20-26 Teves, 5778 -- January 7-13, 2017

20 Teves

• Yahrzeit of the Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maaimon.. Arguably the most important scholar since the redaction of the Talmud 1500 years ago. He is most famous for his codification of Jewish Law in his Yad HaChazakah as well as for authoring Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, his exploration of Jewish belief.

21 Teves

• Yahrzeit of Rabbi Matzliach Mazous. Orginally from Djerba, he studied in Tunis where he was later appointed to be a religious judge and subsequently founded a Yeshiva. In 1971 he was assassinated by Arabs as he was walking to shul.

22 Teves

• Purim Fürhang (Curtain Purim):
  Festival enjoined on his family by Ḥanok b. Moses Altschul of Prague, to be observed by it annually on the 22d of Ṭebet in remembrance of his deliverance from the hands of a tyrant. In 1623 damask curtains were stolen from the palace of the governor, Prince Lichtenstein, during his absence from Prague. In compliance with an order from the custodian of the palace an announcement was made in all the synagogues of Prague that any one having the stolen goods in his possession should turn them over to the sexton. Thereupon a Jew, Joseph b. Jekuthiel Thein, delivered the curtains to Altschul, at that time sexton of the Meisel Synagogue, Prague, stating that he had bought them from two soldiers. Vice-Governor Count Rudolph Waldstein, who was in charge of the affairs of the provincial government, demanded that the buyer be named and delivered to him for punishment; but as the congregational statutes forbade the naming of receivers of stolen goods who voluntarily had given them up, the sexton refused, and, in consequence, was thrown into prison, an order being issued to hang him on the following day. To save his life Altschul, with the permission of the president of the congregation, revealed the name of the buyer, whereupon Altschul was set free and Joseph Thein was sentenced to the gallows in his stead. All the efforts of influential Jews to effect his release proved futile, but finally through the efforts of a prominent Christian and upon the intercession of the city councilors Count Waldstein released the prisoner on the condition that the congregation pay a fine of 10,000 florins. In order to humiliate the Jews he further ordered that this money, divided into ten equal parts, be paid in silver coin and carried in linen bags by ten prominent Jews escorted by soldiers through the streets of Prague to the city hall. of the Purim of the Curtains"), and made it obligatory upon all his descendants to read the scroll annually on the 22d of Ṭebet, on which day he was liberated, and to observe the day by "feasting and giving thanks to God for his salvation. Altschul recorded the event in a scroll entitled "Megillat Pure ha-Ḳela'im" 

23 Teves

• In 1705 the governor of Tunis laid siege to Tripoli in Africa, devastated the environs, and threatened to destroy all the population if he should enter the town. Fortunately, the plague broke out suddenly among his followers, and the siege was raised. Hence the rabbis instituted the Purim Sherif on the 23rd of Ṭebet. The populace call it "Purim Kidebuni" (= "the false") to distinguish it from the Purim of Esther 

24 Teves

• Yahrzeit of Rav Naftali Katz (d. 1719) Rabbi of Posen and then of Frankfurt on Main. Author of Smichas Chachomim.
• Yahrzeit of Rav Shneur Zalman founder of Chabad Chassidus. (d. 1813)
• In 1837 an earthquake devastated the Galil killing thousands. 
• Yahrzeit of Rav Shmuel Bornstein, Rebbe of Shochotshov, author of Shem MiShmuel a Chassidic work on Chumash which is very profound and written in a style which makes it relatively accessible to those unfamiliar with Chassidic works.
• Yahrzeit of Rav Eliyahu Dessler (d. 1954), mashgiach of Gateshead Yeshiva and later Ponovez. Grandson of Rav Yisroel Salanter and author of Michtav M'Eliyahu and important work of mussar.

25 Teves

• Yahrzeit of Rav Yissachar Meir (d. 2011), Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaNegev (Azata).

26 Teves

• Fifth Yahrzeit of Rav Shlomo Brevda. Influential speaker and Mashgiach and elucidator of a number of works of the Gaon of Vilna.
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