| Today is: Monday, Sivan 11, 5771 · June 13, 2011
• Passing of "Minchat Yitzchak" (1989)
Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Weiss, known as the Minchat Yitzchak (the name of the responsa he authored), was born in Galicia in 1902. He headed of the court of Jewish law, the Beit Din, in Grosswardein, Romania before WWII, and after miraculously surviving the war he assumed the same position in Manchester, England. In the aftermath of the Holocaust he worked diligently on aiding the many women whose husbands disappeared, and presumably perished, during the war; finding halachic "loopholes" which allowed them to remarry according to Jewish law. He authored a nine-volume set of responsa. In this widely-used work, he addresses many modern-day halachic issues which resulted from the technological explosion, as well as many medical ethics issues. In 1979, he assumed the position of Av Beit Din (Head of Court) in the Edah Hachareidit, one of the most prominent rabbinical bodies in Israel. He served in this capacity for the last seventeen years of his life. He passed away on the 11th of Sivan. An estimated 30,000 people attended his funeral.
And the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant...
It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days G-d made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed
- Exodus 31:16-17
Chitas and Rambam for today: | 
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