Lechem Mishneh: Rashash: Shabbat Eating
The10th of Shevat is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Shalom Mizrachi Dida Sharabi, the Rashash (1720-1777) Born in Sharab , Yemen , he traveled to Yerushalayim, where he learned under
Rav Gedalyah Chiyun of Yehivas Beis Kel. He married Rav Gedalyah’s daughter, Chana , and after his rebbi’s petira, led the yeshiva for 30 years. Among his greatest students are the Chida (Rav Chaim Yosef Dovid Azulai) and Rav Gershon Kitover (the Ba’al Shem Tov’s brother-in-law). His sidur was known as the “Sidur HaKavanot,” and is still used by the mekubalim today for prayer.
What a person eats during the week all goes to the Other Side. Whatever he eats on Shabbat nurtures spiritual existence. “Eat today, for today is Shabbat to God,” means that whatever you eat today goes to only good and spirituality.
The two Challot, held as the letter Yud represent the World to Come. We take the Shabbat eating and the weekday eating and combine them in the holiness of the World To Come.
The 10th is also the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yitzchak Eizek Sher of Slabodka (1875-1952). Born in Halusk, he studied in Volozhin under the Netziv’s son-in-law, Rav Refoel Shapira, before moving to Slabokdka. There he studied b’chavrusa with Rav Avraham Grodzinski. In 1903, Rav Yitzchak Eizek married the Alter’s youngest daughter, Mariasha Guttel, and moved to Kelm where he continued to learn diligently. He also studied for a brief period in the Mir, where his brother-in-law, Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, served as rosh yeshiva. In 1911, the Alter appointed Rav Yitzchak Eizek to the position of rebbi in the yeshiva. In 1928, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel went to Eretz Yisrael, along with the majority of Slabodka’s students, and settled in Chevron. At that point, Rav Yitzchak Eizek was appointed rosh yeshiva of Slabodka’s European division, with its mashgiach, Rav Avraham Grodzinski. On Shabbos morning, the sixteenth of Av, 1929, the Arab massacred Chevron’s Jews. After the massacre, the survivors reestablished the Chevron Yeshiva in Yerushalayim. Rav Yitzchak Eizek, at the advice of the Chazon Ish, reestablished the European branch of the Slabodka Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.