Thursday, June 30, 2011

NEWS AND MIDRASH

• Today is: Yom Khah´mee´shee, Sivan 28, 5771 • 6 30, 2011








• Topics in the news







• The 1318-km Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway opens after 39 months of construction.



• Amid heavy protests, the Greek parliament passes austerity measures in order to obtain the latest tranche of a 110 billion euro loan of the EFSF.



• At least nineteen people, including eight attackers, are killed in a Taliban assault on the Hotel InterContinental in Kabul, Afghanistan.



• The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of crimes against humanity during the ongoing civil war in Libya.



• Current events







• Armed conflicts and attacks







• 2011 Syrian uprising: Al-Jazeera reports that there have been many arrests in the southern town of Deraa with people fleeing to either Damascus or Jordan. (Al Jazeera)



• The Pakistani media reports Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar as claiming that the United States will no longer be able to use the Shamsi Airfield to launch drone attacks on militants. (Reuters)



• The United States has lost a total of 15 troops in Iraq this month, making it the deadliest month for US forces in Iraq since June 2009, when 14 soldiers were killed fighting the Iraqi insurgency. (AP via Kansas City Star)







• Afghanistan







• Two freed French journalists, Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier, return to France after being held captive in Afghanistan by the Taliban for 18 months. (AFP via France 24)



• The International Security Assistance Force blames the Pakistani Haqqani network for a recent attack on the Kabul Inter-Continental and claims to have killed the organiser of the attack in a targeted strike on Wednesday. (CBS News)



• The UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague announces that Britain would supply body armor, police uniforms and communications equipment to Libyan National Transitional Council police forces. (AP via San Jose Mercury News)







• Business and economy







• The Japanese auto industry begins designated weekday shutdowns as part of an effort to save energy as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (Kyodo)



• Samsung Electronics lodges a claim with the US International Trade Commission to stop Apple

• Inc. importing six products including the iPhone, iPod and iPads for alleged patent infringements. (Yonhap)



• The Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway commences commercial operation in the People's Republic of China. (Economic Times of India)







• Disasters







• Tropical Storm Arlene, the first tropical storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, makes landfall near Cabo Rojo bringing heavy rain to Mexico and southern Texas. (Houston Chronicle), (National Hurricane Centre)



• A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hits Nagano Prefecture in Japan, resulting in at least seven injuries. (Kyodo)



• International relations



• The inaugural meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States due to be held in Venezuela next week is deferred due to a slow recovery of President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez from an operation in Cuba. (AFP via Google)



• Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge start a nine-day Royal Tour of Canada. (Canadian Press via Winnipeg Free Press)







• Law and crime







• Taiwanese media reports that former President Lee Teng-hui has been indicted on charges on embezzlement from a state diplomatic fund. (Washington Post)



• Carson Yeung, the Hong Kong businessman who owns English Football League Championship side Birmingham City F.C., is formally charged with money laundering and released on bail. (Reuters)



• An Egyptian court says that it will issue a ruling on the murder case of two policeman allegedly involved in the death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed on August 24, rather than today as was expected. (Reuters via Alertnet)



• Amnesty International calls on the People's Republic of China to stop the harassment, arbitrary detention and torture of human rights lawyers. (Reuters via Alertnet)







• Politics and elections







• Protests continue outside the Greek parliament in Athens as MPs consider the second part of an austerity package. (Al-Jazeera)



• The Indonesian National Police arrests at least one suspect in connection to the alleged forgery of documents associated with the 2009 legislative elections. (Jakarta Post)







• Science and technology







• The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority announce investigations suggest that fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt are implicated in the E. coli outbreaks. (Reuters)



• According to a study by a team of epidemiologists and physicians, evidence "strongly suggests" that United Nations peacekeepers brought a cholera strain to Haiti that has killed thousands of people. (AP)



• Al-Shamukh, a popular jihadist Internet forum, is knocked off the Internet by a fairly sophisticated cyberattack. (CBS News)









• Today in Judaism







• Today in Jewish History





• Lubavitcher Rebbe Arrives in US (1941)



• After escaping Nazi-occupied Paris, and many perilous months in Vichy France, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushkah, boarded the SS Serpa Pinto in Lisbon, Portugal. On Monday, June 23--Sivan 28 on the Jewish calendar--at 10:30 A.M., they arrived in New York.

• Shortly after his arrival, the Rebbe's father-in-law, the then Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak Schneersohn (who had been rescued from Nazi-occupied Warsaw in 1940), appointed him to head the social and educational outreach programs of Chabad-Lubavitch. Thus the Rebbe began his decades-long revolutionary work to revitalize Jewish life in the Western Hemisphere, which spread, by means of the emissaries ("shluchim") he dispatched from his New York headquarters, to every part of the world.







• Daily Quote







• In material matters, one who is "satisfied with his lot" (Ethics of the Fathers 4:1) is an individual of the highest quality; a person possessing this trait will attain the highest levels. In spiritual matters, however, to be satisfied with one's lot is the worst deficiency, and leads, G-d forbid, to descent and falling...



- Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (quoted in Hayom Yom, Sivan 30)





• Daily Study







• Chitas and Rambam for today:



• Chumash: Chukat, 5th Portion Numbers 20:22-21:9 with Rashi



• Tehillim: Chapters 135 - 139



• Tanya: Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, middle of Chapter 7



• Rambam:

• Sefer Hamitzvos:



• 1 Chapter: Chovel uMazzik Chapter Six



• 3 Chapters: Issurei Biah Chapter Eighteen, Issurei Biah Chapter Nineteen, Issurei Biah Chapter Twenty





• Hayom Yom:







• "Today's Day"







• The Tzemach Tzedek once told his son, my grandfather, an incident1 in his experience, and concluded: For helping someone in his livelihood, even to earn just 70 kopeks (a small, low-value Russian coin) on a calf, all the gates to the Heavenly Chambers are open for him.

• Years later my grandfather told this to my father and added: One should really know the route to the Heavenly Chambers, but actually it is not crucial. You only need the main thing - to help another wholeheartedly, with sensitivity, to take pleasure in doing a kindness to another.



• FOOTNOTES



• *. On this day in 5701 (1941) the Rebbe of righteous memory arrived in the U.S.A. together with his wife, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, of blessed memory.

• The Tzemach Tzedek was on the way to shul when someone asked him for a loan, it being a market day and he could then buy and sell and earn something. The Rebbe asked him to come back after the davening, and continued on to shul. In shul he suddenly realized that the poor fellow needed this loan now, so the Rebbe returned home, got some money, sought out the fellow with great difficulty, gave him the money and then went on to daven. The Alter Rebbe then appeared in a vision to the Tzemach Tzedek, beaming, and lauded him for his thoughtfulness. The Alter Rebbe had not appeared to him for quite some time before this incident; it was the favor to another that merited the appearance of the Alter Rebbe.







• Today's Mitzvah



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







• Negative Commandment 161







• The High Priest Marrying a Widow







• "A widow... he not marry"—Leviticus 21:14.







• A High Priest is forbidden to marry a widow.



• (Actually, it is forbidden for a High Priest to have sexual relations with a widow—even without marriage. Thus, if he marries a widow and has relations with her, he transgresses two prohibitions.)







• Negative Commandment 162







• Relations between a High Priest and a Widow







• "Neither shall he profane his seed among his people"—Leviticus 21:15.







• It is forbidden for a High Priest to have sexual relations with a widow.







• Positive Commandment 38







• A High Priest's Wife







• "He shall marry a woman in her virgin state"—Leviticus 21:13.







• A High Priest is commanded to marry a virgin.







• Negative Commandment 160







• A Priest Marrying a Divorcee







• "Neither shall they take a woman divorced by her husband"—Leviticus 21:7.







• It is forbidden for a priest to marry a divorcee.







• Negative Commandment 158







• A Priest Marrying a "Zonah"







• "They shall not take a wife who is a zonah"—Leviticus 21:7.







• A priest may not marry a woman who in the past had sexual relations with a man whom she is forbidden to marry [e.g. a non-Jew or next of kin].







• Negative Commandment 159







• A Priest Marrying a "Profaned" Woman







• "They shall not take a wife who is... profaned"—Leviticus 21:7.



• A priest may not marry a chalalah [a woman who in the past had sexual relations with a priest whom she is forbidden to marry because of his priestly status (e.g., she was a divorcee)], or the daughter born from a relationship between a priest and a chalalah.



• THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH

• Genesis Chapter 1

• בְּרֵאשִׁית



• Yom Khah´mee´shee.. Fifth day

• כ וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים--יִשְׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם, שֶׁרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה; וְעוֹף יְעוֹפֵף עַל-הָאָרֶץ, עַל-פְּנֵי רְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמָיִם. 20

• And God said: 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.'

• כא וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים; וְאֵת כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת אֲשֶׁר שָׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם לְמִינֵהֶם, וְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף כָּנָף לְמִינֵהוּ, וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב. 21

• And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

• כב וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם אֱלֹהִים, לֵאמֹר: פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ, וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הַמַּיִם בַּיַּמִּים, וְהָעוֹף, יִרֶב בָּאָרֶץ. 22 And God blessed them, saying: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.'

• כג וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם חֲמִישִׁי. {פ} 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. {P}



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