24 Teves 5479
Rav Naftali Katz was born around the year 5410 to his father, Rav Yitzchak Hakohein. Already while he was a youth, his greatness and talents were evident, and his reputation spread throughout the cities of Ashkenaz.
While he was still a youth, he was abducted and taken captive by the wild Tatars, and only miraculously was he rescued and returned home, as he described in a song that he printed in is sefer Semichas Chachamim, with many words of praise for being spared from captivity.
In 5447, Rav Naftali became Rav in Ostra’ah and its environs, following the passing of his father-in-law, who was the Rav; he was only 37 years old at the time. In 5451, he was appointed Av Beis Din and Rav in the city of Posna, where he served for 15 years. In 5606, he was appointed as Rav and Av Beis Din in Frankfurt, where he served for five years until a terrible tragedy struck him and the entire city, when a fire that began in his home spread and burned down more than 500 homes, including the entire street of the Jews, and its shuls.
After the fire, Rav Naftali had to leave Frankfurt for Prague, and from there to Breslau, and he wandered from city to city until he decided to travel to Eretz Yisrael. He headed out via Istanbul, where he was delayed a few months; there, he fell in, and passed away in an awesome scene, of which there are descriptions, on 24 Teves 5479.
