NEWS AND MIDRASH

Today is: Yom Ree’vee’, Av 10, 5771 • 8 10, 2011

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. Bringing Enlightenment To X-ian Heathens Lost In the Devil’s Deception



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Topics in the news

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English Civil War, initially sparked by a fatal police shooting in London, spreads across parts of England.

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Manuel Pinto da Costa is elected President of São Tomé and Príncipe.

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The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, the longest guided busway in the world, opens in England.

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Standard & Poor's downgrades the credit rating of the United States government to AA+ for the first time.

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Juno, the first solar-powered spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

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Horn of Africa famine

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Current events

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Armed conflict and attacks

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The People's Republic of China's first aircraft carrier, the refitted Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag, commences its first sea trial under the Chinese flag. (Bloomberg), (Reuters)

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Korean Peninsula:

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The Yonhap news agency reports that sources have advised them that North Korea is plotting to assassinate Kim Kwan-jin, currently South Korea's defence minister. (Yonhap News)

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North and South Korea exchange artillery fire near Yeonpyeong Island. (Bloomberg)

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A US drone missile attack kills at least 18 people in Pakistan's North Waziristan province. (Dawn)

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Arts and culture

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The south ridge of Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain, is renamed Hillary Ridge after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Mount Everest. (Reuters)

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Business and economy

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Stock markets in Asia and Australia continue to rebound after the United States Federal Reserve promises to keep interest rates near zero for two years. (CNBC)

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The trade surplus of the People's Republic of China rises to $31.5 billion in July, the highest level in two years. (Bloomberg)

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Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority gives Tiger Airways the all clear to resume operations after a six-week suspension for safety violations. (Sydney Morning Herald)

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Law and crime

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Australian crime figure Judy Moran is sentenced to 26 years in jail for her part in the murder of Des "Tuppence" Moran in Melbourne with the actual murderer Geoffrey Armour also sentenced to 26 years. (Sydney Morning Herald)

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Have the Workers of England Finally decided to cast off their bondage? English riots or Civil War?

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Rioting hits other English cities including Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham, though London is largely quiet. (BBC)

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, holds another cabinet meeting to discuss responses to the riots with police authorised to use water cannon and rubber bullets. (CNN), (The Guardian)

Police from Scotland are being sent to England to help combat riots and disorder. (BBC)



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Today's Laws & Customs

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• End of "Nine Days"

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In commemoration of the burning of the Temple which lasted into the 10th day of Av, we continue the mourning practices of the "Nine Days" (abstaining from meat and wine, music, recreational bathing, etc.--see "Laws and Customs" for "Av 1) until after mid-day.

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Today in Jewish History

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• Holy Temple Burns (69)

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The Romans set the Temple aflame on the afternoon of Av 9 (see yesterday's Today in Jewish History and it continued to burn through Av 10. For this reasons, some of the mourning practices of the "Nine Days" are observed through the morning hours of Av 10 (see "Laws and Customs" below)

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• AMIA Bombing (1994)

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Arab terrorists exploded a bomb in the the Jewish community center (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 86 and wounding more than 300, in the most lethal attack against any diaspora Jewish community since the Holocaust.

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• Expulsion from Gaza (2005)

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More than 8,500 Jewish residents were forcefully expelled from their homes in 25 towns and settlements in the Gaza Strip (including 16 settlements in the flourishing "Gush Katif" belt) and Northern Shomron in the summer of 2005, as part of the Israeli government's ill-fated "Disengagement Plan."

Av 10 was the deadline set by the governments for all Jews to leave their homes in these areas. Two days later, tens of thousands of soldiers and police officers began the forceful removal of the thousands who refused to leave willingly. The removal of all Jewish residents from Gush Katif and the Gaza Strip was completed by Av 17, and from Northern Samaria a day later. The army completed its withdrawal from these areas on the 8th of Elul, after bulldozing all the hundreds of homes and civic buildings in the settlements. The Jewish dead were disinterred and removed from the cemeteries. Only the synagogues were left standing.

The government's hopes that the "disengagement" would open "new opportunities" in relations with the Palestinian Arabs were bitterly disappointed. No sooner had the last Israeli soldiers departed from the Gaza Strip that Arab mobs began looting, desecrating and tourching the synagogues. The vacated settlements became the staging grounds for terrorist attacks against Israel, including the unremitting rocket fire on the nearby Israeli town of Sederot and the cities and settlements of the Western Negev.

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Daily Quote

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Although the blowing the Shofar is a divine decree, there is a hint within it, as if to say, "Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep, awaken from your slumber! Examine your actions, return in teshuvah, and remember your Creator..."

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- Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Teshuvah 3:4)

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Daily Study

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Chitas and Rambam for today:

Chumash: Va'etchanan, 4th Portion Deuteronomy 5:1-5:18 with Rashi

Tehillim: Chapters 55 - 59

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Tanya: Iggeret HaKodesh, Epistle 2

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Rambam:

• Sefer Hamitzvos:

• 1 Chapter: Mechirah Chapter Twenty Six

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

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Hayom Yom: "Today's Day"

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From what my grandfather related:

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a) Originally the epistle Katonti1 ended with the words "restrained spirit etc." Later, our Great Rabbi (the Alter Rebbe) delivered the maamar "As water reflects the face etc." three times in Lyozna, following the interpretation of Rashi2 and not of Targum.3 After that he made an addition to the epistle Katonti as follows: And maybe, through all that, G-d will give it into the heart of their brethren that "as water (reflects) the face" etc. With this he implanted fine character traits in the chassidim.

b) Had the Rebbe not inserted the three words b'midat emet leYaakov ("according to the attribute of Truth unto Yaakov")4, he would have attracted fifty thousand more chassidim. But the Rebbe demands the trait of truth.

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FOOTNOTES

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1. "I have become small..."; second letter in Igeret Hakodesh, written by the Alter Rebbe on his return from his arrest in Petersburg (in 5559).

2. Mishlei 27:19. As water reflects the face so one's heart reflects the feelings of the other's heart.

3. Ibid. As waters differ so do men's hearts.

4. Following the exhortation to the chassidim that "they are to subdue their spirit and heart before everyone."

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Today's Mitzvah

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

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Positive Commandment 127

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The First Tithe

"But the tithes of the Children of Israel which they offer to G‑d as a gift..."—Numbers 18:24.

We are commanded to separate a tenth of our crops and give it to a Levite.

This biblical precept only applies in the Land of Israel.

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THE SACREDNESS OF EACH DAY IN TORAH

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Genesis Chapter 1

בְּרֵאשִׁית

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Yom Revee´ee............Fourth day

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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}