Jewish Calendar Sunday, February 19, 2023 28 Shevat, 5783

 Jewish Calendar Sunday, February 19, 2023 28 Shevat, 5783

Jewish History

Hasmonean Holiday (2nd century BCE)

On Shevat 28 (134 BCE?), Antiochus V abandoned his siege of Jerusalem and his plans for the city's destruction. This day was observed as a holiday in Hasmonean times. (Megilat Taanit)

Link: The Hasmoneans

Daily Study

Chumash

Parshat Terumah, 1st Portion (Exodus 25:1-25:16)

Psalms

Chapters 135-139

Tanya

Likutei Amarim, beginning of Chapter 29

Rambam

3 Chapters, 1 Chapter, Sefer Hamitzvot

Hayom Yom

Today's Hayom Yom

Daily Thought

Unidolatry

G‑d dwells in paradox.

He says, “Don't even think of making idols. Give your lives rather than give credence to those idols.”

Then, in the innermost chamber of His Temple, the place He calls “Holy of Holies,” there He tells us to make two golden figurines with wings, one a male, the other a female.

And when we would be at odds with G‑d and He with us, these two would face away from one another, back to back.

But when the two of us would be in harmony, the kohanim would pull aside the curtains and we would behold the two figurines entwined in embrace. The kohanim would say, “See how cherished you are by your G‑d.”Talmud, Yoma 54b; Zohar Chadash 8; Zohar, vol. II, p. 278.

Meaning that one angel represented us and the other…

We must say that it is not the idols that He wishes us to despise. After all, that would only make us into another type of idolater— idolizing the absence of idols.

Rather, what He so much despises is anything we might place between Himself and us. And that is idolatry—the acknowledgment of anything or anybody else in our relationship.

So that the image of these two figurines, in effect, are the opposite of idolatry. They are un-idols. With them, He is saying to us, “If you have a problem, if you want to talk, whenever you are wrestling with your world— don't come to anyone but Me.”

“Not to the moon, not to the sun, not to an angel, not even to the CEO of your corporation.”

“For I cannot bear that there should be anyone or anything between us. I want to embrace you—you wherever you are and you alone. And I want to be embraced by you as though there is nothing else that exists but you and I. For, in truth there is not.”

For such a union, there is no other metaphor in all the physical world but the metaphor of the physical union of two lovers."[G‑d] desired to use a bodily union as metaphor because this is the ultimate union, a union in which there cannot be any intermediary. It is even stronger when they are intertwined in embrace, as in the verse, "Rejoice in the wife of your youth" (Proverbs 5:18). All this is to express that His bond with us is a great and mighty bond without any intermediary …and this is impossible to communicate through any other metaphor" (Rabbenu Bachya on Exodus 25). As the words of Genesis, “G‑d made Adam in His image, male and female He created them.”

Based on Ohr HaTorah of the Tzemach Tzedek, Parshat Terumah

Halachic Times (Zmanim)

Times for Jerusalem, Israel

5:01 AM

Dawn (Alot Hashachar):

5:33 AM

Earliest Tallit and Tefillin (Misheyakir):

6:18 AM

Sunrise (Hanetz Hachamah):

9:03 AM

Latest Shema:

10:00 AM

Latest Shacharit:

11:53 AM

Midday (Chatzot Hayom):

12:22 PM

Earliest Mincha (Mincha Gedolah):

3:12 PM

Mincha Ketanah (“Small Mincha”):

4:22 PM

Plag Hamincha (“Half of Mincha”):

5:29 PM

Sunset (Shkiah):

5:54 PM

Nightfall (Tzeit Hakochavim):

11:52 PM

Midnight (Chatzot HaLailah):

56:31 min.

Shaah Zmanit (proportional hour):

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