Today, the 22nd of Cheshon, is the day of the passing of the third Rebmor of Belaz, Yishchar Dov Rokah, who died in Galicia 97 years ago. Until the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, every year there was a great celebration near his grave in the Jewish cemetery in the town of Belez in Ukraine. This year there was a more modest revelry of only 2 minibuses, and I don’t understand how the followers managed to get there. When the wars in Gaza and Ukraine end, probably more will return to travel to Belez.
Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokahthe machine Mahari’d, was one of the greatest rebbes, and in his time Belaz became one of the largest Hasidisms in Europe. He is considered the tzaddik of the generation. In his generation there was no other personality that had an influence on hundreds of thousands of Jews. Crowds went to him to ask for a blessing or advice. To Baalez, because of the carts and the people trampling them.” He was also the head of the “Holders of Religion”. In our generation, the nickname “the first” is added to his name, to distinguish him from the current (“second”) rebbe who bears the same name.
The Yarzeit of the Rebbe of Belez also concerns us in the knit community, and is not only a matter for the followers of Belez. When we studied in the Hesder yeshiva and Bnei Akiva yeshiva the tractates in the order of tort, we were also helped by the philosophies of the books of theclustered method“. The author’s father was the father of the Rabbi, and thus we will all learn from the Torah of Edmory Belez.
Today Belez remains a small town about 80 km as the crow flies north of Lviv. You can reach Belez by train or by car from the city of Lviv to the town of Chervonohrad. Belez is about half an hour’s drive west. Once it was in the territory of Poland and Galicia, and in 1939 it was annexed to Ukraine. Haim It has less than 2,500 people, most of them farmers. When you enter the town, you see mainly residential shacks, most of them with rusty tin roofs. Very few stone houses. There are almost no high-rise buildings, except for public buildings. In front of every house there is a vegetable garden for private consumption, and in the back of almost every house You see fields where potatoes, cauliflower, etc. are mainly grown. The air smells of silage. Near some of the houses, the smell of excrement from the cows grazing in the yard. Horse-drawn carts move in the streets, more than cars. It seems as if time has stood still here.
Our non-Jewish driver in the north of Ukraine told me last week on the phone that Belz was not hit by Russian shelling and missiles in the Ukraine war, because “it is a small place of no strategic importance, and therefore of no interest to the Russians.” Everything remains exactly as I saw it on my visit a few years ago.
The Maharid’s grave is in the Admorim section of the Jewish cemetery. There are 4 Admorim’s graves adjacent to each other. Rabbi Yishchar Dov’s tombstone is the second from the right. The Admorim’s graves are surrounded by a low black iron fence. During festivities and on special occasions, an iron frame with glass cubes is placed above the tombstones like an aquarium, to protect the candles and torches from the gusts of wind.
The Jewish cemetery is on Mitskevycha Street and the corner of Vulytsya Polova Street. It used to be full of tombstones, but only a few remain in place.
During the communist period, local Gentiles stole tombstones to use as building materials and flooring for their homes. Few of the stolen headstones were found over the years, and the municipality brought them back to the cemetery. Because the exact location of the grave is unknown, the tombstones were placed on the side next to the fence behind the “Uhel Kohanim”, a small wooden booth.
If the cemetery gate is locked, call Mr. Prokopak at +38-03257-52417
Beyond the cemetery fence towards the south, in recent years, a guest synagogue was built.Beit Menachem‘ where we are offered a hot drink and refreshments and cookies at all hours of the day. You can also get full meals for individuals and groups, but must be ordered in advance. You can also get cheap accommodation there. There is also a synagogue and a midrash, and even a mikveh.
In Belez stood one of the largest and most magnificent synagogues in Europe, called “The big room“. Adjacent to it was built the rabbi’s house. During the First World War, the great synagogue in Belez and the rabbi’s house were nationalized for the purpose of a military hospital.
The magnificent synagogue was destroyed over the years by various oppressors, but the lot on which it stood is still kept empty. To get to the lot on which the great and magnificent synagogue stood, we have to drive to the Sanovkofsky Church with the steeple that stands out on the town’s skyline. From there we must turn left towards the west. The fourth house on the right is the Stopniv school, and next to it is a football field. Behind them is the lot on which the large and magnificent synagogue stood. Part of it is fenced with a low red stone wall.
Across the road is the small town hall building, in front of which there is a red brick spire. Address: Ukrposhta Street.
Near the lot stands a building where the mikvah was built.Issachar Spring‘, but nowadays everyone prefers to dip in the modern mikvah in the guest house.
Apart from these sites, we have nothing to see and do in Belez. Despite this, it is considered a secondary tourist destination for Israelis who come to Uman to prostrate at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, and for Jewish Israeli tourists who come to visit Lviv. For them, Belaz is only “in retrospect” and by the way. Ukraine is blessed with beautiful cities, charming forests, and mountains with ancient castles. But not in the area of Belaz. One of the curiosities in the area is the town of “Helem” known from the jokes, but nowadays there is nothing to see there and it is a shame to go there.
In the First World War, the fighting reached Belez, and the Maharid fled to Munkach in Hungary. There a dispute arose with the Rebbe of Munkach, the conflict also reached gentile courts, causing blasphemy and embarrassment for the Jews. Finally, the Rebbe of Belez moved to the town of Ratzpert.
Despite our fondness for Belez Hasidism, it is likely that if we had arrived in the town a hundred years ago, we would not have been welcomed. Harid fought against Zionism and the Mizrahi movement and against the Haskalah. He told his followers that in the prayer “And for informers do not have hope” one should focus on the “defilement of Zionism”. A large majority expresses it this way.
The Rabbi also hated the Agudat Israel, so we are in good company. When they founded the Agudat Israel in Poland under the leadership of Rebbe Magor and all the Rebbe of Poland, the Rebbe of Belaz strongly opposed this organization as well. In his opinion, Agudat Israel was too compromising against the seculars. In the Histadrut Agudat Israel and the teachers “Ashkenazim doctors” he saw a contrast to Hassidism. He even fought to learn the daily page, because it was founded by the heads of Agudat Israel.
In 1925 the Rabbi returned to Belez, and died there a year later. His son, Rabbi Aharon, was appointed Rebbe in his place, and continued the hostile approach to Zionism. He too, as his father, forbade his followers to immigrate to the Holy Land, and in the end almost all of them were murdered in the Holocaust. The great and glorious Hasidism was almost completely wiped out, including all the members of the Rebbe’s family. Had it not been for his zeal, they could have been saved.
Rabbi Aharon managed to escape from the Nazis with the help of the Chabad Rebmor, and wandered Europe for a few years, until he settled in Tel Aviv. After the Holocaust, Rabbi Aharon established a court on Ahad Ha’am street in Tel Aviv, but he managed to gather very few Hassidim. Most of them were not from Galicia but holocaust survivors from Hungary. The Belez Hasids did not have a yeshiva at the time, so the Rebbe sent the young people to study at the ‘True Language’ yeshiva of the Gur Hasids, and at the Dushinskaya yeshiva.
Rabbi Aharon left no descendants. The elders of the followers decided to crown his brother’s son, Ischar Dov (the second)who was then a 9-year-old boy, who was nicknamed “Hinoka from Belaz“. I still remember him as a child, playing catch and hide and seek with other children at the end of Yochanan Ben Zakai Street in Bnei Brak.
After his wedding, he was appointed rebbe. He managed to increase Hasidism in Belez, which today numbers 7,500 families, and is considered the fifth largest Hasidism in the world. They pray in the Siddur “Abovet Hashem” with a unique wording. Most of it is a Spanish wording like ours, with the eleventh prayer and the blessing of the month They are according to the Ashkenaz text. Other slight changes in the text. Like, for example, in the sacred text they say “by your prophets” instead of “by your prophets”.
In 1988, the Lithuanians withdrew from the Agudath Israel party, and founded the Degal HaTorah party, and Belaz Hasidot joined them. This aroused astonishment and anger in the Hasidic world, and eventually Belez Hasidism returned to Agudat Israel as part of the ‘Torah Judaism’ faction. Their representative in the Knesset is the rabbi Israel (Shrolik) Eichler.
The Hasidic Center is currently located in Kiryat Belaz in Jerusalem, where the World Center was built in a huge and magnificent building built according to pictures of the original “Groise Toveb” in the town of Belez. Its construction lasted 16 years under the supervision of the Rebbe, and under the supervision of the general contractor Eliyahu (“Liu”) Kleinthe owner of Aka Real Estate, who is also a member of the presidency of the Belza Institutions Center. It is a synagogue and midrash in a huge structure, which stands out on the Jerusalem skyline, especially for those coming from Route 443 and the Ramot neighborhood. The roof is decorated with a sort of “crown” just like the original synagogue. Around a house The Midrash built for him most of the buildings of Kiryat Baalez, home to about a thousand Hasidic families. For the Hasidic, the Beit Midrash building is much more than just a building. They are proud of it and see its construction as a sign of the honor of Baalez.
Rightfully so!
Photos: Wikimedia collaboration, Yaakov Maor.
