Tishrei 3rd is a fast day mourning the assassination of the Jewish royal Gedaliah ben Achikam, governor of the Land of Israel for a short period following the destruction of the First Temple. Gedaliah's killing spelled the end of the small remnant of a Jewish community that remained in the Holy Land after the destruction. They soon fled to Egypt. (According to many opinions, the assassination of Gedaliah actually occurred on Rosh Hashanah, but the commemoration of the event is postponed to the day after the festival).
Link: About Gedaliah
Rebbetzin Devorah Leah, daughter of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi and mother of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (the "Tzemach Tzedek"), passed away on this date just three days after her young son's third birthday. Click here to read more about this.
Mourning the killing of Gedaliah (see "Today in Jewish History"), we abstain from food and drink from dawn to nightfall; selichot prayers are included in the morning prayer.
The 10-day period beginning on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur is known as the "Ten Days of Repentance"; this is the period, say the sages, of which the prophet speaks when he proclaims (Isaiah 55:6) "Seek G-d when He is to be found; call on Him when He is near." Psalm 130, Avinu Malkeinu and other special inserts and additions are included in our daily prayers during these days.
The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below for today's three Psalms.
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Links: About the Ten Days of teshuvah; Voicemail; more on teshuvah
Do not repent.
Repentance means to regret being bad and to start being good.
But Jews don’t do repentance. Jews do Teshuvah—which means return.
Because your essential self is always good. It’s only that, for reasons that are entirely not your fault—or only somewhat your fault—you may have done something you should not have done. Or maybe you didn’t do something you should have done.
But you still remain essentially good.
So you return to your essential self and to what is rightfully yours. You let that inner self shine.
That’s why teshuvah is for everyone.
Even someone who never sinned can still return even closer and turn up the brightness of his inner self higher and yet higher.
And even someone who is addicted to the worst sins can still turn around. Because he doesn’t have to create anything new.
Somewhere inside, there’s guaranteed to be a pure, divine self that is just waiting to burst out and shine. .