NEWS AND MIDRASH

Today is:Yom Khah´mee´shee, Tammuz 25, 5771 • 7 27, 2011

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Topics in the news

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Trương Tấn Sang becomes the new President of Vietnam and nominates Nguyễn Tấn Dũng to another term as Prime Minister.

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In cycling, Cadel Evans (pictured) becomes the first Australian to win the Tour de France.

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Protests against rising house prices in Israel continue, with thousands gathering in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

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Thousands of protesters encounter violence while marching toward the Egyptian Ministry of Defense in Cairo.

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Singer Amy Winehouse is found dead at her London home.

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Two high-speed trains collide and derail near Wenzhou, China, killing at least 39 people.

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Two attacks in Norway—a bombing in Oslo and a shooting on Utøya—result in at least 76 deaths.

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Current events

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Armed conflict and attacks

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Norwegian police start releasing the names of the victims of the 2011 Norway attacks. (AP via News Limited)

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Business and economy

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The Australian dollar reaches a post-float record against the United States dollar based on higher than expected consumer price index figures and concerns over a US default. (AAP via Yahoo Finance)

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Disasters

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Twelve people are killed in Chuncheon, South Korean mountain resort due to a landslide caused by heavy rain. (Yonhap), (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)



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The United Nations World Food Programme prepares an airlift to Mogadishu in Somalia to help relieve the 2011 Horn of Africa famine. (AFP via France24)

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Politics

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Republicans in the United States House of Representatives will delay a vote on extending the debt ceiling until Thursday due to concerns over level of proposed savings not being sufficient. (Washington Post)

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Spanish protesters known as the "Indignants" begin a march from Madrid to Brussels in Belgium to protest at cuts in government expenditure in Spain. (BBC)

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Today in Judaism

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Today in Jewish History

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• Passing of Rabbi Aharon Berachia of Modina (1639)

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Rabbi Aharon Berachia ben Moshe of Modina (? - 1639) was an Italian Kabbalist and a student of Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano. At the request of the Burial Society at Mantua, he instituted rites for them. The author of many Kabbalistic works, he is perhaps best known for his work Ma'abar Yabbok, which contains mystical dissertations on purity and holiness. He also wrote additional prayers to be offered for the sick and the dead, as well as a code of conduct for their treatment. Many of the prayers recited at the gravesites of the deceased were composed by him.

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Tradition has it that an angel called a "maggid" would come and study with him, similar to the angel that would visit Rabbi Yosef Caro.

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Today's Mitzvah

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Negative Commandment 216

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Planting Vegetables or Grain in a Vineyard.

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"You shall not sow your vineyard with different seeds"—Deuteronomy 22:9.

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It is forbidden to plant vegetables or grain in a vineyard.

This biblical prohibition pertains only to the Land of Israel. The Sages, however, extended it to also include fields in the Diaspora.

Daily Quote

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Said Rabbi Acha: The talk of the servants of the fathers is more desirable than the Torah scholarship of the children. For Eliezer's story, which takes up two or three pages in the Torah, is twice recounted, while many principles of Torah law are conveyed with a single word or letter

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Daily Study

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Chitas and Rambam for today:

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Chumash: Massei, 4th Portion Numbers 34:16-34:29 with Rashi

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Tehillim: Chapter 119, Verses 1-96

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Tanya: Igeret HaTeshuva , beginning of Chapter 7

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Rambam:

• Sefer Hamitzvos:

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• 1 Chapter: Mechirah Chapter Twelve

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• 3 Chapters: Kilaayim Chapter 3, Kilaayim Chapter 4, Kilaayim Chapter 5

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Hayom Yom: Today's Day"

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There are two characteristic expressions in Chassidus:

(a) A Jew recognizes G-dliness and senses the supra-natural. He needs no proofs for these.

(b) A Jew neither wants nor is able to be sundered from G-dliness.1

The truth is that these two expressions are one and the same: A Jew recognizes G-dliness and senses the higher-than-natural, and that is why he neither wants nor can he be torn away from G-dliness.

FOOTNOTES

1. See Sivan 21.

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Today's Mitzvah

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Negative Commandment 216

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Planting Vegetables or Grain in a Vineyard

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"You shall not sow your vineyard with different seeds"—Deuteronomy 22:9.

.

It is forbidden to plant vegetables or grain in a vineyard.

.

This biblical prohibition pertains only to the Land of Israel. The Sages, however, extended it to also include fields in the Diaspora.

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THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH

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Genesis Chapter 1

בְּרֵאשִׁית

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Yom Khah´mee´shee.. Fifth day

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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}