This Day in History – 10 Cheshvan/October 14

10 Cheshvan

Yahrtzeiten

1656/2106 B.C.E., Mesushelach was niftar seven days before the Mabul began (according to some he was niftar on 11 Cheshvan). On this day Noach and his family entered the teivah.

2321/1441 B.C.E., Gad, son of Yaakov Avinu. He was also born on this date in 2196/1566 B.C.E.

5421/1660, Harav Yechiel Michel of Cracow, zt”l, mechaber of Seder Gittin

5510/1749, Harav Aryeh Leib of Stanislav, zt”l, mechaber of Nachlas Aryeh

5550/1789, Harav Meir, zt”l, Rav of Lvov and Ostroha, mechaber of Meir Nesivim

5587/1826, Harav Avraham Oppenheim, zt”l, mechaber of Eishel Avraham on Shulchan Aruch

5592/1831, Harav Yosef Meir, zt”l, Rav of Golina

5612/1851, Harav Yitzchak Schick, Rav of Karlin, zt”l, mechaber of Keren Orah

5633/1872, Harav Meir Shapit of Kobrin, zt”l, mechaber of Nir L’Yerushalmi

5726/1965, Harav Dov Berish Weidenfeld, Tchebiner Rav, zt”l

5662/1901

Harav Shmuel Zanvil Klapfish, zt”l, Rav in Warsaw

Harav Shmuel Zanvil Klapfish was born in 5585/1825 in Nemirov. When he was still a young boy, his family moved to Warsaw.

He was a talmid of Harav Moshe Yehudah Leib Silberberg, the Zayis Raanan, and received semichah from Harav Chaim Davidson, Rav of Warsaw.

Reb Shmuel Zanvil married the daughter of Harav Mordechai, known as Reb Mottele, a Rav in Warsaw.

After the petirah of Harav Nosson (Reb Noske) Spiegelglass of Warsaw in 5633/1873, Reb Shmuel Zanvil was appointed his successor.

Reb Shmuel Zanvil headed a yeshivah in Warsaw, from which many leading talmidei chachamim emerged. He delivered a daily shiur of seven hours’ duration. Later, when the responsibility of Rav took more of his time, his shiur was only (!) four hours long. Reb Shmuel Zanvil purposely located the yeshivah far from his home, so as not to be disturbed with she’eilos while saying shiur.

Many leading Gedolim addressed their she’eilos to Reb Shmuel Zanvil, among them the Chiddushei Harim, zt”l, who knew Reb Shmuel Zanvil from his days in Warsaw; Harav Yosef Ber, the Brisker Rav, zt”l; and Harav Dov Berish Meizlish, zt”l.

Reb Shmuel Zanvil was niftar on 10 Cheshvan 5662/1901, at the age of 76.

He had written chiddushei Torah on many masechtos and also many halachic teshuvos, but these were never printed.

His son was Harav Mordechai, Rav in Warsaw. His sons-in-law were Harav Shlomo Dovid Kahana, Harav Chaim Yehudah Leib Yudkowski and Harav Abba Chaim Miklishanski, all of whom served as Rabbanim in Warsaw; and Harav Chaim Fein, Rav in Radzin.

Zechuso yagein aleinu

October 14

In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

In 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I. (Mary was executed in February 1587.)

In 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas.

In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for the White House as the Progressive candidate, was shot in the chest in Milwaukee by New York saloonkeeper John Schrank. Despite the wound, Roosevelt went ahead with a scheduled speech, declaring, “It takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose.”

In 1939, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the HMS Royal Oak, a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.

In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

In 1947, Air Force test pilot Charles E. (“Chuck”) Yeager broke the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.

In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested the idea of a Peace Corps while addressing an audience of students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1987, a 58-hour drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down an abandoned well at a private day-care center; she was rescued on Oct. 16.