NEWS AND MIDRASH

• Topics in the news

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• Today is: YOM REE’VEE, Sivan 20, 5771 • 6 22, 2011

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• Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (pictured) is sentenced in absentia to 35 years in jail.

• RusAir Flight 9605 crashes in Petrozavodsk, Russia, killing 44 people.

• ICANN votes for an expansion of the available generic top-level domains, allowing owners to choose a suffix for the address of a website.

• Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy wins the U.S. Open with a record score of 16 under par.

• In response to ongoing protests in Morocco, King Mohammed VI announces constitutional reform proposals to be voted on in a referendum.

• Ongoing flooding in the People's Republic of China affects more than ten million people and causes more than US$3 billion in damage.

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• Current events

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• Armed conflict and attacks

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• 2011 Bahraini uprising: Bahrain sentences 10 activists to life in prison for their role in the uprising (The Guardian) (AlJazeera)

• Philippine Army soldiers capture five suspected members of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf in a raid on Basilan Island. (AP via The Guardian)

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• Disasters

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• Flights resume in southeast Australia as the volcanic ash cloud from the 2011 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption clears although flights to Tasmania and New Zealand are still affected. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Officials from the People's Republic of China warn that the 2011 China floods will have a negative impact on food prices. (Yonhap News)

• The death toll from RusAir Flight 9605 in Petrozavodsk, Russia, rises to 45. (RIA Novosti)

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• International relations

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• South Korea announces that it will build a new resettlement centre for refugees from North Korea. (AFP via Channel News Asia)

• The President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir threatens to cut off pipelines carrying Southern Sudanese petroleum (oil) on July 1 unless a deal is done. (BBC)

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• Law and crime

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• Journalist Anatoly Bitkov, the chief editor of the Kolyma Plus TV channel, is found dead in his apartment in the town of Magadan in the Russian Far East. (RIA Novosti)

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• Sports

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• Sports fans will find out in the next few days if they have been successful in obtaining tickets for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. (Press Association via The Guardian)

• Australian water polo player James Stanton is banned for two years from competition for using the banned substance Clenbuterol. (ESPN)

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• Refugees

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• UN report says 80 per cent of world's refugees live in poor countries

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• Today in Judaism

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• Today in Jewish History

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• Martyrs of Blois (1171)

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• The 20th of Sivan is the anniversary of the first blood libel in France. On this date in 1171, tens of Jewish men and women were burned alive in the French town of Blois on the infamous accusation that Jews used to the blood of Christian children in the preparation of matzot for Passover. For a detailed account see link below.

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• Daily Quote

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• One who does teshuvah (repents) out of awe, his premeditated sins are rendered as unwitting transgressions. One who does teshuvah out of love, his premeditated sins are rendered as merits.

- Talmud, Yoma 86b

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• Daily Study

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• Chitas and Rambam for today:

• Chumash: Korach, 4th Portion Numbers 17:9-17:15 with Rashi

• Tehillim: Chapters 97 - 103

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• Tanya: Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, beginning of Chapter 7

• Rambam:

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• Sefer Hamitzvos:

• 1 Chapter: Gezelah va'Avedah Chapter Sixteen

• 3 Chapters: Naarah Besulah Chapter One, Naarah Besulah Chapter Two, Naarah Besulah Chapter Three

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• Hayom Yom:

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• "Today's Day"

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• Yom Ree’vee Sivan 205703

• Torah lessons: Chumash: Sh'lach, Revi'i with Rashi.

• Tehillim: 97-103.

• Tanya: Ch. 7. With the (p. 307)...to it at all. (p. 309).

• Among my grandfather's aphorisms: The intellectual and emotional structure of the chassid is consonant with his first yechidus1 with his Rebbe. The first yechidus is in accordance with the essence-character of the chassid. The Rebbe prescribes an order of avoda appropriate to the nature of the chassid's essence-character.

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• FOOTNOTES

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• The G-dly soul consists of five parts, of which yechida is the highest. During an audience with the Rebbe (yechidus), the yechida of Rebbe and chassid encounter each other. The chassid, properly prepared (see Tammuz 18) will translate this awakening of yechida into tangible spiritual and moral growth (see Elul 13).

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• Daily Mitzvah (Maimonides)

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• Sivan 20, 5771 • June 22, 2011Today's Mitzvah

• A daily digest of Maimonides’ classic work "Sefer Hamitzvot"

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• Positive Commandment 220

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• The Law of the Seducer

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• "If a man seduces a virgin..."—Exodus 22:15.

• In the event that a man seduces a virgin, we are commanded to follow the pertinent laws detailed in the Torah.

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• Positive Commandment 218

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• The Law of the Rapist

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• "She shall be his wife. . . . He may not send her away all the days of his life"—Deuteronomy 22:29.

• One who rapes [a virgin] must marry the maiden [if she so desires].

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• Negative Commandment 358

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• Divorcing a Rape Victim

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• "She shall be his wife. . . . He may not send her away all the days of his life"—Deuteronomy 22:29.

• As explained in Positive Commandment 218, one who rapes [a virgin] must marry the maiden [if she so desires]. He may never divorce her [without her consent].

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• Positive Commandment 219

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• The Slandering Husband

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• "She shall be his wife; he may not send her away all the days of his life"—Deuteronomy 22:19.

• In the event that a man slanders his newly-married virgin wife, falsely accusing her of infidelity, we are commanded to follow the pertinent laws detailed in the Torah. This includes lashes for the husband, and his obligation to remain married to this wife [if she so desires].

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• Negative Commandment 359

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• Divorcing the Defamation Victim

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• "He may not send her away as long as he lives"—Deuteronomy 22:19.

• As explained in Positive Commandment 219, a husband who slanders his newly-married virgin wife, falsely accusing her of infidelity, must remain married to the wife [if she so desires]. He may never divorce her [without her consent].



• THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH

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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. {P}