This Day in History – 3 Adar II/March 5

3 Adar II

In 3413/348 B.C.E., the joyous dedication of the second Bais Hamikdash was celebrated, after four years of work.

Yahrtzeiten

5372/1612, Harav Mordechai Yaffa, zt”l, the Baal HaLevushim (Adar II)

5398/1638, Harav Noach of Cracow, zt”l, mechaber of Toldos Noach on Medrash

5562/1802, Harav Noach Chaim Tzvi Berlin, zt”l, Rav of Altona, Hamburg, and Wandsbeck and mechaber of Atzei Almogim

5626/1866, Harav Binyamin Morgenstern of Kotzk, zy”a

5628/1868, Harav Eliyahu of Mezritch, zt”l, mechaber of Midrashei Eliyahu

5665/1905, Harav Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teumim, the Aderes, zt”l (Adar II)

5611/1851

Harav Binyamin Zev Lev, zt”l, Rav of Verboi and mechaber of Shaarei Tefillah

Harav Binyamin Zev Lev was born in Vodislav in 5537/1777. His father, Harav Elazar Lev, the Shemen Rokeach, sent him to the yeshivos of Harav Eliezer Kempne of Prostitz, and of his brother-in-law Harav Yirmiyahu of Mattersdorf.

Reb Binyamin Zev married the daughter of Harav Efraim Zalman Margulies.

His first appointment as Rav was in Verboi, where he headed a yeshivah. Among his more famous talmidim were Harav Chaim Tzvi Mannheimer; Harav Chaim Sofer, the Machaneh Chaim; and Harav Avraham Yehudah Schwartz, the Kol Aryeh.

Reb Binyamin Zev was known for his greatness not only in Torah but in middos, too. It is told that one time during a shiur, he asked a talmid to bring the Rambam on hilchos Me’ilah. The talmid didn’t hear clearly and brought hilchos Milah. Instead of asking him to exchange the volumes, thus embarrassing him, Reb Binyamin Zev leafed through the volume quickly and found a halachah connected to the shiur.

Reb Binyamin Zev wrote Shaarei Torah at the age of 26. Harav Akiva Eiger quotes it in his noted sefer on Shulchan Aruch.

Reb Binyamin Zev was niftar on 3 Adar II 5611/1851 at the age of 74.

His son, Rav Yirmiyahu, was the author of Divrei Yirmiyahu.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

March 5

In 1766, Antonio de Ulloa arrived in New Orleans to assume his duties as the first Spanish governor of the Louisiana Territory, where he encountered resistance from the French residents.

In 1770, the “Boston Massacre” took place as British soldiers who’d been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people.

In 1868, the Senate was organized into a Court of Impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson, who was later acquitted.

In 1933, in German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote; the Nazis joined with a conservative nationalist party to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag.

In 1934, the first Mothers-in-Law Day celebration and parade took place in Amarillo, Texas.

In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. Churchill declared: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

In 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died after three decades in power.

In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.

In 1979, NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe flew past Jupiter, sending back photographs of the planet and its moons.