Monday, May 30, 2011

NEWS AND MIDRASH

Today is:, YOM SHAY’NEE Iyar 26, 5771 • 5 30, 2011




Topics in the news



President of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh (pictured) dies from complications of surgery in Moscow.

The UEFA Champions League concludes with FC Barcelona defeating Manchester United in the final at Wembley Stadium.

The 2011 Indian Premier League concludes with the Chennai Super Kings defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium.

Egypt re-opens the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron dies at the age of 62.



• Current events



• Armed conflict and attacks



An explosion at an army barracks in northern Nigeria kills 12 people. (Reuters)

Documents discovered in a Russian archive suggest that Adolf Hitler ordered Rudolf Hess to go to the United Kingdom to negotiate with Winston Churchill over a World War II peace deal in 1941. (The Scotsman)



• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)



United States Marine Corps General John Toolan issues a statement apologising for the deaths of nine Afghan civilians in a NATO bombing raid on behalf of himself, General David Petraeus and Lieutenant General David Rodriguez. (AAP via Herald-Sun), (Sky News Australia)

Taliban insurgents including suicide bombers attack a NATO base in Herat. (Reuters via MSNBC)



• 2011 Syrian uprising



11 people are killed and scores injured in a military crackdown on protests. (Al Arabiya)



• 2011 Yemeni uprising



Four Yemeni army soldiers are killed and dozens injured in an ambush while travelling to the al Qaeda held city of Zinjibar. (Reuters)

Yemeni security forces kill at least 20 people in the city of Taiz. (BBC)



• Business and economy



Germany's ruling coalition led by Chancellor Angela Merkel pledges to end all nuclear power by 2022. (BBC)

The Development Bank of Japan announces plans to establish a 50 billion yen fund to assist auto parts manufacturers hurt by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (Daily Yomiuri)



• Law and crime



Eun Jin-soo, a former aide to the President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak, is arrested on bribery charges. (Yonhap)



• Politics



A Han Chinese man is to face trial for the kiling of a Mongolian man, amid a crackdown on ethnic protests in the Inner Mongolia region of China. (AP via Google News)

Voters in Italian cities including Milan and Naples go to the polls for the second round of local government elections. (BBC)



• Science



Space Shuttle Endeavour undocks from the International Space Station to return to earth on its final mission. (MSNBC)





• Today in Judaism

Omer: Day 41 - Yesod sheb'Yesod

• Today's Laws & Customs

• Count "Forty-Two Days to the Omer" Tonight

Tomorrow is the forty-second 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 forty-two days, which are six weeks, 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: Malchut sheb'Yesod -- "Receptiveness in Connection"

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."



• Today in Jewish History



• Passing of R. Saadia Gaon (942)

Iyar 26 is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of Rabbi Saadia Gaon (892?-942), author of Emunot V'deot, one of the earliest works of Jewish philosophy. ("Gaon" was the title given to the leading Sages of Babylonia in the post-Talmudic period).

A story

• Passing of Ramchal (1747)

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (known by the acronym "Ramchal"), philosopher, kabbalist and ethicist, was born in Padua, Italy, in 1707. At a very early age, he began to study Kabbalah under the tutelage of Rabbi Moshe Zacuto, one of the foremost Kabbalists of his generation. While still in his twenties, he authored numerous works of Torah scholarship, including Derech Hashem ("The way of G-d"), a systematic exposition of the fundamentals of Judaism.

In 1735, Luzzatto left his native Italy and, avoiding public life, set up shop as a gem cutter in Amsterdam. His fame nevertheless caught up with him, and in 1740, (at the turn of the Jewish century 5500), he published his most famous work, Mesilat Yesharim ("Path of the Just"). Like many other great men of his age, Luzzatto longed for the Holy Land, and in 1743 he settled in Acco. He was not to enjoy a long stay there, however, and on Iyar 26, 5507 (1747), at the age of 39, he and his entire family died in a plague. According to most traditions, he was buried in Tiberias, next to the tomb of Rabbi Akiva.

• Passing of R. Eizik of Homel (1857)

Rabbi Yitzchak Eizik Epstein (1770-1857), who served as the rabbi of the town of Homel in White Russia for 58 years, was a leading figure in the first three generations of Chabad Chassidism. As a young man, he became attracted to the teachings of the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, and remained a devoted follower of the 2nd and 3rd Rebbes, Rabbi DovBer and Rabbi Menachem Mendel. He authored a number of Chassidic works, including Sh'tei HaMeorot and Chanah Ariel.



• Six Day War (1967)

In spring of 1967, the Arab capitals paraded their arms and openly spoke of overrunning the Land of Israel and casting its inhabitants into the sea. The international media was almost unanimous in its belief that the small Jewish state, outflanked and outgunned by its enemies, stood little chance of survival. It seemed that, for the second time in a generation, the world was going to stand by and allow the enemies of the Jewish people slaughter them in the millions.

On Iyar 26 (June 5, 1967), Israel launched a preemptive strike on its southern and northern frontiers. In just six days, the Jewish army defeated five Arab armies on three fronts and liberated territories of its promised homeland amounting to an area greater than its own size, including the old city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount (see "Today in Jewish History" for Iyar 29).

The openly miraculous nature of Israel's victory spawned a global awakening of Jewish soul, fueling the already present and growing teshuvah movement of return to G-d and Jewish traditions. The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, called it a moment of biblical proportions, an "opportunity the likes of which has not been granted for thousands of years." Many thousands of Jews flocked to put on tefillin and pray at the newly liberated Western Wall of the Temple Mount.

• Daily Quote

It is only by G-d's kindness towards us that we may occasionally sense G-dliness spontaneously, without having done anything to attain it...

- Hayom Yom, Tammuz 20

• Daily Study

Chitas and Rambam for today:

Chumash: Naso, 2nd Portion Numbers 4:29-4:49 with Rashi

Tehillim: Chapter 119, Verses 97-176

Tanya: Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 51

Rambam:

• Sefer Hamitzvos:

• 1 Chapter: Genevah Chapter Two

• 3 Chapters: Kiddush HaChodesh Chapter Six, Kiddush HaChodesh Chapter Seven, Kiddush HaChodesh Chapter Eight

Hayom Yom:

• ''Today's Day''

Torah lessons: Chumash: Bamidbar, Sheini with Rashi.

Tehillim: 119, 97 to end.

The command "You shall rebuke"1 is preceded by the words "You shall not hate your brother," for this is a precondition for the rebuke. The Torah continues, "...and you shall not ascribe sin to him," for if the rebuke was ineffectual, you are certainly the one responsible, for yours were not words coming from the heart.

FOOTNOTES

1. Vayikra 19:17.

• Daily Mitzvah (Maimonides)

Today's Mitzvah



• Important Message Regarding This Lesson

The Daily Mitzvah schedule runs parallel to the daily study of 3 chapters of Maimonides' 14-volume code. There are instances when the Mitzvah is repeated a few days consecutively while the exploration of the same Mitzvah continues in the in-depth track.

Positive Commandment 153



Calculating Months and Years

"This month shall be to you the beginning of months"—Exodus 12:2.

We are commanded to establish a calendar and calculate its months and years. The months are lunar months, with a new month established when the new moon appears; the years follow the solar seasonal cycle, necessitating the periodic addition of an extra (thirteenth) month to a year – which then becomes a "leap year" – because twelve lunar months are several days short of a solar year. This mitzvah is known as Sanctifying the New Moon.

This mitzvah is entrusted to the Jewish Supreme Court that presides in Israel. Unlike the counting of six days and then observing the Shabbat, a mitzvah that is incumbent upon every individual, no individual can unilaterally decide that a new month has arrived simply because he espied the new moon, and no individual can decide to add a month to the calendar based on his personal (even Torah-based) calculations.

Only the Supreme Court can make these calculations, and only in the Land of Israel. We follow the rulings issued by the Supreme Court in Israel even if they inadvertently established the "wrong" day as the New Moon, even if they did so under duress.

In the event that there are no qualified rabbis remaining in Israel, these calculations can be made, and months and leap years established, by a court that was ordained in Israel—even if it finds itself in the Diaspora.

Today we no longer sanctify the months based on the testimony of witnesses who saw the new moon, because there is no longer a sitting rabbinical Supreme Court in Israel—much as we no longer offer sacrifices, because we lack a Holy Temple.

But under no circumstances can an individual or court outside of Israel establish a new month or a leap year. Our calculations today in the Diaspora are only to determine which days the Court in Israel established as the New Moon, and which years they established as leap years.

[Editor's Note: Nachmanides asks, if so, how do we have holidays and a calendar today, when there is no rabbinical Supreme Court in Israel? He answers that there is a tradition that Hillel the Prince, who resided in Israel, established a calendar until the arrival of Moshiach, and sanctified all the new months and leap years until that time. Therefore, we can use our calculations to determine exactly what he previously established.]

Some laws associated with this mitzvah:

The extra month added to a leap year is the one contiguous to the month of Passover—i.e. Adar.

The establishment of new months and leap years must be done during daylight hours.

A year must be comprised of complete months; a month must be comprised of complete days.

THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH

Genesis Chapter 1

בְּרֵאשִׁית

Yom Shaynee ............Second day

CREATION DAY THE HEAVENS EARTH, AND WATERS

ו וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם, וִיהִי מַבְדִּיל, בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִם. 6

And God said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'

ז וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הָרָקִיעַ, וַיַּבְדֵּל בֵּין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מִתַּחַת לָרָקִיעַ, וּבֵין הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעַל לָרָקִיעַ; וַיְהִי-כֵן. 7

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.

ח וַיִּקְרָא אֱלֹהִים לָרָקִיעַ, שָׁמָיִם; וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם שֵׁנִי. {פ} 8

And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. {P}



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