This Day in History – 19 Cheshvan/October 23

19 Cheshvan

In 2/3760 B.C.E., according to the Arizal, Hevel lived for 49 days, meaning that his brother Kayin killed him on this date. According to Midrash Rabbah he was killed the next day. Other opinions in Chazal hold that he was killed on Erev Pesach; or that he was killed at the age of 40.

In 5767/1906, the Chofetz Chaim completed his monumental work, the Mishnah Berurah.

Yahrtzeiten

5316/1555, Harav Naftali Yitzchak Segal, zt”l, mechaber of Naftali Seva Ratzon

5536/1775, Harav Yitzchak Avraham Wallerstein of Minsk, zt”l, brother of the Shaagas Aryeh

5600/1839, Harav Shimshon Halevi Heller of Zhbarizh, zt”l

5615/1854, Harav Moshe Michel of Biala, zt”l

5665/1904, Harav Sa’asa Hakohen of Djerba

5702/1942, Harav Avraham Tzvi Hirsch Kamai, Hy”d, Rosh Yeshivah and Rav of Mir

5610/1849

Harav Eliyahu Rogler, zt”l, Rav of Slabodka and Kalisch

Harav Eliyahu Rogler was born in 5554/1794 in Soginad, near Zamut, Lithuania, at the Prussian border. His father Reb Yaakov was a talmid chacham who managed to conceal his lofty ways. He ran a hotel; after the guests were asleep, he would learn until the morning. The family descended from the Chacham Tzvi and Harav Mordechai Yaffe, the Levush.

In his youth, Eliyahu learned under his father. Shortly after his bar mitzvah, he was betrothed to the daughter of Reb Dovid Gardomer. Reb Dovid was an affluent man, who willingly undertook to support a chassan who would devote himself to learning.

Reb Eliyahu was known for his derech halimud: beginning with the Rishonim and learning their sefarim thoroughly, then going on to the Acharonim.

Reb Eliyahu went to Volozhin, where he was a talmid of Harav Chaim Volozhiner. When he returned home, both Reb Eliyahu’s father and his father-in-law had come upon hard times and could no longer support him, so he was forced to seek a post as Rav.

His first rabbinic position was in Shott, near Kaidan.

Later, in 5581/1821, he was appointed Rav in Rogoli and he is called by the name of this city.

Three years later, in 5584/1824, he was offered the position of Rav in William-Pally, near Kovno. He headed a yeshivah there, attracting hundreds of bachurim.

In 5600/1840, he was appointed Rav in Kalisch, where he remained the rest of his life.

In 5608/1848, Reb Eliyahu fell ill and became bedridden. He wrote a letter to the kehillah absolving them of responsibility to him and allowing them to appoint a new Rav, as he could no longer function at full capacity.

Reb Eliyahu was niftar on 19 Cheshvan 5610/1849, and was buried the next day. He was buried near the kever of the Magen Avraham.

Many of his teshuvos were published as She’eilos U’Teshuvos Yad Eliyahu.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

October 23

In 1864, forces led by Union Gen. Samuel R. Curtis repelled Confederate Gen. Sterling Price’s army in the Civil War Battle of Westport in Missouri.

In 1910, Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a public solo airplane flight, reaching an altitude of 12 feet at a park in Fort Wayne, Ind.

In 1915, tens of thousands of women marched in New York City for the right to vote.

In 1942, during World War II, Britain launched a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein in Egypt, resulting in an Allied victory.

In 1954, West Germany was invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which it did the following year.

In 1956, a student-sparked revolt against Hungary’s communist rule began; as the revolution spread, Soviet forces started to enter the country, and the uprising was supressed within weeks.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon agreed to turn over White House tape recordings subpoenaed by the Watergate special prosecutor to Judge John J. Sirica.

In 1980, the resignation of Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin was announced.

In 1983, 241 U.S. service members, most of them Marines, were killed in a suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. A near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers.

In 1987, the U.S. Senate rejected, 58–42, the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork.

In 1991, Cambodia’s warring factions and representatives of 18 other nations signed a peace treaty in Paris.

In 2001, the nation’s anthrax scare hit the White House with the discovery of a small concentration of spores at an offsite mail processing center. President George W. Bush announced that he authorized money for improved post office security following the deaths of two postal workers from inhalation anthrax.