🗓️✨ Luach Hayom – Today in Halacha & Jewish History: 22nd Adar

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🗓️✨ Luach Hayom – Today in Halacha & Jewish History: 22nd Adar

📅 Today’s Yahrzeits[1]

 

🕯️ Rabbi Rafael Elazar Halevi — Author of Pekudas Eliezer

🕯️ Rabbi Yechiel Michel Halevi Epstien— Author of Aruch Hashulchan

Their Background[2]

🕯️ Rabbi Rafael Elazar HaLevi — Author of Pekudas Eliezer
Rabbi Rafael Elazar HaLevi was a noted rabbinic scholar and halachic author of the late Acharonic period. He is best known for his work Pekudas Eliezer, a scholarly Torah and halachic composition reflecting careful analysis and broad mastery of rabbinic sources. While relatively little biographical information about his life has been preserved, his work is cited by later authorities and attests to his standing as a respected תלמיד חכם whose teachings continued to influence Torah scholarship beyond his lifetime.

🕯️ Rabbi Yechiel Michel HaLevi Epstein — Author of Aruch HaShulchan
Rabbi Yechiel Michel HaLevi Epstein (1829–1908) was one of the foremost halachic authorities of 19th‑century Lithuanian Jewry. Serving for decades as rabbi of Navahrudak (Novardok), he became renowned for his clarity, balance, and practical approach to Jewish law. His monumental work Aruch HaShulchan systematically traces halachah from the Talmud through the Rishonim and Acharonim to accepted practice, and today stands alongside the Shulchan Aruch as a central pillar of halachic study and decision‑making. He was closely connected to the Volozhin yeshiva world and was both brother‑in‑law and father‑in‑law of the Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin.

[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.

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.