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Kunteres issued upon the death of R. Joshua ben Shalom of Belz. The title page has a decorative border and informs that it contains many wondrous stories attesting to his holiness and wisdom. The price is given 12 kreizer, 50 שטיק 225. 100 שטיק 325. The text, in a single column in rabbinic letters, begins by describing his final incurable illness and death (2-3) and then recounts numerous stories of his life.
R. Joshua ben Shalom (1825-94) was the fifth and youngest son of R. Shalom (1783-1855), the admor of Belz, whom R. Joshua succeeded as rebbe. R. Joshua was renowned for his phenomenal knowledge and worldly wisdom. He fought assiduously to preserve traditional Judaism. R. Joshua formed the Mahzikei Hadat in 1878, which was recognized by the government. In 1872, he convened a conference attended by 200 rabbis of various communities which resolved that only Jews meticulous in their observance of the Shulhan Arukh were to be granted full voting rights at Jewish communal elections. R. Joshua was the unofficial spokesman for Galician Jewry, and virtually every appointment required his consent. R. Joshua corresponded with contemporaries on halakhic issues and continued, as had his father, the building and extension of the Bet ha-Midrash in Belz. In his final illness R. Joshua went to Vienna for surgery but died on his return to Belz, being survived by five sons and three daughters. His discourses are printed with those of his father in Ohel Yehoshua, part of his father’s Dover Sholem (1910). |
