This Day In History 25 Tishrei/October 27

Yahrtzeiten

5520/1759, Harav Yehudah Leib of Polna’ah, zt”l

5554/1803, Harav Binyamin of Zaloshitz, zt”l, mechaber of Turei Zahav

5570/1809, Harav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, zt”l

5595/1834, Harav Tzvi Hersh Heller, zt”l, mechaber of Tiv Gittin

5598/1837, Harav Shmuel Landau of Prague, zt”l, son of the Noda B’Yehudah and mechaber of Shivas Tziyon

5600/1839, Harav Moshe Sofer, zt”l, the Chasam Sofer

5758/1997, Harav Dovid Mattisyahu Rabinowitz, zt”l, the Biala Rebbe of Bnei Brak

Rav Dovid Mattisyahu Rabinowitz was born in Shedlitz, Poland. His father was Harav Yechiel Yehoshua, later Rebbe of Biala. He was named Dovid after his great-grandfather, Harav Nosson Dovid of Shidlovtza, and “Mattisyahu” was added because his bris was on the seventh day of Chanukah.

During World War II, when their father was exiled to Russia, young Dovid Mattisyahu, along with two of his brothers and a sister, escaped to Teheran, Iran. They came to Eretz Yisrael on the special Israeli transport known as “Yaldei Tehran — the children of Tehran.”

When Harav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the Ponevezher Rav, heard that the children of the Biala Rebbe had come to Eretz Yisrael, he made a special effort to place them where they would be able to lead Torah lives. Dovid Mattisyahu attended the Ponevez Yeshivah. Later, he got married and received semichah from Harav Yosef Tzvi Kalish of Skernovitz, the Rav of Bnei Brak.

Rav Dovid Mattisyahu’s father, Harav Yechiel Yehoshua, arrived in Eretz Yisrael in 5707/1947 and was reunited with his children. Having survived the Holocaust, he made it his mission to rebuild the Biala dynasty.

After his father’s petirah in 5742/1982, Reb Dovid Mattisyahu continued his father’s mission, leading Biala Chassidim in Bnei Brak, where he spread Torah and Chassidus with passion and fire. He was known for his total absorption in tefillah.

Reb Dovid Mattisyahu would spend one Shabbos every year, during the Three Weeks, in the Old City of Yerushalayim, near the Kosel.

He was niftar 25 Tishrei, a day after Simchas Torah (in Eretz Yisrael).

Some of Reb Dovid Mattisyahu’s divrei Torah were published under the titles Orchos Dovid and Lahavas Dovid.

Yehi zichro baruch.

Oct. 27

In 1787, the first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, was published.

In 1938, Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: “nylon.”

In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord.