| Today is: Friday, Av 8, 5772 · July 27, 2012
• Spies Return (1312 BCE)
The Spies dispatched 40 days earlier by Moses to tour the Promised Land return to Israel's encampment in the desert, bearing a huge cluster of grapes and other lush fruits. But even as they praise the land's fertility, they terrify the people with tales of mighty giant warriors dwelling there and assert that the land is unconquerable. Links:
Generation Gap
The Spies
• Civil War in Jerusalem (67 CE)
Fighting breaks out inside the besieged city of Jerusalem between Jewish factions divided on the question of whether or not to fight the Roman armies encircling the city from without. One group sets fire to the city's considerable food stores, consigning its population to starvation until the fall of Jerusalem three years later.
A boor cannot be sin-fearing, an ignoramus cannot be pious; a bashful one cannot learn, a short-tempered person cannot teach; nor does anyone who does much business grow wise.
- Hillel (Ethics of the Fathers 2:5)
Chitas and Rambam for today: | 
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