Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach, known as the Mitteler Ruv, was the second Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty.
10 Facts About Yehoshua Rokeach
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Yehoshua Rokeach combined Torah scholarship with practical common sense to guide thousands of Hasidim and to fight the Haskalah movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century.
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Yehoshua Rokeach's pioneering activities included founding the Machzikei Hadas organization.
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Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach was the youngest of five sons of Rabbi Sholom Rokeach, founder of the Belz dynasty.
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Finally, on Rosh Hashana 1857, Yehoshua Rokeach 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.
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Yehoshua Rokeach led his Hasidim with both deep erudition and common sense.
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Yehoshua Rokeach battled the Haskalah movement that sought to introduce modernity and compromise in the Torah community.
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Yehoshua Rokeach often defended the Torah way of life to the leaders of the Haskalah's Shomer Yisrael organization.
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In 1894 Yehoshua Rokeach traveled to Vienna to visit a specialist and undergo an operation.
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Yehoshua Rokeach was succeeded as Rebbe by his second son, Yissachar Dov Rokeach.