Aharon Roth

Aharon Roth or Aaron Rote known as Reb Arele (1894 – 1947 ), was a Hungarian Hasidic rebbe and Talmudic scholar. He first established a Hasidic community he called Shomer Emunim (Guardian of Faith) in the 1920s in Satu Mare and in the 1930s in Berehovo, before he settled in Jerusalem, where he also founded a Hasidic community of the same name. His main work is the two-volume Shomer Emunim, written in 1942 in reaction to the news about the Nazi atrocities in Eastern Europe.

After his death, the sect split into two groups. One, who adopted the name Shomrei Emunim, followed his son, Rabbi Avrohom Chayim (1924 - 2012), the other followed his son-in-law and became known as Toldot Aharon (Generations of Aharon) of which the Toldot Avrohom Yitzchok later split off.

Life Roth was born in Ungvár, Hungary, today Uzhhorod in Ukraine, an outsider to the Hasidic world. He was unusually pious and ascetic from an early age. Until the age of 20, he studied Talmud in Vác under Yeshayahu Silberstein, a Hungarian scholar, and then with Hasidic rabbis from Galicia, who had fled to Hungary during World War I, including Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz and Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Błażowa. On the latter's instruction, The synagogue he established in the Mea Shearim quarter became known for the ecstatic mood of those who pray there.

Views In Roth’s book Taharas HaKodesh, published in 1930, he predicted a big catastrophe happening in the near future due to immodest dress and not protecting the covenant. Roth criticized the struggles and scandals within many of the Hasidic dynasties, accusing them of not following the early tsadikim's emphasis on simple prayer and piety. (First Volume Second Volume at HebrewBooks.org); (Osef Mikhtavim) (1943); (Mevakesh Emunah) (1943) Hebrew text at HebrewBooks.org. His ethical will was published as Kuntres Tsavaah in 1947. His works, including new volumes based on his written manuscripts, continue to be published by his followers.