This Day in History – 25 Tammuz/July 23

5662/1902, anti-Jewish rioters attacked the levayah of Harav Yaakov Joseph, zt”l, in New York City. When the entourage passed the R. Hoe and Company factory, its non-Jewish workers threw refuse and rocks at the bier. Local police arrived at the scene, and a terrible fight, heavy with anti-Semitic overtones, ensued. More than 300 Jews were hospitalized as a result.

Yahrtzeiten

5591/1831, Harav Meir of Apta, zt”l, mechaber of Ohr Lashamayim

5653/1893, Harav Yisrael Eliyahu Yehoshua Trunk, zt”l, Rav of Kutna

5690/1930, Harav Yeshaya Zilberstein of Veitzen, zt”l, mechaber of Maasai Lamelech

5763/2003, Harav Yitzchak Kolitz, zt”l, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and later Yerushalayim

5545/1785

Harav Aryeh Leib, zt”l, the Shaagas Aryeh

Harav Aryeh Leib was born in 5455/1695 in Lithuania. His father was Harav Asher, Rav in Pinsk and one of the leading Rabbanim of his time. Harav Aryeh Leib was renowned for his hasmadah.

It is related that once, when in Frankfurt, he lodged at the home of Harav Pinchas Horowitz, mechaber of the Hafla’ah and Panim Yafos. The “simple” guest asked for three Gemaros for the night — Yevamos, Kesubos and Kiddushin. The Hafla’ah was surprised, but willingly filled his guest’s request. Some hours later, the Hafla’ah peeked into the room of his guest and saw him laboring over the Gemara, learning daf by daf. By morning he had finished all three masechtos, no small feat by anyone’s standards. The Hafla’ah began to ask him questions on his learning. Within minutes, he realized that this guest was none other than Reb Aryeh Leib, the Shaagas Aryeh.

His first position was as Rosh Yeshivah in Volozhin, where one of his prized talmidim was Harav Chaim Volozhiner.

Interestingly, even after his sefer Shaagas Aryeh was published, he found it hard to achieve a suitable position and was constantly forced to move on. But in 5526/1766 he was appointed Rav of Metz, where he served until his petirah.

When he became Rav of Metz, the Shaagas Aryeh was nearly 70 years old. The leaders of the community were concerned over the appointment because he was already an elderly man. He asked them how long they expected a Rav to serve. “For about twenty years,” they responded. He was niftar twenty years later, at ninety.

A few months before his petirah, Reb Aryeh Leib invited the community to a siyum HaShas. He was in especially high spirits at this siyum. When he was asked what the reason was for this, he explained that this was his thousandth siyum on the Shas.

Reb Aryeh Leib was niftar on 25 Tammuz 5545/1785. (Some give the day of his petirah as 15 Tammuz; other sources give it as 25 Sivan.)

He wrote Shaagas Aryeh, Gevuras Ari on Meseches Yoma, and Turei Even on Meseches Rosh Hashanah.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

July 23

In 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, New York, at age 63.

In 1886, Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into New York’s East River. (However, there are doubts about whether the dive actually took place.)

In 1914, Austria-Hungary presented a list of demands to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; Serbia’s refusal to agree to the entire ultimatum led to World War I.

In 1945, French Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain, who had headed the Vichy government during World War II, went on trial, charged with treason. (He was convicted and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted.)

In 1951, Henri-Philippe Pétain died in prison.

In 1952, Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser launched a successful coup against King Farouk I.

In 1967, a week of deadly race-related rioting that claimed 43 lives erupted in Detroit.

In 1977, a jury in Washington, D.C., convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.