Tuesday – The Fast of Asarah B’Tevet

The Fast begins at 5:52am and ends at 5:14pm

On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later — on the 17th of Tammuz, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on the 17th of Av that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Tevet 10 is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak through nightfall, and add the Selichot and other special supplements to our prayers. (More recently, Tevet 10 was chosen to also serve as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown.)

Click here to read more about Asarah B’Tevet.

Weekly Web Class with Rabbi YY Jacobson

Tonight, Monday, 9 Taves 5769, January 5, 2009, at 8:00pm, Rabbi YY Jacobson will deliver a 50-minute Parsah class: Menashe & Ephraim: Two Trends Shaping Jewish Life in Exile – Nostalgia & Transformation. Jewish history is about sharing with our children the story of our past, but what do you do when your children don’t understand the story?

The class will explore the diverse ideas of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Satmar Rebbe and Professor Gershom Scholem on the subject.

To watch, please visit www.TheYeshiva.Net
To listen via telephone, please call: 1-616-347-8000. Access code: 1007852#.

The Soldiers Are on the Front Lines, Which Lines are You on?

As our brethren (including members of Anash) are on the front lines fighting to secure fellow Yiden, it is incumbent upon us to do what the Rebbe assured would significantly assist in the security of our fellow Yiden – Learn “lines” of Torah!
The following is a few sources on the effect of Torah learning on security:

1) When Bilaam was asked if he could to curse the Yiden he said that ״if the sound of Torah is heard in the Beis Midrash, I will be unable to ״. [Midrash Eicha Chapter 2]