הרב אהרן ראטה

Rav Aharon Roth (5655/1894–6 Nisan 5707/1947), known to all as Reb Areleh and called in the courts that descend from him the Admor HaZaken, was a chasidic rebbe and the founder of the Shomer Emunim chaburah, out of which grew the chasiduyot of Shomrei Emunim, Toldot Aharon — named for him — and Toldot Avraham Yitzchak. His father, Shmuel Yaakov, was a butcher in Uzhhorod, called Ungvar, in Hungary. In his youth he learned in the yeshivot of Munkatch, Vaja and Vac, and spent time in the courts of admorim, among them Rav Tzvi Elimelech Shapira of Blazhov and Rav Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz.

In 5681/1921 he set up a chaburah named Yirei Hashem in the city of Satmar in Romania, to occupy itself with avodat Hashem, talmud Torah and tefillah with fire and in a loud voice. He was known as a sagfan. His own davening was drawn out: a tefillah that might take two or three hours he would stretch to five and more. His chaburah lived by takanot he wrote — one of them keeping his chasidim from wearing wool at all, so as to stand far from any possibility of shaatnez. In 5685/1925 he went up to Eretz Yisrael and founded in Meah Shearim the beit midrash Ohel Elimelech, named for his rebbi Rav Tzvi Elimelech of Blazhov; illness pressed him there, and on the counsel of his doctors he returned after four years to Satmar for healing, leaving a core of chasidim in Eretz Yisrael behind him.

He pressed the answering of amen aloud, and on that account changed the name of his chaburah in 5693/1933 to Chaburat Shomer Emunim, after the words of chazal on the pasuk pitchu she’arim v’yavo goy tzaddik shomer emunim — read not shomer emunim but she’omrim amen (Sanhedrin 110b) — the matter he takes up in his sefer Shomer Emunim. In 5700/1940 he came up to Eretz Yisrael a second time with his family and founded in Yerushalayim the beit midrash Shomrei Emunim. His teaching stands on emunah: the hardships of the world are a test of a man’s emunah, and the reward of one who stands in it is great. His language is plain and homely, and he opens paragraph after paragraph with banai and ahuvai — my sons, my beloved.

He was sickly most of his days, and was niftar at fifty-two, on 6 Nisan 5707/1947, in the midst of grinding flour by hand at the millstone for the baking of matzot. His son-in-law, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kahn, was appointed in his place and became the Admor of Toldot Aharon; a group afterward took his son, Rav Avraham Chaim Roth, as their leader, and that group is today the chasidut of Shomrei Emunim, holding the shul of Reb Areleh in Yerushalayim and the name Shomer Emunim. Beside Shomer Emunim he left Shulchan HaTahor on eating, tzedakah and mitzvot, and the three parts of Taharat HaKodesh on teshuvah and kedushah.