Today’s Yahrtzeits & History – 16 Elul

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flicker_100393Rav Eliyahu Tzarfati, author of Eliyahu Zuta (1805)

Rav Chaim Pinto of Mogador (1758-1845). The famous Pinto family was dispersed worldwide – primarily to Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, and Holland — after 1497 when Portugal expelled its Jews. Rav Shlomo Pinto married his second wife, Chiyuna Beneviste, and moved to Agadir, Morocco. In 1758, Chiyuna gave birth to their son, Rav Chaim, whom they named after Rav Chaim Vital. Ten years later, Rav Shlomo passed away, leaving his son an orphan. The Sultan of Morocco, Sidi Mohammed, closed down the port of Agadir, replacing it with the new port of Mogador (or Essaquira) that he had completed 1765, far south on Morocco’s west coast. Mogador’s thriving businesses were jumpstarted by thirteen businessmen known as the toujiar el Sultan (the traders of the Sultan) – ten of them Jews and three of them Moslems – and thanks to them and others, Mogador helped open Morocco to Europe. Within twenty years, the Mogador Jews would comprise half or more of the town’s 6,000 residents. Young Chaim moved to Mogador and learned in the yeshiva headed by the av beis din, Rav Yaakov Bibas. Over time, Rav Chaim became an accomplished mekubal and renowned for his ruach hakodesh. Rav Chaim was survived by his four distinguished sons, Rav Yehuda, Rav Yosef, Rav Yoshiyahu, and Rav Yaakov.

Rav Shmuel Abba Zikelinsky of Zichlin (1810-1879), an important disciple of Rav Simcha Bunim of P’shischah, and subsequently a Rebbe in his own right.

Today in History – 26 Elul

· Jews of Zurich accused of causing the Black Plague; some were burned, others expelled, 1348.
· Peter Stuyvesant barred Jews from military service in the American colonies, 1655.
· Hodel, daughter of Moshe Kikinish of Lemberg, was martyred after falsely confessing to blood-ritual charges in order to save the lives of other Jews, 1710.
· The Congress for the Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests, which opened in Dresden, Germany was the first international assembly to promote anti-Semitism, 1882.
· The Jewish community of Shirvint, Lithuania, was massacred by the Nazis, 1941.
· Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered at the Munich Olympic Games, 1972.

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