1313 BCE- The Twelve Spies returned from their 40-day tour of the Land of Israel. (Numbers 13:25-26... see 9 Av).  The spies, who were dispatched 40 days earlier by Moses to tour the Promised Land, returned to Israel's encampment in the desert, bearing a huge cluster of grapes and other lush fruits. Even as they praised the land's fertility, they terrified the people the people with tales of mighty giant warriors dwelling there and asserted that the land was unconquerable.

 

67 CE - Civil War in Jerusalem.  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.

 

July 24,1349- Jews of Frankfurt on the Main, Germany, were killed following the Black Death massacres. When the Christian mob started its attack on the Jewish quarter many Jews chose suicide over barbarous torture.

 

July 25,1670- Emperor Leopold I expelled 4,000 Jews from their homes in Vienna, Austria. A small number of Jews agreed to baptism and were therefore allowed to stay. The Great Synagogue was destroyed and a church dedicated to St. Margaret was erected in its place.

 

August 14, 1929- The Jewish Agency for Palestine was founded.

 

July 22, 1942- The mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto was announced with over 300,000 Jews taken to concentration camps in the 53 days of this Nazi action.

 

Torah Portion

unknown

 

 

or view this week's triennial cycle reading.

Today is

Yom Shishi, 19 Adar II, 5784

Friday, March 29, 2024

 

Learn more about this date in history.