Aharon Rokeach
Encyclopedia
Aharon Rokeach was the fourth Rebbe
of the Belz
Hasidic
dynasty. He led the movement from 1926 until his death in 1957.
Rebbe Aharon inherited the mantle of leadership from his father, Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I)
, upon the latter's death in 1926. Known for his piety and mysticism, Rebbe Aharon was called the "Wonder Rabbi" by Jews and gentiles alike for the miracle
s they claimed he performed.
His reign as Rebbe saw the devastation of the Belz community, along with that of many other Hasidic sects in Galicia and elsewhere in Poland
during the Holocaust
. During the Holocaust, Rebbe Aharon was high on the list of Gestapo
targets as a high-profile Rebbe. With the support and financial assistance of Belzer Hasidim in Israel, England and the United States, he and his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray
, managed to escape from Poland into Hungary, then into Turkey, Lebanon, and finally into Israel in February 1944.
and Basha Ruchama Twersky, after 12 years of marriage. He was named after his mother's great-grandfather, Rebbe Aharon of Chernobyl, although his father later revealed that he intended to name the boy after Rabbi Aharon of Karlin. Aharon had a younger sister, Chana Rachel, who later married Rabbi Pinchas Twersky of Ostilla.
Aharon's mother died on 18 March 1884 when Aharon was 4 years old. His grandfather, Rebbe Yehoshua Rokeach
, the second Belzer Rebbe, took the boy under his wing and oversaw his spiritual development. As he grew, Aharon spent much of his day ensconced in Torah learning and ate and slept little. He also concealed his accomplishments with a modesty that would last throughout his lifetime.
When his grandfather died on 30 January 1894, Aharon's father became the third Belzer Rebbe. Rebbe Yissachar Dov remarried to Chaya Devora Pecsenik and had another seven children. Rebbe Aharon was 22 years old when his half-brother Mordechai was born.
When he came of age, Rebbe Aharon married his cousin, Malka, the daughter of his father's elder brother Shmuel, the Rav of Sokal
. After his marriage, Aharon lived with his father-in-law for several years. His strict regime of seclusion, deprivation and asceticism caused him to become seriously weakened, whereupon his doctors recommended a complete change of locale and sent him to a spa. Though he recuperated at the health resort of Kreniec, he still ate little, and his chronic sleep deprivation
made it difficult for him to stand or walk quickly. On Shabbat, however, he would stand upright, walk quickly, and partake in the Shabbat meals with obvious pleasure.
He and his wife had five sons and four daughters. Several apparently healthy children died at birth, while those that survived were sickly and weak. Two daughters were both hearing- and speech-impaired. One daughter, Mirel, died in 1938; the rest were killed by the Nazis with their families.
When Aharon's father, Rebbe Yissachar Dov, died in Belz
on Friday night
, 30 October 1926, his 46-year-old son accepted the mantle of leadership at the funeral held after Shabbat.
with great interest and prayed for the petitioner's salvation and success. At first he tried to limit the number of petitioners who sought his counsel and blessing to five per night, saying, "I simply can't take these tzoros (tribulations) of Klal Yisrael!" as he felt each problem as deeply as if it were his own. But eventually he allowed many petitioners to see him nightly.
Although the position of Belzer rav included being rabbi of the local township, Rebbe Aharon said he could not spare any more time. Two dayanim were appointed for this task, and they consulted with Rebbe Aharon only on difficult halakhic
questions.
-occupied Europe saw saving the Rebbe as their primary goal. They spirited Rebbe Aharon — who insisted on being accompanied by his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai — out of Belz into Wiśnicz
, then into the Bochnia
Ghetto, then into the Kraków Ghetto
, and then back into the Bochnia Ghetto, narrowly avoiding Gestapo roundups and deportations.
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 attendant, and Rabbi Mordechai, 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. After spending eight months in Hungary, the brothers boarded the Orient Express
to Istanbul
, and finally arrived in Israel in February 1944.
Both men lost their entire families to the Nazis. Rebbe Aharon's eldest son, Moshe, was burned alive in the Przemyslany shul at the same time as Rebbe Aharon was in hiding in that town. Later, Rabbi Moshe's wife and five children were murdered. Rebbe Aharon's eldest daughter, Rivka Miriam, and her husband, Rabbi Shmiel Frankel, both perished along with their seven children. Rebbe Aharon's other daughters, Adel Twersky and Sara Bracha Rosenfeld with their children, and two other sons, Rabbi Yisrael and Rabbi Yehudah Zundel with their children, were also slain. When he heard of these tragedies, the Rebbe displayed no emotion. Stoically, he continued to lead his Hasidim and perform his devotions.
. Later he moved to Jerusalem, where he founded the first Belzer yeshiva
. He also raised his half-brother's year-old son, Yissachar Dov
, after Rabbi Mordechai's sudden death in 1949. After Rebbe Aharon's own death in 1957, the boy was educated by a small circle of trusted advisors. He became the fifth Belzer Rebbe in 1966.
Rebbe Aharon was clearly touched by the Holocaust. He developed a very inclusive attitude to modern and even non-Orthodox Jews, which was a substantive change from Belz's pre-war practice of largely associating exclusively with other Haredim. Rebbe Aharon's second marriage also indicated a shift in the Belz leader's thinking: the ceremony was conducted by Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman
, a member of the religious Zionist Mizrachi
movement, a group which Belz had also previously held at arm's length. Unlike some of his other Hasidic rebbe peers, who had survived the Holocaust and made a practice of acknowledging and honoring their deceased followers and recounting their own experiences, it was Rebbe Aharon's personal custom to never speak of the Belz Hasidim who had died during the war, particularly members of his own family. On one occasion, rabbi and author Arthur Hertzberg
, a descendant of Belz Hasidim, visited the rebbe and attempted to talk to him about Belz before the war:
For Rebbe Aharon, the only proper way to respond to the near-destruction of Belz and Hasidus, and honor the memory of the dead, was to build new institutions and slowly nurture a new generation of Hasidim. This task has been continued and largely accomplished by his nephew, the present Rebbe of Belz.
Rebbe
Rebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word Rabbi. It often refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
of the Belz
Belz (Hasidic dynasty)
Belz is a Hasidic dynasty named for the town of Belz in Western Ukraine, near the Polish border. The town has existed since at least the 10th century, with the Jewish community being established during the 14th century. The town became home to Hasidic Judaism in the early 19th century...
Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
dynasty. He led the movement from 1926 until his death in 1957.
Rebbe Aharon inherited the mantle of leadership from his father, Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I)
Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I)
Yissachar Dov Rokeach , , was the third Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty. He was the second son of Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach , and served as the third Belzer Rebbe from his father's death in 1894 until his own death in 1926.-Personal life:Yissachar Dov was born in the town of Belz, Poland...
, upon the latter's death in 1926. Known for his piety and mysticism, Rebbe Aharon was called the "Wonder Rabbi" by Jews and gentiles alike for the miracle
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
s they claimed he performed.
His reign as Rebbe saw the devastation of the Belz community, along with that of many other Hasidic sects in Galicia and elsewhere in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
during the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. During the Holocaust, Rebbe Aharon was high on the list of Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
targets as a high-profile Rebbe. With the support and financial assistance of Belzer Hasidim in Israel, England and the United States, he and his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray
Mordechai Rokeach
Mordechai Rokeach , also known as Mordechai of Bilgoray, was a scion of the Belzer Hasidic dynasty and the right hand man to his half-brother, Rebbe Aharon of Belz, the fourth Belzer Rebbe. He was the son of the third Belzer Rebbe, Rebbe Yissachar Dov Rokeach...
, managed to escape from Poland into Hungary, then into Turkey, Lebanon, and finally into Israel in February 1944.
Early life
Aharon was the first child born to his parents, Rabbi Yissachar Dov RokeachYissachar Dov Rokeach (I)
Yissachar Dov Rokeach , , was the third Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty. He was the second son of Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach , and served as the third Belzer Rebbe from his father's death in 1894 until his own death in 1926.-Personal life:Yissachar Dov was born in the town of Belz, Poland...
and Basha Ruchama Twersky, after 12 years of marriage. He was named after his mother's great-grandfather, Rebbe Aharon of Chernobyl, although his father later revealed that he intended to name the boy after Rabbi Aharon of Karlin. Aharon had a younger sister, Chana Rachel, who later married Rabbi Pinchas Twersky of Ostilla.
Aharon's mother died on 18 March 1884 when Aharon was 4 years old. His grandfather, Rebbe Yehoshua Rokeach
Yehoshua Rokeach
Yehoshua Rokeach was the second rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty. He combined Torah scholarship with practical common sense to guide thousands of Hasidim and to fight the Haskalah movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century...
, the second Belzer Rebbe, took the boy under his wing and oversaw his spiritual development. As he grew, Aharon spent much of his day ensconced in Torah learning and ate and slept little. He also concealed his accomplishments with a modesty that would last throughout his lifetime.
When his grandfather died on 30 January 1894, Aharon's father became the third Belzer Rebbe. Rebbe Yissachar Dov remarried to Chaya Devora Pecsenik and had another seven children. Rebbe Aharon was 22 years old when his half-brother Mordechai was born.
When he came of age, Rebbe Aharon married his cousin, Malka, the daughter of his father's elder brother Shmuel, the Rav of Sokal
Sokal
Sokal is a town located on the banks of the Bug River in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Sokal Raion , the city itself also ranks as a separate raion within the oblast.- History :...
. After his marriage, Aharon lived with his father-in-law for several years. His strict regime of seclusion, deprivation and asceticism caused him to become seriously weakened, whereupon his doctors recommended a complete change of locale and sent him to a spa. Though he recuperated at the health resort of Kreniec, he still ate little, and his chronic sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function. Few studies have compared the...
made it difficult for him to stand or walk quickly. On Shabbat, however, he would stand upright, walk quickly, and partake in the Shabbat meals with obvious pleasure.
He and his wife had five sons and four daughters. Several apparently healthy children died at birth, while those that survived were sickly and weak. Two daughters were both hearing- and speech-impaired. One daughter, Mirel, died in 1938; the rest were killed by the Nazis with their families.
When Aharon's father, Rebbe Yissachar Dov, died in Belz
Belz
Belz , a small city in the Lviv Oblast of Western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, is located between the Solokiya river and the Rzeczyca stream....
on Friday night
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, 30 October 1926, his 46-year-old son accepted the mantle of leadership at the funeral held after Shabbat.
Becoming the Rebbe
While he continue to live a Spartan and reclusive existence, Rebbe Aharon revealed himself to be a warm and caring leader. He read each kvitelKvitel
Kvitel refers to a practice developed by Hasidic Judaism in which a Hasid writes a note with a petitionary prayer and gives it to a Rebbe in order to receive the latter's blessing...
with great interest and prayed for the petitioner's salvation and success. At first he tried to limit the number of petitioners who sought his counsel and blessing to five per night, saying, "I simply can't take these tzoros (tribulations) of Klal Yisrael!" as he felt each problem as deeply as if it were his own. But eventually he allowed many petitioners to see him nightly.
Although the position of Belzer rav included being rabbi of the local township, Rebbe Aharon said he could not spare any more time. Two dayanim were appointed for this task, and they consulted with Rebbe Aharon only on difficult halakhic
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
questions.
Escape from Europe
During World War II, Belzer Hasidim both inside and outside NaziNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
-occupied Europe saw saving the Rebbe as their primary goal. They spirited Rebbe Aharon — who insisted on being accompanied by his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai — out of Belz into Wiśnicz
Wisnicz
Wiśnicz is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Małogoszcz, within Jędrzejów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It lies approximately west of Małogoszcz, north-west of Jędrzejów, and west of the regional capital Kielce.The village has a population of...
, then into the Bochnia
Bochnia
Bochnia is a town of 30,000 inhabitants on the river Raba in southern Poland. The town lies approximately in halfway [] between Tarnów and the regional capital Kraków . Bochnia is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built circa 1248...
Ghetto, then into the Kraków Ghetto
Kraków Ghetto
The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II...
, and then back into the Bochnia Ghetto, narrowly avoiding Gestapo roundups and deportations.
In their most hair-raising escape attempt, the brothers were driven out of occupied Poland and into Hungary by a Hungarian counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
agent who was friendly to Jews. The Rebbe, his attendant, and Rabbi Mordechai, 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. After spending eight months in Hungary, the brothers boarded the Orient Express
Orient Express
The Orient Express is the name of a long-distance passenger train service originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It ran from 1883 to 2009 and is not to be confused with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service, which continues to run.The route and rolling stock...
to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, and finally arrived in Israel in February 1944.
Both men lost their entire families to the Nazis. Rebbe Aharon's eldest son, Moshe, was burned alive in the Przemyslany shul at the same time as Rebbe Aharon was in hiding in that town. Later, Rabbi Moshe's wife and five children were murdered. Rebbe Aharon's eldest daughter, Rivka Miriam, and her husband, Rabbi Shmiel Frankel, both perished along with their seven children. Rebbe Aharon's other daughters, Adel Twersky and Sara Bracha Rosenfeld with their children, and two other sons, Rabbi Yisrael and Rabbi Yehudah Zundel with their children, were also slain. When he heard of these tragedies, the Rebbe displayed no emotion. Stoically, he continued to lead his Hasidim and perform his devotions.
Activities in Israel
Rebbe Aharon devoted the rest of his life to rebuilding Belzer Hasidut in Israel. He initially established his court in Tel Aviv, where he opened the first Belzer Talmud TorahTalmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
. Later he moved to Jerusalem, where he founded the first Belzer yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
. He also raised his half-brother's year-old son, Yissachar Dov
Yissachar Dov Rokeach
Yissachar Dov Rokeach could refer to:*Yissachar Dov Rokeach , the third Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty*Yissachar Dov Rokeach , the fifth and current Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty...
, after Rabbi Mordechai's sudden death in 1949. After Rebbe Aharon's own death in 1957, the boy was educated by a small circle of trusted advisors. He became the fifth Belzer Rebbe in 1966.
Rebbe Aharon was clearly touched by the Holocaust. He developed a very inclusive attitude to modern and even non-Orthodox Jews, which was a substantive change from Belz's pre-war practice of largely associating exclusively with other Haredim. Rebbe Aharon's second marriage also indicated a shift in the Belz leader's thinking: the ceremony was conducted by Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman
Isser Yehuda Unterman
Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman was the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1964 until 1972.Born in Brest-Litovsk in modern Belarus, Unterman was educated at the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Maltsch. There, he became a pupil of its Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Shimon Shkop...
, a member of the religious Zionist Mizrachi
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
movement, a group which Belz had also previously held at arm's length. Unlike some of his other Hasidic rebbe peers, who had survived the Holocaust and made a practice of acknowledging and honoring their deceased followers and recounting their own experiences, it was Rebbe Aharon's personal custom to never speak of the Belz Hasidim who had died during the war, particularly members of his own family. On one occasion, rabbi and author Arthur Hertzberg
Arthur Hertzberg
Arthur Hertzberg was a Conservative rabbi and prominent Jewish-American scholar and activist.-Biography:...
, a descendant of Belz Hasidim, visited the rebbe and attempted to talk to him about Belz before the war:
He talked willingly of [my] grandfather, remembering that ... [he] had been his teacher when he was young, but he was totally silent when I mentioned my mother's father and her brothers, who had been his disciples until they were murdered during the war. I was upset. This strange behavior was later explained to me by his principal assistant: the rebbe had not once said any of the prescribed prayers (Yizkor, KaddishKaddishKaddish is a prayer found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy different versions of the Kaddish are used functionally as separators between sections of the service...
) for his wife and children because those who had been killed by the Nazis for being Jews were of transcendent holiness; they were beyond our comprehension. Any words about them that we might utter were irrelevant and perhaps even a desecration of their memory.
For Rebbe Aharon, the only proper way to respond to the near-destruction of Belz and Hasidus, and honor the memory of the dead, was to build new institutions and slowly nurture a new generation of Hasidim. This task has been continued and largely accomplished by his nephew, the present Rebbe of Belz.
Rebbes of Belz
- Rabbi Sholom Rokeach (1779–1855)
- Rabbi Yehoshua RokeachYehoshua RokeachYehoshua Rokeach was the second rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty. He combined Torah scholarship with practical common sense to guide thousands of Hasidim and to fight the Haskalah movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century...
(1825–1896) - Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I)Yissachar Dov Rokeach (I)Yissachar Dov Rokeach , , was the third Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty. He was the second son of Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach , and served as the third Belzer Rebbe from his father's death in 1894 until his own death in 1926.-Personal life:Yissachar Dov was born in the town of Belz, Poland...
(1854–1926) - Rabbi Aharon Rokeach (1877–1957)
- Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II)Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II)Yissachar Dov Rokeach is the fifth and present Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz. He is the son of Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray, the grandson of the third Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, and the nephew of the fourth Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, who raised him...
(b. 1948)
See also
- Agudat IsraelAgudat IsraelAgudat Yisrael began as the original political party representing the ultra-Orthodox population of Israel. It was the umbrella party for almost all ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, and before that in the British Mandate of Palestine...
- BelzBelzBelz , a small city in the Lviv Oblast of Western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, is located between the Solokiya river and the Rzeczyca stream....
(town in Poland/Ukraine) - Belz Beis HaMedrash HaGadol (the largest synagogue in Jerusalem)
- Belz (Hasidic dynasty)Belz (Hasidic dynasty)Belz is a Hasidic dynasty named for the town of Belz in Western Ukraine, near the Polish border. The town has existed since at least the 10th century, with the Jewish community being established during the 14th century. The town became home to Hasidic Judaism in the early 19th century...
- Ger (Hasidic dynasty)Ger (Hasidic dynasty)Ger, or Gur is a Hasidic dynasty originating from Ger, the Yiddish name of Góra Kalwaria, a small town in Poland....
- Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)Vizhnitz is the name of a Hasidic dynasty founded by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Hager. Vizhnitz is the Yiddish name of Vyzhnytsia, a village in present-day Ukraine.Followers of the rebbes of Vizhnitz are called Vizhnitzer chasidim....