đź“… 1658 – The Earth Becomes Dry After the Flood
According to the chronological tradition attributed to Rabbi Yehoshua, the judgment of the world took place on Rosh Hashanah, and on the twenty‑seventh day of the second month the Flood came to its conclusion, as it is written in Parashat Noach: “And in the second month, on the twenty‑seventh day of the month, the earth was dry” (Genesis 8:14). This verse marks the restoration of the natural order after destruction and the renewal of human settlement on earth.
📅  Abolition of Pagan Rites in Judea and Jerusalem (Megillat Taʿanit)
In Megillat Taʿanit the twenty‑seventh of Iyar is recorded as a day of joy because idolatrous practices were abolished in Judea and Jerusalem during the period of Greek rule. The text relates that the pagan authorities had established public rites of idol worship: they would bring crowns of roses, hang them on the entrances of their temples of idolatry, and place them on the doorways of shops and courtyards, while singing songs in honor of idols. As part of this cultic display, they would even inscribe marks or words on the foreheads of oxen and donkeys, identifying the animals as dedicated to idolatry. On this date these practices were removed and nullified, ending a public desecration that had permeated daily life and commerce. Because the abolition of these rites restored Jewish religious integrity and public order in the Land, the day was established in Megillat Taʿanit as one on which fasting and mourning were forbidden, marking it as a festival of relief and spiritual restoration.
đź“… 5293 – Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Moshe Azikri
The kabbalist Rabbi Elazar ben Rabbi Moshe Azikri, one of the sages of Safed, was born on this date according to tradition. He is the author of Sefer Charedim, a foundational work devoted to awe of Heaven, love of mitzvot, and ethical devotion. He passed away in the year 5360 (1600) on a date not firmly preserved. According to the view cited by the Chatam Sofer, a person’s day of circumcision is considered his true Jewish birthday, lending added significance to the remembrance of his birth on this day.
📅 Today’s Yartzites – 27th Iyar
🕯️ 1834 – Solika bat Chaim and Simcha Fadinnah‑Chaguel
In the year 5594 (1834), the holy maiden Solika bat Chaim and Simcha Fadinnah‑Chaguel was murdered al kiddush Hashem after steadfastly refusing to abandon her faith. Her martyrdom left a deep impression on the Jewish communities of Morocco. The sages of Meknes enacted communal regulations in her memory, including a lament composed by Rabbi Yedidya ben Maman, preserved in Takkanot Chachmei Meknes and later recorded in Malchei Rabbanan (Jerusalem, 1931), where her story is recounted at length.
🕯️ 1944 – Rabbi Eliezer Ze’ev, son of Rabbi Meir of Kretschnef
Author of Raza de‑Shabbat de‑Ovda, Rabbi Eliezer Ze’ev was murdered during the Holocaust, sanctifying the Divine Name. His Torah scholarship combined Hasidic depth with halakhic discipline.
🕯️ The Martyred Brothers and Scholars
Also remembered are Rabbi Eliezer Ze’ev’s brothers and contemporaries: Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch, author of Shaarei HaYeshar; Rabbi Yehuda, son of She’erit Yehuda; and Rabbi Chaim Friedlander of Liska—all murdered al kiddush Hashem. Alongside them is commemorated Rabbi Moshe Natan Netta, son of Rabbi Asher Anshil HaLevi Yungerais, Av Beit Din of Tokaj, likewise murdered during the Shoah.
📅 Today in Chabad History – 26th Iyar
🕯️ 1890 – Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, son of Rabbi Yehuda Leib
Rabbi Shlomo Zalman, son of Rav Yehuda Leib [i.e. the Maharil], son of the Tze,ach Tzedek, was known in rabbinic literature as the Magen Avot of Kapust. He was a distinguished nineteenth‑century rabbinic authority associated with the town of Kapust (Kapusty) in White Russia. He belonged to a lineage of learned Ashkenazic scholars active in the region between Lithuania and Belarus, an area shaped by the interaction of Lithuanian yeshivah culture and emerging Hasidic influence. His principal work, Magen Avot, reflects the scholarly priorities of that milieu: careful engagement with classic halakhic sources, clarity in practical rulings, and fidelity to earlier authorities, combined with sensitivity to communal conditions. The work addresses a range of subjects connected with daily Jewish observance and rabbinic practice, and its title signals its aim to serve as a “shield” or protective framework for established tradition. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman functioned as a communal rabbi and halakhic decisor at a time when Jewish life in the Russian Empire faced mounting external pressure alongside internal change, and his authority rested on both his learning and his measured judgment. His passing toward the end of the nineteenth century fixed his name in Ashkenazic calendars and local chronicles, where he is remembered as part of the generation that preserved continuity of Torah law and communal structure in Eastern Europe on the eve of the profound upheavals of the twentieth century.
The Kapust Hasidic Dynasty (Kopust / Kapusty)
The Kapust dynasty was one of the most important offshoots of Chabad Hasidism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It emerged after the passing of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Tzemach Tzedek, in 1866, when no single successor was appointed to assume leadership over all of Chabad. While the youngest son, Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn (the Maharash), continued as Rebbe in Lubavitch, other sons established independent courts in different towns. One of the most influential of these was founded in the town of Kapust (Kopys, in present‑day Belarus) by Rabbi Yehuda Leib Schneersohn, known as the Maharil of Kapust.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Schneersohn’s tenure was brief; he passed away in 1866, less than a year after establishing the Kapust court. Leadership then passed to his son Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Schneersohn, who became the central figure of the dynasty and under whom Kapust flourished as a major Chabad center for more than three decades. During his leadership, Kapust attracted large numbers of chassidim from across the Russian Empire and functioned as a full Chabad court with discourses (maamarim), farbrengens, and a distinctive intellectual style within Chabad thought. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman authored the multi‑volume work Magen Avot, which gave him his enduring title as the Magen Avot of Kapust, and which became the primary literary legacy of the dynasty.
After Rabbi Shlomo Zalman’s passing in 1900, Kapust did not immediately appoint a single successor in the same town. Instead, leadership continued through his brothers, who served as rebbes in related centers associated with the Kapust tradition. Chief among them were Rabbi Shmaryahu Noach Schneersohn of Babruysk, author of Shemen LaMaor, and Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn of Rechitsa. These figures preserved the Kapust approach to Chabad Hasidism, combining rigorous intellectual analysis with traditional Chabad emphasis on contemplation and disciplined spiritual work. Over time, however, the distinct Kapust court diminished in size, and after the passing of Rabbi Shmaryahu Noach in 1924, the Kapust dynasty ended without a direct successor.
Following the conclusion of the dynasty, the remaining Kapust chassidim largely reintegrated into the broader Chabad‑Lubavitch movement, particularly under the leadership of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (the Frierdiker Rebbe). Later Chabad tradition, especially as articulated by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, emphasized that the split after the Tzemach Tzedek’s passing was not a simple dispute but a division for the sake of Heaven, with each branch contributing to the unfolding of Chabad’s teachings before ultimately reuniting within one stream. Today, the Kapust dynasty is remembered as the largest and most influential of the Chabad offshoots, whose intellectual legacy—especially the Magen Avot—continues to be studied within Chabad scholarship.
