This Day in History – 1 Sivan/May 30
1 Sivan, Rosh Chodesh
According to Rabi Yehudah (Bava Metzia 106:2), today is the start of the summer season.
In 2449/1312 B.C.E., six weeks after their exodus from Egypt, Bnei Yisrael arrived at Har Sinai and camped at the foot of the mountain “k’ish echad b’lev echad — as one man, with one heart,” in preparation for receiving the Torah from Hashem. On this day, however, Moshe did not give them any mitzvos, because of their exhaustion from the journey.
In 4856/1096, Crusaders massacred the remaining Jews of Worms as they were reciting Hallel, as related in the kinah “Mi yitein roshi mayim.”
In 3440/321 B.C.E., Yechezkel Hanavi recounted the nevuah delivered to him regarding the arrogance of Mitzrayim. (See Yechezkel 31)
Yahrtzeiten
5506/1746, Harav Meir Horowitz, zt”l, the Maharam Titkin
5688/1928, Harav Eliezer Dovid Greenwald of Satmar, zt”l, the Keren L’Dovid
5707/1947, Harav Mordechai Shapiro of Kaminka-Koritz, zt”l
5760/2000, Harav Aharon Yechiel Leifer, zy”a, the Nadvorna-Banya Rebbe of Tzfas
5688/1928
Harav Avraham Menachem Mendel Steinberg of Brody, zt”l, the Machazeh Avraham
Harav Avraham Menachem Mendel Steinberg was born in 5607/1847 in Seret, Bukovina. His father was Rav Meir.
In 5629/1869, at age 22, he was appointed Rav in Shniatin, eastern Galicia, where he served for nearly 30 years.
In 5667/1907 he was appointed Rav of Brody, a city full of talmidei chachamim. He was noted for his clarity in psak halachah, and his name was revered across the Jewish world.
With the outbreak of World War I in 5674/1914, Reb Avraham Mendel moved to Vienna, Austria. Vienna was at the time full of Rebbes and Rabbanim who fled there from across Europe. He forged a close connection with many of them.
After the war Reb Avraham Mendel returned to his kehillah in Brody. He began to work on the publication of his teshuvos entitled Machzeh Avraham; the first volume, on Orach Chaim, was published in 5687/1927.
He planned to print thousands more of his teshuvos; he had made it halachically possible for more than 4,000 agunos (due to the war) to remarry, and he had much material fit for publication. But alas, he was niftar just one year after the first volume came out.
Reb Avraham Mendel was niftar on Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5688/1928 at the age of 82. His rich legacy was perpetuated by his sons, who served as Rabbanim in various kehillos.
Although Reb Avraham Mendel left close to 30 manuscripts on all facets of Torah ready for publication, most of them were lost or destroyed during World War II, and were never printed. Three were salvaged and later published by his grandson, Harav Moshe Steinberg, zt”l.
Zecher tzaddik livrachah.
May 30
In 1814, the first Treaty of Paris was signed, ending war between France and the Sixth Coalition (the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Portugal and Prussia), with France retaining its boundaries of 1792.
In 1883, 12 people were trampled to death in a stampede sparked by a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing.
In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in a ceremony attended by President Warren G. Harding, Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Robert Todd Lincoln.
In 1937, 10 people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.
In 1943, during World War II, American troops secured the Aleutian island of Attu from Japanese forces.
In 1958, unidentified American service members killed in World War II and the Korean War were interred in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1971, the American space probe Mariner 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a journey to Mars.
In 1989, student protesters in Beijing erected a statue in Tiananmen Square (the statue was destroyed in the Chinese government’s crackdown).
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