Rav Aryeh Leib Teumim, the author of “Gur Aryeh” (1831)
Rav Yeshaya of Przedborz (1756-1831). Born in Lask, near Lodz, he was descended from a rabbinical family. His great-grandfather, Rav Meir Getz, was the Rav of Lask and of Piotrkow. His father, Rav Meir, died when Rav Yeshaya was young, leaving no other son. When he was 14, a wealthy businessman from Przedborz took Rav Yeshaya as a son-in-law. There, he met the Yid Hakadosh, Rav Yaakov Yitzchak. Together, they traveled to Lithuania to learn from the Chozeh.
Rav Meir Simcha Hakohen of Dvinsk, the Ohr Someach and Meshech Chochma (1843-1926). In a famous near prophetic passage written before 1926, he presents a brilliant theory of Jewish history in exile and refers to those who forget their origins and think “Berlin is Jerusalem”, and are doomed to destruction (B’chukosai). R’ Meir Simcha served as Rabbi of Dvinsk for nearly 40 years. R’ Meir Simcha was a strong supporter of the settlement of Eretz Yisrael and greeted the Balfour Declaration with enthusiasm. In 1906 he was offered the position of rabbi of Jerusalem but bowed to the entreaties of his congregants to remain in Dvinsk.
Rav Moshe Aharon Pinto (1995), heeding his father’s command to avoid temporal pleasures, secluded himself in his home for forty years and living on almost nothing but scraps of bread dipped in oil. After these 40 years, he traveled, explaining, “Hashem created a beautiful world. What will I tell Him when He asks me after 120 years whether I witnessed and appreciated the wonders of His creation?” Rav Moshe Aharon’s descendants have printed and distributed thousands of copies of the “Perek Shira” that describes how every creature is part of a worldwide symphony of Hashem’s praise. Rav Moshe Aharon’s oldest son, Rav Chaim is the rav of Ashdod, and Rav Chaim’s son, Rav Yoshiyahu Yosef, has created the “Shuvah Yisrael” organization, which draws many youngsters back to Torah and mitzvos. Another of Rav Moshe Aharon’s sons, Rav Yaakov, traveled to America after Rav Moshe Aharon’s passing and founded the Pinto Center in Los Angeles during the 1980s. He is president of the “Netivei Chaim veMoshe Pinto” Institutions that he and his brothers established in Ashdod, which include a beis medrash, a supermarket and kitchen for the needy, a publishing house, and much more.
Today in History – 4 Elul
· Jews of Barcelona massacred, 1391.
· The Jewish community of Posvol, Lithuania was massacred by the Nazis, 1941
