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Friday, April 4, 2025

Halachic Times (Zmanim)
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Jewish History

The town of Afula in Northern Israel was founded in this date in 1925. It is located on the presumed site of the tower ("Ophel") mentioned in the Biblical account of an Aramean general's visit to the Prophet Elisha (II Kings 5:24).

Afula's central location in the Jezreel Valley makes it the market center of the region; it is often referred to as "the Capital of the Valley."

Because of the town's proximity to Judea and Samaria, it has repeatedly been a target of terrorist attacks following the Oslo "peace process" and during the second Intifada.

Laws and Customs

In today's "Nasi" reading (see "Nasi of the Day" in Nissan 1), we read of the gift bought by the nasi of the tribe of Gad, Elyasaf ben De'uel, for the inauguration of the Mishkan.

Text of today's Nasi in Hebrew and English.

Daily Thought

G‑d can do anything. He could even, as the Talmud puts it, “fit an elephant through the eye of a needle.”

How would He do it? Would He make the elephant smaller? Or would He expand the eye of the needle?

Neither. The elephant would remain big, the eye of the needle small. And He would fit the elephant through the eye of the needle.

Illogical? True--for one who is bound by the rules of big and small.

G-d, however, transcends big and small. He conceived both the finite and the infinite, for He is neither, and in Him, they converge.

Where do they converge? In the miracles that occur in your life each day.