prayer and study. When other Hasidim urged the Rebbe's attendant to let them send in their kvittlach ("notes" or "petitions for blessings"), they heard a perfect imitation of the Rebbe's voice, mumbling his blessings.

The refugees subsequently reported that they had experienced "miracles" at each stage of the escape. Throughout the 250-mile drive across occupied Poland, according to the Hungarian agent, the escape vehicle was enveloped in an "eerie mist" that made it difficult for the car to be detected. When the agent asked the driver to stop along the way and join him for something to eat, leaving the refugees unguarded, the two were unable to locate the car upon their return. They finally identified it by feeling for it in the place they parked it.

As the refugees passed into Hungary, they were stopped by several patrols. At one checkpoint, their identity was questioned and they were about to be detained when three high-ranking Hungarian officials appeared and ordered that the car be let through. Belzer Hasidim believe that those three men were the "first three Belzer Rebbes sent from Heaven" to expedite Rabbi Aharon's escape.

Rabbi Aharon and Rabbi Mordechai spent eight months in Budapest before receiving highly-rationed Jewish Agency certificates to enter Palestine. In January 1944 they boarded the Orient Express to Istanbul. Less than two months later, the Nazis invaded Hungary and began deporting its 450,000 Jews.

Although he had lost his entire family—including his wife, children, grandchildren and in-laws and their families—to the Nazis, Rabbi Aharon re-established his Hasidic court in Tel Aviv, where there was a small Hasidic community. Both he and Rabbi Mordechai (who had lost his wife and daughter) remarried, but only Rabbi Mordechai had a child, Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II), in 1948. Rabbi Mordechai suddenly died a year later at the age of 47. Rabbi Aharon took his brother's son under his wing to groom him as the future successor to the Belz dynasty.

Like some of the other groups originating in Poland, Belzer Hasidut was nearly wiped out by the Holocaust. Some Hasidic followers from other communities joined Belz after the war and following the deaths of their rebbes. Belz, like Ger and Satmar, was comparitively fortunate in that its leadership remained intact and survived the war, as opposed to many other Hasidic sects who suffered losses both in terms of rank-and-file supporters, as well as the spiritual decapitation of their leaders.

The Belzer Rebbe became an acknowledged leader of Torah Jewry in Israel. He laid the groundwork for the spread of Belzer Hasidut through the establishment of schools and yeshivot in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. When he died in 1957, tens of thousands of admirers followed his casket to his burial site in Jerusalem. His nephew, Rabbi Yissachar Dov, was nine years old when Rabbi Aharon died; he was appointed as the dynasty's new Rebbe when he turned 18 in 1966.

Belz Hasidic dynasty - Belz today

Since 1966, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach has presided over both the expansion of Belz educational institutions and the growth of Hasidic populations in Israel, the United States and Europe. Like other Hasidic groups, the Belz community has established a variety of self-help organizations, including one of the largest patient-advocacy organizations of its kind, a free medical counseling center, and an affordable medical treatment clinic in the New York area [1].

In the early years of his tenure, the new Rebbe adopted a somewhat revolutionary policy, by Hasidic standards, of engagement with the secular government of Israel. Under the umbrella of the Agudat Israel political party, he sent delegates to the Israeli Knesset and instructed his followers to vote in general elections. This stance angered the Satmar community. Satmar activists obtained signatures from significant segments of the Haredi communities in Israel in an attempt to denounce and ostracize the present Belzer Rebbe. This episode created a lasting rift between the Belzer and Satmar communities.

Belz Hasidic dynasty - The Belz World Center

In the 1980s, Rabbi Yissachar Dov spearheaded plans for a huge synagogue to be erected in the Kiryat Belz section of Jerusalem. The building, which would have four entrances accessible to each of the four streets of the hilly neighborhood, would be an enlarged replica of the structure that the first Rebbe of Belz, the Sar Shalom, had built in the town of Belz. It would include a grandiose main sanctuary, smaller study halls, wedding and Bar Mitzvah halls, libraries, and other communal facilities.

Funds for this ambitious project were raised among Belzer Hasidim and were supplemented by various fund-raising projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Like the original synagogue of Belz which took 15 years to complete, the new Beit Hamidrash HaGadol ("The Great Synagogue") that now dominates the northern Jerusalem skyline also took 15 years to construct and was dedicated in 2000. Its main sanctuary seats 6000 worshippers. A huge ark contains more than 100 Torah scrolls. Nine chandeliers in the main synagogue each contain over 200,000 pieces of Czech crystal. In stark contrast to the majestic synagogue, the simple wooden chair and lectern used by Rabbi Aharon when he came to Israel in 1944 stands in a glass case next to the ark.

Belz Hasidic dynasty - Lineage of Belzer dynastic leadership

• First rebbe - Shalom Rokeach of Belz (1779 - September 10, 1855), also known as the Sar Shalom. Rebbe from 1817 to 1855. Disciple of the Seer of Lublin.
  • Second rebbe - Joshua Rokeach of Belz (1825 - February 3, 1894). Youngest son of the Sar Shalom. Rebbe from 1855 to 1894.
    • Third rebbe - Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I) (1854 - October 30, 1926). Son of Joshua. Rebbe from 1894 to 1926.
      • Fourth rebbe - Aharon Rokeach (1877 - August 18, 1957), also known as Reb Arele, and as the Kedushath Aharon. Eldest son of Yissachar Dov (I). Rebbe from 1926 to 1957.
      • Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgorai, (1899 - 1941), son of Yissachar Dov (I), brother of Aharon.
        • Fifth rebbe - Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II) (b.1948). Only son of Mordechai of Bilgorai; nephew to Aharon. Rebbe from 1966- Present.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Belz Hasidic dynasty", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki