| Today is: Friday, Tishrei 5, 5773 · September 21, 2012
• Ten Days of Repentance
The 10-day period beginning on Rosh Hashahnah and ending on Yom Kippur is known as the "Ten Days of Repentance"; this is the period, say the sages, of which the prophet speaks when he proclaims (Isaiah 55:6) "Seek G-d when He is to be found; call on Him when He is near." Psalm 130, Avinu Malkeinu and other special inserts and additions are included in our daily prayers during these days. The Baal Shem Tov instituted the custom of reciting three additional chapters of Psalms each day, from the 1st of Elul until Yom Kippur (on Yom Kippur the remaining 36 chapters are recited, thereby completing the entire book of Psalms). Click below for today's three Psalms. Chapter 100 Chapter 101 Chapter 102 Links: About the Ten Days of teshuvah; Voicemail; more on teshuvah
• Rabbi Akiva martyred (134)
The great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Akiva, was taken captive by the Romans on Tishrei 5 of the year 3894 from creation (134 CE). His subsequent torture and execution is recalled in the stirring Eleh Ezkarah poem of the Yom Kippur service.
• Birth of Naftali
Naftali, the son of Jacob and Bilhah, sixth of the Twelve Tribes, was born on the 5th of Tishrei. He lived to be 133 years old.
The categories of work [forbidden on Shabbat] are forty less one: sowing, plowing, reaping, making sheaves, threshing, winnowing, picking the chaff from the grain, milling, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing, bleaching, hackling, dyeing, spinning, stretching the threads on the loom, making meshes, weaving, dividing, knotting, untying, sewing, tearing, trapping, slaughtering, skinning, salting hides, curing, scraping, cutting, writing, erasing, building, dismantling, extinguishing, kindling, finishing, and carrying out from one domain to another.
- Talmud, Shabbat 73a
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