Today’s Yahrtzeits & History – 20 Elul

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yahrtzeit-candlesRav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh (1886-1969). Born in Kuhl, Lithuania, a small town of about 500 of which about a third were Jews. At the age of 14 he went to the Telshe Yeshiva, where he learned until he was twenty. He then spent a half year in Novardok, after which he spent three years in Radin under the Chafetz Chaim. He married the daughter of the Rav of Vidzh, and took over there at the end of 1911, when his father-in-law became the Rav of Wilkomir. With the passing of Rav Itzele Rabinowitz on the 21st of Adar I in 1919, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman was appointed the new rav of Ponevezh at the age of 33. He was elected to the Lithuanian parliament. He immigrated to Israel in 1940 and built Kiryat HaYesHiva in Bnai Brak and Batei Avot orphanages.

Rav Eliyahu Lopian (1872-1970), author of Lev Eliyahu; mashgiach of Kelm; Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Etz Chaim in London, and mashgiach at Kfar Chassidim. R’ Shalom Schwadron (1911-1997) was one of his talmidim. After having dedicated 25 years of his life to Yeshivas Eitz Chaim, Reb Elyah passed the leadership of the yeshiva over to Rav Greenspan. Reb Elyah moved to Israel in 1950, when he was 76 years old.

Rav Moshe Aryeh Freund, Av Beis Din of Yerushalayim. Born in Honiad, Hungary, to Rav Yisrael Freund, Av Beis Din of Honiad, and Sara, the daughter of the Rav of Honiad, Rav Zev Goldberger. He could trace his family back to the Rema, the Maharshal, the Shach, and the Beis Yosef. When he was 16, he married his cousin, the daughter of Rav Baruch Goldberger. Before World War II, he served as Rosh Yeshiva in Satmar. In 1944, he was taken to Auschwitz, where his wife and nine children were murdered. In 1951, he settled in Yerushalayim as Rav of the Satmar community. In 1969, he was invited to preside over the beis din of the Eida Hachareidis (1894-1996)

Today in History – 20 Elul

· Order by Charles VI to expel the Jews of France, 1394.
· Copies of the Gemara were burned by the Inquisition, 1553
· Germanyoccupied Kalisz, a city in Poland with a Jewish population of 30,000, 1939.
· The Mir Ghetto was liquidated, 1942.

Yahrtzeits – 21 Elul

Rav Yehonasan Eybeshutz (1690-1764). Born in Cracow, he became head of the Prague yeshiva at the age of twenty-one. In 1741 he became Rabbi in Metz, and in 1750 he became Rabbi of Altona/ Hamburg/ Wandsbeck (AHU), where he had major disagreements with RavYaakov Emden. He was learned in many areas, including halacha, kabbalah, philosophy and science. He was the author of many halachic works, as well as collections of sermons and unpublished works on kabbalah. Thirty of his works in the area of halacha have been published. His works included Urim V’tumim, Kereisi Ufleisi, Yaaros Dvash, and Ahavas Yehonasan (a commentary on the weekly haftorahs).

Rav Yaakov HaLevi ben Moshe Moellin, the Maharil. Born in Mainz, Germany, he was the primary disciple of Rav Shalom of Neustadt. The Maharil authored Minhagei Maharil, the primary source of Minhagei Ashkenaz, cited frequently by the Rema in Shulchan Aruch. The Maharil lived through the mass slaughter of Jews in Austria in 1420 and the Hussite wars in 1421, which brought suffering to the Jews of Bavaria and the Rhine. (1365-1427)

Rav Baruch Yitzchak Levine (1910-1988). His paternal grandfather was Rav Menachem Nachum, who was very close to the Chafetz Chaim and was a talmidim of Rav Nachum of Horodna, the Chafetz Chaim’s mentor. His maternal grandfather was Rav Yehuda Leib Dovidson, a talmid of Rav Yisrael Salanter, who served as Rav in Des Moines, Iowa, and later in Ohio and Los Angeles. Shortly after his Bar Mitzvah, Rav Baruch Yitzchak went to learn in Grodna under Rav Shimon Shkop, then to Baranovich to learn under Rav Elchonon Wasserman for 3 years. He moved to Eretz Yisrael in 1938 and headed for the Lomza Yeshiva in Petach Tikva. Within a few months, he married the daughter of Rav Avraham Yitzchak Tikochinsky. Shortly thereafter, he became Rav of the Mekor Chaim suburb of Yerushalayim and started a yeshiva there with the assistance of Rav Eizek Sher of Slobodka.

Today in History – 21 Elul

· Many London Jews killed in anti-Jewish riots in “honor” of the coronation of King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart), 1189. [There is disagreement on the Jewish date; some say 3 Elul others say 12 Elul.] Among the dead was Rav Yaakov of Orlean, a Tosefist.
· German occupation of Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland. In 1938 the town had 51,000 inhabitants, including 25,000 Jews and 1,500 Germans.The first ghetto in Poland was established there in October 1939

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


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