This Day in History – 26 Av/August 11

In 5569/1809, a group of 70 perushim, talmidim of the Vilna Gaon, arrived in Eretz Yisrael. The group, led by Harav Yisrael of Shklov, zt”l, experienced many hardships.

In 5680/1920, the Turkish government renounced its sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael and recognized the British Mandate.

Yahrtzeiten

5649/1889, Harav Noach Naftali of Kobrin, zt”l

5714/1954, Harav Meir Ashkenazy, zt”l, Rav of Shanghai.

5732/1972, Harav Shlomo Chaim Friedman of Sadigura, zt”l

5739/1979, Harav Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe, zy”a

Harav Yoel Teitelbaum was born on 18 Teves 5647/1887 to Harav Chananya Yom Tov Lipa, mechaber of Kedushas Yom Tov and the Rav of Sighet, who was a descendant of the Yismach Moshe of Ihel (Ujhely), Hungary.

From childhood, the Satmar Rebbe was a paragon of holiness and purity. Throughout his life, his face shone with the purity of an innocent child, and until his final days no creases marked his countenance.

When the Divrei Yechezkel of Shineva saw the nine-year-old Yoelish at the wedding of his brother, the Atzei Chaim, the Divrei Yechezkel commented, “That child has holy eyes.”

At his bar mitzvah he stunned the entire assemblage by delivering a two-hour drashah, replete with deep and meaningful chiddushim. His father’s ensuring his immersion in the depths of Torah in his young years would yet be of inestimable benefit to Klal Yisrael.

His father, the Kedushas Yom Tov, was niftar when Reb Yoel was only 17 years of age, after which Reb Yoel moved to Satmar.

He married the daughter of Harav Avraham Chaim Horowitz, Rav of Plantch. In 5671/1911, when he was in his early twenties, Reb Yoel was appointed Rav of Orshiva. Thirteen years later he became Rav of Kruly, where he founded a yeshivah. In 5694/1934, after the petirah of the Keren LeDovid of Satmar, Harav Eliezer Dovid Greenwald, zt”l, he became Rav of Satmar and transferred his yeshivah there.

The Satmar Rebbe endured his share of suffering during the Holocaust. Dr. P. Kennedy, a Hungarian Zionist leader who was with the Rebbe for five months in Bergen-Belsen, relates that the Rebbe’s beard was unskillfully concealed with a kerchief on the pretext of a toothache. The Nazis nearly cut it on several occasions, but it was miraculously saved and remained intact.

With rachamei Shamayim, Reb Yoel made it out of Hungary during the war, and after a brief stay in Switzerland he arrived in Eretz Yisrael.

He was a Gaon whose almost unparalleled genius was respected by all. His piety and sanctity were viewed with awe; indeed, his lifetime was a saga of kedushah. He stood as a bastion of Torah, unswerving and uncompromising through all the raging tempests of the anti-Torah rebellions of his turbulent times.

The Satmar Rebbe vehemently opposed Zionism and secularism in all forms, and was a great kana’i when it came to matters of kiddush Shem Shamayim. He fought the founding of the State of Israel, predicting that it would lead to the destruction of many spiritual values.

His unrelenting search for truth was not reserved for public issues alone, but was also uncompromisingly applied to himself.

Reb Yoel wrote a series of sefarim on Chumash, mo’adim and various subjects in Shas, as well as she’eilos u’teshuvos entitled Divrei Yoel. He also wrote the sefer Vayoel Moshe and a kuntres, Al Hageulah Ve’al Hatemurah.

The Satmar Rebbe was niftar on 26 Menachem Av 5739/1979 and was buried in the beis hachaim in Kiryas Yoel in Monroe, New York.

Zechuso yagen aleinu.

August 11

In 1786, Capt. Francis Light arrived in Penang to claim the Malaysian island for Britain.

In 1860, the nation’s first successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nevada.

In 1909, the steamship SS Arapahoe became the first ship in North America to issue an S.O.S. distress signal, off North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras.

In 1975, the United States vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations, following the Security Council’s refusal to consider South Korea’s application.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton made the first use of the historic line-item veto, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. However, the U.S. Supreme Court later struck down the veto as unconstitutional.