This Day in History – 18 Sivan/May 27

18 Sivan

Yahrtzeiten

5411/1651, Harav Avraham Hakohen Rappaport, zt”l, mechaber of Eisan Ha’ezrachi

5603/1843, Harav Yissachar Dov, the Saba Kadisha of Radoshitz, zt”l

5696/1936, Harav Yerucham Lebovitz, zt”l, Mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir

5704/1944, Harav Yaakov Elimelech and Harav Chaim Menachem Mendel Paneth of Dezsh, Hy”d

Harav Moshe Mordechai Shteger, zt”l, mechaber of Meged Shamayim

5713/1953, Harav Avraham Yosef Pesachovitz, zt”l, mechaber of Be’er Mayim

5732/1972, Harav Moshe Leib Shapiro, zt”l, mechaber of Taba’os Hachoshen

5721/1961 Harav Aharon Cohen, zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron

Harav Aharon Cohen was born in Nisan

5665/1905, in a small village near Kovno. His father, Harav Avraham Mordechai, was the son of Harav Yosef, who was known as the masmid of Eishukshuk, after his hometown.

As a young bachur, Reb Aharon took his first steps in the ways of Torah in Yeshivas Lomza, during the time the yeshivah was in Ukraine, in Prilocki and Charkhov, during World War I. After the war, Reb Aharon returned home, where he went to learn in Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael, in Slabodka. Within a short while, Reb Aharon was noted for his genius mind and was known as the iluy of the yeshivah.

Reb Aharon was very close with the heads of the yeshivah — the Alter of Slabodka, Harav Nosson Tzvi Finkel; his son-in-law Harav Yitzchak Eizik Sher; Harav Moshe Mordechai Epstein; and the Mashgiach, Harav Avraham Grodzinski,.

In 5684/1924, when a large group of the yeshivah relocated to Chevron, Reb Aharon joined the group. He continued learning diligently in Chevron.

The Rosh Yeshivah, Harav Moshe Mordechai Epstein, chose Reb Aharon as the chassan for his daughter. Their wedding was held in 5689/1929, in Chevron.

For the following five years, Reb Aharon immersed himself solely in Torah.

After the petirah of his father-in-law, on 10 Kislev 5694/1934, his son-in-law Harav Yechezkel Sarna replaced him as Rosh Yeshivah, with the other son-in-law, Reb Aharon, serving as his deputy.

For the next few decades, until his petirah, Reb Aharon served as leading maggid shiur in Yeshivas Chevron, which had moved to Yerushalayim following the pogrom of 5689/1929.

Besides delivering shiurim, Reb Aharon would also give mussar shmuessen in the yeshivah.

On Erev Shabbos Parashas Behaalos’cha, 18 Sivan, 5721/1961, Reb Aharon was niftar, childless, at age 56. He was buried on Har Hamenuchos.

He published sefer Beis Aharon on the Chumash. He also wrote on Halachah.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

May 27:

In 1861, Chief Justice Roger Taney, sitting as a federal circuit court judge in Baltimore, ruled that President Abraham Lincoln lacked the authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. (Lincoln disregarded the ruling.)

In 1933, the Chicago World’s Fair, celebrating “A Century of Progress,” officially opened.

In 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act.

In 1937, the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, Calif., was opened to pedestrians. (Vehicles began crossing the next day.)

In 1941, the British Royal Navy sank the German battleship Bismarck off France, with a loss of some 2,000 lives, three days after the Bismarck sank the HMS Hood.

In 1942, Navy Cook 3rd Class Doris “Dorie” Miller became the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross for his “extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety” during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1962, a dump fire in Centralia, Pa., ignited a blaze in underground coal deposits that continues to burn to this day.

In 1964, independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, died.

In 1985, in Beijing, representatives of Britain and China exchanged instruments of ratification for an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997.

In 1993, five people were killed in a bombing at the Uffizi museum of art in Florence, Italy.