Today’s Yahrtzeits and History – 8-9 Adar

Rav Shmuel Dovid Ungar of Neitra, a descendent of Don Yitzchak Abarbanel.

Rav Gershon of Lotzk, a talmid of the Mezritcher Maggid (1788).

Rav Aryeh Leib Hanover (1715-1789). Son of the Pnei Yehoshua, he married the daughter of Rav Yechiel Michel Haplerin, Rav of Berzhan. After posts at Skohl and Sevirz, he was asked to serve as Rav at Hanover at the age of 41. He was a fierce opponent of the supporters of Shabtai Tzvi. His chidushei Torah are printed in the sefer Pnei Aryeh on Maseches Bava Kamma.

Rav Yosef Yedid, author of Yemei Yosef (1930).

Rav Avraham Noach Paley of Shklov-Yerushalayim (1932).

Rav Moshe Aharon Stern (1926-1998). Born in New York, he was a grandson of the famed tzaddik, Reb Yaakov Yosef Herman (subject of the book All for the Boss). In his youth, Rav Moshe Aharon studied at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas. At age 18, he traveled to Eretz Yisrael and enrolled in the Kamenitz Yeshiva, where he remained for the rest of his life, serving as Mashgiach for the last 20 years of his life.

Today in History – 8 Adar

· Jews of Barbados were granted permission to take an oath on the “Old Testament,” 1674. This was a first for the New World. 151 years later, in 1825, also on 8 Adar, Jews of Maryland were allowed to take a non-Christian oath. A declaration of belief in Schar v’Onesh in Olam Haba was part of their oath.
· Yeshiva Eitz Chaim, the first elementary school with secular studies in the U.S., established 1886.
· Deportation of the Jews from Thrace, 1943.

Yahrtzeits – 9 Adar

Rav Mordechai Meisel, the parnes of Prague, a great Jewish philanthropist who saved many Jewish lives in pogroms (1601).

Rav Shlomo Zalman of Volozhin, brother of Rav Chaim Volozhin (1756-1788)

Rav Menachem Mendel Stern (1759-1834). He was a talmid of Rav Yaakov Lorberbaum of Lissa (author of Nesivos Hamishpat, Chavas Da’as, and Derech Chaim). He succeeded Rav Yehuda Hakohen Heller (author of Kuntres Hasefeikos and brother of the Ketzos Hachoshen) as Rav of Sighet, Hungary. Rav Stern was a chassid of Rav Moshe Leib of Sassov and of Rav Mendel of Kossov. Among his works is Derech Emunah.

Rav Aharon Menachem Mendel of Radzimin (1934)

Rav Yechiel Schlesinger, rav and poseik for Kehal Adas Yeshurun (1948). In his youth, he learned at Slobodka and Mir Yeshivos. After his marriage in 1930, he set off for Ponevezh, Lithuania. During his time in Ponevezh, Rav Yechiel Michel also trained to become a dayan, doing shimush in the beis din of the Ponevezher Rov. He was called to serve as a dayan on the Frankfurt beis din, and as the head of Rav Breuer’s Yeshiva there. In 1938, he decided that life as a Jew in Germany was becoming too intolerable. Although he was offered the prestigious position of rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaas Yeshiva in New York, he preferred to move to Eretz Yisrael. Once he reached Yerushalayim, a few days after Pesach (1939), he founded Kol Torah Yeshiva, setting a clear Torah path for German Jewry.

Rav Chaim Ephraim Zeitchek, Mashgiach of Novardok,Yerushalayim and Rosh Yeshivas Ohr Chodosh (1989)

Rav Shmuel Dovid Ungar, NitraRav and Rosh Yeshiva (1945)

Today in History – 9 Adar

· First controversy of Beis Hillel and Beis Shamai, once a fast day (Megillas Taanis).

{Yahrtzeits licensed to Matzav.com by Manny Saltiel-Anshe.org/Matzav.com Newscenter}