The update of Jewish History of this week

YAHRTZEITS

Sunday, 9 Cheshvan

Rav Yosef Yehuda Leib Bloch (1860-1930). Born in Rusein, he succeeded his father-in-law, Rav Eliezer Gordon, as Rosh Yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva. Telz is one of the oldest towns in Lithuania, situated in the north-western part of Lithuania on the shores of Lake Mastis, and was already mentioned in the chronicles of a Crusader Order in 1320. Jews settled in Telz at the beginning of the 17th century. 2,500 people lived in Telz in 1797, of them 1,650 were Jews (66%). By 1870 Telz had 6,481 residents, including 4,399 Jews. Reb Yosef Leib already began studying under Reb Leizer at the age of 15, in Kelm and married Reb Leizer's daughter at the age of 21. Reb Yosef Leib initiated many innovations. In 1894, he attempted to introduce Mussar to the yeshiva's curriculum, and in 1897 he brought Rabbi Yehuda Leib Chasman to serve as the yeshiva's Mashgiach.

Rav Shimon Shkop of Grodno (1860-1939). Born in Turz, Poland, Rav Shimon studied in Mir at the age of 12, and then Volozhin at the age of 15, with Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik. He was brought to Telshe in 1885 by his uncle, Rav Lazer Gordon. Rav Shimon's brother-in-law, Rav Shlomo Zalman Abel, was one of the three founders of the Telshe Yeshiva. He taught at Telshe for 18 years. He succeeded Rav Alter Shmuelevicz as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Shaarei Torah in Grodno, from 1920 to 1939, transforming it into one of the finest yeshivos in Poland and beyond. In 1929, Rav Shimon Shkop came to America to raise funds for the yeshiva, and accepted R' Dov (Bernard) Revel's invitation to serve as rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan in New York. However, at the request of the Chafetz Chaim, Rav Shkop returned to Europe after six months. In 1939, the Soviet Red army marched into Grodno during the Asseres Yemei Teshuva. Most of the talmidim fled to Vilna, but Rav Shimon Shkop was too old and sick to travel and remained behind with a few talmidim. He passed away a month later. Rav Shimon Shkop was the author of Shaarei Yosher.

Rav Yehuda Horowitz, the Stutchiner (Stetchiner) Rebbe (1981).

Rav Dovid Laniado of Aram Soba (Aleppo, Syria), author of LeKodshim Asher Ba'Aretz

Monday, 10 Cheshvan

Gad ben Yaakov Avinu (1566 BCE-1441 BCE)

Rav Yechiel Michel of Krakow, author of Seder Gittin (1660)

Rav Aryeh Leib of Stanislov, author of Nachlas Aryeh (1749). The city of Stanislawow was founded in the year 1654 by the Hetman (commander) and Starosta (County Administrator) of the Halicz region, Jedrzej Potocki, and was named after his son Stanislaw. Armenians and Jews were invited and promised, in the founding charter of the city of May 7, 1654, the right to settle in the city and the right to establish a house of prayer on the land that was given to them. In a special charter from September 17, 1662[6], Jedrzej Potocki granted the Jews (Zydzi talmudowi) the right to settle permanently in the city and the right to engage in commerce and crafts in the same measure as "the members of the Polish, Ruthenia and Armenian nations." In 1732, the Jewish population was 1,470 souls from among a total population of 3,321

Rav Meir, Rav of Lelov and of Ostroha, author of Meir Nesivim (1789).

Rav Avraham Oppenheim, author of Eishel Avraham on Shulchan Aruch (1826) [Not to be confused with Rav Avraham Dovid Wahrman of Butchatch, author of a sefer with the same name - see 30 Tishrei.]

Rav Yosef Meir, Rav of Golina (1831).

Rav Yitzchak Schick of Karlin, the Keren Ora (1851)

Rav Meir Shapit of Kobrin, author of Nir Liyerushalmi (1872).

Rav Dov Beirish Weidenfeld, the Tchebiner Rav (1881-1965). His maternal grandfather was the seventh link in an unbroken chain of poskim beginning with the Shach. Beirishel's paternal grandfather was a disciple of R' Yaakov Loeberbaum, author of Nesivos HaMishpat. His father, Rav Yaakov Weidenfeld, founder of the Kochar MiYaakov Yeshiva, was his primary teacher until he was nifter in 1894, just two weeks prior to Reb Beirishel's Bar Mitzvah. Thereafter, he became a student of his two older brothers, Rav Yitzchak of Horimlov (where Beirishel was also born) and Rav Nachum of Dombrova. At the age of 19, Rav Beirish married Rebbetzin Yachat, the daughter of Rav Yisrael Yosef Kluger of Tchebin. At the age of 24, he received semicha from Rav Yitzchak Shmelkish, the Beis Yitzchak. His wife administered a modest coal business to support him. In 1923, after 20 years of learning, he assumed the title of the Tchebiner Rav. Along with his wife and youngest daughter, the Rav was deported to Sverdelovsk, Siberia, in late 1940. With the dissolution of the labor camp, the Rav escaped to Buchara. The Tshebiner Rav arrived on the eve of Pesach, 1946, in Jerusalem, which he was to call home for the rest of his life, settling in the Shaarei Chessed neighborhood. His response were collected in the sefer Doveiv Meisharim. His son-in-law and successor as Rosh Yeshivah of Kochav MiYaakov was Rav Baruch Shimon Schneersohn.

Tuesday, 11 Cheshvan

Metushelach ben Chanoch, grandfather of Noach (3074 BCE - 2105 BCE)

Rachel Imeinu (1554 BCE) (according to the Vilna Gaon, she was 36 years old; according to Sefer Hayashar, 45)

Binyamin ben Yaakov Avinu (1554-1445 BCE)

Rav Menachem Nachum Twersky, the Chernobyl Rebbe (1730-1797), a student of the Baal Shem Tov and the Magid Mezritch, author of Meor Einayim; succeeded by his son, Mordechai, founder of the Chernobyl dynasty, the descendents of which are the Skverer Chasidim, the current Rebbe of whom is Rav Dovid Twersky of New Square, NY.

Rav Avraham Elimelech Weinberg, founder of Slonimer Chassidus (1804-1883), a disciple of Rav Noach of Lechovitz, and author of Be'er Avraham on Mechilta, Yesod Ha'avodah, and Chessed L'Avraham.

Rav Yehuda Leib Chasman, mashgiach of Yeshivas Chevron (1869-1935). Learned in Kelm under Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziev, in Volozhin under the Netziv as well as that of the Rabbi Chaim Halevi Soloveichik of Brisk. In 1897, he was brought to serve as the Telz yeshiva's Mashgiach. He established the independent Yeshiva in Shtutshin in 1908. In 1912, he was rabbi of Shtutsin. In his last years, he was the spiritual director of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Hebron and in Jerusalem. In 1926, he became mashgiach at Chevron. Author of Ohr Yohel. Among his talmidin was Rav Shlomo Schwadron.

Rav Pesach Pruskin, Rav and Rosh Yeshivah in Kobrin (1879-1939). Born to his widowed mother (he was named after his father, who died several months prior to his birth), in abject poverty. She took her five children to the home of her grandfather, Rabbi Pinchas Michael, who was Rav in Antipole. In his teens, he joined the yeshivah of the Chofetz Chaim in Radin He later went to Slobodka, where he was inspired by the Mussar of "der Alter," Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel.and spent a year at Kelm with Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv The Alter of Slobodka, constantly searching for suitable cities in which to establish yeshivos, selected Slutsk, a large city in White Russia, for his next undertaking. He dispatched Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer as Rosh Yeshivah, with fourteen talmidim - among them Pesach Kobriner. He became mashgiach in Slutsk, than - in 1911 - Rav of Amtsislav (also called Mistsislav); there he opened a yeshiva. When the Bolsheviks took over Russia, and his native city of Kobrin was incorporated into Poland (by the Soviet-Polish treaty of Riga, 1922), he escaped the Communist rule to Kobrin. Where he became Rav and opened another yeshiva.

Wednesday, 12 Cheshvan

Rav Moshe Kramer, Av Beis Din in Vilna. His surname, "Kramer" is derived from the Yiddish word for storekeeper. He owned a store, which his wife ran. And as a result, he always insisted on no being paid for his rabanus (1648)

Rav Nachum of Shadik, Yerushalayim (1866)

Rav Yehuda Tzadka, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef (1909-1991). Born in Yerushalayim, Rav Yehuda was a great-great grandson of Rav Tzadka Chutzin, author of Tzedaka U'misphat. His mother, Simcha, was the Ben Ish Chai's niece. The Tzadka family lived in the Beis Yisrael neighborhood of Yerushalayim. When he was 12 years old, Yehuda Tzadka enrolled in the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Old City. There, he became very close to Rav Ezra Attia. At the age of only 27 years, he was appointed to teach at the yeshiva. Among Reb Yehuda's first students was Rav Ovadia Yosef. In time, Rav Yehuda became the menahel ruchani, and with the petira of Rav Ezra Attias in 1970, he was appointed to new Rosh Yeshiva.

Thursday, 13 Cheshvan

Rav Yehuda Hachassid, author of Sefer Hachassidim (1217)

Rav Tzvi Shraga Grossbard (1916-1993) was born in Visan, Lithuania. His father, Rav Aharon Zev, was an outstanding talmid of the Chafetz Chaim. When Tzvi Shraga was still a youngster, his father was brutally beaten to death by Lithuanian thugs because he refused to inform on a fellow Jew. At the age of nine Tzvi Shraga joined Yeshivas Sha'arei Torah in Grodna. At age 14, Rav Tzvi Shraga entered Grodna's yeshiva gedola and formed a close bond with the famed Rav Shimon Shkop. Afterwards, he became one of Rav Baruch Ber Lebowitz's select students in Yeshivas Kaminetz, and at the beginning of the Second World War he studied for a year and a half under Rav Daniel Movshovitz in Yeshivas Kelm. In 1941, Rav Tzvi Shraga left Europe for Eretz Yisrael. There, he joined the Lomza yeshiva in Petach Tikvah headed by his uncle, Rav Abba Grossbard. Rav Tzvi Shraga also became the head of Tel Aviv's beis mussar and developed a strong friendship with mussar giant, Rav Eliyahu Dessler who was then spiritual mashgiach of the Ponovezh Yeshiva. The two men studied b'chavrusa each week in Rav Tzvi Shraga's home. In 1967 Rav Tzvi Shraga Grossbard became the director of Chinuch Atzmai and he remained at its helm for 25 years.

Rav Baruch of Kosov (1799). Disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch and of Rav Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk; author of Yesod HaEmunah and Amud HaAvoda.

Rav Haim Nahum Effendi (1872-1960). Served as Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Egypt (1925-1960). He was witness both to a vibrant community of 80,000 Jews living in Egypt and also to the community's disintegration after 1948 when government hostility, violence, economic restrictions, confiscation and deportation caused most Jews to leave. Born near Izmir in Turkey, he was sent by his parents to learn in a yeshiva in Tiveriya and later went to a French Lycee for his secondary education, obtaining a degree in Muslim law in Constantinople. He also attended the Sorbonne's School of Oriental Languages, where he perfected his linguistic abilities and also studied history and philosophy. In 1923, Rabbi Nahum received an invitation from Moise Cattaoui Pacha, head of the Jewish community in Cairo, to become the Chief Rabbi of Egypt and was appointed to serve as a Senator in the nation's Legislative Assembly.

Friday, 14 Cheshvan

Rav Yehuda Lowy, grandfather of the Maharal (1539)

Rav Avraham Elimelech Perlow of Stolin-Karlin (1891-1942). Born to Rav Yisrael "the Yenuka" of Stolin, Reb Avraham Elimelech married in 1912. He succeeded his father as Rebbe in 1922; most of his father's Chasidim followed him as he settled in Karlin, while his brother, Rav Dovid of Zlatipol led a flock to Stolin. In 1929, Rav Avraham Elimelech founded a yeshiva in Luninetz. He, his Rebetzin, and his two sons were murdered by local Ukranian peasants. His actual yahrtzeit is not known. This day has been chosen as his Yom Hazikaron. A collection of his chidushei Torah have been recorded as "Kuntres Pri Elimelech" and printed in Yalkut Divrei Aharon and in Birchas Aharon.

Shabbos, 15 Cheshvan

Mattisyahu ben Yochanan, Kohen Godol, father of the Chasmonaim (138 BCE, or 165)

Rav Eliezer ben Yitzchak ibn Archa (1651). Born in Tzefas, he moved to Chevron, where he served as Rav of the small Jewish population for most of his life. According to the Chida, he wrote many works including a commentary on Ein Yaakov and on Midrash Rabbah.

Rav Tzvi Horowitz of Tchortkov, father of Reb Shmelke of Nikolsburg and the Baal Haflaa (1753)

Rav Leib Baal HaYisurim in Tzefas (1836)

Rav Shmuel Frenkel of Dorag, the Imrei Shefer (1881)

Rav Chaim Pinto the Second was born in Mogador (current Essaouira), Morocco (-1939). His grandfather, Rav Chaim the First, was the great-grandson of Rav Yosef Pinto, who fled from Spain to Rome with 26 talmidim after the 1492 expulsion. However, he had to flee to Damascus after local priests trapped him into a theological debate and soundly lost. When the Jewish population of Mogador began thinning out, Rav Chaim the Second moved to Casablanca, while his son, Rav Moshe Aharon Pinto, stayed Mogador to prevent his father's shul from closing down.

Rav Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, the Chazon Ish (1878-1953). Educated by his father, the Av Beis Din in Kosova, Poland (near Grodno)), his first work on several parts of the Shulchan Aruch was published anonymously in Vilna in 1911 under the title "Chazon Ish," by which name he became known. He moved to Vilna about 1920 and moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1933, settling in Bnei B'rak. Upon his arrival in Eretz Yisrael, he devoted vast amounts of time and energy to Seder Zeraim, which deals mainly with laws pertaining to the land, to answer the many halachic problems inherent to a life in the Holy Land consistent with Torah.

OTHER EVENTS OF JEWISH HISTORY

Sunday, 9 Cheshvan

• The Roman army of Cestius Gallus was entirely annihilated in Yerushalayim, bringing great relief to the Jews, 67 CE.
• Rambam reaches Chevron, and davens at Me'oras HaMachpelah, 1165. He declares the day a Yom Tov for his family and makes seudas hoda'ah.
• Earthquake with hundreds of fatalities in Tzfas, 1759 (1767, according to Hamodia)
• Sultan of Turkey forbids ritual charges against Jews, 1840.
• Jews of Sweden allowed to acquire land, 1860.
• The Berlin-Rome Axis is formed between the fascist governments of Germany and Italy, 1936.
• Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 1994.

Tuesday, 11 Cheshvan

• 180 Jews Killed in Munich, 1285
• Birth of Rav Akiva Eiger in Eisenstadt, in the Burgenland district of Hungary (now Austria), 1761
• Russia, under Catherine II, defeated Kosciusco and swallowed what was left of the Ukraine and Lithuania in this third partition of Poland, 1795. The lands she came into possession of contained 1,200,000 Jews and Vilna. Prussia received Warsaw and its surrounding area while Galicia was given to Austria including Lemberg and Krakow.
• Nazi war crimes trials open in Nuremberg, 1945.
• Abe Beame, first Jewish mayor of New York City, 1973.
• Cpl. Nachshon Wachsman and Captain Nir Poraz are killed by terrorists in Bir Naballah, 1994.

Wednesday, 12 Cheshvan

• Rindfleisch massacres claim 200 Jewish lives, 1298.
• The Senate in Hamburg decided to officially allow Jews to live in the city on the condition that there be no public worship, 1612. Portuguese Jews had been living there for over 40 years under the guise of officially being Catholic now came out in the open.
• In 1729, after reading a letter written by Rav Yekusiel Gordon, an Ashkenazic Jew who had joined the circle of Italian mekubalim run by Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal) in Padua describing the Ramchal's Giluy Eliyahu Hanavi, and revelation of malachim from Shamayimm, one of the leading Gedolim of the era, Rav Moshe Chagiz of Altona, declared war against him. Rav Chagiz wrote a letter to the Venician rabbanim asking them to restrain the 23-year old Luzzatto who he feared would become another Shabsai Tzvi. The Ramchal's Rebbe, Rav Yeshaya Basson, and Rav Basson's distinguished father-in-law, the zaken of the Italian mekubalim, Rav Binyamin Cohen, supported the Ramchal, but he was widely opposed by other Italian rabbis. Rav Yaakov Hakohen Papirash-Katz, the head of the Frankfurt Beis Din and author of "Shev Yaakov", supported Rav Chagiz, and they brokered an agreement with Rav Bassan forcing the Ramchal to stop writing his heavenly revelations. Over the next 4 years, the Ramchal wrote 50 seforim, most of which were based on Kabbalah, including Maamorim and Pirushim on Otzros Chaim, the Aseres Hadibros, Tikunei Zohar, Nimukei Machzor, Idra Rabba, Pische Chochmah V'das, Kitzur Hakavanos, HaVikuach, Daas Tevunos and a pirush on Medrash Rabba. Most of these seforim were lost. The Ramchal was forced to stop writing additional seforim on kabbalah in the wake of a gzar din issued against him by the Frankfurt Beis Din on 17 Teves, 1735.
• The last public Auto da Fe is held in Portugal, 1765. (The latest recorded Auto da Fe in Portugal was held in 1791 and the last in Valencia, Spain was held in 1826.) The ceremony, accompanied by vitriolic sermons, announced the punishments of Christians and Jewish converts who were accused of backsliding, and many of the accused were burned at the stake.
• Kaiser William II of Prussia visited pre-state Israel and met with Herzl, 1898. The Kaiser refused to give a commitment of support to Herzl, largely due to the opposition of German Liberal Jews, bankers, and his foreign minister Bernhard von Buelow to the Zionist movement.
• Father Charles Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest in Detroit, begins his weekly anti-Semitic broadcasts over national radio, 1938. He also formed the Christian Front in New York City which carried out anti-Semitic street meetings and boycotted Jewish businesses.
• The UN declares that "Zionism is Racism", 1975. Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated at the conclusion of a rally in Tel Aviv, 1995 in what was the first major political assassination in Israel, which sent shock waves through the Israeli political and social system. Yigal Amir was convicted for the murder.

Thursday, 13 Cheshvan

• Jews of England imprisoned by King John, 1210.
• Many copies of Talmud publically burned in Venice under the order of Cardinal Peter Caraffa, the future Pope Paul IV. Pope Julius III approved the action, 1553.
• The first English translation of the Siddur was published in England, 1760.
• Hershel Grynszpan, a seventeen year-old German refugee, assassinated Ernst von Rath, the third secretary to the German embassy in Paris, 1938. Von Rath died two days later. Grynszpan's parents were among the Polish-Jewish refugees deported to the Polish-German frontier a month earlier. Von Rath's death served as the pretext for the eruption of Kristallnacht, a night of violence against Jews and the destruction of their businesses and property in 1938. Goebbels called von Rath's murder "a Jewish conspiracy" and a nation-wide pogrom was organized by the German government.
• Nazis prohibit Shechita in Poland on "humanitarian" grounds, 1939.
• Polish Jews were forced into obligatory work service, 1939.
• Last transport for Auschwitz arrived in Birkenau, 1944.
• Anne Frank deported from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen, where she died 5 months later, 1944.

Friday, 14 Cheshvan

• Deportation of all Jewish males from Norway to Aushwitz, 1942.
• Jews of Prague miraculously saved from destruction, commemorated by a fast day, ending with a Seudas hoda'ah, 1619.

Shabbos, 15 Cheshvan

• Yeravam ben Nevat first offered incense on the mizbeach in Beis-El on the Yom Tov which he had created. Ido Hanavi rebukes him and causes the mizbeach to break in half and Yeravam's hand to wither, 783 BCE.
• Mobs attack Jews of Cracow, one of the first blood libels to be recorded in Poland, 1407. The Jews try to defend themselves and ultimately take refuge in a local church which is surrounded and set afire. Any children left alive are forcibly baptized.
• Death of St. John of Capistrano, 1456. This delegate of the Papal Inquisition roused the clergy in Poland everywhere he went to a high pitch of anti-Semitic frenzy. He preached his anti-Jewish incitement in Vienna, Bavaria, Saxony and Poland, causing a massacre of Jews in Krakow and Lemberg (Lvov) in his wake. He was canonized as a Saint by the Catholic church in 1724, and a feast in his honor is celebrated every March 28. Numerous missions and churches were named after him, and even a city in California - San Juan Capistrano.
• In response to discrimination policies, Jews of Poland, assorted liberals and students went on strike, 1937. Within a few weeks the government succeeded in putting down the strike and enforcing its discriminatory decrees.
• Kristallnacht progroms in Nazi Germany, 1938. The night of rampages by Storm Troopers, the SS, and the Hitler Youth left 91 Jewish dead, hundreds injured, and 7,500 businesses and 177 shuls gutted. Fifty thousand Jews were arrested and taken to concentration camps and the Jewish community was forced to pay one billion reichmarks ($4,000,000) for the damage.
• Warsaw ghetto was sealed by the Nazis, 1940. (The 1939 census in Warsaw listed 359,827 Jews.)

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