This Day in History – 27 Tammuz/July 30

27 Tammuz

In 4965/1205, Pope Innocent III promulgated a church doctrine that the Jews were doomed to perpetual servitude and suppression because they had killed oso ha’ish. This charge was not officially removed from church doctrine until 1963.

Yahrtzeiten

5573/1813, Harav Yitzchak Charif of Sambur, zt”l, mechaber of Pnei Yitzchak

5666/1906, Harav Yaakov Shaul Elisher of Yerushalayim, zt”l, mechaber of Yisa Ish, Yisa Brachah and other sefarim

5739/1979, Harav Shmuel Rozovsky, zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Ponevezh

5723/1963

Harav Yaakov Addes, Zt”l

Harav Yaakov Addes was born in Yerushalayim on 8 Adar 5658/1898 to Harav Avraham Chaim Addes, zt”l.

The family had only recently made aliyah from their native Syrian town of Aram Tzova, otherwise referred to as Aleppo, or Halab.

Harav Yaakov’s first Rebbi was his great father. Then, in 5670/1910, he began studying in Yeshivas Ohel Moed, where he remained until it disbanded at the outbreak of World War I.

While most of the students fled either to Egypt or to Bukhara, Harav Yaakov remained in Yerushalayim, where he continued studying diligently despite hunger and the threat of war and disease.

From his youth, Harav Addes knew the entire sefer Chovos Halevavos by heart.

In 5683/1923, Ohel Moed joined with the Porat Yosef Yeshivah, where Harav Yaakov began teaching, becoming Rosh Yeshivah in 5695/1935.

On 5 Adar II 5679/1919, Harav Addes married Chaya Esther, daughter of Harav Ezra Harari Raful, one of the founders of Yeshivas Ohel Moed.

“In the home of my father-in-law,” recalled Harav Addes, “conversation centered exclusively around ideas from the Chovos Halevavos and Reishis Chochmah. … The atmosphere was like that of the simchas beis hasho’eivah.”

In 5695/1935, Rav Yaakov, one of the senior Maggidei Shiur in Porat Yosef, was appointed by the Rishon Letzion, Harav Yaakov Meir, zt”l, to the Sephardic beis din.

In 5704/1944 he was appointed to the Sephardic beit din of Tel Aviv and, at the same time, he also became Rav of a shul of the Tel Aviv Syrian community. He left his home in Yerushalayim at the beginning of the week and returned right before Shabbos.

In 5705/1945 he was appointed Dayan in Yerushalayim, and ten years later he was elected to the Beis Din Hagadol, first as a Dayan and later as Av Beis Din, along with Harav Betzalel Zolty, zt”l, Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim, and Harav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l. He held this position until his petirah in 5723/1963.

In 5715/1955 he was appointed to the High Rabbinical Court of Appeals.

His chiddushim, entitled Chedvas Yaakov, were printed posthumously.

Once, upon returning from a visit to Harav Yehuda Attia, zt”l, he recounted emotionally that Harav Attia had been lying in bed, in great pain, singing zemiros of Shabbos with great joy. “If only I could be buried next to him,” Harav Addes uttered with longing.

Years later, when Harav Addes was niftar, a certain spot was decided upon for his kevurah, although it was dark and hard to see. The following day it was discovered that he had been buried next to Harav Yehuda Attia.

Zechuso yagen aleinu.

July 30

In 1729, Baltimore, Maryland was founded.

In 1792, the French national anthem “La Marseillaise,” by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris by troops arriving from Marseille.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a measure making “In G-d We Trust” the national motto, replacing “E Pluribus Unum” (Out of many, one).

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a measure creating Medicare, which began operating the following year.

In 2001, Robert Mueller, President George W. Bush’s choice to head the FBI, promised the Senate Judiciary Committee that if confirmed, he would move forcefully to fix problems at the agency. Mueller became FBI director on Sept. 4, 2001, a week before the 9/11 attacks.