This Day in History – 16 Iyar/May 24

In 2449/1312 B.C.E., Bnei Yisrael began receiving mann in the Midbar on the morning of this day. Moshe Rabbeinu introduced the first brachah of Birkas Hamazon (Brachos 48:2).

In 3830/70 C.E., Titus recaptured the middle wall of Yerushalayim and demolished it.

In 5699/1939, the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws went into effect in Hungary.

Yahrtzeiten

5370/1610, Harav Meir, the Maharam of Lublin, zt”l

5616/1856, Harav Shmuel Waldberg of Yaroslav, zt”l

5763/2003, Harav Yechiel Michel Feinstein, zt”l

5766/2006, Harav Tzvi Hirsh Rosenbaum of Kretchenif, zy”a

Harav Tzvi Hirsch Rosenbaum was born on 14 Cheshvan 5680/1919, in Sighet. His father, Harav Nissan Chaim, was the eldest son of Harav Eliezer Ze’ev of Kretchenif.

After World War I, Harav Eliezer Ze’ev moved from Kretchenif to Sighet. In 5684/1924, Rav Nissan was appointed Rav of Bradshin, a town near Stanislav, Poland, but he sent young Hershel to live and learn with his grandfather.

Hershel formed a close bond with his grandfather and looked up to him as his Rebbe.

After his bar mitzvah, he went to study at Yeshivas Ohr Torah in Stanislav.

In the winter of 5697/1936, Reb Tzvi Hirsh traveled to the city of Satmar (not far from Sighet) where he learned under his uncle, Harav Meir Dayan. While there, he received semichah from the Rav of Riskeve and other Gedolei Yisrael and formed ties with the Satmar Rebbe, Harav Yoel Teitelbaum. In the summer of 5697/1937, he returned to his grandfather.

The day after Purim 5704/1944, the Germans entered Sighet, quickly setting up a ghetto. On 3 Iyar the Nazis evacuated his grandfather and the entire family, sending them to Auschwitz.

After six weeks Reb Tzvi Hirsh was transferred to the forced labor camp in Shuterberg. He managed to get a kitchen job, which allowed him to avoid non-kosher foods.

After the war, in 1945, Reb Tzvi Hirsh traveled to Eretz Yisrael. A year later he married the daughter of his uncle, the Nadvorna Rebbe, who was still in Romania.

With the encouragement of Harav Aharon of Belz and the Rav of Bilgoray, Reb Tzvi Hirsh opened his first beis medrash in his home in Batei Ungarin.

Again with the Belzer Rebbe’s suggestion, Reb Tzvi Hirsh moved to Kfar Ata. He rented a small house, which served as his beis medrash for several years until a proper beis medrash and talmud Torah were built.

In 5735/1975, Reb Tzvi Hirsh built a beis medrash in Bnei Brak and in 5740/1980 he built another one in Yerushalayim.

His seudah shelishis Torah was characterized by his tearful and heartrending drashos.

In his final months, the Rebbe was hospitalized. He was niftar on 16 Iyar, 5766/2006, at the age of 86. The Rebbe was buried in a new chelkah on Har Hazeisim.

Zechuso yagen aleinu.

May 24

In 1775, John Hancock was elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding Peyton Randolph.

In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message “What hath G[-]d wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America’s first telegraph line.

In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was dedicated by President Chester Alan Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland.

In 1937, in a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.