One day after Israeli forces liberated Eastern Jerusalem in the course of the Six-Day War, another of the holy cities, Hebron, was also liberated.
Following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Jordan took over the control of Hebron along with the rest of the West Bank. During this time, Israelis were not allowed to enter the West Bank. The Jewish Quarter was destroyed, Jewish cemeteries were desecrated, 58 synagogues were destroyed and an animal pen was built on the ruins of the Patriarch Abraham Synagogue.
R. Meir of Premishlan was a famous chassidic master and a noted miracle worker. Although he lived in poverty, he exerted himself tirelessly for the needy and the suffering. His divine inspiration and his ready wit have become legendary.
Links: Connection, Horses
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 the upcoming month of Sivan, which falls on Sunday (tomorrow).
Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See 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: Shabbat Mevarchim; Tehillim (the Book of Psalms); The Farbrengen
In preparation for the festival of Shavuot, we study one of the six chapters of the Talmud's Ethics of the Fathers ("Avot") on the afternoon of each of the six Shabbatot between Passover and Shavuot; this Shabbat being the Shabbat before Shhavuot, we study Chapter Six. (In many communities -- and such is the Chabad custom -- the study cycle is repeated through the summer, until the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah.)
Tomorrow is the forty-fifth 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-five days, which are six weeks and three days, 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: Tifferet sheb'Malchut -- "Harmony 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
Any other time of the year, it’s just a cracker. Eat it on the night of Passover, and it nourishes your soul.
Because, in truth, all food feeds not only the body, but the soul as well.
That’s because, like everything else, food is a divine creation. It is sustained by a constant flow of energy from its Maker. When we consume food, we metabolize that divine energy and live from it.
The kind of food-energy we consume and the way we consume it has a lot to do with kind of person we become and the kind of life we end up living.
If we eat foods sustained by energy hopelessly distorted, corrupted, and disconnected from its origin, they pull us down with them and it becomes harder for us to keep in touch with our own soul. These are the foods that are not kosher.
But then, even the energy of kosher food needs to be reconnected to its origin. And we do that by investing whatever energy we’ve gained from this food into G‑dly deeds--a.k.a. mitzvahs.
Matzah on Passover is the exception. On the night of Passover, it’s not just a mitzvah to eat matzah; the matzah itself is a mitzvah. It’s already intimately connected with its source.
So that, rather than us having to reconnect this food, it reconnects us, nourishing both body and soul with divine light, carrying us to heights we could otherwise never achieve.
And so, writes Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, matzah on Passover--especially on the first night--not only nourishes your divine soul, it softens up the animal instinct within you. Your inner beast becomes open to knowing something greater than itself.
At the very least, he writes, it allows your divine soul some respite.
As it turns out, matzah on Passover is not just food for the soul, it’s potent medicine for the human animal.