This Day in History – 5 Adar 1/February 5

Yahrzeiten

5561/1801, Harav Yosef of Posen, zt”l, son-in-law of the Noda BiYehudah

5583/1823, Harav Ze’ev Volf of Ostraha, zt”l

5601/1841, Harav Avraham Halevi Bing, zt”l, Rav of Wurtzburg

5628/1868, Harav Yeshayah Mushkat, zt”l, the Harei Besamim

5635/1875, Harav Avraham Landau of Tchechonov, zt”l, (Adar I)

5645/1885, Harav Yechezkel Yalzon, zt”l, Rav of Altuna

5731/1971, Harav Mordechai Shlomo Friedman of Boyan, zt”l.

5624/1864

Harav Shmuel Abba Shapira of Slavita, zt”l

Harav Shmuel Abba Shapira was born in 5547/1747. His father, Reb Moshe, was the son of Harav Pinchas Koritzer.

Reb Shmuel Abba married the daughter of Harav Aryeh Leib, son of Harav Lipa of Chmielnick, a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov and a Chassid of the Rebbe Reb Zusha of Anipoli and the Rebbe Reb Baruch of Mezhibuzh.

The famous printing press in Slavita was founded in 5551/1791 by Harav Moshe of Slavita. This press was unique in that its owner was determined to print high-quality sefarim, even at great expense.

In 5583/1823, Reb Moshe transferred the business to his sons, Harav Shmuel Abba and Harav Pinchas. Its fame grew and it was known as the biggest printer of sefarim in Russia, until libel was leveled against it.

On 18 Sivan 5595/1835, the body of Leizer Pratagatin was found in the shul. There were no signs of brutality on the body or on his clothes, and it was assumed that he had ended his own life. He was known as a poor man, and it was understood that he had despaired of life.

In nearby Zaslow, the Jew-hating priest Benderowski decided to utilize this as an excuse for libel against the Jews. He claimed that Leizer had been killed by the Shapira brothers because he wanted to inform on them for printing the Shulchan Aruch, which states (Yoreh Deah) that “informers are killed.” He claimed that this was how they had dealt with Leizer.

The priest was helped by two apostate Jews. They also claimed that the Shapira press was working without censorship.

The czar decided to close all Jewish presses for investigation. The Shapira brothers were arrested. At their trial, one of their biggest critics testified for them, saying that all their sefarim were checked by the censor, but that sometimes the censor might not have fully understood the words of the Gemara or Shulchan Aruch.

Despite this, they were kept in their small cell in Kiev with its one small window, under dreadful conditions, for the next two years. Both were in their fifties at the time. Nothing managed to break their spirits; they finished the entire Shas each year. During this period, on 9 Kislev 5598/1837, their father, Reb Moshe, was niftar.

After three years, the sentence was announced: 1,500 lashes each, walking through two rows of 250 soldiers three times. If they were still alive after these horrendous lashings, they would be sent to Siberia.

They went through the lashing with great mesirus nefesh and were left badly hurt. After a year in a hospital, they were to be sent off to Siberia. Following a health check, however, it was decided that they were too weak to make the journey, and they were permitted to remain in Moscow. They helped the Jewish community in Moscow establish a shul in the city.

It was only in 5616/1856, after the rise of Alexander II to the throne, that they were released and allowed to return home.

The Jewish community in Slavita and its environs were extremely joyous at the tidings that the brothers had been freed. They were greeted in Slavita with a grand kabbalas panim.

They were appointed Rebbes by the local Chassidim, despite their initial refusal. Thousands of Chassidim flocked to the court of Reb Shmuel Abba for the Yamim Nora’im.

Many stories are related of Reb Shmuel Abba’s ruach hakodesh and open mofsim.

Reb Shmuel Abba was niftar in Teplick on 5 Adar I 5624/1864, at age 79, and was buried there. His sons were Harav Aryeh Leib of Zhitomir, Harav Chananyah Lipa, and Harav Pinchas. His sons-in-law were Harav Gedalyah Aharon Rabinowitz of Linitz, Harav Yaakov Yitzchak of Makrov, and Harav Pinchas Yosef of Tlust.

Zechuso yagen aleinu.

February 5

In 1783, Sweden recognized the independence of the U.S.

In 1811, George, the Prince of Wales, was named Prince Regent due to the mental illness of his father, Britain’s King George III.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices; the proposal, which failed in Congress, drew accusations that Roosevelt was attempting to “pack” the nation’s highest court.

In 1973, services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for U.S. Army Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty before the Vietnam cease-fire took effect.

In 1989, the Soviet Union announced that all but a small rear-guard contingent of its troops had left Afghanistan.

In 1994, white separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Miss., of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, and was immediately sentenced to life in prison.

Sixty-eight people were killed when a mortar shell exploded in a marketplace in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 2004, CIA Director George Tenet offered a forceful defense of prewar intelligence in a speech at Georgetown University.

In 2013, President Barack Obama asked Congress for a short-term deficit reduction package of spending cuts and tax revenue that would delay the effective date of steeper automatic cuts scheduled to kick in on March 1. (The president and  the Congress failed to reach an agreement, and the $85 billion in federal spending cuts, known as sequester, went into effect.)