According to sources cited in Seder Hadorot, Tevet 28 is both the birthday and the day of passing of Shimon the son of Jacob; other sources place the date as Tevet 21. (See the entry for Tevet 21).
Shimon ben Shetach successfully completed the expulsion of the Sadducees (a sect which denied the Oral Torah and the authority of the Sages) who had dominated the Sanhedrin (Supreme Court), replacing them with his Torah-loyal disciples, on the 28th of Tevet of the year 3680 from creation (81 BCE).
Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson (1879 (O.S.) - 1964), mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was born on Tevet 28.
This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of upcoming month of Shevat, which falls on Monday of next week.
Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. Click here for molad times.
It is a Chabad custom to recite the entire book of Psalms before morning prayers, and to conduct farbrengens (chassidic gatherings) in the course of the Shabbat.
Links: On the Significance of Shabbat Mevarchim; Tehillim (the Book of Psalms); The Farbrengen
The great men who spied out the Land of Canaan returned and reported:
“We cannot go. They are stronger than us.”
They were brave, wise men, hand-picked by Moses. How could they have erred so disastrously?
Because, subconsciously, they never really wanted to leave the spiritual high of the desert for a life of tilling soil and building homes.
If they had only realized their true issue and asked Moses, he would have explained to them:
“This experience now is only the chrysalis. In the land, you will spread your wings.”
“From within these clouds of glory that surround us on our journey, you can perceive great light. There, in that earth, stone and clay, you will hold raw truth in your hands.”
And so to each of us Moses says:
Do not be afraid to emerge from your spiritual cocoon and enter that monstrous, formidable world.
As much as you can attain in your studies, even in deep contemplation and intense prayer, it will never come close to the wisdom that will open itself to you in your mission to build a home, give life, learn Torah, do mitzvahs, and lend a hand to others in a hostile universe.
Your eyes will see that which no book could tell, your heart will feel that which no thought could imagine.
In the joy that comes out of pain, in the sweetness that emerges from bitter suffering, this world will carry you to a place beyond anything your soul could otherwise have known.