12 Adar
Today’s date is a Yom Tov, as cited in Megillas Taanis.
The Roman Caesar Tureinus caught Lulianus and Pappus, two righteous brothers, in Lod, and had them killed. The Gemara relates (Taanis 18) that when they were captured and brought before the Caesar, he exclaimed, “If you are from the same nation as Chananya, Mishael and Azarya, who were previously saved through a miracle, then a miracle is expected to occur for you too!”
They responded, “We are not as righteous as they were, and you are not great enough for a miracle to happen through you. We will die because we deserve to be punished.” They were then killed al kiddush Hashem.
Thereafter, the Caesar was killed by a legion of the Roman army and the rest of the Jewish communities was saved, and this day was declared as a Yom Tov. It was subsequently canceled because two other brothers, Shmayah and Achiyah, who were great men, were killed on this day.
Yahrtzeiten
5676/1916, Harav Mordechai Rotblatt, zt”l, of Slonim (Adar I)
5679/1919, Harav Shlomo, Rebbe of Sassov-Lvov, zt”l (Adar I)
5697/1937, Harav Alter Eliezer Horowitz, zt”l, the Beitcher Rebbe
5626/1966, Harav Chanayah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum, zy”a, the Sassover Rebbe
5741/1981, Harav Shmuel Brudny, Rosh Yeshivas Mir, Brooklyn, zt”l
5665/2005
Harav Naftali Tzvi Halberstam, Rebbe of Bobov, Zy”a
Harav Naftali Tzvi Halberstam was born on 25 Sivan 5691/1931. His father was Harav Shlomo Halberstam, zy”a, the Bobover Rebbe, and his mother was Rebbetzin Blima Ruchel, Hy”d, daughter of the Limanover Rav Harav Chaim Yaakov Teitelbaum, zy”a.
Reb Naftali Tzvi was still a young child when World War II broke out; he spent most of the war with his family, desperately trying to evade the Nazis.
He would recount tearfully how one Friday he was sent by his parents to bring food for Shabbos. The Nazis burst into their hiding place and ripped the tefillin off the head of his grandfather, the Kedushas Tzion, Hy”d. They took all present except for young Naftali Tzvi, although he ran after them.
Near the end of the war the Germans agreed to allow three boatloads of children, with some adults, to leave, and in August 1944, Harav Shlomo sent Reb Naftali Tzvi to Bucharest to board one of the boats bound for Eretz Yisrael. No sooner had the boats set sail than the Germans bombed two of them. Only six people survived the bombing.
Rav Naftali Tzvi, 13, arrived in Eretz Yisrael. In Yerushalayim, he learned in the yeshivah of Slonim.
Years later he joined his father in the United States to rebuild Bobov, filling important roles for the fledgling Bobover kehillah and mosdos, delivering shiurim and tending to communal needs.
Rav Naftali Tzvi shunned the limelight until the petirah of his father on Rosh Chodesh Av 5760/2000, when he was declared Rebbe. Despite his modesty, he was known to be a po’el yeshuos.
He was niftar on 12 Adar II 5765/2005 at age 74, and was buried in the Bobover ohel in Washington Cemetery in Deans, New Jersey.
March 19
In 1628, the Massachusetts colony was founded by English settlers.
In 1748, the English Naturalization Act passed, granting Jews the right to colonize in the U.S.
In 1918, Congress passed the first law establishing daylight savings time in the United States, with clocks to be moved forward one hour from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. (This law was repealed in August 1919.)
In 1920, the Senate rejected, for a second time, the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 49 in favor, 35 against, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval.
In 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the start of war against Iraq. Becasuse of the time difference, it was early March 20 in Iraq.