On This Day
The Hebrew year day by day: events and yahrzeits. Today's date is worked out in your browser.
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Tishrei
16 entries on 10 days
The single prohibition—not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge—is broken the same day: the serpent persuades Chava, who gives the fruit to Adam.
The human is sent out of the garden lest he reach for the Tree of Life; cherubim and a whirling fiery sword guard the way back.
On the sixth day the human is formed from dust and filled with a living soul; from him the woman, Chava, "mother of all living", is separated.
Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel, commentator on the Tanakh, a communal rabbi driven from post to post
He died on Rosh HaShanah 5640—1 Tishrei, the first day of the year.
The governor left over the remnant in the Land was murdered by his own people. The last inhabitants then fled to Egypt, and the country was emptied altogether.
After eighty days of prayer Moses comes down with the second tablets and the word of forgiveness; that day, the tenth of Tishrei, becomes Yom Kippur.
Egypt and Syria attacked on the holiest day of the year, while the country stood in synagogue; 2,656 were killed in three weeks.
rabbi of Posen, the sharpest Talmudic mind of his generation
The year and place of birth are by tradition Eisenstadt, 5522; the exact day is disputed among the sources.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel 5743–5753; head of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva
Hasidic master, teller of tales, founder of Breslov Hasidism
on Chol HaMoed Sukkot
leader of Lithuanian Jewry, head of the Mitnagdim, reformer of Torah study
On the Shabbat of Simchat Torah, Hamas fighters broke into the border communities: about 1,200 killed and 251 taken hostage—the deadliest day for Jews since the Shoah.
disciple of the Maggid, "defender of Israel", author of Kedushat Levi
High Priest, the last of the men of the Great Assembly
the day of pilgrimage to his grave in Jerusalem
Cheshvan
16 entries on 11 days
great-grandson of the Maggid, founder of the Ruzhin house and its branches
Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, who restored the authority of the Sephardi tradition
Rebbe of Piaseczno; the Warsaw ghetto sermons—Esh Kodesh
who carried the Ashkenazi tradition into Spain, author of a halakhic digest of the Talmud
Yaakov's beloved wife, mother of Yosef and Binyamin
she died giving birth to Binyamin on the road to Beit Lechem
Yaakov's youngest son, the only one born in the Land of Israel
the date is not first-hand; by tradition he was born and died on the same day
disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid, founder of the Chernobyl dynasty
chief of staff in the Six-Day War, prime minister, assassinated in 5756
assassinated after sunset on 4 November 1995
authority of the Haredi world in the Land of Israel, lawgiver for a new state
he died on the night of Friday, 24 October 1953
In Noach's six hundredth year, on 17 Cheshvan, the fountains of the deep burst open and the windows of heaven opened; rain fell for forty days.
The British government for the first time recognised the Jewish right to a national home in the Land of Israel—in a three-paragraph letter that changed history.
poet and parachutist dropped into occupied Europe
executed on 7 November 1944
first Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces; Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi 5732–5743
A year and eleven days later the earth is dry, and Noach, his family and all the animals step out onto an empty world to begin again.
Kislev
8 entries on 8 days
head of the Knesset Beit Yitzchak yeshiva in Slabodka and Kamenetz; the closest student of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk
The UN General Assembly voted 33 to 13 to establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel—for the first time in 1,900 years.
successor of the Baal Shem Tov, who turned Hasidism into a network of courts
A priestly family from Modi'in revolts against an empire, retakes the Temple, and finds one jar of pure oil that burns for eight days.
Tevet
13 entries on 12 days
the first patriarch, who made the one God known to the world
the date is not first-hand; the Torah gives only the age, 175 years (Bereshit 25:7)
rosh yeshiva of Mir in Shanghai and in Jerusalem; Sichos Mussar
King Ptolemy shuts seventy-two elders in separate rooms and demands a translation of the Torah—and all seventy-two versions come out identical.
the scribe who restored Torah to the people after the exile
a tradition cited in the Magen Avraham on Orach Chaim 580
On the tenth of Tevet Nebuchadnezzar encamped against Jerusalem. The siege lasted some thirty months and ended in famine, a breach in the wall, and the flight of King Zedekiah.
Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer, thirty-two years at the head of the Pressburg yeshiva
The date of birth by the Hebrew sources is 1 Adar I 5575; some Western sources give March 1815.
Maimonides writes a book for those torn between Torah and philosophy; after his death in Egypt the Jewish world repeats: 'From Moses to Moses there arose none like Moses.'
author of the Tanya and founder of Chabad—Chasidism built as a teaching for the mind
Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, mashgiach of the Ponevezh yeshiva, author of Michtav MeEliyahu
25 Tevet 5714—31 December 1953, a Thursday.
rabbi of Frankfurt, author of the principle "Torah im derech eretz"
head of the Jerusalem kabbalists; a copier and binder of manuscripts
rabbi of Brisk and leader of Jerusalem's old community, founder of its orphanage
Shevat
8 entries on 7 days
In the thirty-seven days before his death Moses delivers Deuteronomy—summary, rebuke and testament—and on the seventh of Adar he dies on Mount Nebo at a hundred and twenty.
brother of Rabbi Elimelech; the one who asked not "why were you not Moses" but "why were you not yourself"
co-leader of the first Chassidic aliyah with Rabbi Menachem Mendel; head of the community in Tiberias
sixth Rebbe of Chabad, who sustained Judaism in the Soviet underground
Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, who raised a generation of yeshiva heads
Adar
13 entries on 10 days
Bible commentator, grammarian, astronomer and lifelong wanderer
the day and month agree in the sources; the year differs
Seventy-four years after the destruction the Temple stands again—to the joy of the young and the weeping of elders who remembered the first House.
On the seventh of Adar, 2368, Moses is born; hidden in a basket on the Nile, he is saved by Pharaoh's daughter and raised in the palace of the man who sought his death.
prophet, leader of the Exodus, who received the Torah at Sinai
Megillah 13b: he was born and died on 7 Adar
a preacher, and then head of the rabbinical court of Prague
the date is not first-hand; The year of birth is about 5310—there is no exact record. The Hebrew date of death differs in the sources; 7 Adar 5379 agrees with 21 February 1619.
Rabbi Yosef Rosen, rabbi of the Hasidic community of Dvinsk, master of the Rambam
5696 was not a leap year: there was one Adar that year. The year of birth is 5618; the exact day is unknown.
A death sentence on an entire people is overturned: Haman is hanged, the Jews are allowed to defend themselves, and the day of destruction becomes a day of joy.
head of the Kol Torah yeshiva, authority on halakhah and technology
5755 is a leap year
disciple of the Maggid, author of Noam Elimelech, teacher of the Polish tzaddikim
founder of the Ger court, disciple of the Kotzker
Six years after its hardest war, Israel signed peace with its strongest enemy and returned Sinai.
Adar II
2 entries on 2 days
commander of the Irgun, prime minister who signed peace with Egypt
5752 is a leap year
leading halakhic authority of American Jewry
5746 is a leap year
Nisan
20 entries on 12 days
On the first of Nisan, 2449, a portable sanctuary is set up in the middle of the camp; the cloud fills it, and Aaron and his sons begin their service.
prophetess, sister of Moshe and Aharon
the month is named in Bemidbar 20:1; the day is by tradition
In the fortieth year Miriam and Aaron die; the well vanishes, at the rock of Meribah Moses loses the right to enter the Land, and the whole people mourns Aaron.
Thirty days after mourning Moses, the people cross the Jordan on dry ground on the tenth of Nisan, 2488; Jericho is the first city to fall.
Torah commentator, leader of Spanish Jewry, defender at the Barcelona disputation
author of "Shnei Luchot HaBrit", joining law, Kabbalah and ethics
the date is not first-hand; the date is accepted in the calendars but disputed
The Persian king throws a feast using vessels looted from the ruined Temple, and his minister Haman buys the right to destroy the entire Jewish people in a single day.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, third Lubavitcher Rebbe
Born on the eve of Rosh HaShanah, 29 Elul 5549. The number of arrests at the Petersburg conference is by Chabad tradition.
On the eve of Passover a few hundred young people with improvised weapons held out against the German army for nearly a month.
the second patriarch, the only one who never left the Land of Israel
the date is not first-hand; the Torah gives only the age, 180 years (Bereshit 35:28)
On the night of the fifteenth of Nisan, 2448, Israel eats the paschal offering with matzah and bitter herbs and walks out of Egypt as a free people.
Yaakov's third son, ancestor of the priestly and Levite tribe
the date is not first-hand
leader of American Modern Orthodoxy, philosopher and rosh yeshiva
Young socialists from Russia came to build the country with their own hands. In 1909 sixty-six families drew lots for plots on the dunes—and the first modern Jewish city began.
On the seventh day after the departure the sea splits before Israel and closes over Pharaoh's chariots; the people sing the Song of the Sea.
Iyar
10 entries on 7 days
Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, rabbi of Brisk, founder of the Brisker dynasty
The years of service at Volozhin, Slutsk and Brisk differ in the sources by a few years.
On Friday, 5 Iyar 5708, eight hours before the British Mandate expired, the founding of a Jewish state was proclaimed in Tel Aviv.
author of the "Sefer HaHalakhot", the first code drawn from the Talmud
the date is not first-hand; some sources name Sivan
Tanna, foremost student of Rabbi Akiva, the anonymous voice of the Mishnah
traditions differ; some communities keep 14 Iyar, on Pesach Sheni
Tanna, thirteen years in a cave, by tradition the author of the Zohar
Lag BaOmer; the pilgrimage to Meron
author of the "Mappah", the Ashkenazi glosses to the Shulchan Aruch
on the same day as the Rashbi
Gaon of Sura, first Jewish philosopher, translator of the Torah into Arabic
In six days the map of the Middle East changed, and on 28 Iyar Jewish soldiers reached the Western Wall for the first time in nineteen years.
Sivan
7 entries on 5 days
On the fiftieth day after the Exodus the whole people stands at Sinai and hears the Ten Utterances; the covenant that shapes all later Jewish history is made.
the second king of Israel, unifier of the kingdom, author of the Psalms
by tradition he died on Shavuot
the Kaf HaChaim: the law together with what Kabbalah says about it
founder of the Volozhin yeshiva—the model on which the whole Lithuanian world of learning is built
Tammuz
12 entries on 12 days
son of Yaakov and Rachel, viceroy of Egypt
traditions differ; by another tradition, 27 Tammuz
seventh Rebbe of Chabad, creator of a worldwide network of emissaries
lost his wife and eleven children and rebuilt his court from nothing; founded Kiryat Sanz and Laniado Hospital
author of the "Arba'ah Turim", the structure of all Jewish law
While Moses is on the mountain the people cast a golden calf; coming down, he shatters the tablets, and the seventeenth of Tammuz becomes a fast for all generations.
founder of political Zionism
10 Iyar is the day of his birth, not the yahrzeit
successor of Rabbi Aharon in Karlin; killed at prayer in Ludmir
systematiser of Kabbalah, head of the Safed school before the Arizal
founder of Yeshivat Har Etzion; from him came the hesder yeshivot
disciple of the Seer of Lublin, founder of the Sighet-Satmar dynasty
Av
15 entries on 9 days
the first High Priest, Moshe's elder brother
Bemidbar 33:38—the only explicit date of death in the Torah itself
for half a century a dayan and the unofficial head of Vilna, head of the Vaad haYeshivos
Yisrael Salanter's foremost disciple; he set Mussar as a training of mind and order
Twelve scouts return from Canaan, ten talk the people out of going up, and for the weeping of that night the generation is left to die in the wilderness.
Nebuzaradan burned the Temple, the palace and all of Jerusalem and deported the people to Babylon. The House that had stood four hundred and ten years was gone.
On the ninth of Av the legions of Titus burn the Temple—on the same date as the first; the age of sacrifice ends and a two-thousand-year exile begins.
The last great war for independence: three and a half years of victories, messianic hope—and the fall of Betar on the Ninth of Av, after which Judea was emptied.
Ferdinand and Isabella signed a decree that in four months ended the oldest and most brilliant Jewish community in Europe.
Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Horowitz, from whose house came the courts of Poland
he died on the Ninth of Av
author of Kehillos Yaakov; after the Chazon Ish, the man people came to for counsel
physician and educator, head of an orphanage, who died with his children
the date is not first-hand; a Polish court accepted 7 August 1942 as the date; some sources give 5–6 August
head of the Satmar court, who rebuilt it in America after the Shoah
Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, forty years at the head of the Volozhin yeshiva
Elul
8 entries on 8 days
first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, thinker of national renewal
Rabbi Meir Simcha HaKohen, rabbi of the mitnagdic community of Dvinsk
He died on the night of the Sabbath of the portion Shoftim. He passed away in Riga and is buried in Dvinsk.
spiritual head of Baghdad Jewry, lawgiver of the Sephardi world
Some three thousand people were killed in New York; the world saw what Israel had long lived with, and an era changed.
author of the "Mishnah Berurah" and the laws of forbidden speech, moral authority of his generation
In six days God calls the world out of nothingness—light, separation, life—and on the seventh He rests, sanctifying the Sabbath.
the founder of the Belz court, who built his synagogue with his own hands