He combined Torah scholarship with practical common sense to guide thousands of Hasidim and to fight the Haskalah ("Enlightenment") movement that was making inroads in Jewish communities in Poland during the nineteenth century.

[1] For two years before his death, the Sar Shalom had spent several hours each day talking with his youngest son and suggesting that he should be his successor.

But after the Sar Shalom died, on September 10, 1855, Yehoshua was unwilling to step ahead of his four older brothers to become Rebbe.

[citation needed] Finally, on Rosh Hashana 1857, Yehoshua decisively grasped the reigns of leadership by entering the central Belz synagogue for the prayer services and seating himself in the rebbe's chair by the eastern wall.

Every Yom Kippur afternoon, for example, he would walk through the aisles of the Belz synagogue, intently scanning the faces of all the worshippers.

The operation was deemed a success,[4] but the Rebbe died on the train en route to Belz a short while later, at the age of 69.