This Day in History – 4 Av/July 31

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 Luzatto, zt”l

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

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

5661/1901, Harav Tvi Meir Hakohen Rabinowitz, zt”l, Rav of Radomsk, son of the Tiferes Shlomo

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 in a forest near Lvov.

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

5764/2004, Harav Shimon Nosson Nota Biderman, zy”a, Rebbe of Lelov-Yerushalayim

5664/1904

Harav Efraim Taub of Kuzmir, zt”l

Harav Efraim Taub was the son of Harav Yechezkel of Kuzmir and the son-in-law of Harav Nosson Dovid Rabinowitz of Shidlovtza.

After the petirah of his father on 15 Shevat 5616/1856, Reb Efraim was appointed Rebbe.

Reb Efraim lived in Shenenah, then later in Kuzmir. Later, he moved on to other cities. He lived in Bloina, Nadrazin, Yablona and Prague.

Some of the divrei Torah of Reb Efraim were published in the sefarim of his father.

Reb Efraim was niftar on 4 Av 5664/1904.

His sons were Harav Menachem Dovid, Rebbe in Prague; Harav Eliezer Shlomo, Rebbe in Walmin; and Harav Yerachmiel Tzvi, Rebbe in Shenenah.

Zechuso yagen aleinu.

July 31

In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.

In 1875, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, died in Carter County, Tennessee, at age 66.

In 1919, Germany’s Weimar Constitution was adopted by the republic’s National Assembly.

In 1942, Oxfam International had its beginnings as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief was founded in England.

In 1954, Pakistan’s K2 was conquered as two members of an Italian expedition, Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli, reached the summit.

In 1964, the American space probe Ranger 7 reached the moon, transmitting pictures back to Earth before hitting the lunar surface.

In 1972, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment.

In 1989, a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a grisly videotape showing the murdered body of American hostage William R. Higgins, a Marine lieutenant-colonel.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.