Members phkrause Posted October 11, 2017 Author Members Posted October 11, 2017 Tishrei 21 In 1946, following the Nuremberg trials, 10 Nazi war criminals were hanged. The hanging of the 10 Nazis eerily echoed the 10 sons of Haman who were hanged in the Purim story. Incredibly, this day on the Jewish calendar is Hoshana Raba, the traditional day of judgment for the nations of the world. phkrause 1 Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 12, 2017 Author Members Posted October 12, 2017 Tishrei 22 In 825 BCE, King Solomon bid farewell to the Jewish people who had come to Jerusalem for a 14-day ceremony dedicating the Holy Temple (1-Kings 8:66). King David had brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, but as a warrior he was not permitted by God to erect the Temple. However, his son Solomon did so. The Temple was the most important site in Israel -- a spiritual magnet for the Jewish nation's yearnings. The magnificent structure took seven years to build, and stood for 410 years before being destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 14, 2017 Author Members Posted October 14, 2017 Tishrei 23 In 67 CE, Roman soldiers captured Gamla, a fortress in Israel's Golan region, and killed all its inhabitants. The ancient historian Josephus Flavius, a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, fortified Gamla as a main stronghold in 66 CE. The Romans attempted to take the city by means of a siege ramp, but were turned back by the defenders; only on the second attempt did they succeed in penetrating the fortifications and conquering the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered, while others chose to jump to their deaths from the top of the cliff. The location of ancient Gamla was discovered in archeological excavations during the 1970s; the remains have been preserved as a national park. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 14, 2017 Author Members Posted October 14, 2017 Tishrei 24 In 336 BCE, the prophets Ezra and Nechemia convened the Jewish community in Jerusalem. There, as recorded in the biblical Book of Nechemia (ch. 9), they recalled the major events of Jewish history, and pledged to uphold the ancient covenant. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 16, 2017 Author Members Posted October 16, 2017 Tishrei 25 Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev (1740-1810), a beloved chassidic leader in Poland and the Ukraine. He is famous for always interpreting people's actions in the best possible light, for which he earned the appellation, "defense attorney of the Jewish people." He authored a popular commentary of the Torah, Kedushat Levi. Tishrei 25 also marks the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Moshe Sofer of Pressburg (1762-1839), a leader of European Jewry known as the "Chatam Sofer." Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 17, 2017 Author Members Posted October 17, 2017 Tishrei 26 In 1973, a cease-fire resolution was passed by the U.N. Security Council to halt the Yom Kippur War. Shuttle diplomacy by Henry Kissinger compelled Israel and Egypt to accept the cease-fire. Fighting, however, would continue for another four days. In the war, Israel suffered the loss of 2,600 soldiers and 800 tanks. Four years later, Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat would visit Jerusalem and announce his readiness to forge a permanent peace deal. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 17, 2017 Author Members Posted October 17, 2017 Tishrei 27 In 1927, the Israeli city of Netanya was founded on a plot of empty land. Netanya has since grown to become the fourth-largest city in Israel, with a population of 165,000. Netanya has one of the most beautiful stretches of beach in Israel, with white sands and inviting waters. Netanya was named for Nathan Straus (1848-1931), an American merchant and philanthropist. Straus was a co-owner of R.H. Macy & Co., yet he never amassed personal wealth because he was always using his money to help people. For example, in New York's winter of 1893, he gave away more than two million five-cent tickets good for coal, food or lodging. His greatest devotion, however, was to Israel. He gave more than two-thirds of his fortune and devoted the last 15 years of his life to this cause. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 19, 2017 Author Members Posted October 19, 2017 Tishrei 28 In 1930, the British government issued the Passfield White Paper, a formal statement of policy in Palestine. The paper was an attempt to appease the Arabs in the aftermath of the 1929 riots: During six days of Arab rioting in Jerusalem, Gaza, Hebron and Tzfat, 135 Jews were killed and more than 300 wounded. The White Paper criticized the Jewish Agency for promoting Jewish employment opportunities, claiming that it damaged economic development of the Arab population. Further, the paper required that Jews obtain permission from the British authorities to purchase land. The result was that Jewish immigration was greatly curtailed. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 19, 2017 Author Members Posted October 19, 2017 Tishrei 29 Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Don Yitzhak Abravanel (1437-1508), a leader during the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry. After having served as treasurer to the king of Portugal, Abravanel became a minister in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In 1492, Isabella signed a decree expelling all Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. In the Inquisition, an estimated 32,000 Jews were burned at the stake and another 200,000 were expelled from Spain. Rabbi Abrabanel reportedly offered Queen Isabella the astronomical sum of 600,000 crowns to revoke the edict. Abrabanel was unable to prevent the expulsion and was exiled along with his people. Most of his rabbinic writings were composed in his later years when he was free of governmental responsibilities. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 20, 2017 Author Members Posted October 20, 2017 Tishrei 30 In 1958, the foundation stone was laid for Israel's Knesset building in Jerusalem. The Knesset is composed of 120 members, the same size as the Great Assembly ("Knesset HaGedola") that served as the rabbinical body during the Second Temple era. (The Great Assembly redacted the biblical books Ezekiel, Daniel and Esther, and composed many prayers such as the Amidah.) Today, the Israeli Knesset is known as a bastion of democracy in the Middle East, with women, Arabs, and other minorities represented. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 22, 2017 Author Members Posted October 22, 2017 Cheshvan 1 In 1985, ground-breaking ceremonies were held for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. Two milk cans containing soil and ashes from concentration camps were symbolically buried on the site. The museum was dedicated in April 1993, with speeches by President Bill Clinton, Chaim Herzog and Elie Wiesel. The museum cost approximately $168 million to build, funded with more than 200,000 private donations. The museum attracts 2 million visitors annually. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 23, 2017 Author Members Posted October 23, 2017 Cheshvan 2 Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, a 20th century Torah sage and son of the illustrious Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman, who was martyred in the Holocaust. Rabbi Wasserman and his wife had no children, but together they educated tens of thousands of Jews in France, the U.S. and Israel. After Rabbi Wasserman's death, his wife died 10 days later. Rabbi Wasserman had a sixth sense about people; the story is told of him looking to purchase a used car in Los Angeles. He went to check out one particular car, and asked the owner if he could take it for a test drive. "How do I know you're not going to steal it?" the man said. Rabbi Wasserman then asked if he could use the telephone for a minute. He called the police and reported a stolen vehicle at that very address. The police arrived, confirmed that the car was indeed stolen, and arrested the man. "How did you know?" the police asked Rabbi Wasserman. "Simple," he said. "When I asked to take it for a test drive, he suspected that I'd steal it. Only a thief thinks that way!" Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 24, 2017 Author Members Posted October 24, 2017 Cheshvan 3 In the year 1290, the last of the 16,000 Jews expelled by King Edward I left England. King Edward had banned usury and forced Jews over the age of seven to wear an identifying badge. Some Jews managed to remain in England by hiding their religious identity, but thousands were forced to leave. (Years earlier, King Henry III had forced Jews to pay half the value of their property in taxes, and ordered Jewish worship in synagogue to be held quietly so that Christians would not have to hear it.) Following the expulsion, Jews would not return to England for 350 years, when the policy was reversed by Oliver Cromwell in 1655. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 24, 2017 Author Members Posted October 24, 2017 Cheshvan 4 In 1483, Tomas de Torquemada was appointed as "Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition." Jews of Spain had been forced to convert to Christianity, and the Inquisition was designed to uncover those who were continuing to practice their Judaism in secret (called Conversos or Marranos). Those who never confessed were burned at the stake; those who did confess were strangled first. Torquemada believed that as long as the Jews remained in Spain, they might influence the tens of thousands of Jews who had converted to Christianity. It was on his recommendation that the remainder of the Jewish community -- 200,000 people -- was expelled from Spain in 1492. An estimated 32,000 were burned at the stake, and Torquemada's name became a byword for cruelty and fanaticism in the service of religion. The order of expulsion was not officially voided by the government of Spain until 1968. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 26, 2017 Author Members Posted October 26, 2017 Cheshvan 5 In 1975, Israel signed the Sinai disengagement pact with Egypt. The agreement called for Israel to withdraw from the Sinai passes captured in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, leaving them as a demilitarized zone monitored by American and United Nations observers. Israel had previously withdrawn from the Sinai in 1956, and would eventually withdraw permanently in 1982 following the Camp David agreement between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 27, 2017 Author Members Posted October 27, 2017 Cheshvan 6 In 1948, the first census taken by the State of Israel placed the population at 780,000 -- 91% Jewish and 9% Arab. A vigorous influx of Jews would arrive the next few years, when 750,000 Jewish refugees fled from Arab countries. Subsequently, Israel has witnessed the dramatic homecoming of Jews from Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, and dozens of other lands. As of 2013, the population of Israel stands at 8 million, of which 20% is Arab. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 27, 2017 Author Members Posted October 27, 2017 Cheshvan 7 Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin (1887-1933), the founder and driving force behind the Daf Yomi, a program of daily Talmud study. Today, tens of thousands of Jews study the "daily daf," and every seven-and-a-half years a "siyum" (completion) of the Talmud is held with large celebrations in Madison Square Garden and other locations worldwide. Rabbi Shapiro represented the Jews in the Polish Senate, and he built the grand Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in Poland, a building which remains standing till today. Sadly, Rabbi Shapiro passed away at the young age of 46. His remains were later re-interred to a cemetery in Jerusalem. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted October 28, 2017 Author Members Posted October 28, 2017 Cheshvan 8 Yahrtzeit of Rabbeinu Yona of Gerona (1180-1263). Rabbeinu Yona was an outspoken critic of Maimonides' writings, particularly "Guide for the Perplexed." The governmental authorities later used this as a pretext to burn piles of Maimonides' books and copies of the Talmud. Rabbeinu Yona took this tragedy as a sign of heavenly rebuke against him; as a way to repair the damage, he undertook to write his famous work Shaarei Teshuva (Gates of Repentance), a Jewish system of introspection and self-improvement. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
Members phkrause Posted November 30, 2018 Author Members Posted November 30, 2018 Alexander in Jerusalem (313 BCE) On Kislev 21 of the year 3448 from creation (313 BCE), there occurred the historic meeting between Shimon HaTzaddik and Alexander ('the Great") of Macedonia. The Samarians, bitter enemies of the Jews, had convinced Alexander that the Jews' refusal to place his image in their Temple was a sign of rebellion against his sovereignty, and that the Holy Temple should be destroyed. The Kohen Gadol ("High Priest") at the time was Shimon HaTzaddik, the last of the "Men of the Great Assembly" who rebuilt the Holy Temple and revitalized Judaism under Ezra. On the 21st of Kislev Alexander marched on Jerusalem at the head of his army; Shimon, garbed in the vestments of the High Priest and accompanied with a delegation of Jewish dignitaries, went forth to greet him. The two groups walked towards each other all night; at the crack of dawn they met. As Alexander beheld the visage of the High Priest, he dismounted his horse and bowed respectfully; to his men he explained that he often had visions of a similar-looking man leading him into battle. Shimon HaTzaddik brought the emperor to the Holy Temple and explained that Judaism prohibits the display of any graven image; he offered to name all the male children born to priests that year "Alexander" as a demonstration of loyalty to the emperor (which is how "Alexander" became a common Jewish name). The Samarians plot was rebuffed, and Kislev 21 was declared a holiday. (Talmud Yoma 69a) According to an alternative version, this episode occurred on the 25th of Tevet. Quote phkrause Obstinacy is a barrier to all improvement. - ChL 60
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