This Day in History – 2 Nisan/March 13

2 Nisan

In 2449/1312 B.C.E., Nesanel ben Tzur, the nasi of the tribe of Yissachar, brought his korban.

Moshe Rabbeinu carried out the commandment of Parah Adumah for the first time.

In 5043/1283, the Jews of Mayence, Germany, were massacred.

In 5252/1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the decree expelling the Jews from Spain. It was ultimately carried out on Tishah B’Av of that year.

In 5641/1881, anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jerusalem.

Yahrtzeiten

5035/1275, Rabbeinu Baruch, zt”l, the father of the Maharam of Rottenberg

5393/1633, Harav Eliyahu Kalmankash, zt”l, Rav of Lublin

5680/1920, Harav Shalom Dov Ber Schneerson, zt”l, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe.

5728/1968, Harav Yaakov Yosef Twerski, the Skverer Rebbe, zt”l

5594/1834

Harav Nesanel Emreich, zt”l, Rav of Illawa

Harav Nesanel Emreich was the son of Harav Binyamin Wolf, who served as Rav in Neustadt and wrote the sefer Amtachas Binyamin on maseches Krisus.

The father of Harav Binyamin Wolf was Harav Zalman Emreich, Rav in Prague, who wrote Shishah Zaronei Arugah.

When his grandson was born, Rav Zalman instructed that he be named Nesanel, after his rebbi, Harav Nesanel Weill, zt”l, the author of Korban Nesanel. Reb Zalman blessed his grandson, after the bris that he grow to become a gadol b’Torah like Harav Nesanel Weill.

Reb Nesanel, as per his grandfather’s brachah, went on to become a talmid chacham and served as Rav of Illawa.

Some of his chiddushim were published under the name Sfichei Amarim and appendixed to his grandfather’s sefer Shishah Zaronei Arugah.

Reb Nesanel was niftar on 2 Nisan 5594/1834.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

March 13

In 1639, New College was renamed Harvard College for clergyman John Harvard.

In 1781, the seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, was discovered by Sir William Herschel.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure prohibiting Union military officers from returning fugitive slaves to their owners.

In 1901, the 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis at age 67.

In 1933, banks in the U.S. began to reopen after a “holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.

In 1988, yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school’s first deaf president.