ה' אייר - אתחלתא דגאולה

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ה' אייר & מאה שערים -אתחלתא דגאולה   It was only with the arrival of the תלמידי הבעש״ט and the תלמידי הגר״א that there began, for the first time, a real Kibbutz of Ashkenazi Yidden in Eretz Yisroel. Until then, there were only a few scattered Ashkenazim in the Holy Land; the entire ציבור was almost exclusively Sephardi. The Sephardim felt threatened and uneasy when the Ashkenazim began arriving in larger numbers. They were upset that the newcomers refused to accept Minhag Eretz Yisroel and the בית יוסף as the מרא דארעא דישראל The Ashkenazim, however, continued to follow the רמ"א and held fast to their own מנהגים, as they had for generations. As the Ashkenazi presence grew, so did the friction between the two קהילות. The Sephardim controlled all the communal institutions—צדקות, שחיטה, מקואות, חברה קדישא, and more. This placed the Ashkenazim in a very difficult מצב, leaving them dependent on the Sephardi leadership and suffering greatly because of it. The Chasam Sofer himself writes in his תשובות how one of his talmidim described the suffering the Ashkenazim endured under Sephardi authority.   It was Rav Meir Auerbach zt״l (1815–1878), מחבר of אמרי בינה and the רב הראשי of the Ashkenazim, who finally said that the situation could no longer continue. He established a separate Ashkenazi קהילה. His first major accomplishment—won only after great struggle—was to secure an independent Ashkenazi שחיטה. He also succeeded in taking control of the funds from חוץ לארץ, sending out their own (שד״ר (משולחים so that the Ashkenazi קהילה would no longer be financially dependent on the Sephardim. Rav Meir was נפטר at only 62, before he could complete the separation. The חברה קדישא still remained in Sephardi hands. His successor, Rav Shmuel Salant zt״l, completed what Rav Meir had begun. He established an Ashkenazi חברה קדישא, and with that, the separation between the kehillos became total. Among the Ashkenazim, this was remembered as an אתחלתא דגאולה— a beginning of redemption—initiated by Rav Meir Auerbach and brought to completion by Rav Shmuel Salant. It marked the moment when the Ashkenazi community was finally independent and no longer reliant on the Sephardi establishment.   Rav Meir Auerbach was among the founders of Meah Shearim and the Bikur Cholim Hospital. Meah Shearim was one of the very first neighborhoods built outside the walls of the Old City. His yahrzeit is on ה׳ אייר. Thus, the  connection between Meah Shearim, ה׳ אייר, and the sense of אתחלתא דגאולה.    immediately contact the sender of this message.