Rosh Chodesh ELUL

Rosh Chodesh Elul - Thursday 20 August and Friday 21 August

Historical snapshot of Rosh Chodesh Elul in History:

The first two days of Rosh Chodesh Elul

are full of awesome events in our history.

1 Elul

*Beginning of the Third Plague of Kinim, in Egypt

*Beginning of the year for the purpose of maaser b’heima

*Chaggai’s first prophecy, rebuking the Jews’ lethargy in rebuilding the Beis HaMikdash

*Shmuel Hanaggid’s army vanquishes the army of Abu Abbas in Almaria 1038, established as a day of rejoicing for all his descendants

*Jews of Cologne, Germany, set fire to their homes and perished to escape forced baptism in 1349 during the Black Plague; Jews in Mainz and Breslau were massacred.

*Jews of Palma massacred in 1391

*Anti-Jewish riots in Prague 1440 claimed 77.

*Jews of Poland granted limited self-government in 1551

*Jewish community in Moravia expelled in 1563

*First Zionist Congress, Basel, convened 1897 by T. Herzl: 197 delegates

*Archbishop of Lvov provided hiding places for Jewish children and Sifrei Torah in 1942

*Soviet govt. permits opening of a Jewish school in Riga 1989, first in fifty years.

2 Elul

*160 French Jews burned to death in 1321

*Jews of Poland and LIthuania granted Charter of Rights in 1447

*Pope orders confiscation and burning of Gemora in 1553

*First printing of Shulchan Oruch 1555 near Tzfas

*Jews of Bologna Italy granted equal rights in 1796

*Terrorist attack on Neve Shalom Shul, Istanbul, kills 22 in 1986