This Day in History – 23 Sivan/June 10

In c. 2964/797 B.C.E., Yeravam ben Nevat, Melech Yisrael, set up roadblocks to prevent olei regel from traveling to Yerushalayim. Instead, he introduced the worship of two idols, in the form of golden calves, which he enshrined on the northern and southern boundaries of his realm.

In 3404/357 B.C.E., Mordechai Hatzaddik drafted a royal decree giving the Jews license to defend themselves and kill all who would rise up to kill them, and dispatched it to all 127 provinces of Achashverosh’s empire. He thereby annulled Haman’s decree. (Megillas Esther 8:9)

In 5558/1798, numerous Jews were murdered in Pesaro, Italy, following the retreat of Napoleon’s army. The community observed a fast to mark the event.

Yahrtzeiten

5285/1525, Harav Yaakov Pollack, the Ba’al Hachilukim, zt”l

5640/1880, Harav Yehoshua Heller, zt”l, mechaber of Divrei Yehoshua

5646/1886, Harav Yehudah Assad, zt”l

5659/1899, Harav Hillel Milikovski of Salant, zt”l, a talmid of Rav Yisrael of Salant

5285/1525, Harav Avraham Mintz of Padua, zt”l

Harav Avraham Halevi Mintz was the son of Harav Yehudah Mintz, the mechaber of She’eilos U’teshuvos Mahari Mintz.

Rav Avraham learned in his father’s yeshivah together with Harav Eliyahu Mizrachi, the famous commentator on Rashi.

After the petirah of his father, Reb Avraham was appointed Rav of Padua in his place. Admired and respected all over the world, he was a famous disseminator of Torah, with many talmidim.

Reb Avraham lived in peace and tranquility in Padua until the rage of an affluent member of the city, Hertz Wertheim, was aroused. This Wertheim made an impressive paroches for the aron kodesh, with a deer on it woven with diamonds to look three-dimensional. He wanted to hang this paroches in the shul where Reb Avraham davened on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Reb Avraham refused to allow it. When the man disregarded Reb Avraham’s order and hung the paroches, Reb Avraham left the shul.

Rav Avraham was niftar on 23 Sivan 5285/1525. He was replaced as Rav in Padua by his son-in-law, Harav Meir Katzenelenbogen, known as the Maharam of Padua.

Reb Avraham wrote Seder Gittin V’chalitzah, which was printed together with his father’s sefer.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

June 10

In 1940, Italy declared war on France and Britain; Canada declared war on Italy. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, speaking at the University of Virginia, said the U.S. stance toward the conflict was shifting from one of “neutrality” to “non-belligerency.”

In 1942, during World War II, German forces massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich.

In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon lifted a two-decades-old trade embargo on China.