This Day in History – June 3/11 Sivan

In 3828/68 Vespasian captured Yericho

In 5318/1558, Germany’s Kaiser restricted certain liberties of the Jews, after previous governments gave them those rights


Yahrtzeiten

5502/1742, Harav Eliezer Rokeach, zt”l, author of Maaseh Rokeach and Rav of Amsterdam.

5571/1811, Harav Yishmael HaKohen, zt”l, Rav of Modina, author of Zera Emes.

5574/1814, Harav Binyamin Zev Wolf Boskowitz of Kelen, zt”l, author of Seder Lemishneh.

5654/1894, Harav Moshe, zt”l, Rebbe of Rozvadov.

5694/1934, Harav Ezra Harari Raful, zt”l, mekubal of Aleppo, founder of Yeshivos Ohel Mo’ed, Beis Yosef and Magen David.

5704/1944, Harav Mordechai Rottenberg, Hy”d, Rav of Antwerp, author of Yad Mordechai.

5704/1944, Harav Mordechai Brisk of Tchanad, Hungary, zt”l, author of She’eilos u’Teshuvos Maharam Brisk. Hy”d.

5749/1989, Harav Yehudah Horowitz, zt”l, Rebbe of Dzikov.

5763/2003, the Sassover Rebbe of London, zt”l, Harav Simcha Rubin.


5749/1989, Harav Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, The Minchas Yitzchak, Zy”a

Harav Weiss was born on 8 Adar 5662/1902 to Harav Yosef Yehuda of Dolina, Galicia. As a young child, he absorbed much Torah and Chassidus from the Ziditchover Rebbe of Dolina, Harav Yehuda Zvi Eichenstein, zy”a, whom he regarded as one of his primary Rebbes.

Rav Yitzchak Yaakov used to have a daily three-hour shiur with his father, during which Reb Yosef Yehuda taught his son the derech in both limud and avodas Hashem that he had acquired from his Rebbe, the Arugas Habosem, zt”l. While still very young, he began recording his chiddushim and even submitted some to be published in a number of local Torah journals.

In 5682/1922, when Rav Yitzchak Yaakov turned 20, he received an order to report for military service. He wrote a letter to a friend who was a grandson of the Belzer Rebbe, Reb Yissochor Dov, zy”a, requesting the Rebbe’s brachah that he be spared from serving in the army.

The Belzer Rebbe replied, citing the Mishnah in Avos: “Whoever accepts on himself the yoke ofTorah is relieved from the yoke of malchus.” Rav Weiss “accepted the yoke of Torah” anew and moved to the neighboring town of Helmin, where he toiled in Torah in an unprecedented fashion. He never heard from the army again.

In 5688/1928, he married the daughter of Harav Pinchos Zimetbaum, zt”l, from Grosswardein.

He wrote teshuvos to she’eilos that arrived from near and far, and he corresponded with many Gedolim. When World War II broke out in 1939, Rav Weiss was acclaimed as one of the major Rabbanim in the area.

During the war, Rav Weiss hid in a bunker for six weeks, and later miraculously fled across the border. He recorded the harrowing trials he endured in the first volume of his sefer, Minchas Yitzchak.

After the war he settled in England, where he served as the Rav of Manchester until 5729/1969. There he led the kehillah and rejuvenated the spirits of many Holocaust survivors. In 5730/1970, the Satmar Rebbe appointed him Raavad of the beis din of the Eidah Chareidis of Yerushalayim; after the Rebbe’s petirah he became the Gaavad.

Harav Weiss was niftar in Yerushalayim on 11 Sivan 5775 and is buried on Har Hazeisim.

Yehi zichro baruch.


June 3

In 1861, Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1860 election, died in Chicago of typhoid fever; he was 48.

In 1935, the French liner Normandie set a record on its maiden voyage, arriving in New York after crossing the Atlantic in just four days.

In 1948, the 200-inch reflecting Hale Telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California was dedicated.

In 1965, astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to “walk” in space during the flight of Gemini 4.

In 1989, Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. Chinese army troops began their sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.

In 2008, Barack Obama claimed the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 2015, the Pentagon disclosed that it had inadvertently shipped possibly live anthrax to at least 51 laboratories across the U.S. and tos three foreign countries over the previous decade, but said that public health was not at risk.

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