Ezra, who led the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel after the Babylonian exile (423-353 BCE), oversaw the building of the Second Temple, canonized the 24 books of the Holy Scriptures ("bible") and, as head of the "Great Assembly" legislated a series of laws and practices (including formalized prayer) which left a strong imprint on Judaism to this very day, passed away on the 9th of Tevet of the year 3448 from creation (313 BCE -- exactly 1000 years after the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai). The passing of Ezra marked the end of the "Era of Prophecy".
Links
Alfred Dreyfus, a captain in the French Army, was falsely accused of treason, largely on account of his Jewish identity. On this date, he was formally stripped from his rank, following which he was deported to Devil’s Island, where he languished for over four years. The case and its aftermath, known as the Dreyfus Affair, served as a poignant reminder that despite modern promises of equality and progress, anti-Semitism was still prevalent and Jews were unable to fully integrate into European society.
After being found guilty of crimes against humanity, the evil Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was put to death. Hussein was responsible for the Kuwait invasion that sparked the First Gulf War, and subsequently launched tens of SCUD missiles against Israel.
Link: Purim Saddam
A Torah scroll is a high-precision document.
Journey deep inside the mysteries of this scroll and you will discover an amazing network of words and letters similar to the neuro-network of a human being.
Each letter of the scroll is a world of its own, surrounded by its own white space, without any other letter touching it.
Each letter is of equal value. Even if one of them is missing, flawed, or incomplete, the scroll is not a Torah scroll.
Alter a single letter and the meaning of a word is changed,
whereby a sentence is inverted,
whereby a story is distorted
—indeed, every other letter of the Torah scroll will be somehow profoundly affected.
The Jewish people, too, are a Torah scroll.
We are all connected in every mitzvah we do, every nugget of Torah we learn, every meaningful task of life we fulfill.
That is why every Jew, especially a Jewish child, must have a letter written for them in a Torah scroll. Our lives are all mysteriously entangled, our destinies inextricably chained together.
You are a letter in that scroll. Everything depends on you. Get your letter here.