Today’s Yahrtzeits and History – 19 Av

Rav Yaakov Kuli (Culi), author of Me’am Loez (1689 or 1690-1732). He was a grandson and talmid of Rav Moshe ibn Habib. He moved from Tzefas to Constantinople , where he worked closely with RavYehudah Rosenas, the Mishneh LeMelech. He was appointed Dayan in Constantinople , After the Mishneh LeMelech was niftar in 1727, Rav Kuli published all of his works (which had been in chaotic manuscript form). Rav Kuli himself only published Me’am Loez on Breishis and half of Shemos before he died. Because of its overwhelming popularity, other prominent rabbis of Turkey completed the remaining volumes.

Rav Shimon Shalom (ben Menachem) Kalish, the Amshinover Rebbe (1863-1954). He was a great- grandson of Rav Yitzchak of Vorka, founder of the Vorka-Amshinov dynasty. During his teens, Reb Shimon was sent to learn with his uncle, Rav Yeshaya of Peshischa, who later took him as a son-in-law. In 1918, Rav Menachem of Amshinov passed awy, and his older son, Rav Yosef took his place as Rebbe. Rav Shimon was sent to Otvotzk, a suburb of Warsaw . He also became a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. In 1933, he spent a full year in Eretz Yisrael with his son, Rav Yerachmiel Yehuda Meir. Although he wished to stay, his obligations forced him to move back to Europe . The Rebbe escaped to Kobe , Japan , along with a group pf talmidim of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, and the entire Mir Yeshiva. After the war, he spent 8 years in America . He passed away while planning his emigration to Eretz Yisrael, a goal he never accomplished. He did author the sefer, Mashmia Shalom. His son, Rav Meir, became the Amshinover Rebbe in Bayit Vegan and was niftar in 1976.
Rav Aryeh Leib Balchover of Zaslev (Iziaslav), author of Shem Aryeh (1851)
Rav Aharon Menachem Mendel of Alesk (1923)
Rav Menachem Nachum of Boyan-Tchernowitz (1868-1936). The oldest of the Pachad Yitzchak’s four sons, he was the grandson of Avraham Yaakov of Sadiger.

Today in History – 19 Av

• 200 Jews murdered in Beziers in southern France , 1209.
• Jews of Brno (now a city in the Czech Republic ; then a free imperial city of Moravia ) were expelled by King Ladislaus, 1454.
• Jews of Mitchenick, Poland were expelled by Russian authorities, 1914.
• (This was the first of a long series of expulsions that uprooted many Polish and Lithuanian Jewish communities.)
• Nazis began systematic murder of the Jews of Dvinsk, Latvia , 1941.

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