THE FLOOD AT SIKATIN 🌊 Maharsham Project #6
Published: Fri, 05/01/26
THE FLOOD AT SIKATIN
When a flood tore a Yiddishe family from their home, two women were left waiting, both facing the same terrible question: Were they widows who could begin to rebuild their lives, or were they agunos, still bound by uncertainty?
It was erev Rosh Chodesh Tammuz when a sudden flash flood ripped through the village of Sikatin in Galicia. In a few terrifying moments, the water swept through the family’s home and carried people away.
The mother grabbed a floating log. Non-Jews pulled her from the water. But as she was being saved, she saw her husband Avraham Yosef and her son Meir drifting away in the rushing floodwaters רהל.
The father’s body was found the next morning. His face was intact. His son Moshe recognized him right away.
But another son, Meir, was still missing. Days later, a battered body turned up downstream, among other drowning victims near the Dniester. Meir’s wife sent her father to check for identifying marks: a scarred thumb, protruding teeth, a distinctive skin marking.
The marks matched.
Now two women waited in a painful holding pattern.
And the Maharsham had to decide: Was the evidence strong enough to free them?
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Yidden of Galicia lived close to nature’s dangers. The same rivers that powered their mills could destroy their homes in a single night. A flash flood in the Carpathian foothills didn’t give warnings.
And when tragedy struck, halachah had to respond. Not for theoretical cases, not for names in a sefer — but for real women standing in front of a real rav, asking whether they were free to move on with their lives or whether they would remain chained to uncertainty forever.
Coming next week:
A husband bound for five years of military service nearly destroys his wife’s only chance at freedom with a single sentence.
WHO WAS THE MAHARSHAM?
Rabbi Shalom Mordechai HaKohen Schwadron (1835–1911) served as the Rav of Brezhan in Galicia for over 40 years. He is best known for his seven-volume Shut Maharsham, containing thousands of teshuvos on every area of halachah, and his Da’as Torah commentary on Shulchan Aruch. Regarded as one of the foremost poskim of his generation, his rulings are cited in halachic works to this day.
Correction: The teshuvah in Issue #5, “The Shochet and the Seventh Goose,” is located in Chelek III, Siman 189. The previous issue had incorrectly said Chelek I instead of Chelek III.
The Maharsham Project • www.kechnia.org/maharsham
L’illui nishmas R’ Shalom Mordechai HaKohen Schwadron zt”l • [email protected]