Sholom Rokeach, also known as the Sar Sholom, was the first Belzer Rebbe. To Belzer Hasidim, he is known as "Der Ershter Rov", but in the city ofBelz itself he was called "Der Alter Rov" in deference to the Bach, who presided as rabbi of Belz in the sixteenth century.
Biography
His father was Rabbi Eleazar Rokeach, one of the sages of the Kloyz of Brody. The latter was the grandson of Rabbi Eleazar, author of Maaseh Rokeach, rabbi of Brody until 1736, then Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam. His mother was Rebbetzin Rivka Henna Ramraz. After Rabbi Eleazar died at the age of 32, Rivka Henna lived in Brody with her five orphaned children. She sent her son Sholom, around 11 years old at the time, to be raised by her brother, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Ramraz, rabbi of Skohl, then in Galicia. Later on, he married Rabbi Yissachar Dov's daughter, Malka. They had five sons and two daughters. According to Czech writer Jiri Langer, who moved to Belz in 1913 and began collecting anecdotes about Rokeach a half-century after his death, Reb Sholem was so devoted to his “excellent wife” that “contrary to the custom of all devout men he even ate at the same table with her.” In the town of Skohl, Rokeach was influenced by Rabbi Shlomo, also known as the Rebbe of Skohl, who served as the private scribe and right-hand man of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the successor to the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism. Since Reb Sholem’s uncle was opposed to Hasidism, Rokeach would secretly leave the housenight after night, in order to meet his male companion, who had previously been Sholem’s partner in a failed business venture, but had come to share Sholem’s sleepless passion for Torah study. Rather than leave each night through the front door, where his male companion waited outside, Sholem would climb out of an upper room window each evening, descending with a ladder, “so that no jealous soul should know of it”. It was in this way, according to Belzer legend, that over the course of nine hundred and ninety-nine nights, excepting the Sabbath, Sholem and his companion were able to learn the word of G-d, all through the dark hours without a wink of sleep, in Rabbi Shlomo Lutzker's otherwise empty Beis Hamidrash. On the thousandth night, during a “terrible storm with heavy rain, hail, and thunder”, the Devil himself barred their way into the edifice: profoundly frightened, Sholem’s study companion fled, returning that evening to his home and the company of his wife. But the “dauntless Sholem” somehow managed to enter the Belz House of Study, and did not study alone that fateful evening, for he was joined by the prophet Elijah “and the spirits of saints who had long since died”, who were said to have initiated him “in the way Heaven rewards perseverance” by giving him keys to the celestial gates and full insight into the Cabbalic Mysteries. Thus Reb Sholem was turned into a saint that fateful night, it is said, while “his companion remained an ordinary human being.” Rokeach was also a disciple of the Seer of Lublin, who “taught me to read in each person’s kvitel where the roots of his soul are, in Adam, Cain, or Abel, how many times his soul has been reincarnated, what transgression he has committed to bring about this or that reincarnation, what harm he has done, what vice has taken root in him and what merit has been added to him. He also taught me to recognize which constellations are favorable when one prays for this or that, and which not.” He composed several songs, most of them still sung by the Belzer Hasidim, including one niggun to Tzur Mishelo sung during the Shalosh Seudot. Many of his teachings are preserved in an anthology entitled Midbar Kodesh. He reigned as Rebbe from 1817 until his death in 1855. In addition to leading his Hasidim, he defended the beleaguered Jews of his district to the governor. In a famous exchange, the governor of the district invited him to his office and said, "Do you know that I am the second Haman?" The Sar Sholom replied, "Luck was not on the side of the first one, either". The governor was so impressed by the Rebbe's firm stand that he promised to put an end to the Jewish persecution. He built a four-story synagogue in Belz which was inaugurated in 1843. It had a capacity of 5,000. Although it was uncommon in the early Hasidic movement for a son to succeed his father as Rebbe, the Sar Shalom wished to be succeeded by the youngest of his five sons, Yehoshua.
