Today is: Yom Shaynee, Sivan 4, 5771 • 6 6, 2011
*Topics in the news
• NATO begins employing attack helicopters for the first time in air operations over Libya.
• In tennis, Li Na wins the women's singles and Rafael Nadal wins the men's singles at the French Open.
• Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts (satellite image pictured), forcing 3,500 people to evacuate.
• Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is injured in an attack on the presidential palace and transported to a Saudi Arabia hospital for treatment.
• Senior Al-Qaeda member Ilyas Kashmiri is killed by an American drone strike in South Waziristan, Pakistan.
*Current events
*Armed conflicts and attacks
• Two United States drone missile kills 14 people in Pakistani Taliban compounds near Wana in South Waziristan. (Dawn). (AAP via Herald Sun)
*Business and economy
• Bloomberg reports Italian company Prada SpA is planning an initial public offering for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. (Bloomberg)
• The Tokyo Metropolitan Government changes working hours of its staff in order to conserve energy from the shortages caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (AP via Washington Post)
*Disasters
• At least 21 people die as two coal mines in the People's Republic of China flood. (AFP via Inquirer)
• Test results will confirm whether the German E. Coli outbreak came from vegetable sprouts grown in the Uelzen area. (Sky News)
*International relations
• A European Union delegation visits North Korea to investigate claims of food shortages. (Yonhap News)
• The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the People's Republic of China, accuses Internet search engine giant Google of becoming a "political tool" after it claimed that computer hacking aimed at it came from China. (Reuters)
*Law and crime
• Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be arraigned on sexual assault charges in the US state of New York. (The Telegraph)
• The sodomy trial of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is delayed after the presiding judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah dismisses the defences efforts to have him replaced. (AP via MSNBC)
*Politics and elections
• France announces that it will stop teaching indigenous languages in schools in all of its Overseas departments and territories of France. (RNZI)
*Today in Judaism
Omer: Day 48 - Yesod sheb'Malchut
*Today's Laws & Customs
• Count "Forty-Nine Days to the Omer" Tonight
• Tomorrow is the forty-ninth -- and last -- 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-nine days, which are seven 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 which commences tomorrow at nightfall.
• Tonight's Sefirah: Malchut sheb'Malchut -- "Receptiveness in Receptiveness" (also: "Sovreignty in Sovereignty")
• 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
• Moses Transcribes (first part of) Torah (1313 BCE)
On Sivan 4 of the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE)--two days before the revelation at Mount Sinai--Moses wrote down the first 68 chapters of the Torah, from Genesis 1:1 ("In the Beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth") to the Giving of the Torah in Exodus 19 (Exodus 24:4; Rashi ibid.).
• Forced Conversion in Clermont (576)
A mob, accompanied by the bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, France, razed the local synagogue to the ground. The bishop then informed the Jews that he, as bishop, could have but one flock, and unless they were willing to embrace Christianity, they must leave the city. Five hundred Jews were forced to be baptized and the remainder fled to Marseilles.
• Jews Returned to Spain (1481)
Pope Sixtus IV instructed his local bishops that all Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition (see "Today in Jewish History" for Adar 7) should be sent back to Spain.
• Chmielnitzki Massacres (1648)
The Cossack rebellion against Polish rule in Ukraine, under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnitzki (may his name be blotted out) began on the 4th of Sivan of the year 5408 from creation (1648 CE). In their bloody march through the Ukraine, Volhynia, Podolia, Poland proper and Lithuania, Chmielnitzki's peasant army massacred between 100,000 and 300,000 Jews. Three hundred Jewish communities were destroyed.
*Daily Quote
Extending a loan to a fellow is greater than giving charity
- Talmud, Shabbat 63a
*Daily Study
Chitas and Rambam for today:
Chumash: Behaalotecha, 2nd Portion Numbers 8:15-8:26 with Rashi
Tehillim: Chapters 23 - 28
Tanya: Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 53
Rambam:
• Sefer Hamitzvos:
• 1 Chapter: Genevah Chapter Nine
• 3 Chapters: Ishut Chapter One, Megillah vChanukah Chapter Three, Megillah vChanukah Chapter Four
*Hayom Yom:
"Today's Day"
Shavuot is an opportune time to achieve everything in improving Torah-study and avoda marked by fear (awe) of G-d, and also to strive in teshuva concerning Torah-study, without interference by the accusing Satan - just like the time of Shofar-sounding on Rosh Hashana and the holy day of the Fast of Yom Kippur.
Today's Mitzvah
• A daily digest of Maimonides’ classic work "Sefer Hamitzvot"
• Laws of Megillah and Chanukah Chapters 1 & 2
• We now continue with Maimonides' Laws of Megillah and Chanukah, chapters three and four.
• Positive Commandment 213
• Marriage
• "When a man takes a wife and is intimate with her"—Deuteronomy 24:1.
• It is a mitzvah for a man to marry a woman through kiddushin. Kiddushin is accomplished through one of three methods: a) The man giving the women an object of value [for the purpose of marriage]. b) The man giving the woman a marriage contract [a document upon which is written, "With this document I am marrying you"]. c) Through the man being intimate with the woman.
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}
*Topics in the news
• NATO begins employing attack helicopters for the first time in air operations over Libya.
• In tennis, Li Na wins the women's singles and Rafael Nadal wins the men's singles at the French Open.
• Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts (satellite image pictured), forcing 3,500 people to evacuate.
• Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is injured in an attack on the presidential palace and transported to a Saudi Arabia hospital for treatment.
• Senior Al-Qaeda member Ilyas Kashmiri is killed by an American drone strike in South Waziristan, Pakistan.
*Current events
*Armed conflicts and attacks
• Two United States drone missile kills 14 people in Pakistani Taliban compounds near Wana in South Waziristan. (Dawn). (AAP via Herald Sun)
*Business and economy
• Bloomberg reports Italian company Prada SpA is planning an initial public offering for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. (Bloomberg)
• The Tokyo Metropolitan Government changes working hours of its staff in order to conserve energy from the shortages caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (AP via Washington Post)
*Disasters
• At least 21 people die as two coal mines in the People's Republic of China flood. (AFP via Inquirer)
• Test results will confirm whether the German E. Coli outbreak came from vegetable sprouts grown in the Uelzen area. (Sky News)
*International relations
• A European Union delegation visits North Korea to investigate claims of food shortages. (Yonhap News)
• The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the People's Republic of China, accuses Internet search engine giant Google of becoming a "political tool" after it claimed that computer hacking aimed at it came from China. (Reuters)
*Law and crime
• Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be arraigned on sexual assault charges in the US state of New York. (The Telegraph)
• The sodomy trial of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is delayed after the presiding judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah dismisses the defences efforts to have him replaced. (AP via MSNBC)
*Politics and elections
• France announces that it will stop teaching indigenous languages in schools in all of its Overseas departments and territories of France. (RNZI)
*Today in Judaism
Omer: Day 48 - Yesod sheb'Malchut
*Today's Laws & Customs
• Count "Forty-Nine Days to the Omer" Tonight
• Tomorrow is the forty-ninth -- and last -- 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-nine days, which are seven 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 which commences tomorrow at nightfall.
• Tonight's Sefirah: Malchut sheb'Malchut -- "Receptiveness in Receptiveness" (also: "Sovreignty in Sovereignty")
• 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
• Moses Transcribes (first part of) Torah (1313 BCE)
On Sivan 4 of the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE)--two days before the revelation at Mount Sinai--Moses wrote down the first 68 chapters of the Torah, from Genesis 1:1 ("In the Beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth") to the Giving of the Torah in Exodus 19 (Exodus 24:4; Rashi ibid.).
• Forced Conversion in Clermont (576)
A mob, accompanied by the bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, France, razed the local synagogue to the ground. The bishop then informed the Jews that he, as bishop, could have but one flock, and unless they were willing to embrace Christianity, they must leave the city. Five hundred Jews were forced to be baptized and the remainder fled to Marseilles.
• Jews Returned to Spain (1481)
Pope Sixtus IV instructed his local bishops that all Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition (see "Today in Jewish History" for Adar 7) should be sent back to Spain.
• Chmielnitzki Massacres (1648)
The Cossack rebellion against Polish rule in Ukraine, under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnitzki (may his name be blotted out) began on the 4th of Sivan of the year 5408 from creation (1648 CE). In their bloody march through the Ukraine, Volhynia, Podolia, Poland proper and Lithuania, Chmielnitzki's peasant army massacred between 100,000 and 300,000 Jews. Three hundred Jewish communities were destroyed.
*Daily Quote
Extending a loan to a fellow is greater than giving charity
- Talmud, Shabbat 63a
*Daily Study
Chitas and Rambam for today:
Chumash: Behaalotecha, 2nd Portion Numbers 8:15-8:26 with Rashi
Tehillim: Chapters 23 - 28
Tanya: Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 53
Rambam:
• Sefer Hamitzvos:
• 1 Chapter: Genevah Chapter Nine
• 3 Chapters: Ishut Chapter One, Megillah vChanukah Chapter Three, Megillah vChanukah Chapter Four
*Hayom Yom:
"Today's Day"
Shavuot is an opportune time to achieve everything in improving Torah-study and avoda marked by fear (awe) of G-d, and also to strive in teshuva concerning Torah-study, without interference by the accusing Satan - just like the time of Shofar-sounding on Rosh Hashana and the holy day of the Fast of Yom Kippur.
Today's Mitzvah
• A daily digest of Maimonides’ classic work "Sefer Hamitzvot"
• Laws of Megillah and Chanukah Chapters 1 & 2
• We now continue with Maimonides' Laws of Megillah and Chanukah, chapters three and four.
• Positive Commandment 213
• Marriage
• "When a man takes a wife and is intimate with her"—Deuteronomy 24:1.
• It is a mitzvah for a man to marry a woman through kiddushin. Kiddushin is accomplished through one of three methods: a) The man giving the women an object of value [for the purpose of marriage]. b) The man giving the woman a marriage contract [a document upon which is written, "With this document I am marrying you"]. c) Through the man being intimate with the woman.
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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