Yahrtzeits – 25 Tammuz
-Rav Yosef Yitzchak Rottenberg, head of Belgian community
-Rav Aharon Berachia ben Moshe of Modina (1639). A student of the Rema. He was the author of Maavar Yabok, a collection of mitzvahs related to bikur cholim and everything having to do with the dead until burial.
-Rav Meir of Apta, the Ohr Lashamayim (1831)
-Rav Yeshaya Dovid Zilberstein of Veitzen, author of Maasei Lamelech (1930).
-Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua Trunk (1821-1893). Born in Plotsk, he received most of his teaching from his father, who was niftar when the boy was just 11. As a teenager, he spent 3 months with the Kotzker Rebbe, who’s direction he followed for the remainder of his life. When he was twenty, Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua founded a yeshivah and served as rav in Shrensk for seven years. Later in Vorka, his fame as a posek grew. In 1860, he moved to Kutna, which lies near Gustenin and Zichlin. The first record of Jews in Kutna is a document from 1513, in which King Zigmund of Poland grants a year’s moratorium to the gentile debtors of three Kutna Jews – Moshe, Shlomo and Liebke. Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua published several sefarim, including Yeshuas Yisrael, on Choshen Mishpat, Yeshuos Malko, and Yavin Daas. His only son, Rav Moshe Pinchas, succeeded him as Rav in Kutno. The demise of the Kutna kehillah came when the Nazis finished liquidating its remaining Jews on March 26, 1942.
Yahrtzeits – 26 Tammuz
-Rav Nachman Bulman (1925-2002). His parents, Reb Meir and Ettel Bulman were Gerrer chasidim who had moved to the Lower East Side from Poland. Reb Meir had lost his first wife in childbirth and his second wife in a pogrom. He had also lost two children. In their 40s, the Bulmans received the Imrei Emes of Ger for a bracha for children. The result of that blessing was Nachman, who was born in New York. He attended Yeshivas Rabbenu Yitzchak Elchonon and then studied in its rabbinical program. He received semicha and a B.A. (in philosophy) from Yeshiva College. During the week, he learned in the Litvishe yeshiva way. On Shabbos and Yom Tov he absorbed the atmosphere of his parents’ Polishe shteibel with a love of chassidus. For years, he was also a frequent visitor at the tishin of the Modzitzer Rebbe, Rav Shaul Yedidya Taub. In 1950, Reb Nachman married Shaindel Freund, his aiyshes chayil for 52 years. He found a position in the town of Danville, Virginia, a small Orthodox community which consisted of about 30 families. He held the position for 3 years. From 1953-1954, Rabbi Bulman served as mashgiach in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchonon. He was once again pulled to the world of rabbonus when he became rov in South Fallsburg, N.Y., in 1954. During this time, he founded the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), together with Rabbis Weitman, Goodman, and Chait. His next position was as head of Adas Jeshurun synagogue in Newport News, Virginia, beginning in 1957. Rabbi Bulman then returned to his position as mashgiach in Yeshiva University from 1962-1963, and then worked for Torah Umesorah from 1963-1967. In 1967, he took his next rabbinical position as the rav of the Young Israel of Far Rockaway. During this time, he founded Sarah Schenirer High School and Seminary in 1968, and the Yeshiva of Far Rockaway (Yeshivas Derech Eison), and he taught in both places.
-Rav Yechezkel Shraga of Shinev (Rav Sinai of Zhemigrod). (1870-1941) Rav Chaim of Sanz especially treasured his fourth son, Rav Baruch of Gorlitz, saying that a lofty soul such as his had not descended to the world for the past three hundred years. When he was fourteen, Rav Baruch married the daughter of Rav Yekusiel Yehudah Teitelbaum, the Yitav Lev of Sighet and a talmid of Rav Chaim Sanzer, and in 1870, Rav Sinai was born to the couple, in Rudnik. After reaching adulthood, Rav Sinai served as rav for several years in Gorlitz and Koloshitz, before taking over a permanent position in Zmigród, a scenic mountain town about 150 kilometers from Cracow, where Jews had lived since at least 1410. Zmigród had a relatively small community – a 1900 census records it having 1,240 Jews out of a total population of 2,249. Nowadays, this region of Austrian-controlled Galicia is part of Poland. He escaped the Nazis by fleeing to Lemberg, Galicia, but was exiled to
Siberia by the Soviets. He did not survive the trip.
Today in History – 25 Tammuz
· Jews of Lithuania received a Charter of Privilege, 1388.
· Anti-Jewish rioters attacked the funeral procession of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef in New York City, resulting in injuries to over 300 Jews, 1902
Today in History – 26 Tammuz
· Saladin’s army defeats Crusader army at Karnei Chittin, and signals beginning of the end for Crusader kingdom, 1187.
· A pope (Clement V?) banned forced baptism of Jews, 1345. This decree was overturned by subsequent popes in 1597 and 1747.
· The Baal Shem Tov and Rav Chaim HaCohen Rappaport, the rov of Lemberg (Lvov), overcame the Frankist cult in a public dispute, 1759.
· Napoleon decreed that all Jews of the French Empire must adopt family names, 1808.
· Adolf Hitler, yemach shemo, published his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf, 1925.
· Jews of Upina, Lithuania were executed by the Nazis, 1941.
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