Admor Yehoshua (Shiale) Rokeach, 2nd Belzer Rebbe

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Admor Yehoshua (Shiale) Rokeach, 2nd Belzer Rebbe

Hebrew: רבי יהושע רוקח, האדמו"ר השני מבעלז
Also Known As: "Reb Shia L'Belz", "Joshua"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Belz, Sokal's'kyi district, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
Death: February 03, 1894 (68-69)
Belz
Place of Burial: Belz, L'vivs'ka oblast, Ukraine
Immediate Family:

Son of Rabbi Shulem Rokeach [1st Belzer Ruv] and Rebbetzin Malka Rokeach
Husband of Sura Mirel Hager / Rokeach and Rivka Miriam Rokeach
Father of Reizl Twersky; Chava Twersky; Rabbi Shmiel Rokeach, ADMI"R of Skul; Rabbi Yissacher Dov Rokeach, [3rd Belzer Rebbe]; Aryey Leibish Rokeach, ABD Magrov & Admor Rava-Ruska and 7 others
Brother of Freida Mayer; Rabbi Luzer Rokeach; R' Shmuel Shmelke Rokeach; Rabbi Moshe Rokeach, Admur Kurov; Esther Gardin and 2 others

Occupation: Harav Mibelz, ABD Pinsk
Managed by: Yigal Burstein
Last Updated:

About Admor Yehoshua (Shiale) Rokeach, 2nd Belzer Rebbe

Rabbi Yehoshua Roke'ach, 2nd Belzer Rebbe

Birth: 1825 Death: Feb. 3, 1894 Belzec, Poland

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 ("Enlightenment") movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century. His pioneering activities included founding the Machzikei Hadas organization.

Parents:

  • Sholom Rokeach (1779 - 1855)

Burial:

  • Belz Jewish Cemetery, Belzec - Lubelskie, Poland

Created by: Maxine Kravitz Record added: Mar 15, 2012 Find A Grave Memorial# 86807491


Yehoshua Rokeach (1825 – February 3, 1894), known as the Ohel Yehoshua, 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 ("Enlightenment") movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century. His pioneering activities included founding the Machzikei Hadas organization.

Family

Yehoshua Rokeach was the youngest of five sons of Rabbi Sholom Rokeach (the Sar Shalom), founder of the Belz dynasty. His eldest brother was named Elazar. His father was his primary teacher. He married a granddaughter of the Apter Rov and had five sons and four daughters.

Leadership The notion of a son succeeding a father as Rebbe was uncommon at that point in the development of the Hasidic movement; usually the Rebbe was succeeded by a close disciple. For two years before his death, the Sar Shalom had spent several hours each day talking with his youngest son and suggesting that he should be his successor. But after the Sar Shalom died, Yehoshua was unwilling to step ahead of his four older brothers to become Rebbe. From 1855-1857, Belz Hasidut slowly crumbled without a central leader and many Hasidim defected to other Rebbes.[citation needed] Finally, on Rosh Hashana 1857, Yehoshua decisively grasped the reigns of leadership by entering the central Belz synagogue for the prayer services and seating himself in the rebbe's chair by the eastern wall. He reigned as Rebbe from 1857 to 1894.

Under his leadership the yoshvim (learners) program of Belz expanded significantly. Belz encouraged married men to spend their days immersed in Torah study and prayer in the central Belz synagogue. Their meals and lodgings were provided by local businessmen. Some men remained in the program without returning home for months at a time.

Rokeach led his Hasidim with both deep erudition and common sense. Every Yom Kippur afternoon, for example, he would walk through the aisles of the Belz synagogue, intently scanning the faces of all the worshippers. Those who wondered about this practice were answered when he once spotted someone about to faint from the weakness of the fast. The Rebbe pulled a piece of cake out of his pocket and immediately fed it to the ill man.

Rokeach battled the Haskalah movement that sought to introduce modernity and compromise in the Torah community. He often defended the Torah way of life to the leaders of the Haskalah's Shomer Yisrael organization. On one occasion, a leader of Shomer Yisrael asked him, "It isn’t right to be extreme and keep to the side of Hasidut or to the side of assimilation. What is wrong with taking the middle path?" The Rebbe responded, "Who walks at the side of the road? People! And who goes in the middle? Horses!"

To strengthen Torah Jewry against the inroads of Haskalah, the Rebbe helped found the Machzikei Hadas organization in 1878 and the Machazikei Hadas newspaper, both of which still exist in the Belzer community.

Final months

In 1894 Rokeach traveled to Vienna to visit a specialist and undergo an operation. The operation was deemed a success, but the Rebbe died on the train en route to Belz a short while later, at the age of 69.

He was succeeded as Rebbe by his second son, Yissachar Dov Rokeach.

Rebbes of Belz

  • Rabbi Sholom Rokeach (1779–1855)
  • Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach (1825–1894)
  • Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (1854–1926)
  • Rabbi Aharon Rokeach (1877–1957)
  • Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (b. 1948)
  • Term 1856–1894
  • Full name Yehoshua Rokeach
  • Main work Ohel Yehoshua
  • Born 1825
  • Buried Belz

_________________________________

  • Wife 1 Rivka Miriam (Daughter of R' Shmuel Ashkenazi) Children 1:
  • Shmuel of Sokal
  • Yissachar Dov Rokeach
  • Naftoli of Navry
  • Arye Leybush of Magrov and Rawa Ruska
  • Wife 2 Daughter of R' Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel of Bazilia

Chief Rabbinic Judge of Pinsk

Enyclopedia for Chachmei Galicia vol 2? page 861

https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Sholom_Rokeach

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Admor Yehoshua (Shiale) Rokeach, 2nd Belzer Rebbe's Timeline

1825
1825
Belz, Sokal's'kyi district, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
1842
1842
1851
1851
Belz, Sokal's'kyi district, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
1852
1852
Belz, Sokal's'kyi district, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
1855
1855
Belz, Sokal's'kyi district, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
1870
1870
Belz, Sokal's'kyi district, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine
1894
February 3, 1894
Age 69
Belz
February 1894
Age 69
Belz, L'vivs'ka oblast, Ukraine