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Today is: Shabbat, Kislev 27, 5771 · December 4, 2010
Chanukah Day 3
• Blessing the New Month
This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of upcoming month of Tevet, which falls on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon.
Click here for molad times.
It is a Chabad custom to recite the entire book of Psalms before morning prayers, and to conduct farbrengens (chassidic gatherings) in the course of the Shabbat.
Links: On the Significance of Shabbat Mevarchim; Tehillim (the Book of Psalms); The Farbrengen
• Hallel & Al HaNissim
Special prayers of thanksgiving -- Hallel (in its full version) and Al HaNissim
-- are added to the daily prayers and Grace After Meals on all eight days of Chanukah.
Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted for the duration of trhe festival.
• Kindle Four Chanukah Lights after nightfall
In commemorartion of the miracle of Chanukah
(see " Today in Jewish History"
for Kislev 25) we kindle the Chanukah lights -- oli lamps or candles --
each evening of the eight-day festival, increasing the number of lights each evening.
Tonight we kindle four lights. (In the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall; this evening, then, commences the 4th day of Chanukah).
IMPORTANT: Because of the prohibition to kindle fire on Shabbat,
the Chanukah lights must be lit after after the Havdalah service
marking the end of Shabbat at nightfall. The time for Shabbat's end and
Chanukah lighting is displayed below.
(If no time is displayed, click on icon to set your location.)
For more a more detailed guide to Chanukah lighting (and additional Chanukah observances and customs) click here. For text and audio of the blessings recited before lighting, click here.
• Prayer for Rain
Tonight, starting with the Maariv evening
prayers, we begin inserting a request for rain -- "v'ten tal u'matar" --
in the 9th blessing of the Amidah (in the Holy Land, the request for
rain is inserted beginning on Cheshvan 7)
Links:
The Rainmaker
Winter
Rain
• Flood rains cease (2105 BCE)
The forty days and nights of rainfall which covered
the face of earth with water in Noah's time ended on Kislev 27 of the year 1656 from
creation (2105 BCE. The flood itself lasted a full year, as related in Genesis
6-8).
Links: Chronology
of the Flood; The Torah's account (Parshat Noach);
The 40-Day Mikvah
• 3rd Day of Chanukah Miracle (139 BCE)
On the 25th of Kislev in the year 3622
from creation, the Maccabees liberated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem,
after defeating the vastly more numerous and powerful
armies of the Syrian-Greek king Antiochus IV, who had tried to
forcefully uproot the beliefs and practices of
Judaism from the people of Israel. The victorious Jews repaired,
cleansed and rededicated the Temple to the service of G-d. But all the
Temple's oil had been defiled by the pagan invaders; when the Jews
sought to light the Temple's menorah (candelabra), they found only one
small cruse of ritually pure olive
oil. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new,
pure oil could be obtained.
In commemoration, the Sages instituted the 8-day festival of Chanukah,
on which lights are kindled
nightly to recall and publicize the miracle.
Link: The Story of Chanukah
• Passing of R. Chaim of Tchernovitz (1817)
• 2nd liberation of R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1800)
Two years after his arrest and liberation in 1798
(see entries for " Kislev 19"
and here),
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (founder of Chabad, 1745-1812) was arrested
a second time; again, the charges were that his teachings undermined the imperial
authority of the Czar. His second incarceration was less severe than the first;
yet Chassidim mark the anniversary of his release on the third day of Chanukah
with farbrengens (Chassidic gatherings) and the study of his teachings.
According to other versions of the story, the liberation occurred on
the fifth day of Chanukah. Apparently the liberation happened in two
stages.
Chitas and Rambam for today:
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Audio: 
