ב"ה
To view Shabbat Times click here to set your location

Thursday, December 3, 2026

Halachic Times (Zmanim)
To view Halachic Times click here to set your location
Jewish History

As the “Black Death” plague decimated Europe, Christians accused the Jews of causing the plague by poisoning the wells in an effort to wipe out the Gentile population.

On the 23rd of Kislev 5109 (Nov. 15, 1348), Rudolph of Oron, bailiff of Lausanne, sent a letter to the mayor of Strasburg informing him that certain Jews of Lausanne had “confessed” under torture that they together with their coreligionists had poisoned all the wells in the Rhine valley. This resulted in the masses persecuting and killing tens of thousands of Jews throughout Europe.

Links: Overview of Christian Anti-Semitism

Daily Thought

Your soul is full of words, some inscribed, some engraved.

The words inscribed on your soul are like ink upon a page. They came to you from the outside, from life and its experiences. Eventually, they may fade and fall away, to be replaced by other words.

The words engraved are of the soul itself—just as engravings are no more than the form of the stone. When the soul finds quietude, those words are there. If the soul is in turmoil, or soiled by experience, those engravings need only be cleaned and uncovered. But they can never be torn away.

Those same words that are engraved in your soul are also engraved in a holy fire within the depths of the Soul of All Things. They are the words that Moses heard and inscribed on stone and on parchment. They are the words of the holy sages of Torah who found them within their own souls.

Immerse yourself in the words of Torah, allow them entry to touch your soul. Listen quietly, and you will hear those same engravings resonating within your soul.