| Today is: Monday, Tammuz 12, 5772 · July 2, 2012
• R. Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch Born (1880)
• Liberation of R. Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch (1927)
On the 12th of Tammuz of 1927, the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, was officially granted release from his sentence of exile to Kastroma in the interior of Russia. Twenty-seven days earlier, the Rebbe had been arrested by agents of the GPU and the Yevsektzia ("Jewish Section" of the Communist Party) for his activities to preserve Judaism throughout the Soviet empire and sentenced to death, G-d forbid. International pressure forced the Soviets to commute the sentence to exile and, subsequently, to release him completely. The actual release took place on Tammuz 13, and Tammuz 12-13 is celebrated as a "festival of liberation" by the Chabad-Lubavitch community. Tammuz 12 is also Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's birthday (see above) Links:
The Rebbe's Prison Diary
The Soviet war on Jewry
A fundamental principle of Chabad philosophy is that the mind - which by its innate nature1 rules over the heart - should subordinate the heart to G-d's service by utilizing the intellectualization, comprehension and profound contemplation of the greatness of the Creator
- Hayom Yom, Kislev 16
Chitas and Rambam for today: | 
Audio: 
