This Day In History 27 Cheshvan/November 16

In 1657/2105 B.C.E., “the earth dried up” (Bereishis 8:14), completing the 365-day extent of the Mabul; on this day Hashem commanded Noach to come out of the teivah and repopulate, settle and civilize the earth.

A Yom Tov is cited in Megillas Taanis due to the return of the use of soless as Menachos. This was Rabi Yochanan Ben Zakkai’s defeat of the Tzedoki tradition of bringing animals as a korban minchah.

Yahrtzeiten

5270/1509, Harav Yaakov Chaviv, zt”l, mechaber of Ein Yaakov

5457/1696, Harav Dovid, zt”l, Rav of Lida, Magentza and Amsterdam, mechaber of Ir Dovid, Ir Miklat and Sharvit Hazahav

5586/1825, Harav Refael Ashkenazi, Rav of Izmir, zt”l, mechaber of Mareh Einayim

5603/1842, Harav Shmuel Hayashish, zt”l, Rav of London

5609/1848, Harav Meir Binyamin Menachem Dunin, zt”l, mechaber of Be’er Hasadeh

5701/1940, Harav Dovid Friedman, Hy”d, Rebbe of Ployesht

5757/1996, Harav Shmuel Halevi Ashlag, zt”l

5759/1998, Harav Yaakov Leizer, zt”l, Pshevorsker Rebbe of Antwerp

5677/1916, Harav Moshe Mordechai, Rebbe of Pelzovizna, Zy”a

Also known as the Medzibuzh-Warsaw Rebbe, Harav Moshe Mordechai was born in Medzibuzh in the year 5633/1873. His father was Harav Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel of Medzibuzh, zy”a, a great-grandson of the Apter Rav, zy”a. His mother was the daughter of Rav Sholom Yosef, the oldest son of Rav Yisrael, Rebbe of Ruzhin, zy”a.

According to his grandson, Harav Moshe Mordechai, the Kopyczynitzer Rebbe, zy”a, who was named after him, the Pelzovizna Rebbe was born on 7 Adar, the yahrtzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu. His bris was on Purim, and so he was given the name Moshe Mordechai, for both Moshe Rabbeinu and Mordechai Hatzaddik.

When he was eight years old, his father was niftar; he was raised by his stepfather, Harav Dovid Moshe, the first Rebbe of Chortkov, zy”a, who was also his great-uncle. In 5650 (1890), he married the daughter of Harav Yaakov Perlow, zy”a, the first Rebbe of Novominsk, and moved to Poland.

For the next 10 years he lived at the home of his father-in-law in Novominsk, where he developed a close relationship with the many Jewish soldiers encamped nearby.

In the year 1902, upon the passing of his father-in-law, he founded his own court in Pelzovizna, a suburb of Warsaw. Two years later, on the advice of his stepfather, the Chortkover Rebbe, he moved to Maronowka Street in Warsaw, where he was known as the Pelzovizna Rebbe.

Reb Yechiel Hoffer, whose father was the Rebbe’s gabbai, would later recall his memories of the Rebbe.

“The Rebbe would take the 18-groschen donations from the poor the way he took the golden imperials of the rich, but more delicately; he would unwrap the paper in which the few coins were gathered, and lay them in his pocket, so that the poor person would see that he was taking them, that he welcomed them… The Rebbe trembled uncontrollably when poor women burst into his house…. [beseeching him for a brachah..] He would fall in front of the Aron Kodesh, pull the paroches aside, open the doors tearfully beg mercy for a desperately ill husband or sick child, or sometimes for a mother of children who was on the verge of leaving this world. Discreetly he entered the living room, sat down on the couch under the large photo of the old Chortkover Rebbe hanging there and slowly recovered his composure.”

Hoffer related that when Rebbe had heard that the local druggist, who had left the proper way, ate non-kosher meat, he began to gasp and vomit at the notion that a fellow Jew had eaten treife meat.

Rav Moshe Mordechai of Pelzovizna was niftar on 27 Cheshvan.

Zechuso Yagen Aleinu.

Nov. 16

In 1776, British troops captured Fort Washington in New York during the American Revolution.

In 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state of the union.

In 1917, Georges Clemenceau again became prime minister of France.

In 1933, the United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations.

In 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded at the conclusion of a conference in London.