Yahrtzeits – 14 Nissan
-Rav Asher Yeshaya of Ropshitz (1845), the main rebbi of Rav Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam, the Shinover Rav.
-Rav Avraham Yaffen, Rosh Yeshivas Novardok (1897-1970). Educated as a youth in the Pinsk Talmud Torah, he then learned under Rav Isser Zalman Melter in Slutzk. In 1913, he was apppinted rosh yeshiva of the main Novardok yeshiva by Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz and became his son-in-law. From then on, he assisted his father-in-law with all aspects of Novardok’s yeshivas. By 1939, there were over 80 Novardok yeshivas throughout Poland, serving over 4000 students. He moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1964.
-Rav Yosef Tzvi Halevi Dunner, Rav and Av Beis Din of London (1913-2007). Born in Cologne, Germany, he was named after his uncle, Rav Yosef Tzvi Dunner, the Av Beis Din of Amsterdam, who had passed away the previous year. His father, Rav Baruch Chaim was a descendant of the Aruch LaNer, and his mother of the Maharal of Prague and the Chavos Yair. He learned at the Berlin Beis Medrash l’Rabbonim headed by the Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the Sridei Eish. In 1936, at the age of 23, he was sent to the Konigsberg kehilla to become Chief Rabbi of East Prussia. He married a year later. In 1938, he was awakened by the sound of shattering glass. Anti-Semites had thrown a torn sefer Torah through his window, scattering shards of glass over the bed of his one-year-old son. A German policeman shackled him in hand-cuffs, and led him to jail on a route by his shul so that he should see it going up in flames. After the War, he became Rav to a congregation comprised mainly of refugees of the London blitz in Leicester. In 1946 Rav Yosef Tzvi moved to London where he established the first English “Beis Yaakov” for post high school students. Rav Yosef headed the institution until the mid 90s, educating two generations of post war women. Rav Yosef Tzvi was appointed Rav of the Adas Yisrael of London. In 1960 he succeeded Rav Schonfeld as head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations based in Stamford Hill.
Yahrtzeits – 15 Nissan
-Yitzchak Avinu (1713-1533 BCE)
-Yehuda ben Yaakov Avinu
-Rav Yona Teumim Frankel (1595-1669), Av Beis Din in Metz. He was the son of Reb Yeshia Teumim. He is the author of Kikayon DeYona. In it, he explains the commentaries of Rashi , Tosfos , theMaharsha and the Maharshal on Gemara.Yahrtzeits – 16 Nissan
-Levi ben Yaakov Avinu, 1567 BCE
-Rav Mordechai Dov Ber Twerski of Tomashpol, son of Rav Nachum, son of the Mitteler Rebbe, 1920.
-Rav Nosson Ordman, Rosh Yeshivas Etz Chaim London for more than 50 years. Born in Tavrik, Lithuania and educated in Telz, he came to London in 1936 (1906-1996)
-Rav Simcha Zissel Brodie, Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron, 2000.
Yahrtzeits – 17 Nissan
-Rav Avraham Reuven Hakohen Katz of Prague (1673), author of Yalkut Reuveni, a collection of kabbalistic material, arranged according to the verses in the Torah.
-Rav Yitzchak of Skver (1885)
-Rav Yirmiyahu Lev, the Divrei Yirmiyahu (1811-1874). Born to Rav Binyamin Zev Lev (the Shaarei Torah), he received smicha from Rav Mordechai Banet, the Ravv of Nicholsburg, at the age of 17. He served as Rav of Magendorf from 1844 to 1851, then succeeded his father in Verbau. Finally, he took a position in Ujhel (Hungary).
Rav Moshe Mordechai, succeeded his father, Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, as Kapischnitzer (Kopycznitzer) Rebbe, until his sudden petirah in 1975.
-Rav Meir Abuchatzeira of Ashdod, son of Baba Sali (1983)
-Rav Shlomo Wolbe, mashgiach of Yeshivas Givat Shaul in Yerushalayims Sanhedria neighborhood (1916-2005). Born in Berlin, Rav Wolbe’s early education was in the Yeshiva of Frankfurt and in Rav Botchko’s yeshiva in Montreux, Switzerland. In the 1930s, he spent several years in Mir, where he became a close talmid Rav Yerucham Levovitz and Rav Chatzkal Levenstein. Rav Wolbe spent the war years in Sweden. After the war, Rav Wolbe moved to Petach Tikvah, where he married the daughter of Rav Avraham Grodzinsky, hy”d, the last mashgiach of Slobodka. Through her, he became a nephew of Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky, and a brother-in-law of Rav Chaim Kreisworth. In 1948, Rav Wolbe became mashgiach at Yeshivah Gedolah of Be’er Yaakov, a position he held for over 35 years. Later, he served as mashgiach in the Lakewood Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael and he opened Yeshivas Givat Shaul. Rav Wolbe published his first Hebrew work, Alei Shur, to provide today’s yeshiva student with a basic guide to assist him to become a ben Torah.
Today in History – 14 Nissan
· Naomi and Rus arrive in Beis Lechem, c. 1100 BCE.
· Massada fell to the Romans, 73 CE
· Birthday of R. Moshe b. Maimon, the Rambam, 1135
· 3,000 Jews of Prague were massacred, 1389.
· Jews of Bavaria were granted equality, 1872.
· The British Army with the help of the Jewish Brigade, captured Amman, 1918.
· Warsawghetto uprising broke out, 1943.
· BelgiumJewish underground aided by Christian railroad men derailed a train with Jewish deportees bound for the extermination camps. Several hundred Jews were saved, 1943.
· Twenty-eight people are killed and 134 injured when a suicide bomber blows himself up at a Pesach seder in a Netanya hotel, 2002.
Today in History – 15 Nissan
· Hashem made Bris ben Habsorim with Avraham, c. 1730.
· Sara was kidnapped to the house of Pharaoh, 1716 (or 1740) BCE.
· The malachim appeared to inform Avraham that a son would be born to Sara, 1716 BCE.
· Birth of Yitzchak, 1715 BCE.
· Yitzchak summoned Eisav and requested that he prepare a tasty meal for him and receive his bracha, 1592 BCE.
· Moshe saw the burning bush, 1311 BCE.
· The Egyptian first-born were slain, 1310 BCE.
· First Korban Pesach and Pesach celebrated by Bnei Yisrael, 1310 BCE.
· Bnei Yisrael left Mitzrayim, led by Moshe Rabbeinu, 1310 BCE
· The Assyrian army of Sancherev, which had threatened Yerushalayim, was destroyed, 546 BCE.
· Vashti was executed by order of Achashverosh, 367 BCE.
· Esther appeared before Achashverosh to plead for the Yidden, 356 BCE.
· The last pocket of Jewish resistance of the Churban Beis Sheini, Massada, fell to the Romans, 73 CE.
· An order to seize all Portuguese Jewish children, ages 4-14 for forced conversion, 1497.
· Massacre of Marranos of Lisbon, 1506.
· Napoleon “promised” the Jews of Eretz Yisrael the “reestablishment of ancient Yerushalayim”, coupled with a plea for their support, 1799. This was the first promise by a modern government to establish a Jewish state.
Today in History – 16 Nissan
· B’nei Yisrael crossed the Yarden into Eretz Yisrael, 1270 BCE
· The two sons and five grandchildren of Shaul Hamelech were killed and hung to avenge the Givonim (Yerushalmi Kiddushin 4:1), 916 BCE
· Chizkiyahu Hamelech completed the rededication of the Beis Hamikdash, c. 550 BCE
· Haman is hanged, 356 BCE
· First blood libel, following the death of William of Norwich, 1173.
· Anti-Jewish violence broke out in Budapest, Hungary, 1848.
· Arabs killed and wounded many Jews in Yerushalayim, 1920.
Today in History – 17 Nissan
· Solomon Etting, prominent businessman of Lancaster, Pa., was the first native American Jew to receive a limited authorization to function as a shochet, 1782.
· The world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine). An explosion and fire killed at least 31 people and sent a plume of radioactive fallout over Scandinavia, the British Isles, and the eastern United States. The disaster was ten times more powerful than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 1986 (April 26).
{Matzav.com Newscenter/Chinuch.org}
