✨ Luach Hayom – Today in Halacha & Jewish History
Today in Jewish History – 19th Adar
📅 Today’s Yahrzeits[1]
🕯️ Rabbi Shmuel Engel — Author of Shut Maharash Engel
🕯️ Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld — Author of Salmas Chaim
Their Background[2]
🕯️ Rabbi Shmuel Engel (1853–1935) was one of the leading halachic authorities of Galicia and Hungary in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Eastern Europe, he was a renowned תלמיד חכם from a young age and a close disciple of Rabbi Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (Divrei Chaim) and his son Rabbi Yechezkel Halberstam of Shinova. Already in his youth he was appointed to rabbinic leadership positions, eventually serving as rabbi and av beit din in several important communities, most prominently Radomyśl, where his reputation as a posek spread widely.
Rabbi Engel was celebrated for his vast mastery of Shas and Poskim, clarity of reasoning, and fearless independence in halachic decision‑making. His responsa were published in the multi‑volume Shu”t Maharash Engel, which became a classic of modern responsa literature and remains frequently cited by later authorities. He also authored works on the Talmud and Torah, including Chiddushei Maharash and Siftei Maharash. During World War I he was forced to flee his community and eventually settled in Košice, where he served as head of the rabbinical court until his passing in 1935. His legacy endures through his writings and his influence on subsequent generations of rabbinic leadership.
🕯️ Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonenfeld (1848–1932) was one of the foremost rabbinic leaders of the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem and a central figure in shaping the ultra‑Orthodox community of the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Vrbové (then in the Austro‑Hungarian Empire), he was a distinguished תלמיד חכם and a student of leading Hungarian Torah authorities, including Rabbi Samuel Benjamin Sofer (the Ketav Sofer). In 1873 he settled in Jerusalem, where he became the close associate of Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin and played a major role in communal leadership, education, and charitable institutions.
Rabbi Zonenfeld later emerged as the leading rabbinic authority of Jerusalem’s Haredi community and was a co‑founder of the Edah HaChareidis, established to preserve traditional Jewish autonomy independent of Zionist institutions. Renowned for his uncompromising devotion to Torah and halachah, he authored important scholarly works on the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch. His halachic responsa were collected in Salmas Chaim, which remains a respected source in rabbinic literature. He passed away in Jerusalem in 1932 and was buried on the Mount of Olives.
[1] Taken from Luach Itim Labina
[2] Please not that these historical notes were prepared with the assistance of Copilot Pro, an AI Research Agent, and have not been independently verified.
