Chabakuk Hanavi

Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin (1838-1933) entered the Vilna yeshiva as a nine-year-old and married at seventeen, continuing his Torah study despite poverty. Rather than accept a rabbinical position, the Chofetz Chaim opened a general store while his wife managed it to enable his learning. He founded the Yeshivah of Radin in 1869. At thirty-five, he published his first work, Chafetz Chaim, a compilation on the laws of leshon hara. Over his lifetime he produced more than twenty books, including Ahavas Chesed on lending, Machaneh Yisrael for Jews in non-Jewish armies, and Nidchei Yisrael for Jews in communities with limited religious observance, particularly America. His most significant work was the Mishna Berurah, a six-volume commentary on the Shulchan Aruch's Orach Chaim section addressing daily conduct including prayer, tefillin, blessings, Shabbat, and Festivals, which took twenty-five years to complete.

Rav Yechezkel Abramsky (1886-1976) studied at the Beis Yosef yeshivah of Novardok, Telz, Mir, and Slabodka, becoming close to Rav Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk. He served as a rav and dayan in various communities before becoming rav of Slutsk in 1924, where the community numbered over ten thousand Jews. Following the Russian Revolution, he resisted Communist efforts to suppress religion and was sentenced to five years in Siberia in 1929. Released in 1931, he was persuaded by Chief Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz to serve as Av Beis Din in London. In 1951, he relocated to Israel, where he gave regular lectures at Slabodka in Bnei Brak. He authored twenty-five works, most notably the Chazon Yechezkel, a commentary on the entire Tosefta.

Rav Uziel served as the first Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, dying in 1953.

Rav Yitzchak Flusberg (1941-2004) was born in Tel Aviv and studied at the Chevron Yeshiva in Jerusalem under Rav Meir Chadash. He served as Rosh Yeshiva at Tiferes Hakarmel in Haifa, helped establish Gerrer shtieblech in Golders Green and Toronto, and was among the primary founders of the Mifal Chessed organization of Ger in Israel.

Today in History, 24 Elul

King David married Bathsheba. Zerubbabel and Joshua ben Jehozadak began work to construct the Second Temple in 351 B.C.E. Anti-Jewish riots occurred in two Swiss cities in 1802. The Nazis ordered liquidation of the Bialystok ghetto in 1942. Israel and the PLO exchanged letters of formal recognition in 1993, followed by U.S. Recognition of the PLO the next day.