Sivan 2 is marked on the Jewish calendar as Yom HaMeyuchas ("Day of Distinction"); it was on this day that G-d told Moses -- when Moses ascended Mount Sinai for the first time -- to tell the people of Israel: "You shall be My chosen treasure from among all the nations, for all the earth is Mine. You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:4-6).
Links:
Who Are the Jews?
On the Essence of Choice
More on the "choseness" of the Jewish people
Until the Six-Day War (see “Today in Jewish History” for Iyar 26), the Syrian army was deployed in strong fortifications on the Golan Heights, from which they repeatedly shelled the Israeli settlements below. On the fifth day of the war, the Israeli Army broke through the Syrian front. Facing very difficult topographical conditions, they scaled the steep and rugged heights. The Engineering Corps cleared the way of mines, followed by bulldozers which leveled a route for the tanks on the rocky face. After more than 24 hours of heavy fighting, the Syrian deployment collapsed and the Syrian forces fled in retreat.
Links: More on the Six-Day War
R. Chaim Elazar Spira was a chassidic Rebbe who lived in Munkatch (today known as Mukachevo, in western Ukraine). One of the prominent leaders of Orthodox Jewry in interwar Europe, R. Spira was known for his community activism and strong convictions. Among his many works are Minchat Elazar, Ot Chaim V’Sholom, and Divrei Torah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, R. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, held R. Spira in high regard and quoted many of his sayings.
Link: The Minchas Elazar; Just One Blast
Tomorrow is the forty-seventh 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-seven days, which are six weeks and five 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: Hod sheb'Malchut -- "Humility 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
Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted from the prayer service.
Joseph’s brothers called him a dreamer. Jacob chided him for sharing his dreams, but took them seriously. Pharoah called Joseph, “One who knows a dream to interpret it.”
Jacob and Pharaoh were both closer to the truth. Joseph was not living in a dream. He was untangling it.
The dream is the world of human business, a mess of incongruent opposites in utter discord, seemingly void of meaning.
Joseph’s brothers retreated from the dream to the stillness of the pasture and the starry night sky. They scorned Joseph, who seemed obsessed with counting, managing, and organizing everything about him—whether in his father’s house, in Potiphar’s estate, in an Egyptian dungeon, or as viceroy of Egypt.
But in truth, Joseph stood beyond the dream.
So far beyond, he was able to envision all its disparate parts in harmony, as a patchwork of many colors in a single garment.
So far beyond, he did not need to run from the dream, because he knew it could not harm him.
So far beyond, he was capable of entering the confusion of the dream without losing his vision, rearranging its parts from within.
Today, we are all Joseph. We must rearrange the dream from within.
As you enter the dream each day, enter with divine purpose—to discover G‑d in all your ways and make this world His dwelling place.
Hold tight to the wisdom of the Torah you have learned, and to the mitzvahs you keep. They are your needle and thread to sew the many colors of humanity into a beautiful world.
Master the dream from within.