הרב שלום רוקח

Rav Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz (5611/1851–22 Cheshvan 5687/1926), known as the Mahari”d, was the third Belzer Rebbe, considered in his generation the greatest of the Admorim of Galicia and Hungary. Born in Belz, the second son of Rav Yehoshua Rokeach, the second Belzer Rebbe, he was named by his grandfather the Sar Shalom, founder of the dynasty, for the Sar Shalom’s own father-in-law, Rav Yissachar Dov Ramraz, av beit din of Sokal. At fourteen he married Basha Ruchama, daughter of Rav Yeshaya Zusha Twersky, and lived for years in the court of her grandfather, Rav Aharon of Chernobyl, before returning to Belz around 5636/1876. After her early petirah he married Chaya Devorah, daughter of the Admor of Berezna; his sons included Rav Aharon, his successor, and Rav Mordechai of Bilgoray.

On his father’s petirah, 23 Shevat 5654/1894, he was crowned Rav of Belz and Admor of its chasidim, and stood at the head of the Machzikei Hadas movement his father had founded. His lomdut, his leadership, and his tefillot — soaked in kedushah, stirring their hearers to teshuvah — drew thousands, and he was known as a poel yeshuot whose brachah was sought across Galicia. He established the yoshvim of Belz: married and unmarried men who sat all day over Torah in the shtieblach, supported by the local baalei batim. He fought sharply against Zionism and the Mizrachi movement, and held apart from Agudat Yisrael as well.

The First World War turned Belz itself into a battlefield. The Rebbe fled with many of his chasidim into Hungary, settling first in Munkatch — where friction between his chasidim and those of the Munkatcher Rav, Rav Chaim Elazar Shapira, moved him on to Ratzfert — and after the war he waited in Oleszyce and Holoshitz while the great Belzer shul, which had served as a field hospital, and his ruined house were repaired. On 2 Shevat 5684/1924 he re-established his court in Belz, now under Polish rule.

Among the chasidim and talmidim who came out of his beit midrash were the Baal HaSulam; Rav Moshe Grunwald of Chust, author of the Arugat HaBosem; and Rav Aharon Roth, founder of Shomer Emunim. His Torah was later printed in Mahari”d and other collections. He was niftar on leil Shabbat, 22 Cheshvan 5687/1926, and thousands accompanied him to burial beside his fathers in the beit hakevarot of Belz, where his son Rav Aharon took his place as the fourth Belzer Rebbe.