“Straw from the rabbi of blessed memory”
Pieces of straw the most sacred Admo”r Rabbi Aharon of Belz stood upon in 1955 throughout all his prayers on the holiest day of the year. This straw was “grabbed” after Yom Kippur, as was the custom in Belz, by the ga’ava”d of Turda, the gaon and Chassid Rabbi Moshe Adler – one of the Admo”r’s close associates, who subsequently kept it in his library. Signed confirmation included from his son and successor, the gaon and Chassid Rabbi Yisrael Adler.
“Straw from the rabbi of blessed memory” (written in Yiddish) – a ritual item with the weight of just a flimsy stalk, yet of inestimable value! This small piece is worth so much. It evokes sacred trembling, especially among the tens of thousands of Belzer Chassidim in particular, and actually anyone at all for whom the name of Rabbi Aharon is sacred. If every object that is left as an inheritance from a tzaddik is capable of salvation for a blessing, then the segulah of the stroy is doubled and redoubled. Tradition maintains that the Admo”rim of Belz themselves would take from this straw. Rabbi Aharon was especially careful to take the first of the stroy he had stood upon during the Yom Kippur service. He would send it with the shammash to place it on his bed as a precious segulah . The attendants who were privileged to serve in the Admo”r’s close proximity relate that there were packages of straw in his bed that the rebbe had collected over the years from his ancestors and from what was laid out for his own Yom Kippur service. ( Ohr HaTzafun – Belz , 110, p. 5).
Segulah for healing: During WWI, the Admo”r Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray (son of the Admo”r the Mahari”d of Belz) became ill, and his condition was very precarious. When Yom Kippur came to a close, his father went to visit him and brought a handful of the straw he had stood upon that day, and said as follows: “Take some of this straw in your hands, put in under the pillow upon which your head lies. I pray that you will have a complete recovery.” Miraculously, the pain and disease disappeared and the patient returned to full health, living many more years, even fathering the sacred Admo”r of Belz. (According to Tzintzent HaMann Volume II page 107.)
Segulah for protection: The important work BiKedushato shel Aharon relates regarding the segulah of the stroy : There was an incident involving Rabbi Shemayah Klein, a Belzer Chassid, who was caught at a border crossing with a massive amount of foreign currency (everything he owned) in his bag. The law required that the entire sum be confiscated for the state coffers. There was also stroy in his bag, straw the Belzer rebbe had stood upon during his Yom Kippur prayers. When he heard that he had a bundle of straw with him upon which the rebbe had stood, the border supervisor asked him for it – for Rabbi Shemayah to give him ‘just one piece’ of the straw. When Rabbi Shemayah acquiesced, the customs agents left him alone, without confiscating even one penny of all his property and funds. The author concludes: “I heard this from the person who experienced it himself, Rabbi Shemayah Klein, presently of Vienna.”
Refer to the Hebrew catalog text for a brief biography of the sacred Admo”r Rabbi Aharon Rokeach of Belz .
Three pieces of straw slipped into a closed plastic sleeve.
Very fine condition.
Signed confirmation included from Rabbi Yisrael Adler, son and successor of the ga’ava”d of Turda, Rabbi Moshe Adler, attesting that the straw is from the Admo”r of Belz, and that his father, the ga’ava”d of Turda, was privileged to receive it, and bequeathed it to him.
