NEWS AND MIDRASH

Today is: Erev Shabbat, Tammuz 13, 5771 • 7 15, 2011


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Topics in the news

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A triple bombing in Mumbai kills at least 17 people and injures 130 others.

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Following political pressure amid an ongoing phone hacking controversy, News Corporation abandons its bid for full ownership of BSkyB.

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Ahmed Wali Karzai, Afghan politician and half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, is assassinated.

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Twelve people, including the head of the Cyprus Navy, are killed in an explosion at a naval base, the worst peacetime military accident in the history of Cyprus.

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The sinking of cruise ship Bulgaria on the Volga River in Tatarstan, Russia, leaves 129 people dead or missing.

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The World Netball Championships conclude with Australia defeating New Zealand in the final.

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Current events

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Business and economy

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BHP Billiton buys US based petroleum company Petrohawk for $12 billion. (Sydney Morning Herald)

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Rebekah Brooks resigns as chief executive of News International as a result of the News of the World phone hacking affair. (Washington Post), (AFP via France24)

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Disasters

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Landslides in two remote Nepalese villages kill six people and injure another ten. (AP via The Guardian)

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Mount Lokon on Indonesia's Sulawesi island erupts prompting thousands of people to flee. (AFP via ABC News Online), (CNN)

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International relationsh

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The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with NATO leaders to try and find a solution to the Libya crisis.

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Today in Judaism

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Today in Jewish History

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• R. Yosef Yitzchak Freed (1927)

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On the 13th of Tammuz of 1927, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, received the documents authorizing his release from a sentence of exile to Kastroma in the interior of Russia. The Rebbe was actually notified of his release on Tammuz 12, but since that day was a legal holiday, the Certificate of Release freeing him to travel home was issued only the next day. Thus both the 12th and 13th of Tammuz are celebrated as a "festival of liberation" by the Chabad-Lubavitch community. (For more on the Rebbe's arrest and liberation, "Today in Jewish History" for yesterday, Tammuz 12).

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Daily Quote

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[The Torah's] ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace; it is a tree of life for those who grasp it, and those who draw near it are fortunate...

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- Proverbs 3:17-18

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Daily Study

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Chitas and Rambam for today:

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Chumash: Pinchas, 6th Portion Numbers 28:16-29:11 with Rashi

Tehillim: Chapters 69 - 71

Tanya: Igeret HaTeshuva , Chapter 2

Rambam:

• Sefer Hamitzvos:

• 1 Chapter: Rotseah uShmirat Nefesh Chapter Thirteen

• 3 Chapters: Shvuot Chapter 10, Shvuot Chapter 11, Shvuot Chapter 12

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Hayom Yom: "Today's Day"

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On this day the Rebbe (R. Yosef Yitzchak) was actually freed.

The imprisonment began at 2:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Sivan 15, 5687 (June 15, 1927). He remained in exile - in the town of Kostrama - until one half-hour past mid-day, Wednesday, Tamuz 13, 5687 (July 13, 1927).

From a letter of the Rebbe to mark the Festival of his Liberation: "I send you a maamar ...which is my participation - for their success - with my beloved friends the chassidim wherever they reside, (which is my way of) being united with you in your farbrengen for the purpose of strengthening the practices of Chassidus, in fixing and observing periods for studying Chassidus and to be stimulated to pragmatically implement those studies...

May our G-d and G-d of our Fathers bless the whole community of chassidim - them, their households, their children and grandchildren among all our brothers the people of Israel (G-d grant them eternal life)1 with all good things of soul and of flesh."

FOOTNOTES

1. C.f. Yeshayahu 38:16; the verse there refers to t'chiyat hameitim, resurrection.

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Today's Mitzvah

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Positive Commandment 7

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Swearing in G‑d's Name

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"And swear by His Name"—Deuteronomy 10:20.

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When necessary to conclusively confirm or deny, we are commanded to swear solely in G‑d's Name. This constitutes an honor for, and exaltation of, G‑d.

It is forbidden to swear in the name of any other entity, such as an angel or constellation, unless the person's intention is only to swear in the name of the one and only Power who created these entities.

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THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH

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Genesis Chapter 1

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בְּרֵאשִׁית

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Yom Ha´shee´shee ....Sixth day

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כד וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, תּוֹצֵא הָאָרֶץ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה לְמִינָהּ, בְּהֵמָה וָרֶמֶשׂ וְחַיְתוֹ-אֶרֶץ, לְמִינָהּ; וַיְהִי-כֵן. 24

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And God said: 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind.' And it was so.

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כה וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לְמִינָהּ, וְאֶת-הַבְּהֵמָה לְמִינָהּ, וְאֵת כָּל-רֶמֶשׂ הָאֲדָמָה, לְמִינֵהוּ; וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב. 25

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And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

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כו וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ; וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל-הָאָרֶץ, וּבְכָל-הָרֶמֶשׂ, הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 26

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And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'

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כז וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ, בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ: זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, בָּרָא אֹתָם. 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

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כח וַיְבָרֶךְ אֹתָם, אֱלֹהִים, וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם אֱלֹהִים פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וְכִבְשֻׁהָ; וּרְדוּ בִּדְגַת הַיָּם, וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבְכָל-חַיָּה, הָרֹמֶשֶׂת עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 28

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And God blessed them; and God said unto them: 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.'

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כט וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, הִנֵּה נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת-כָּל-עֵשֶׂב זֹרֵעַ זֶרַע אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי כָל-הָאָרֶץ, וְאֶת-כָּל-הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר-בּוֹ פְרִי-עֵץ, זֹרֵעַ זָרַע: לָכֶם יִהְיֶה, לְאָכְלָה. 29

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And God said: 'Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed--to you it shall be for food;

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ל וּלְכָל-חַיַּת הָאָרֶץ וּלְכָל-עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּלְכֹל רוֹמֵשׂ עַל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר-בּוֹ נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה, אֶת-כָּל-יֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב, לְאָכְלָה; וַיְהִי-כֵן. 30

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and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.' And it was so.

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לא וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה, וְהִנֵּה-טוֹב מְאֹד; וַיְהִי-עֶרֶב וַיְהִי-בֹקֶר, יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי. {פ} 31 And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.