This Day in History – 7 Iyar/April 17

7 Iyar

In 3318/443 B.C.E., the chomah around Yerushalayim was dedicated. The day is cited in Megillas Taanis as a Yom Tov.

In 5058/1298, the notorious Rindfleisch massacres of thousands of Jews began in Rottingen. They spread across Southern Germany and Austria, decimating more than 150 Jewish communities in which thousands of Jews resided.

Yahrtzeiten

5379/1619, Harav Shlomo Efraim of Luntshitz, zt”l, mechaber of Kli Yakar and Olelos Efraim. Some mistakenly believe his yahrtzeit is on 7 Adar.

5471/1711

Harav Yeshayah Yaakov of Alesk, zt”l, Mechaber of Cherev Pifiyos

Harav Yeshayah Yaakov ben Harav Yehudah Leib was born c. 5500/1750. He was a close talmid of Harav Chaim Tzanzer, who was the head of the famous kloiz in Brody. There Reb Yeshayah Yaakov delved into the depths of Torah, barely leaving the beis medrash. He became very well versed in not just the revealed Torah, but in the hidden Torah, Toras HaKabbalah.

His rebbi, Harav Chaim Tzanzer, held him in high esteem, and taught him as a father would teach a son. Harav Shalom Halevi of Kaminka, zy”a, once said that Harav Chaim Tzanzer attested that his talmid Reb Yeshayah Yaakov was destined for greatness, that his mind could hold the minds of a thousand others.

Reb Yeshayah Yaakov served as Rav in the kehillos of Tshian, and in his later years in Alesk.

He wrote many sefarim, chiddushei Torah on all facets of the Torah, most notably on Kabbalah. Harav Shalom of Kaminka bought some of these sefarim from Reb Yeshayah Yaakov, and over the years many of them have been printed.

Reb Yeshayah Yaakov’s most famous sefer is his V’cherev Pifiyos, the sefer after which he is known, which he first published in 5547/1787. It is a kabbalistic work on the words of Krias Shema and the kabbalistic intentions behind them. It is divided into three parts: Kessem Zahav on the first parashah, V’ahavta; Glilei Zahav on the second parashah, V’hayah im shamoa; and Amudei Sheish on the third parashah, Vayomer.

The leading Gedolim of his era praised his sefarim greatly.

Beis Chochmah, his peirush on Shir Hashirim, was printed in 5658/1898, together with his peirush on Tehillim 107, which are both recited before Minchah on Erev Shabbos.

Among his other sefarim that have been printed are Beis Malchus on Megillas Rus; Nesiv Chochmah on the measurements used in the Gemara, in coins, land and sizes; Tapuchei Zahav and Chok U’mishpat on the mitzvah of tekias shofar; Eretz Tov, on the holy Names of Hashem in everything in this world; and Atzei Eden, his drushim on the Torah, based on Kabbalah.

Reb Yeshayah Yaakov was niftar on 7 Iyar, 5571/1811, and was buried in Alesk.

Zechuso yagen aleinu.

April 17

In 1492, a contract was signed by Christopher Columbus and a representative of Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.

In 1521, Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings. (He was later declared an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.)

In 1861, the Virginia State Convention voted to secede from the Union.

In 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the first Sino–Japanese War.

In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany during World War II.

In 1961, some 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion by the third day.

In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The First Secretary of Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party, Alexander Dubcek, was deposed.

In 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while en route to the moon.

In 1973, Federal Express (later FedEx) began operations as 14 planes carrying 186 packages took off from Memphis International Airport, bound for 25 U.S. cities.

In 1986, at London’s Heathrow Airport, a bomb was discovered in the bag of an Irish woman about to board an El Al jetliner to Israel; she’d been tricked into carrying the bomb by her Jordanian fiancé.

In 1993, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers were acquitted.

In 1997, former Israeli president Chaim Herzog died in Tel Aviv at age 78.