This Day in History – 8 Tishrei/September 12

8 Tishrei

In 2937/825 B.C.E., the dedication festivities celebrating the completion of the Beis Hamikdash, built by Shlomo Hamelech, commenced and continued for seven days, including Yom Kippur.

Yahrtzeiten

5550/1789, Harav Baruch Schneerson, zt”l, father of the Baal HaTanya

5593/1832, Harav Noach Yaffa, zt”l, of Lechovitz

5691/1930, Harav Shimon Sofer, zt”l, Rav of Sandra and Paks

5693/1932, Harav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, zt”l, of Biala

5700/1939, Harav Shlomo Benzion Twersky, zt”l, of Chernobyl

5616/1855

Harav Elazar Nissan Teitelbaum of Drobich, zt”l

Harav Elazar Nissan Teitelbaum was the son of Harav Moshe, the Yismach Moshe of Ujhel. He was born in Shineve in Tammuz 5546/1786.

His father quotes some of the chiddushim he composed in his young years.

Reb Elazar Nissan married the daughter of Harav Aharon, Rav of Chodorov. He settled in Drobich, where his wife’s grandfather Reb Nachum, Parnass of the city, lived.

He became Rav in Sighet in 5594/1834, remaining for six years.

In 5600/1840 he moved to Ujhel, where his father lived. That year he received an offer to serve as Rav in Drobich, and he returned there.

The next year, following the petirah of his father, Reb Elazar Nissan was offered the position of Rav of Ujhel, but he turned down the offer, preferring to remain where he was.

Although Chassidim began coming to Reb Elazar Nissan, he turned them away.

Unlike his father, Reb Elazar Nissan didn’t write down his divrei Torah. Some of his chiddushim and drashos are quoted by his father, and more by his son, Harav Yekusiel Yehudah, the Yetev Lev.

His other sons were Harav Shmuel, Rav of Gorlitz, and Harav Nachum, Rav of Drobich. His son-in-law was Harav Yisrael Hakohen Rappaport of Tarnow, mechaber of She’eilos U’Teshuvos Mahari Hakohen.

Zecher tzaddik livrachah.

September 12

In 1938, Adolf Hitler, ym”s, demanded the right of self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.

In 1942, during World War II, a German U-boat off West Africa torpedoed the RMS Laconia, which was carrying Italian prisoners of war, British soldiers and civilians.

In 1943, during World War II, German paratroopers took Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held by the Italian government.

In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed questions about his Roman Catholic faith, telling a Southern Baptist group, “I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”

In 1962, in a speech at Rice University in Houston, President John F. Kennedy reaffirmed his support for the manned space program, declaring: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

In 1977, South African black student leader Steve Biko died while in police custody, triggering an international outcry.

In 1986, Joseph Cicippio, the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped. (He was released in December 1991.)

In 1992, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off, carrying with it Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space; Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space; and Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese national to fly on a U.S. spaceship.