| Today is: Tuesday, Sivan 12, 5771 · June 14, 2011
• End of Shavuot "fulfillment" days
When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, and all Jews would come there for the three annual "pilgrimage festivals" (Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot), Sivan 12 was the last of the seven days allotted for the offerings brought in conjunction with the Shavuot pilgrimage (unlike the festivals of Passover and Sukkot, which have seven biblically mandated days, Shavuot consists only of one day; hence the additional six days of tashlumin or "fulfillment"). Thus we do not recite the tachnun (confession and penitential suplication), and the other prayers omitted on a festival or joyous commemoration, from the 1st of Sivan until and including the 12th, as all these days bear a connection with the festival of Shavuot (see last week's calendar entries for Sivan 1 through 6). Links: about the temple Offerings
"Let me tell you what I try to do. Imagine that you're looking at a candle. What you're really seeing is a lump of wax with a thread down its middle. So when do the thread and wax become a candle? Or, in other words, when do they fulfill the purpose for which they were created? When you put a flame to the thread, then the candle becomes a candle.
"The wax is the body, and the wick the soul. Ignite the soul with the fire of Torah and a person will then fulfill the purpose for which he or she was created. And that is what I try to do -- to ignite the soul of our people with the fire of Torah."
"My candle," I asked, "has the Rebbe lit it?"
"I have given you the match," he said. "Only you can light your candle."
- From a conversation between the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Yehudah Avner
Chitas and Rambam for today: | 
Audio: 
