🗓️ Luach Hayom – Today in Halacha & Jewish History: 2nd Nissan

🕯️ Rabbi Baruch ben Rabbi Dov of Worms

🕯️ Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn of Lubavitch (Rashab)

👤Their Background^[1]

🕯️ Rabbi Baruch ben Rabbi Dov of Worms – Year 4980 (1220)

Rabbi Baruch ben Rabbi Dov of Worms (Worms/Wormeiza) was a distinguished Ashkenazic scholar and a respected member of the rabbinical court (beit din) of the Worms community. He bore the honorific title “Ha‑Rav,” reserved in that era for Torah scholars of recognized standing, and several halachic rulings are recorded in his name. His epitaph, preserved and studied by historians, praises his piety, scholarship, and devotion to Torah, indicating the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. He was the father and first teacher of Rabbi Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg (the Maharam of Rothenburg). The Maharam himself testifies that his father’s teaching and guidance were foundational to his intellectual development, and later sources emphasize that Rabbi Baruch’s example of Torah study, judicial integrity, and communal responsibility shaped the Maharam’s approach to halachic leadership.

Rabbi Baruch passed away in 4980 (1220) and was buried in Worms, one of the most important centers of medieval Ashkenazic Jewry. His legacy continued through his son, who became the leading halachic authority of German Jewry in the 13th century, and whose responsa and Tosafist teachings influenced Ashkenazic practice for generations.

🕯️ Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn of Lubavitch (the Rebbe Rashab)
2 Nissan 5680 (1920) — Rostov-on-Don

Rabbi Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, known as the Rebbe Rashab, was the fifth Rebbe of Chabad‑Lubavitch. He is renowned for his exceptionally deep, structured approach to Chabad philosophy and for delivering and writing an enormous body of Chassidic discourses over the decades of his leadership. In 1897, he founded the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva, the pioneering Chabad institution that united rigorous study of Nigleh (Talmud and halachah) with the “soul” of Torah—Chassidus—forming generations of תלמידי תמימים who would later stand at the forefront of preserving Judaism under Soviet persecution. During World War I, he was forced to leave Lubavitch and relocated to Rostov‑on‑Don, where he continued guiding Chabad through the upheavals of the era and the early rise of the Communist regime.

His histalkus took place in Rostov‑on‑Don on Motzaei Shabbat Parashat Vayikra, in the early hours of Sunday, 2 Nissan, at approximately 3:30 a.m. A close attendant, Rabbi Dovber Rivkin, who was privileged to serve him during his final days, recorded a detailed account of those moments in his work Ashkavta DeRebbi. It includes the following description:

Those standing around began to cry out loudly, reciting Shema Yisrael, with intense and heartbreaking sobbing. The physicians examined him, testing for signs of life with a feather and similar means, and the crying and outcries grew even stronger. They covered his face, and his holy soul ascended heavenward in a storm, in holiness and purity, leaving us behind in sorrow and anguish. All the Jews of Rostov participated in the funeral. He was laid to rest in the old Jewish cemetery of Rostov. In the year 5700 (1940), when the authorities sought to destroy the old cemetery, they were compelled to transfer the resting place to the new cemetery. (Ashkavta DeRebbi)

This day remains a central date in the Chabad calendar, commemorating a leader who reshaped Chabad learning through Tomchei Temimim, and whose teachings continue to define Chabad scholarship and spiritual life.

[1] Please not that these historical notes were prepared with the assistance of Copilot Pro, an AI Research Agent, and have not been independently verified.