This Day in History – 28 Cheshvan/November 10

In 1593, anti-Jewish riots erupted in Bucharest, Romania, resulting in the loss of many Jewish lives. Hy”d.

Yahrtzeiten

5024/1263, Rabbeinu Yonah, zt”l, the Chassid of Girondi

5447/1686, Harav Zev Wolf, zt”l, Rav of Salik and mechaber of Nachlas Binyamin

5353/1692, Harav Tzvi Bochtinsch, zt”l, mechaber of Shechitos U’Bedikos Maharatz

Harav Tzvi Bochtinsch was the son of Harav Yaakov Yitzchak. He was a renowned talmid chacham, and was especially known for his expertise in the halachos of shechitah and the more intricate halachos of bedikos and nikkur. It was said that he was the biggest expert in his time on these halachos.

Rav Tzvi wrote the sefer Shechitos U’Bedikos Maharatz, an impressive work that was very well received and accepted by all the major poskim. Mahari Weill, in his own work on these halachos, often quotes Rav Tzvi and his rulings.

Rav Tzvi served as the leading shochet in Cracow, in the time of the Rema, and he also had many talmidim who learned from his expertise. One of his talmidim, Rav Yaakov Shorzina from Kostelitz, attested that Rav Tzvi once had a halachic dispute with the Rema, and the Rema agreed to his ruling in the end, showing the high regard in which his opinion was held by the leading poskim of his time.

Rav Tzvi was niftar on 28 Cheshvan 5353/1692.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

Nov. 10

In 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

In 1942, Winston Churchill delivered a speech in London in which he said, “I have not become the king’s first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.”

In 1951, customer-dialed long-distance telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, called Alameda, California, Mayor Frank Osborne without operator assistance.

In 2004, word reached the United States of the death of PA president Yasser Arafat at age 75.