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Today is Monday, October 5, 2026 – 24 Tishrei, 5787
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Good afternoon, happy Monday, and happy Isru Chag!
It’s the morning after the epic rejoicing of Simchat Torah. From the first yearning for change and reunification in the month of Elul to the celebration and victory lap on Simchat Torah, we’ve been through a spiritual journey.
If you’re like me, you may be asking yourself: “So now what?”
Where do we go from here? After a month of holy days and holidays, fasts, prayers, and rejoicing, are we expected to just return to the world as normal, the mundane humdrum of life?
Today’s Chumash has a powerful message of purpose as we get back to the real world.
— Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone
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“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth.”
—Bereishit 2:4
The Torah is not a storybook. Even the very word itself, Torah, is related to the word for instruction (Hor’ah - הוראה). It contains the laws by which we live, serves as a guide to daily life, and a source of inspirational light in our lives.
As such, the Torah’s decision to start “in the beginning,” the very start of Creation and generations of the heavens and the earth, instead of with the first instance of a Mitzvah being commanded to the Jewish people, must be for a purpose. As the master commentator Rashi notes on the very first verse of Genesis, if there comes a day when the nations of the world will accuse the Jewish people, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of Canaan],” the Jews could justly reply, “The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whomever He deemed proper. When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.”
The very beginning of the Torah delineates our mission in this world: to be involved in the mundane, to work the Land, to elevate it—even if it means confronting the darkness of this world and fending off the libelous claims of other nations. G-d, by starting the Torah on this note, has given us our mission, and by doing that, empowered us to accomplish it.
This message embodies the essence of the post-High Holiday season. When we return to the “real” world, It’s as if G-d is telling us to “hit the road, Jack,” to emulate our forebear Jacob and travel from the Holy Land into the great, mundane world. Our mission for the next 11 months is to use the inspiration and energy of the Holiday season and focus on uplifting this dark, mundane world. We need to build and grind, elevate and inspire. That’s the job at hand, and we’ve been empowered, from the very beginning, to do it.
Today's Timeline is based on Bereishit Bara, 5738. Explore it in the Hebrew original on the Torah Texts platform.
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Back to Normal: The Month of MarCheshvan
What is Chitas? A video I helped produce on the daily study of Chumash, Tehillim, and Tanya, the core daily cycle beginning, in part, again now—and the heart of this very newsletter!
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This morning's Daily Thought mentions Rashi’s prophetic words that a day would come when the nations of the world would look at Jews living in the Holy Land and say, “You are robbers.” The Jew needed an answer ready: “The whole earth is G-d's.”
These words underscore a profound worldview. Dovid Margolin's "It Is Time to Declare the Truth About the Jews and Israel," written three weeks after October 7, 2023, unpacks Rashi’s worldview and the Rebbe’s approach to Jewish safety and security in Israel.
The article explores the pivotal moments in Israel’s recent past: the miracles during the Six-Day War, the needless catastrophes of the Yom Kippur War, and how the “brave” quests for peace—whether Camp David, the Oslo Accords, the Wye River Memorandum, or the 2005 Gaza disengagement—led directly to the greatest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. For 75 years, Israel has sought to gain recognition in the eyes of the international community by insisting that it is a nation like any other. But, as Margolin makes clear from the Rebbe’s approach to safety in the Holy Land, it is not. As the Rebbe once pointed out to Yitzchak Rabin, the Jews are, as the Torah describes them, “a nation that will dwell alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations.”
And so it is time for us to stand up and proudly declare the truth about the Jews and Israel. Read it here.
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Most people have heard the story of Adam and Eve and their affair with a snake and a tree in the Garden of Eden. Few realize that it describes the essence of the struggle of every human being.
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There was widespread celebration around the world, as Jewish people thanked G‑d for His kindness earlier today in what is being described as a “miracle in the skies."
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Beth El-Chabad of the Meadowlands will celebrate Simchat Torah with scrolls of its own, even as it waits to rebuild
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In the same way others live in space, Jews live in time. It’s all here, all at once.
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5 Ways to Repurpose Those Leftovers!
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We’ve just ended close to a month of holidays. You’re probably exhausted from cooking, and surely have a ton of leftovers. But who wants to eat leftovers?
Well, that all depends on what you do with them!
That roasted chicken sitting in your fridge may not be too exciting, but toss it with some fresh veggies and turn it into a Chicken Salad and now it’s the star of the show!
Here are 5 Ways to Repurpose Those Leftovers!
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Returning Exiles Commit to Follow the Torah (335 BCE):
The Jews who had returned to the Land of Israel with Ezra and Nehemiah gathered on this day and repented their misdeeds, signing a document in which they committed to trust in G‑d and follow His ways. Among the mitzvot they specified were to refrain from intermarriage and from purchasing produce on Shabbat (Nehemiah 9:1–3; 10:1–32). Link: The Return to Israel
Passing of R. Yaakov Yosef of Polonye (1781):
R. Yaakov Yosef was one of the foremost disciples of the Baal Shem Tov. He was the first one to disseminate the teachings of Chassidut in print, publishing the work Toldot Yaakov Yosef in 1780. Link: The Rabbi's Secret Sins
Passing of the Ribnitzer Rebbe (1995):
Rabbi Chaim Zanvil Abramowitz, known as the Ribnitzer Rebbe, spent decades in the Soviet Union, living a full Chassidic lifestyle with great self-sacrifice. He later emigrated to Israel and then the U.S.
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Isru Chag: The day following a festival is called Isru Chag ("tied to the festival"). Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted throughout the remainder of the festive month of Tishrei.
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Do you have questions or comments? Please reply to this email—We’d love to hear from you!
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The Timeline is a daily email from Chabad.org,
crafted by Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone.
Get deeper, refreshing insight illuminating the daily study of Chitas, the timeline of our lives: Chumash, the weekly Torah portion in the Five Books of Moses, the daily Tehillim, Psalms, and the foundational Chassidic text of Tanya, authored by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, chapters from the Rambam, Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah and Hayom Yom, a daily collection of Chassidic aphorisms compiled by the Rebbe.
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Written with love in Brooklyn, NY. All em dashes in this email are human-generated.
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