This Day in History – 22 Iyar/May 11

22 Iyar

In 2449/1312 B.C.E., Dosson and Aviram searched for manna on the first Shabbos in the Midbar but did not find any (Shemos 16:27).

In 5491/1731, all the sefarim in the Papal States were confiscated.

In 5679/1919, the Romanian government granted citizenship to all native-born Jews.

In 5704/1944, the Nazis began the deportation of Jews from greater Hungary to the extermination camps.


 

Yahrtzeiten

5554/1794, Harav Yeshayah of Dinowitz, zt”l, talmid of the Mezeritcher Maggid

5690/1930, Harav Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari, zt”l, known as the Saba Kadisha


 

5654/1894

Harav Mordechai Shraga Feivush Friedman of Husyatin, zy”a

Reb Mordechai Shraga Feivush, the youngest son of Reb Yisrael of Ruzhin, was born on 20 Iyar 5595/1835.

Reb Mordechai Shraga was named Mordechai after his great-uncle, the maggid Harav Mordechai of Chernobyl, while he was still alive. He was also named Shraga Feivush after Harav Shraga Feivush of Kremnitz, the father-in-law of the Ruzhiner’s grandfather, Harav Avraham Hamalach (the son of the Mezeritcher Maggid).

Reb Yisrael of Ruzhin attested that this youngest son had a very holy and unique neshamah. His brothers were Harav Shalom Yosef, who was niftar less than a year after his father’s petirah; Harav Avraham Yaakov of Sadigura; Harav Dov Ber of Liova; Harav Nachum of Shtefenisht; and Harav Dovid Moshe of Chortkov. It was said that the Ruzhiner likened his six sons to the Shishah Sidrei Mishnah; his youngest son, Reb Mordechai Shraga, thus corresponded to Seder Taharos.

Not long after Reb Mordechai Shraga’s birth, Harav Moshe of Savron came to visit the Ruzhiner. The tzaddik showed him many valuables that he owned, and after he had seen them all, the Ruzhiner told him, “Now I will show you my most precious possession” — and with that he asked that his youngest son be brought into the room.

Reb Yisrael of Ruzhin was niftar on 3 Cheshvan 5611/1850. Upon his petirah, all his sons became Rebbes, including Reb Mordechai Shraga, who was only 15 1/2 years old at the time. A year and a half later, in Tammuz 5612/1852, he left Potik, where all the brothers had resided, and moved to Mikolinitz. He stayed there for three years until he moved, on the first day of Selichos 5615/1854, to Strusov.

In 5625/1865, at the age of 30, he finally moved to Husyatin, located on the banks of the Zabrotz, then the Galician-Ukrainian border, and lived there for the rest of his life.

The Rebbe attained a holy level of dveikus and he would spend countless hours in total attachment to higher spheres, totally oblivious to all things physical.

He was niftar at age 59, on 22 Iyar 5654/1894. The Rebbe had once expressed a desire that his levayah be held immediately after his petirah. To honor this request, his levayah took place at night, immediately after his petirah, in the presence of only family members and the Chassidim who happened to be in the court. In the morning, the Rebbe’s personal gabbai went out to inform the Chassidim in town, “Come, let us mourn our Rebbe.”

Reb Mordechai Shraga was succeeded by his son, Harav Yisrael. A younger son, Harav Sholom Yosef, was tragically niftar during his lifetime. Harav Shalom Yosef was the father of Harav Moshenyu of Boyan and Harav Menachem Nachum of Lemberg. His sons-in-law were Harav Yitzchak Meir Heschel of Kopyczynitz, and Harav Menachem Nachum of Boyan-Chernowitz.

Zechuso yagein aleinu. 


 

May 11

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.

In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.

In 1862, during the Civil War, the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia was scuttled by its crew off Craney Island, Virginia, to prevent it from falling into Union hands.

In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration was created as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces launched a major offensive against Axis lines in Italy.

In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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