Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II)
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Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II) (b. 1948) is the fifth and present Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz. Yissachar Dov, also known as "Berl", was the son of Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray and the nephew of the fourth Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach. He has led Belz since 1966.
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[edit] Childhood
Rabbi Mordechai and his half-brother, Rabbi Aharon, escaped Europe in a daring escape attempt and arrived in Israel in 1944. Yissachar Dov was the only child of his father's second marriage in Israel; Rabbi Mordechai's first wife and daughter had been killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. A year after Yissachar Dov's birth, however, his father died suddenly. The boy was raised by his uncle and was groomed to be the next Rebbe in the dynasty.
When Rabbi Aharon died in 1957, Yissachar Dov was only nine years old. For the next nine years, Belz was effectively without an active rebbe, as Yissachar Dov, then called the "Yanuka" (Child) by his followers, was educated by a small circle of trusted advisors.
In 1965, Yissachar Dov married Sarah Hager, daughter of Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the Viznitzer rebbe of Bnei Brak, and moved to Bnei Brak to be close to his new father-in-law. A year later, he returned to Jerusalem to assume leadership of the Belz dynasty, and has led it ever since.
He and his wife have one son, Aaron Mordechai Rokeach, who was born in 1975. Aaron Mordechai married the daughter of the Makover rebbe in August 1993, and has six sons and 2 daughters.
[edit] The re-invention of Belz
The majority of Belz Hasidim had been killed in the Holocaust. Although some had managed to immigrate to the United States and Israel, the post-war years saw the court of Belz's membership undergo a radical change, consisting largely of former members of other communities, or haredim who had previously not officially belonged to any Hasidic group. One of Rokeach's most important tasks was to take this diverse collection of followers and mold them into a unified community. He focused on building up Belz institutions, largely non-existent at the death of the previous rebbe. As Belz slowly established an economic base, it began expanding its network of schools in Western Europe, America and Israel, as well as its yeshivas and even its own Jerusalem enclave, Kiryat Belz. It also created its own newspaper, Ha-Machaneh Ha-Haredi, of which former MK Yisrael Eichler is a former editor.
[edit] An independent Rebbe
Rokeach has long had a reputation for being a maverick among the Israeli haredi community. The early years following his appointment as rebbe saw him carefully forging alliances with other Hasidic courts (such as Ger and Vizhnitz), as well as the Misnagdic communities, particularly Degel HaTorah. He quickly became known as a political moderate and pragmatist, eventually even breaking what had earlier been something of a taboo; accepting funding and subsidies from the Israeli government.
[edit] Feud with the Edah HaChareidis
As Belz began to establish itself as an independent (and successful) group, it began to attract some negative attention, particularly after Rokeach's decision to accept money from the state. One group, the Edah HaChareidis, (the "pious community"), a coalition of several Hasidic movements known for their particular strictness and traditionalism even among haredim, took particular offense at the "renegades"' disregard of what had earlier been a largely unchallenged status-quo. This was compounded by Rebbe Yissachar Dov's willingness to participate in Israeli politics by encouraging his followers to vote and sending emissaries to join haredi political parties. These disagreements turned from mere hostilities into a full-blown feud following Rokeach's announcement in 1980 that Belz was going to split from the Edah HaCharedis.
Prior to the split, Belz had been the only non-Edah member that accepted the authority of the Badatz, the Edah's rabbinical court, whose authority touched all matters of everyday haredi life, including kashrut certification. Early in the year, Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss, the head of the Badatz issued a decree forbidding followers from sending their children to schools funded with state money. This represented a serious threat to Belz's moderate approach, which benefited greatly from state assistance. In response, Rabbi Yissachar Dov decided to cut his community off from the Edah HaCharedis and establish his own system of religious services, including kashrut certification. While Belz maintained that it was only interested in certifying food for its own community, the move was met with great hostility by the Edah HaCharedis, particularly the Satmar Hasidim, who were both outraged at Rabbi Rokeach's defiance, as well as concerned about Belz as potential economic competition.
This led to a large delegitimization campaign against Rabbi Rokeach. Later in the year, when he visited the United States, he was assigned a security detail by the FBI in response to multiple death threats. The conflict in Israel, initially confined to insulting posters, gradually escalated to a series of particularly offensive pranks (including sending prostitutes to Rokeach's home, and bread to Weiss' home during Passover) and ultimately physically violent clashes between followers. It should be noted that neither Rabbi Rokeach nor Rabbi Weiss were ever thought to be directly involved in any of these activities, which are largely considered to have been the work of radical activists within both camps. Despite all this, Belz persevered, and gradually tempers cooled. While Belz and the Edah HaCharedis remain distant and implicitly hostile towards each other, the feud has, for all intents and purposes, ended.
[edit] 2005 "work" speech
In 2005 Rokeach strongly encouraged his male followers to learn professions (specifically, in white-collar work,) during his annual Simchat Torah speech. Rokeach said, "Long-term students in yeshivas who are talented and have the economic means are fortunate, but students who after a year see their studies are not going well, whether because of their skills or their economic situation, must learn a profession that earns a living. I'm not talking about getting rich but earning a living, so that one does not fall into debt... One can prepare for this in the yeshiva and devote a few hours a week in the evening to studying a profession."1
While this was not the first time Rokeach recommended that Belz Hasidism seek employment, the statement still came as something of a shock to both his and other haredi communities. Since World War II, there has been a strong tradition among haredim in Israel of men spending the majority of their time learning in yeshivas or kollels, while the women work (partially related to issues pertaining to the Israeli draft). The Belzer Rov's speech is the latest in a growing trend of encouraging haredi men who would be more suited to work than study (or whose families are particualarly financially needy) to join the work force. (See Tal Law.) Rokeach's comments were noteworthy for their point that Orthodox Jews do not need to entirely abandon their studies in order to earn a living.
[edit] Quotes
Every Jew must firmly believe that inside him there resides a pure soul. Regardless of what his situation may be, even if he has strayed from the right path, the inner essence of his soul- which is a portion of God- remains pure and unsullied... From this tiny center of the soul that has not been tained by evil, the transgressor derives the strength to do teshuvah, make amends for all his failings, and soar to the loftiest spiritual heights.- 19912
Everyone knows that the Arabs residing in Eretz Yisrael- descendants of Ishmael- have only one aim: to drive the Jewish people out of Eretz Yisrael and to annihilate them. Now, when the Jewish people conduct themselves in the proper manner, the Arabs most certainly will have no power to harm them. To the contrary, the Arabs themselves will vanish from the scene. But even when Jews do not behave quite as they should, then the Holy One Blessed be He compares His nation with the nations of the world. And when viewed together, He finds that the Jewish people are the acme of perfection... For the Jewish people when measured against the nations of the world are absolutely flawless. In this merit, the Jewish people will defeat their enemies and crush them.- 19903
[edit] Footnotes
- Note 1: Yair Ettinger. Tough times push men out of yeshiva and into work. Haaretz, December 23, 2005.
- Note 2: Avraham Yaakov Finkel (1994). Contemporary Sages: The Great Chasidic Masters of the Twentieth Century. Jason Aaronson, Inc. ISBN 1-56821-155-4
- Note 3: ibid.
[edit] Sources
- Samuel C. Heilman (1999). Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry. University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-22112-5
- Ehud Sprinzak (1999). Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination. Free Press, ISBN 0-684-85344-2
