ChaBaD Jewish Calendar Tuesday, April 25, 2023 4 Iyar, 5783
ChaBaD Jewish Calendar Tuesday, April 25, 2023 4 Iyar, 5783 Jewish History Maimonides Saved (1165) The 4th of Iyar was observed by Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, 1135-1204) as a personal day of fasting and prayer. Maimonides recounts that when he and his family were fleeing Islamic persecution from Fez, Morocco to the Holy Land, their ship was caught in a fierce storm at sea. He cried out to G-d in prayer and vowed to fast each year on this date. Laws and Customs Count "Twenty Days to the Omer" Tonight Tomorrow is the twentieth 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 twenty days, which are two weeks and six 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-we