The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do not Reply this message! Please send messages to kehilasmy@yahoo.com Cortesy of [ http://anshe.org ] Congregation Anshe Emes, Los Angeles YAHRTZEITS The update of Jewish History of this week Sunday, 12 Elul Rav Shimon of Toledo, son of the Rosh (1342) Rav Simchah Bunim of Pshischa, author of Kol Simchah, (1767-1827). Rav Simcha Bunim studied in the yeshivos of Mattersdorf and Nikolsburg under the guidance of Rav Mordechai Banet. He spent many years as a business man and a pharmacist, then became a follower of the Chozeh of Lublin and of the Yid Hakadosh of Pshischa, whom he succeeded as the Rebbe of Pshischa. His writings express the new approach to Chasidus which placed great emphasis on introspection and intense Torah study. His most famous disciple was Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, the Kotzker Rebbe. Rav Moshe Elkayam Hopstein of Kozhnitz, author of Be'er Moshe (1757-1828). His father, Rav Yisrael, the Maggid of Kozhnitz, was one of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk's greatest talmidim. Rav Moshe Elyakim's first marriage was to a daughter of Rav Yehuda Leib HaKohen of Anipoli, a talmid of the Maggid of Mezritch and author of the sefer, Ohr HaGanuz. After the sad passing of his first wife, Rav Moshe Elyakim married a daughter of Rav Elazar, the son of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk. After his passing in 1815, the Maggid's teachings were perpetuated by his famous talmidim, who included Rav Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, Rav Yaakov Aryeh of Radzimin, Rav Naftali Tzvi of Ropshitz, Rav Shalom of Belz, Rav Yissachar Ber of Radoshitz, the Chiddushei HaRim and, of course, his son and successor, Rav Moshe Elyakim. Rav Moshe Elyakim's followers included many well-known talmidei chachamim, and counted among them the young Chiddushei HaRim, founder of the Gerer dynasty. Rav Yitzchak Zelaznik, Rosh Yeshivas Me'or Eliyahu Rav Shmuel Tolwinski (1914-2004). Born in Semyatitch, Poland, his grandfather was a close chassid of the Kotzker Rebbe. He learned at Kamenitz with Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, and later at the Mirrer Yeshiva. When he was only 15, he substituted as maggid shiur at Novardok, when an older rebbe took leave for a year. In the 1950s, he moved to Bnai Brak and learned at the Chazon Ish Kollel. He married Henna Gella Sifman. He moved to Los Angeles, giving a popular gemara shiur for 30 years and teaching at Yeshiva Toras Emes. He lived his last few years in Monsey with his children. Many Jews in London were killed in riots during the coronation of Richard I, 1189. Although Richard the Lionheart was favorably inclined towards the Jews, he was influenced by church clerics who had a fanatical hatred of Jews. Baldwin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, convinced Richard I during his coronation not to accept presents from Jewish dignitaries and to remove them from the palace. The crowd took it to mean that the king encouraged persecution of the Jews, and they began rioting against the Jews in London that same day. The riots soon spread to Norwich, Dunstable and Stamford. In London, 30 Jews were killed including Rabbi Yaakov of Orleans, talmid of Rabbeinu Tam. Birth of the Ramban, Rav Moshe ben Nachman, 1194, Gerona, Spain. Torquemada died, 1498. This inquisitor, together with Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cianeros, successfully burned 9,000 Jews in Spain during Queen Isabella's lifetime in order to get their wealth for Spain's American empire-building. Pope renews anti-Jewish restrictions of the Roman Jewish community, 1732. The UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa was held, erupting in a festival of anti-Semitism, 2002. Monday, 13 Elul Rav Yaakov Yisrael Twersky of Tcherkas (Czerkass), son of the Magid of Chernobyl and author of Emek Tefilla (1876) Rav Yaakov Gezundteheit of Warsaw (1878) Rav Avraham Yissochor Rabinowitz, the Chesed LeAvraham (1843-1892). The second Rebbe of Radomsk, following Rav Shlomo HaCohen Rabinowicz (1801-1866), the Tiferes Shlomo. Rav Yerachmiel Moshe Hopstein of Kozhnitz (1860-1909). The scion of a long line of Kozhnitzer Rebbes, beginning with the Kozhnitzer Maggid and through Rav Yechiel Yaakov, Rav Yerachmiel's father. When Yerachmiel was only 6 years old, his father was niftar, and the Rebbetzen married Rav Aharon of Stolin. Reb Yerachmiel was engaged to be married at the age of 12, but the wedding was pushed off for two years, due to the untimely death of the Bais Aharon of Stolin and his son, Rav Asher. The following year, in 1875, Rav Yerachmiel returned to Kozhnitz to lead his flock of Chasidim, a job he performed for 34 years. Rav Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, author of Ben Ish Chai, Od Yosef Chai, Rav Pe'alim, Ben Yehoyada, Aderet Eliyahu, and Imrei Bina, and many other works (1832-1904). Both his grandfather, Rav Moshe Chaim, and his father, Rav Eliyahu, served as Rav of Baghdad. Rav Eliyahu and his wife were childless for many years. Finally, 10 years after their marriage, his wife made the long journey from Baghdad to Morocco to request a blessing from the renowned Rav Yaakov Buchatzeira, the Abir Yaakov. The tzaddik blessed her that she would give birth to a child who would one day illuminate the eyes of Jews everywhere. Less than a year later, she gave birth to a boy, who was named Yosef Chaim. As a child, he spent most of his time studying in his father's large library. At the age of 10, he left the Sephardic cheder in which he learned and began to study with his uncle, the tzaddik Rav Dovid Chai Nissim. Rav Dovid later founded the famed Shoshanim LeDovid Yeshiva located in the Beis Yisrael section of Yerushalayim. When his father passed away, Rav Yosef Chaim was only 25 years old. Nevertheless, the Jews of Baghdad accepted him to fill his fathers position as Rav of Baghdad. His opinion on halachic issues was sought throughout the Sephardi world and is still followed by thousands of people from these communities, and even outside these communities. Rav Yosef Chaim's son, Rav Yaakov, succeeded him as rav and maggid of Baghdad. His main disciple was the kabbalist and tzaddik Rav Yehuda Moshe Petaya. Rav Avraham Fish (1998) 7,000 stateless Jews in the Vichy Free Zone of France were rounded up, 1942. Nazis closed all shuls and schools in the Kovno Ghetto, 1942. UN mediator Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte murdered in Yerushalayim by "Lehi" fighters, 1948. Tuesday, 14 Elul Oldest existing kesuba written in the Western hemisphere (1643) - Yitzchak & Yehudit. Nazis decreed that Jews had no rights to moveable or immovable property, 1940. Nazis confine Jews of Vilna to ghetto, 1941. Slaughter of 1,668 Jews in Radomysl, 1941. Wednesday, 15 Elul Rav Yaakov Koppel Chassid, the chazzan of the Baal Shem Tov and founder of the Kosov and Vizhnitz dynasties (1787). Born in Kolomaya, Ukraine, he was able to trace his family-tree through his father, Rav Nechemyah Feivel, back to the Baalei Tosfos of Provence and beyond, to Dovid HaMelech. His most famous work, Shaar Gan Eden, was printed posthumously in 1854. He also wrote a kabbalist commentary on the Siddur Kol Yaakov, printed in 1859, based on the nusach of the Arizal, and a kabbalistic commentary on the Haggadah. Some of his Torah ideas are quoted by his son, Rav Menachem Mendel of Kosov, in his sefer, Ahavas Shalom. Rav Chanoch Henach Eiges of Vilna, author of Marcheshes (1941). Learned under Rav Alexander Moshe Lapidus at his Kollel in Rassein. Jews of Palma were massacred, 1391. The right to public worship is denied to the Jews of New York because freedom of religion applied to Christians only, 1685. (44 years - almost to the day - later, the foundation was laid for the first shul in New York (and all of North America.) Passing of Jacob Rodriguez Pereire in France, 1780. Pereire was a descendent of a Spanish Marrano family who returned to Judaism together with his mother and became active in Jewish rights. He is remembered for his pioneering work with the deaf that stressed lip reading. He was the first teacher of deaf-mutes in France. He formulated signs for numbers and punctuation and adapted Juan Pablo Martin Bonet's manual alphabet by adding 30 handshapes each corresponding to a sound instead of to a letter. He is one of the inventors of manual language for the deaf and is credited with being the first person to teach a non-verbal deaf person to speak. In 1759, he was made a member of the Royal Society of London. Russia under the fanatically anti-Semitic Nicholas I decrees the 25-year draft of Jewish boys between the ages of twelve and twenty-five, 1827. This became known as the infamous Cantonists decree. For the next thirty years, approximately seventy thousand Jews, fifty thousand of whom were children, were forced into the military and many were tortured until they agreed to be baptized. The decree was rescinded shortly after Nicholas I's death on Purim 1855. Menachem Begin signs the Camp Dovid agreement giving back all the Sinai to Egypt, 1978. 16 Elul Rav Avraham Landau, the Strikover Rebbe of Bnei Brak (1917-2001). Born in Kinov, in the Ostrovtze region of Poland. His father, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak Dan, served as rav of the city. Avraham was raised by his grandfather, Rav Elimelech Menachem Mendel. At the age of 13, Avraham began to study in the Chachmei Lublin yeshiva. When the second World War broke out, he was at his parents' home and he fled with his father to Lodz, from which the family fled to Warsaw, and from there, at the directive of his father, Avraham fled to Baranowitz. A week after his arrival in Baranowitz he fled to Vilna, during Chanukah 1939. There, he began to study under the Griz (Rav Velvel Soloveitchik) of Brisk. In 1946, he married a great-granddaughter of the Chiddushei Harim of Gur. After their marriage he learned that his father and eight of his siblings had perished in the Holocaust, and that only he and his sister remained alive from the entire Strikover dynasty. Reb Simon Wisenthal, famed Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter (1909-2005) The Ottoman Sultan, aware that killing Shabsai Zvi would make him a martyr, instead "convinced" Shabsai that converting to Islam was in his best interest, 1666. On this day, he was brought before the Sultan, took off his Jewish headdress, and replaced it with a Turkish turban. This act ended 2 years in which messianic fervor had gripped the entire Jewish world, brought thousands of marranos to return to Judaism, and even led many Jews to sell their home and property in anticipation of the ingathering of exiles to Israel. The repercussions of his conversion sent shock waves throughout the Jewish world which were to be felt for many years. Of his followers, some claimed that it wasn't really he who had converted, others professed that he had proved he was Moshiach by trying to redeem the Muslims by joining them, and still others converted along with him and formed a new Muslim group called Donmehs who kept elements of Judaism in their practice of Islam. The tefillah of Aleinu was censored in Germany, 1703. The Aleinu prayer, which the Amora Rav, (d. 247) ordained to be recited in the three daily tefillos, was cleansed of the words "For they bow down to emptiness and vanity and to a God that cannot save" which was taken from Yeshaya 45:20 and referred to idol worshipers, although Christian leaders claimed it was an attack on Christianity. They claimed that the word "vorik" (vav, reish, yud, kaf) is the numerical equivalent of yeshu (yud, shin, vav). This phrase in Aleinu was almost entirely eradicated from the Ashkenazi siddur and was returned to our siddurim only recently. Hitler issued Directive no. 1, 1939 ordering the attack on Poland to begin at dawn the following day. Nazi decree forbidding non-Jews to work for Jews, 1940. The entire Jewish community of Meretsch, Lithuania, massacred by the Nazis, 1941. Illegal Jewish immigrants exiled to Mauritius by the British, were admitted into Eretz Yisrael, 1945. Friday, 17 Elul Rav Chaim Benveniste (1603-1673). A disciple of Rav Yosef Trani. Born in Constantinople, he was appointed Rav of Tita (near Izmir) in 1644. In 1658, he was appointed one of the rabbis of Izmir. He became an adherent of Reb Shabsai Tzvi (1665-67) but subsequently repented. He authored Kenesses HaGedolah, a digest of halachic material from the time of Rav Yosef Caro until his own time. Rav Nosson Nota Shapiro, maggid of Lublin (1752). Rav Yosef Yoska of Dubno, author of Yesod Yosef, an encyclopedic work on mussar, drawing heavily on the Zohar (1800). A student of the Maggid of Mezritch. Rav Dovid Dov Taub, Rav of of Dabrizinsk, author of Binyan Dovid (1899). Rav Yakov Kopel Reich, Rav of Budapest (1838-1929). Born in the city of Verboi to Rav Avraham Yechezkel, who was the son of Rav Yaakov Kopel Charif, author of Sefer Yaavatz on Chulin. He learned in Pressburg under the Kesav Sofer and in Grossvardein under Rav Yitzchak Aharon Landesberg. In 1860, he succeeded his father-in-law as Rav of Sobotitch. In 1872, he became Rav of Verboi, and in 1890, he was appointed Rav of Budapest. 2,000 Jews of Caesarea murdered by the local population at the instigation of the Romans, 66 C. E. The discovery of the body of a Christian child led to a ritual blood libel and the hanging of many prominent Jews of England, 1255. Vincent Fettmilch, a former pastry cook and leader of "the guilds", calling himself the "new Haman of the Jews", attacked the Frankfurt shul while the community davening, 1614. The Jews were soon overpowered and many took shelter in the cemetery while the community was destroyed. On 21 Adar, 1616, he and his accomplices were hung and quartered for their actions. That day is commemorated as a feast day known as "Purim Vinz" (Purim of Vincent) by the Frankfurt community, with the reading of the Megillas Vinz composed by Elchanan b. Avraham Helin. Pogrom in Shedlitz, Russia, 1906. The anti-Semitic Nuremberg racial laws were passed by the Nazis which instituted a division between Aryans and non-Aryans and deprived Jews of citizenship, 1935. Jews were defined as anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent. Germany attacked Poland, 1939, launching World War II, which resulted in the murder of over 6 million Jews and the redistribution of the Jewish population all over the world, with many Jews eventually reaching Eretz Yisrael. The Nitra yeshiva in Slovakia, the last yeshiva still open in Europe during WWII, was liquidated, 1944. SHABBOS, 18 Elul Rav Yehuda Loew, the Maharal (1525-1609). Born in Posen, Poland, on the night of the Pesach Seder, to a distinguished family of rabbis that traced its ancestry to King Dovid. He was the youngest of four brothers. The Maharal married at the age of 32 to Pearl. He had six girls and one boy who was named after the Maharal's father, Betzalel. In 1553 he was elected rabbi of Nikolsburg and the Province of Moravia, where he remained for the following 20 years. In 1573 he moved to Prague, where he opened a yeshiva. In 1592 the Maharal accepted the position of rabbi in Posen, returning to Prague in 1598 to serve as its chief rabbi. The Maharal castigated the educational methods of his day where boys were taught at a very young age and insisted that children must be taught in accordance with their intellectual maturity. One of his leading disciples was R. Yom Tov Heller, author of the classic mishnaic commentary, Tosafos Yom Tov, who, in his introduction informs us that the Maharal greatly encouraged group study of the Mishna. At the same time, he was fully conversant with the scientific knowledge of his time as well as friendly with some of the contemporary eminent scientists. His disciple, Dovid Ganz, worked in the observatory of Tycho Brahe, the distinguished astronomer. He was a prolific writer, and his works include: Tiferes Yisrael on the greatness of Torah and mitzvos; Nesivos Olam, on ethics; Be'er Hagolah, a commentary on rabbinic sayings; Netzach Yisrael, on exile and redemption; Or Chadash, on the book of Esther; Ner Mitzvah, on Chanukah; Gevuros Hashem, on the Exodus; and many others. Rav Kook stated that the "Maharal was the father of the approach of the Gaon of Vilna on the one hand, and of the father of Chasidus, on the other hand." He has been described as a Kabbalist who wrote in philosophic garb. Rav Abdala Somech, rebbe of Ben Ish Chai and head of Iraqi Jewry (1813-1889). Born in Baghdad, he traced his lineage back to Rav Nissim Gaon, head of the yeshivah of Neharda'ah. Rav Ze'ev Nachum Bornstein, author of Agudas Eizov, Rav of Elkush and Biala, father of Rav Avraham Borenstein of Sochachov, the Avnei Nezer (1885). Shimon HaChashmona'i was elected Kohen Gadol and governor of the Jews, 141 BCE., marking the end of the struggle for independence and the beginning of the Chashmonaim dynasty (which lasted for 206 years). Led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, the British seized New Amsterdam, 1664, and renamed the city New York. The rights won by the Jews under Dutch rule were preserved, although they were still not allowed to join a guild or engage in retail trade. Each colony was free to decide which rights to grant the Jews. In many cases they were even less then those granted in England. Birthday of Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov, 1698 Birthday of R. Shneur Zalman b. Baruch, the Alter Rebbe, founder of Chabad, 1745 Israel agreed to accept reparation money from West Germany, 1952. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Please visit our web page http://www.kehilasmy.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SHIDDUCHIM for RUSSIAN BAALEY TESHUVAH Worldwide in Russian http://www.toldot.ru/shiduchim ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Buy books with 10% off from Artscroll and Artscroll will donate us 5% of your purchase: http://artscroll.com/linker/kehilasmy/home -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=lit.kehilasmy&email=e@mail http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com