This Day In History 4 Av/July 27

In 3314/447 B.C.E., the silver and gold that Ezra and his followers brought along to build the second Beis Hamikdash was weighed.

In 3317/444 B.C.E., Nechemiah began to construct a wall around Yerushalayim. The construction lasted 52 days.

In 5704/1944, the Lublin concentration camp was liberated by the Russian army.

Yahrtzeiten

5343/1583, Harav Avraham Luzzatto, zt”l, the Ramchal

5380/1620, Harav Menachem Azaryah, zt”l, the Rama of Pano

5382/1622, Harav Avraham ben Harav Dovid, zt”l, Rav of Lvov and meforesh of the Rif

5664/1904, Harav Efraim Taub of Kuzmir, zt”l

5701/1941, Harav Benzion Halberstam, the second Bobover Rebbe, mechaber of Kedushas Tziyon, Hy”d. He was killed along with thousands of other Jews by the brutal Nazis, ym”s, in a forest near Lvov.

5703/1943, Harav Yehoshua Heschel Horowitz Sternfeld, Hy”d, of Chenchin-Elkosh

5662/1902, Harav Tvi Meir Rabinowitz, zt”l, Rav of Radomsk, son of the Tiferes Shlomo

Harav Tzvi Meir Hakohen Rabinowitz was born in 5601/1841. His father was Harav Shlomo of Radomsk, the Tiferes Shlomo.

Early on, he was already an outstanding masmid with a prodigious memory. The Tiferes Shlomo once said of his son, “He is a shelf full of sefarim.”

Reb Tzvi Meir would rise many hours before dawn, and after breaking the frozen waters in the mikveh, he studied Kabbalah, mainly Arizal. After daybreak he would learn a Gemara shiur with the bachurim.

Following his father’s petirah on 29 Adar 5626/1866, Reb Tzvi Meir (fondly known as Reb Hirsch Meir) was appointed Rav in Radomsk in his father’s stead.

Reb Tzvi Meir was renowned for his mesirus nefesh in avodas Hashem.

Niftar on 4 Av, 5662/1902, at the age of 61, Reb Tzvi Meir was buried the next day near his father in the ohel of Radomsk.

His sons were Reb Emanuel Gershon, Rav in Modzhitz; Reb Yitzchak Mordechai, Rav in Polana; and Reb Yisrael Pinchas, Rav in Radomsk.

Many of Reb Tzvi Meir’s chiddushim and divrei Torah remain in manuscript form.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

July 27

In 1694, the Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.

In 1789, President George Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.

In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks’ use).

In 1921, Canadian researcher Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, succeeded in isolating the hormone insulin at the University of Toronto.

In 1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at a military hospital outside Cairo, Egypt, at age 60.