Rav Shmuel Halevi Klein of Boskowitz, author of Machtzis Hashekel, a super-commentary on the Magen Avraham on the Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim (1738-1827)
Rav Mordechai Kastelanitz of Lecovitz, the father of the Slonim Chassidic dynasty, immigrated to Chevron in 1844 (1837-1916).
Rav Moshe Chevroni, rosh yeshiva of Chevron (1986)
Rav Yechiel Michel Gutfarb, gabbai tzedaka of Yerushalayim (2002)
Today in History – 28 Adar
· Antiochus V granted religious freedom and autonomy to the Jews of Eretz Yisrael, 163 BCE. The date was celebrated as a holiday marking the cancellation of decrees prohibiting Bris Mila, Limud Hatorah and Shemiras Shabbos.
· Jews of Prussia were granted rights, 1277.
· Jews of Weissensee, Germany, were massacred, 1303.
· Cairo Purim was observed annually in commemoration of the community’s escape from a massacre, 1524. Sultan Ahmed Shaitan, upset with being rejected as Grand Vizier, ordered his Jewish coinager, Abraham de Castro, to print his likeness and title of Grand Vizier on coins. When De Castro fled, the Sultan ordered the Jewish community to choose between paying a massive fine or being killed. On the last day before the Sultan’s edict was enforced, he was assassinated by one of his viziers.
{Matzav.com Newscenter/Chinuch.org}
The author of Machatzis Hashekel was Rabbi Shmuel haLevi Kelin (possibly Kolin, depending on which city name was used for his own last name), but definitely not Klein.
He was born in 1724, and niftar in 1806, on Rosh Chodesh Nisan.
While I am not sure whose dates were attributed to him, in the post, they definitely were someone else’s.
Ahmed Shaitan was the pasha of Egypt, subservient to the Ottoman Sultan of Constantinople. Were he himself a sultan, why would he desire the position of the Grand Vizier, unless he wished to become his own servant, adviser, and general manager?
Marc: Your knowledge of history is admirable