Today’s Yahrtzeits and History – 7 Adar

Birthday of Moshe (ben Amram) Rabbeinu [1393 BCE (Sotah 12b)] and his yahrtzeit [1273 BCE] (Kiddushin 38a)

Rav Shlomo Ephraim of Lunshitz, author of Kli Yakar (1550-1619). After serving as rosh yeshiva in Lemberg, he became the Rav of Prague. He was well-known as an inspiring speaker. In addition to Kli Yakar, Rav Shlomo Ephraim also wrote special selichos to be said in memory of the Jews of Prague who suffered horribly during the pogroms of 1611.

Rav Avraham Tzvi Patznovski of Piotrokov (1819)

Rav Yitzchak Eizik (ben Yechezkel) Taub of Kalev, founder of Kuliver Chassidic line in Hungary (1744 (or 1751)-1821). Born in Szerencs, Hungary. According to stories of Hungarian Chassidim, Rav Leib Sarahs received permission from the boy’s widowed mother to raise him and took him directly to Rav Shmelke of Nikolsburg. Rav Yitzchak Eizik also learned Chassidus from Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk. After his marriage to Feige, Rav Yitzchak Eizik’s wife remained in her hometown of Tertzel while Rav Yitzchak Eizik continued away from home for many years. His wife’s financial needs were supplied by a wealthy Kaliv Jew, Yaakov Fisch. In gratitude, Rav Yitzchak Eizik blessed Yaakov with good health and he lived for over a hundred years. When Rav Yitzchak Eizik returned home 1781, the Jews of Szabolcs county appointed him as their leader, and he moved to Nagykálló, or Kaliv as it known to Jews. For the next forty years, Rav Yitzchak Eizik pioneered the spread of Chassidus throughout Hungary from Kaliv, and he is regarded as the first Admor to take up permanent residence in Hungary. Rav Yitzchak Eizik is remembered as “the sweet singer of Yisrael” and is famed for his niggunim.

Rav Menachem Mendel Landau of Zabeirtze (1935)

Rav Tzvi Kinstlicher, author of Sheilos u’teshuvos Be’er Tzvi (1965)

Today in History – 7 Adar

· All copies of the Gemara were seized from the Jews of France, 1240.
· The Spanish Inquisition begins burning Jews at the stake, 1481
· Numerous Jews were killed al Kiddush Hashem in Lonshitz. The Rav of the city, Rav Shlomo Chaver, wrote a special kinah commemorating the tragic event, 1624.
· Jews expelled from Austria, 1670
· The Struma with its 748 passengers was torpedoed, 1942. The old cargo barge set sail from Constanza in Rumania with 769 passengers aboard on December 12, 1941, arriving in Istanbul before the engine died. However, the Turkish authorities prevented the disembarkation of the passengers for fear that the British would not give them certificates and Turkey would be forced to give them refuge. The ship remained in Istanbul for 70 days. The British refused to grant permission for them to enter Palestine and the Turks would not let them repair the engine, disembark or remain in Turkey. Despite the despairing appeals of the captain that the ship was unable to continue on its way, the Turkish authorities sent the ship back to the Black Sea on February 23, 1942. On the following day a mighty explosion was heard and the ship went down. Much later it was determined the ship had been sunk by a torpedo from a Russian submarine. Only one passenger, David
Stoliar, survived and eventually reached Palestine. Among the dead were 103 children.
· The final liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, 1943

{Manny Saltiel-Anshe.org/Matzav.com Newscenter}