This Day In History 1 Adar/February 16

Today is the second day of Rosh Chodesh Adar. According to Rabi Shimon, today is the beginning of the season referred to as kor.

In 5403/1643, the Tosfos Yom Tov, Harav Yom Tov Lipman Heller, was released after being imprisoned as a result of libel. His descendants celebrate this day as a Yom Tov.

In 5600/1840, in Syria, a priest vanished and the Jewish community was blamed, prompting the imprisonment of the city’s Rav, Harav Yaakov Entebi, the seven community elders and a number of young children. Only after Sir Moses Montefiore intervened on their behalf were they freed.

5423 /1663, Harav Shabsi Hakohen, the Shach, Zy”a

Harav Shabsi Hakohen was born in 5382/1622 in Amstibiva. His father was the city’s Rav, Harav Meir, zt”l. Until the age of 12, he learned Torah from his father; afterward he studied in the yeshivah of Harav Yehoshua, zt”l, the Maginei Shlomo. Subsequently, the Maginei Shlomo, established a yeshivah in Cracow, and his devoted talmid accompanied him. Later, he became a talmid of Harav Heshel of Cracow, and of Harav Naftali Katz, the Semichas Chachamim, zecher tzaddikim livrachah.

After a number of years in Cracow, where he became famed as a tremendous Gaon, Rav Shabsi moved to Vilna, where there were many established yeshivos. He continued growing immensely in Torah. He married the daughter of Harav Binyomin Wolf Tauber, zt”l, a noted nagid and talmid chacham, son-in-law of the Maharsha and a grandchild of the Rema. After his marriage he was supported by his father-in-law, and afterward authored his Sifsei Kohen on Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh De’ah and Choshen Mishpat), with haskamos of the many Gedolim who were astounded by his vast knowledge. The Taz, who was much older, printed his sefer on Shulchan Aruch the same year as the Shach’s sefer appeared, and in various places he argues with him in psak halachah. The Shach later responded in Nekudos Hakesef.

During the infamous era of Tach V’tat (5408-9/1648-49), the Shach suffered greatly. [The murderous rampages went on for about 10 years.] At that time he had begun writing his chibbur on Choshen Mishpat. Cossack gangs, led by the infamous Chmielnicki, ym”s, burned down the entire city of Vilna; 25 thousand Jews, including the Shach’s wife, perished, Hy”d. The remaining Jews, among them the Shach, fled, and he arrived in Lublin in Tammuz 5415 (1655). But peace did not last because, during the following Sukkos, the Cossacks attacked that city too. The Shach succeeded in evading them once again, fleeing to Deznitz, Czechoslovakia, where he served as Rav.

He recorded the many tzaros that the Yidden experienced during the period of Tach V’tat in Megaleh Aifa. Remarkably, a number of these sefarim were completed during the years that he was in constant flight.

Besides Sifsei Kohen, he also authored Takfo Kohen, Gvuros Anashim, and Nekudos Hakesef.

Eventually, he was asked to serve the esteemed kehillah of Halishi, Moravia. He was niftar there at the age of 41 in Halishi on 1 Adar Rishon.

Yehi Zichro Baruch.

Feb. 16

In 1858, the first ironing board was patented by William Vandenburg and James Harvey.

In 1918, Lithuania proclaimed independence from the Russian Empire. (Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, then the Soviet Union again during World War II, regained its independence in 1990).

In 1937, Du Pont research chemist Dr. Wallace H. Carothers, inventor of nylon, received a patent for that synthetic fiber, described as “linear condensation polymers.”

In 1946, the first commercially designed helicopter was tested in Connecticut.

In 1968, the nation’s first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Alabama, as the speaker of the Alabama House, Rankin Fite, placed a call from the mayor’s office in City Hall to a red telephone at the police station (also located in City Hall) that was answered by U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill.