During Greek rule in the Land of Israel, the Greeks would hang idolatrous wreaths of roses on the doorways of the courtyards and stores, effectively rendering them forbidden for usage by the Jews. They would also write heretical statements on the foreheads of the Jews’ oxen and donkeys, so they would be forced to sell them and would not own any animals for plowing. When the Hasmoneans overthrew Greek rule, they abolished these insidious practices, and that day was commemorated as a holiday in Talmudic times (Megilat Taanit,ch. 2).
Links: What’s so Terrible About Idolatry?, Benefiting from Idolatry
Tomorrow is the forty-third day of the Omer Count. Since, on the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall of the previous evening, we count the omer for tomorrow's date tonight, after nightfall: "Today is forty-three days, which are six weeks and one day, to the Omer." (If you miss the count tonight, you can count the omer all day tomorrow, but without the preceding blessing).
The 49-day "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Tonight's Sefirah: Chessed sheb'Malchut -- "Kindness in Receptiveness"
The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot -- that G-d assumes through which to relate to our existence: Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut ("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits. The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot."
Links:
How to count the Omer
The deeper significance of the Omer Count
If we had a perch above and beyond, we would see an entirely different world, a world in which each thing is propelled continuously upward.
We would see how every instance that appears to us as failure is a crucial step towards a much higher place.
How the pain of tearing ourselves away from our past is the gift of true transcendence.
How, one day, with one small turn, an entire lifetime will be repaired and redeemed.
Indeed, this wounded soldier will be all the more precious for having taken the longer road—for every soul is destined to return home.
As the acorns rot in the dark soil so they may grow to mighty oaks, as the caterpillars abandon all form within their cocoons to emerge as magnificent butterflies—all the truly great things in our world unfold only in those places where no one cares to look, and no one wants to be.
After your time on this earth, your soul will rise to that perch above, and yet higher. And then it will return here again, as all the souls will return to reap their harvest.
Then you will see. There is no failure in G‑d’s world. Not a moment of it.