B"H Yom Yom

From Day by Day in Jewish History
by Rabbi Abraham P. Bloch z"l

Courtesy of Pomeranz Bookseller and Ktav Publ.

Menachem Av

[28] Moshe Rabeinu came down from Har Sinai after 40 days and nights following the Golden Calf and before ascending on Rosh Chodesh Elul until Yom Kippur. Last meeting of the Council of Four Countries (called by Poles the Jewish Parliament), 1762. The council functioned for over 180 years. Yahrzeit of the NETZIV, Rabbi Naphtali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, 1893.

[29] Moshe Rabeinu cuts new stone of the second Luchot in preparation for his (third) ascent of Har Sinai. Jews of Holland were emancipated in 1796. Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shmuel Salant, leader of the Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, 1909. The Nazis passed a law 1938 requiring all Jews to take as first names Israel or Sarah.

[30] Moshe ascends Har Sinai. The 6th World Zionist Congress met in 1903 in Basle and approved the British government's offer of Uganda for Jewish colonization. A split in the Zionist movement resulted. Yahrzeit of Yitzchak Sadeh, father of the Palmach, 1952.

Elul

[1] Beginning of the third plague in Egypt. The prophet Chaggai tells the governor of Yehuda, Zerubavel, and the Kohen HaGadol, Yehoshua b. Y'hotzadak that it was time to build the second Beit HaMikdash. The beginning of the fiscal year for the tithe of the animals (the other opinion in the Mishna is that the first of Tishrei is the "birthday" of all animals born to the flocks and herds). Persian Jews go to the traditional tomb of Serach bat Asher on Rosh Chodesh Elul. Jews of Palma, Majorca massacred 1391. Anti-Jewish riots in Prague, 1400. Archbishop of Lemberg provided hiding places for Jewish children and Sifrei Torah, '42.

[2] 160 Jews burned to death in France on charges of poisoning wells, 1321. Pope orders confiscation and burning of Talmud, 1553, believing that destruction of the Talmud would hasten Jewish conversions. First printing of part of the Shulchan Aruch near Tzfat, 1555.

[3] Birthday in 1240 of the Me'iri. Jews of Budapest receive gov't per mission, 1787, to conduct religious services in private homes provided no rabbi officiates. Is it possible that the Hungarian gov't considered that they were being generous with the Jews by granting this permission? Think about it. It boggles the mind.

Yahrzeit of Rav Kook, 1935. 26 years to the day of his arrival in Jerusalem. First news of Nazi mass exterminations of Jews reaches the outside world, 1942.

[4] Massacre of Jews of Barcelona, 1391. A Prussian decree in 1750 provided for the annual search of Jewish homes for stolen and "doubt ful" goods. Yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir Simcha HaCohen, the Ohr Samei'ach, 1926. Jewish community of Posvol, Lithuania, massacred by the Nazis in 1941.

[5] Jewish journalist and author lynched in Georgia, 1915. Jews of Kiev massacred, 1919. Mussolini canceled the civil rights of Italian Jews, 1938.

[6] Yahrzeit of R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller of Cracow, author of Tosefot Yom Tov on Mishna, 1654. Italian planes bomb Tel Aviv, 1940, killing 117.

[7] Amram remarries Yocheved. King Aggripa I dedicates new gate in Jerusalem wall. Observed as holiday in olden times.

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