Place
Belz בעלז
The Galician court built on strictness of custom: a Belzer Hasid is known by order, not by wonders.
R. Shalom Rokeach, the Sar Shalom, built the great synagogue of Belz and ran a court where what mattered was not experience but exactness of custom. Belz became the mainstay of Galician orthodoxy against the Haskalah and later in the disputes over elections and new schools.
The Rokeach dynasty led the court for four generations. After the Shoah the surviving rebbe rebuilt Belz in Israel; the great Belz synagogue in Jerusalem echoes the one that stood in Belz.
On the timeline
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Dover Shalom — the life of the Sar Shalom and the traditions of the Belz court
Basis: documents and evidence.