NEWS AND MIDRASH

Today is: Erev Shabbat, Tammuz 20, 5771 • 7 22, 2011

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Topics in the news

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Space Shuttle Atlantis (pictured) concludes its final mission, ending the thirty-year Space Shuttle program.

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Goran Hadžić is detained in Serbia, becoming the last of 161 people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to be arrested.

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The United Nations declares a famine in southern Somalia.

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Current events

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Business and economy

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QANTAS pilots commence industrial action for the first time in 45 years. (AFP via The West Australian)

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International relations

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ASEAN Regional Forum

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South Korea seeks a bilateral meeting with North Korea to discuss nuclear issues at the sidelines of an ASEAN Regional Forum in Bali, Indonesia. (Yonhap)

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The United States Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton praises the People's Republic of China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations members for resolving a dispute over the South China Sea. (AFP via Yahoo News)

North Korea appoints Ri Yong-ho as its new negotiator in the Six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear weapons program. (Yonhap)

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Law and crime

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Up to 100 asylum seekers, many from Iran have again rioted at Australia's Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. (AAP via WA Today)

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Today in Jewish History

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• Passing of Rabbi Avraham Chaim Na’eh ( 1954)

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Rabbi Avraham Chaim Na'eh (1890-1954) was born in Hebron to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Na'eh, a Lubavitcher chassid and dean of the Magen Avot, a yeshiva founded by the S'dei Chemed. With the outbreak of World War One, the Turks, who controlled the Land of Israel at the time, expelled anyone who was not a Turkish citizen. Most of the exiled Jews, including Rabbi Avraham Chaim, gathered in Alexandria, Egypt. During his time there, Rabbi Avraham Chaim founded Yeshivat Eretz Yisrael and wrote the halachic work Shenot Chaim, a concise digest of halachah for Sephardic Jews. In 1918, he returned to Palestine to work for the Edah HaChareidit (a prominent Orthodox communal organization), under Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.

Rabbi Na'eh best known for his halachic works Ketzot ha-Shulchan and Shiurei Torah ("measurements of the Torah"), in which he converted archaic halachic measurements into modern terms. Contemporary halachic authorities follow his measurements to this day.

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Daily Quote

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When you plow and you sow - things will grow

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- Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch







Daily Study

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Chitas and Rambam for today:

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Chumash: Matot, 6th Portion Numbers 32:1-32:19 with Rashi

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Tehillim: Chapters 97 - 103

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Tanya: Igeret HaTeshuva , middle of Chapter 4

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Rambam:

• Sefer Hamitzvos:

• 1 Chapter: Mechirah Chapter Seven

• 3 Chapters: Nezirut Chapter 6, Nezirut Chapter 7, Nezirut Chapter 8

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Hayom Yom: ''Today's Day''

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There are three forms of hitbon'nut (contemplation, meditation):

(a.) Study-meditation: After mastering the concept thoroughly, one meditates on its profundity, until the intellectual element shines forth for him.

(b.) Meditation before davening: This is directed toward sensing the vitality of the concept learned, in contrast to sensing the intellectual element emphasized in study-meditation.

(c.) Meditation in davening: To sense the "G-dly element" in the concept learned.

These three are rungs on the ladder of sensitivity. It is only by G-d's kindness towards us that we may occasionally sense G-dhood spontaneously, without any avoda at all. This comes about by virtue of the quality of Ultimate Essential G-dhood within the soul. For avoda by one's own efforts, however, these three forms of meditation are essential.

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FOOTNOTES

1. Atzmut.

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Today's Mitzvah

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

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Negative Commandment 205

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A Nazirite Eating Grape Seeds

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"...from the seed to its skin he shall not eat "—Numbers 6:4.

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A nazirite may not eat grape seeds.

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Negative Commandment 206

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A Nazirite Eating Grape Peels

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"...its skin he shall not eat "—Numbers 6:4.

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A nazirite may not eat grape peels.

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Negative Commandment 208

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A Nazirite under the Same Roof as a Corpse

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"He shall not come near to a dead body"—Numbers 6:6.

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A nazirite may not make himself ritually impure by entering the same roofed area as a corpse.

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Negative Commandment 207

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A Nazirite's Ritual Purity

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"For his father, his mother . . . he shall not make himself impure"—Numbers 6:7.

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A nazirite may not allow himself to become ritually impure—the sort of impurity contracted through contact with a corpse.

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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.