• Today is: , Nissan 30, 5771 • 5 4, 2011
• Topics in the news
• The Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper (pictured), wins a majority in the Canadian federal election.
• John Higgins defeats Judd Trump to win the World Snooker Championship.
• Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is killed by U.S. forces at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
• The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic in 2009, are recovered from the ocean floor.
• Pope John Paul II is beatified at a ceremony in Vatican City.
• Libyan officials report that Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in a NATO airstrike in Tripoli.
• Current events of 5 4 2011 (2011-05-04)
• Arts and culture
• Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja is released on bail from jail in Mumbai a week after being jailed for allegedly raping his maid. (BBC)
• Business and economy
• Richard Branson announces that the operations of airlines Virgin Blue, V Australia and Pacific Blue would be merged to form Virgin Australia. (WA Today)
• Disasters
• At least 16 people are feared dead and 20 dead following a bus crash in Nepal. (Nepal Mountain News)
• The wreckage of a crashed helicopter containing Dorjee Khandu, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is found with three bodies nearby. (BBC), (Indian Express)
• Current events of 4 2011 (2011-05-04)
• Armed conflicts and attacks
• Reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden:
• Osama bin Laden was not armed but did put up resistance when U.S. forces entered his compound, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney revealed today. (CNN)
• US officials deliberate releasing “gruesome” photographs of the corpse of Osama bin Laden, to dispel doubt by Islamic militants that U.S. forces really killed him. (Reuters)
• Hundreds of people in Quetta, Pakistan, join a rally in honour of Osama bin Laden. (One Pakistan)
• Pakistani officials criticize the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, saying that the United States had made “an unauthorized unilateral action” that would be not be tolerated in the future. (The New York Times)
• US officials caution that bin Laden’s death does not remove the threat of terrorist attacks and say that the battle against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups will continue. (VOA News)
• US officials describe remarks by leader of militant Islamic group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, condemning the killing of bin Laden as "outrageous", while UK Foreign Secretary William Hague criticizes Hamas for mourning bin Laden's death. (VOA News) (AFP) (JTA)
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the UN wants more details regarding the death of bin Laden and that all counter-terrorism operations must respect international law, even though bin Laden had committed crimes against humanity and "the most appalling acts of terrorism.”. (Reuters) (Huffington Post)
• 2011 Libyan uprising
• Thousands of people are at risk of death from thirst and starvation in Yafran due to Muammar Gaddaffi's forces besieging the city, shutting off water and blocking food supplies. (Libya TV)
• Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi bombard the rebel-held town of Zintan with Grad rockets. (Alertnet)
• Saudi Arabian protests
• Human Rights Watch has asked the government of Saudi Arabia to release a rights activist who was arrested for participating in peaceful demonstrations, saying a recent wave of arrests is jeopardizing any chance of reform. (VOA News) (Bloomberg News)
• Syrian protests
• Syrian forces and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad moved into the center of the city of Baniyas, which had been under the control of pro-democracy demonstrators in recent weeks. (The Jerusalem Post)
• More than 1,000 people have been detained across Syria since Saturday in security crackdowns in to keep people off the streets and aimed at suppressing the uprising against President al-Assad, according to human rights activists. (RTT) AP)
• UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says that Britan is working with European allies to impose targeted sanctions on Syrian leaders, including asset freezes and travel bans, in response to the ongoing government suppression of pro-democracy protesters. (Los Angeles Times) (The Telegraph)
• At least nineteen people die in northern Kenya in clashes with raiders from Ethiopia. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
• A car bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, kills at least 16 people in a cafe with young men watching a football match. (AP)
• Up to ten Afghan police officers are killed in a NATO air strike on a highway in Ghazni Province. (AFP via The News)
• Dozens of people are killed in fighting between the National Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire and forces loyal to former President of the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan. (Al Jazeera)
• Business and economy
• The Reserve Bank of India increases interest rates by 50 basis points to 7.25 per cent. (Reuters)
• José Sócrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal, announces a bail out deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. (BBC)
• Disasters
• A tornado hits Albany, a northern suburb of the New Zealand city of Auckland, causing at least one death, injuries and property damage. (New Zealand Herald), (TV New Zealand), (News Limited), (New Zealand Stuff)
• Searchers find the second flight recorder from Air France Flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009. (Reuters)
• The US Army Corps of Engineers blasts a hole in two levees along the Mississippi River, flooding some 200 square miles of Missouri farmland in an effort to save the town of Cairo, Illinois further downriver from record-breaking flood waters. (CNN)
• The US city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama revises the number of lives lost there during the April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak from 340 on Monday to 80. (Alabama)
• A mine explosion in San Juan de Sabinas Municipality in the Mexican state of Coahuila kills three people, injures one and leaves another 11 trapped. (AP via Salon)
• International relations
• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu calls on Palestinian Authority President Abbas to choose peace with Israel and not Hamas, saying that the Fatah-Hamas unity government deal would jeopardize the already-stalled peace process because Hamas opposes the existence of Israel; Abbas rejects the call as “unacceptable interference”. (CNN) (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
• European Union Foreign Affairs head,Catherine Ashton, condemns Iran for its ongoing executions of juvenile offenders following the public execution of two juveniles in Bandar Abbas, Iran. (The Jerusalem Post)
• A Tibetan parliament-in-exile delegation appeals to foreign embassies in New Delhi, India, for help to release three monks from the Kirti monastery in northeastern Tibet detained by Chinese authorities and to address additional human rights violations in Tibet by China. (The Tibet Post)
• Law and crime
• Five people are arrested near the Sellafield nuclear power plant in Cumbria, England, under the Terrorism Act. (The Independent)
• Iranian police clash with protesters at a club soccer match between Piroozi Athletic and Saudi Arabia's Ittihad FC. (AP via Denver Post)
• The murder of a South African lesbian activist who was stoned and stabbed to death is condemned as part of an "epidemic" of hate crimes against gays in South Africa. (AFP) (Mail & Guardian) (Times Live)
• Politics
• Shelley Hancock is elected as the first female Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Results from the 41st Canadian General Election give the Conservative Party of Canada a majority government while the NDP will form the Official Opposition for the first time in Canadian political history.(CBC), (NYT), (BBC), (CNN), (Globe and Mail)
• American Republican politician Beth Gaines is elected to the district in the California State Assembly previously held by her husband Ted Gaines who is now serving in the California State Senate. (AP via Silicon Valley News)
• Science
• The United Nations projects that the world's population will pass 7 billion on October 31, 2011. (Reuters)
• Sports
• American basketball player Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls wins the NBA Most Valuable Player Award Award for the 2010-11 NBA season, the youngest player to do so. (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins pitches the first no-hitter of the North American 2011 Major League Baseball season against the Chicago White Sox. (NBC Sports), (New York Times)
• DAILY MITZVAH (Maimonides): , 4, 2011
• Daily Mitzvah (Maimonides) Dedicate an email
• Today's Mitzvah
• A daily digest of Maimonides' classic work "Sefer Hamitzvot"
• Nusach HaTefila
• Today we continue with Maimonides' "Order of Prayer." (The Daily Mitzvah schedule runs parallel to the daily study of three chapters of Maimonides' 14-volume code. This is what is being studied today according to the three-chapter-a-day-schedule.)
• We have not translated this order into English, because the point of it is not to provide a translation of the prayers, but to lay out the way Maimonides structured his prayer book.
• As such, we present you today with the second section (parts two, three, and four) of the original Hebrew "Order of Prayer."
• Today in Judaism
• Rosh Chodesh Iyar • Omer: Day 15 - Chessed sheb'Tifferet
• Today's Laws & Customs
• Rosh Chodesh Observances
• Today is the first of the two Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") days for the month of "Iyar" (when a month has 30 days, both the last day of the month and the first day of the following month serve as the following month's Rosh Chodesh).
• Special portions are added to the daily prayers: Hallel (Psalms 113-118) is recited -- in its "partial" form -- following the Shacharit morning prayer, and the Yaaleh V'yavo prayer is added to the Amidah and to Grace After Meals; the additional Musaf prayer is said (when Rosh Chodesh is Shabbat, special additions are made to the Shabbat Musaf). Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted.
• Many have the custom to mark Rosh Chodesh with a festive meal and reduced work activity. The latter custom is prevalent amongst women, who have a special affinity with Rosh Chodesh -- the month being the feminine aspect of the Jewish Calendar.
• Links: The 29th Day; The Lunar Files
• Count "Sixteen Days to the Omer" Tonight
• Tomorrow is the sixteenth day of the Omer Count. Since, on the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall of the previous evening, we count the omer for tomorrow's date tonight, after nightfall: "Today is sixteen days, which are two weeks and two days, to the Omer." (If you miss the count tonight, you can count the omer all day tomorrow, but without the preceding blessing).
• The 49-day "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.
• Tonight's Sefirah: Gevurah sheb'Tifferet -- "Restraint in Harmony"
• The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot -- that G-d assumes through which to relate to our existence: Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut ("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits. The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot."
• Links:
• How to count the Omer
• The deeper significance of the Omer Count
• Today in Jewish History
• Passing of R. Chaim Vital (1620)
• Nissan 30 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the famed Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Vital (1542?-1620), author of the mystical work Eitz Chaim. Rabbi Chaim was the leading disciple of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the "Holy Ari," 1534-1572) and the transcriber of his teachings, which form the "Lurianic" Kabbalah.
• Links: About Kabbalah
• Buchenwald Liberated by American Forces (1945)
• The Buchenwald concentration camp was founded in 1937 near the town of Weimar, Germany. Approximately 250,000 prisoners were incarcerated in this camp until its liberation in 1945.
• Weimar is a German city known for its highly cultured citizenry. It was the home of many of the upper class intellectual members of Europe's society. Among others, Goethe, Schiller, Franz Liszt, and Bach lived in Weimar.
• Though technically not an extermination camp, approximately 56,000 prisoners were murdered in Buchenwald (not including many others who died after being transferred to other extermination camps). They died from vicious medical experiments, summary executions, torture, beatings, starvation, and inhuman work conditions. The camp was also known for its brutality. German officers would force inmates to eat their meager soup ration off the mud on the ground; would keep them standing in the cold until they froze to death; and they would even use skin of dead inmates to make lamp shades.
• On the 30th of Nissan 1945 the Sixth Armored Division of the United States Third Army liberated the camp.
• Among the more famous inmates who spent time in Buchenwald are Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.
• Daily Quote
• And [Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it within the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that G-d has spoken, we will do and we will hear"
- Exodus 24:7
• Daily Study
• Chitas and Rambam for today:
• Chumash: Emor, 4th Portion Leviticus 23:1-23:22 with Rashi
• Tehillim: Chapters 145 - 150
• Tanya: Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 44
• Rambam:
• Sefer Hamitzvos:
• 1 Chapter: Mikvot Chap. 1
• 3 Chapters: Seder haTefillah Part 2, Seder haTefillah Part 3, Seder haTefillah Part 4
• Hayom Yom:
THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH
Genesis Chapter 1
בְּרֵאשִׁית
Yom Revee´ee............Fourth day
יד וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים. 14
And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
טו וְהָיוּ לִמְאוֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהָאִיר עַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיְהִי-כֵן. 15
and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so.
טז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: אֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל, לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם, וְאֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה, וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים. 16
And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
יז וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמָיִם, לְהָאִיר, עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 17
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
יח וְלִמְשֹׁל, בַּיּוֹם וּבַלַּיְלָה, וּלְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב. 18
and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
יט וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם רְבִיעִי. {פ} 19
And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
• Topics in the news
• The Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper (pictured), wins a majority in the Canadian federal election.
• John Higgins defeats Judd Trump to win the World Snooker Championship.
• Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is killed by U.S. forces at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
• The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic in 2009, are recovered from the ocean floor.
• Pope John Paul II is beatified at a ceremony in Vatican City.
• Libyan officials report that Saif al-Arab al-Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, was killed in a NATO airstrike in Tripoli.
• Current events of 5 4 2011 (2011-05-04)
• Arts and culture
• Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja is released on bail from jail in Mumbai a week after being jailed for allegedly raping his maid. (BBC)
• Business and economy
• Richard Branson announces that the operations of airlines Virgin Blue, V Australia and Pacific Blue would be merged to form Virgin Australia. (WA Today)
• Disasters
• At least 16 people are feared dead and 20 dead following a bus crash in Nepal. (Nepal Mountain News)
• The wreckage of a crashed helicopter containing Dorjee Khandu, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is found with three bodies nearby. (BBC), (Indian Express)
• Current events of 4 2011 (2011-05-04)
• Armed conflicts and attacks
• Reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden:
• Osama bin Laden was not armed but did put up resistance when U.S. forces entered his compound, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney revealed today. (CNN)
• US officials deliberate releasing “gruesome” photographs of the corpse of Osama bin Laden, to dispel doubt by Islamic militants that U.S. forces really killed him. (Reuters)
• Hundreds of people in Quetta, Pakistan, join a rally in honour of Osama bin Laden. (One Pakistan)
• Pakistani officials criticize the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, saying that the United States had made “an unauthorized unilateral action” that would be not be tolerated in the future. (The New York Times)
• US officials caution that bin Laden’s death does not remove the threat of terrorist attacks and say that the battle against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups will continue. (VOA News)
• US officials describe remarks by leader of militant Islamic group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, condemning the killing of bin Laden as "outrageous", while UK Foreign Secretary William Hague criticizes Hamas for mourning bin Laden's death. (VOA News) (AFP) (JTA)
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the UN wants more details regarding the death of bin Laden and that all counter-terrorism operations must respect international law, even though bin Laden had committed crimes against humanity and "the most appalling acts of terrorism.”. (Reuters) (Huffington Post)
• 2011 Libyan uprising
• Thousands of people are at risk of death from thirst and starvation in Yafran due to Muammar Gaddaffi's forces besieging the city, shutting off water and blocking food supplies. (Libya TV)
• Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi bombard the rebel-held town of Zintan with Grad rockets. (Alertnet)
• Saudi Arabian protests
• Human Rights Watch has asked the government of Saudi Arabia to release a rights activist who was arrested for participating in peaceful demonstrations, saying a recent wave of arrests is jeopardizing any chance of reform. (VOA News) (Bloomberg News)
• Syrian protests
• Syrian forces and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad moved into the center of the city of Baniyas, which had been under the control of pro-democracy demonstrators in recent weeks. (The Jerusalem Post)
• More than 1,000 people have been detained across Syria since Saturday in security crackdowns in to keep people off the streets and aimed at suppressing the uprising against President al-Assad, according to human rights activists. (RTT) AP)
• UK Foreign Secretary William Hague says that Britan is working with European allies to impose targeted sanctions on Syrian leaders, including asset freezes and travel bans, in response to the ongoing government suppression of pro-democracy protesters. (Los Angeles Times) (The Telegraph)
• At least nineteen people die in northern Kenya in clashes with raiders from Ethiopia. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
• A car bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, kills at least 16 people in a cafe with young men watching a football match. (AP)
• Up to ten Afghan police officers are killed in a NATO air strike on a highway in Ghazni Province. (AFP via The News)
• Dozens of people are killed in fighting between the National Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire and forces loyal to former President of the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan. (Al Jazeera)
• Business and economy
• The Reserve Bank of India increases interest rates by 50 basis points to 7.25 per cent. (Reuters)
• José Sócrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal, announces a bail out deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. (BBC)
• Disasters
• A tornado hits Albany, a northern suburb of the New Zealand city of Auckland, causing at least one death, injuries and property damage. (New Zealand Herald), (TV New Zealand), (News Limited), (New Zealand Stuff)
• Searchers find the second flight recorder from Air France Flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009. (Reuters)
• The US Army Corps of Engineers blasts a hole in two levees along the Mississippi River, flooding some 200 square miles of Missouri farmland in an effort to save the town of Cairo, Illinois further downriver from record-breaking flood waters. (CNN)
• The US city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama revises the number of lives lost there during the April 25–28, 2011 tornado outbreak from 340 on Monday to 80. (Alabama)
• A mine explosion in San Juan de Sabinas Municipality in the Mexican state of Coahuila kills three people, injures one and leaves another 11 trapped. (AP via Salon)
• International relations
• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu calls on Palestinian Authority President Abbas to choose peace with Israel and not Hamas, saying that the Fatah-Hamas unity government deal would jeopardize the already-stalled peace process because Hamas opposes the existence of Israel; Abbas rejects the call as “unacceptable interference”. (CNN) (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
• European Union Foreign Affairs head,Catherine Ashton, condemns Iran for its ongoing executions of juvenile offenders following the public execution of two juveniles in Bandar Abbas, Iran. (The Jerusalem Post)
• A Tibetan parliament-in-exile delegation appeals to foreign embassies in New Delhi, India, for help to release three monks from the Kirti monastery in northeastern Tibet detained by Chinese authorities and to address additional human rights violations in Tibet by China. (The Tibet Post)
• Law and crime
• Five people are arrested near the Sellafield nuclear power plant in Cumbria, England, under the Terrorism Act. (The Independent)
• Iranian police clash with protesters at a club soccer match between Piroozi Athletic and Saudi Arabia's Ittihad FC. (AP via Denver Post)
• The murder of a South African lesbian activist who was stoned and stabbed to death is condemned as part of an "epidemic" of hate crimes against gays in South Africa. (AFP) (Mail & Guardian) (Times Live)
• Politics
• Shelley Hancock is elected as the first female Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Results from the 41st Canadian General Election give the Conservative Party of Canada a majority government while the NDP will form the Official Opposition for the first time in Canadian political history.(CBC), (NYT), (BBC), (CNN), (Globe and Mail)
• American Republican politician Beth Gaines is elected to the district in the California State Assembly previously held by her husband Ted Gaines who is now serving in the California State Senate. (AP via Silicon Valley News)
• Science
• The United Nations projects that the world's population will pass 7 billion on October 31, 2011. (Reuters)
• Sports
• American basketball player Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls wins the NBA Most Valuable Player Award Award for the 2010-11 NBA season, the youngest player to do so. (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins pitches the first no-hitter of the North American 2011 Major League Baseball season against the Chicago White Sox. (NBC Sports), (New York Times)
• DAILY MITZVAH (Maimonides): , 4, 2011
• Daily Mitzvah (Maimonides) Dedicate an email
• Today's Mitzvah
• A daily digest of Maimonides' classic work "Sefer Hamitzvot"
• Nusach HaTefila
• Today we continue with Maimonides' "Order of Prayer." (The Daily Mitzvah schedule runs parallel to the daily study of three chapters of Maimonides' 14-volume code. This is what is being studied today according to the three-chapter-a-day-schedule.)
• We have not translated this order into English, because the point of it is not to provide a translation of the prayers, but to lay out the way Maimonides structured his prayer book.
• As such, we present you today with the second section (parts two, three, and four) of the original Hebrew "Order of Prayer."
• Today in Judaism
• Rosh Chodesh Iyar • Omer: Day 15 - Chessed sheb'Tifferet
• Today's Laws & Customs
• Rosh Chodesh Observances
• Today is the first of the two Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") days for the month of "Iyar" (when a month has 30 days, both the last day of the month and the first day of the following month serve as the following month's Rosh Chodesh).
• Special portions are added to the daily prayers: Hallel (Psalms 113-118) is recited -- in its "partial" form -- following the Shacharit morning prayer, and the Yaaleh V'yavo prayer is added to the Amidah and to Grace After Meals; the additional Musaf prayer is said (when Rosh Chodesh is Shabbat, special additions are made to the Shabbat Musaf). Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted.
• Many have the custom to mark Rosh Chodesh with a festive meal and reduced work activity. The latter custom is prevalent amongst women, who have a special affinity with Rosh Chodesh -- the month being the feminine aspect of the Jewish Calendar.
• Links: The 29th Day; The Lunar Files
• Count "Sixteen Days to the Omer" Tonight
• Tomorrow is the sixteenth day of the Omer Count. Since, on the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall of the previous evening, we count the omer for tomorrow's date tonight, after nightfall: "Today is sixteen days, which are two weeks and two days, to the Omer." (If you miss the count tonight, you can count the omer all day tomorrow, but without the preceding blessing).
• The 49-day "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.
• Tonight's Sefirah: Gevurah sheb'Tifferet -- "Restraint in Harmony"
• The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot -- that G-d assumes through which to relate to our existence: Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut ("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits. The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot."
• Links:
• How to count the Omer
• The deeper significance of the Omer Count
• Today in Jewish History
• Passing of R. Chaim Vital (1620)
• Nissan 30 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the famed Kabbalist Rabbi Chaim Vital (1542?-1620), author of the mystical work Eitz Chaim. Rabbi Chaim was the leading disciple of Rabbi Isaac Luria (the "Holy Ari," 1534-1572) and the transcriber of his teachings, which form the "Lurianic" Kabbalah.
• Links: About Kabbalah
• Buchenwald Liberated by American Forces (1945)
• The Buchenwald concentration camp was founded in 1937 near the town of Weimar, Germany. Approximately 250,000 prisoners were incarcerated in this camp until its liberation in 1945.
• Weimar is a German city known for its highly cultured citizenry. It was the home of many of the upper class intellectual members of Europe's society. Among others, Goethe, Schiller, Franz Liszt, and Bach lived in Weimar.
• Though technically not an extermination camp, approximately 56,000 prisoners were murdered in Buchenwald (not including many others who died after being transferred to other extermination camps). They died from vicious medical experiments, summary executions, torture, beatings, starvation, and inhuman work conditions. The camp was also known for its brutality. German officers would force inmates to eat their meager soup ration off the mud on the ground; would keep them standing in the cold until they froze to death; and they would even use skin of dead inmates to make lamp shades.
• On the 30th of Nissan 1945 the Sixth Armored Division of the United States Third Army liberated the camp.
• Among the more famous inmates who spent time in Buchenwald are Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.
• Daily Quote
• And [Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it within the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that G-d has spoken, we will do and we will hear"
- Exodus 24:7
• Daily Study
• Chitas and Rambam for today:
• Chumash: Emor, 4th Portion Leviticus 23:1-23:22 with Rashi
• Tehillim: Chapters 145 - 150
• Tanya: Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 44
• Rambam:
• Sefer Hamitzvos:
• 1 Chapter: Mikvot Chap. 1
• 3 Chapters: Seder haTefillah Part 2, Seder haTefillah Part 3, Seder haTefillah Part 4
• Hayom Yom:
THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH
Genesis Chapter 1
בְּרֵאשִׁית
Yom Revee´ee............Fourth day
יד וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים. 14
And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
טו וְהָיוּ לִמְאוֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהָאִיר עַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיְהִי-כֵן. 15
and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so.
טז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: אֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל, לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם, וְאֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה, וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים. 16
And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.
יז וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמָיִם, לְהָאִיר, עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 17
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
יח וְלִמְשֹׁל, בַּיּוֹם וּבַלַּיְלָה, וּלְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הָאוֹר וּבֵין הַחֹשֶׁךְ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב. 18
and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.
יט וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם רְבִיעִי. {פ} 19
And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
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