Shabbos Parshas Chukas – 5774 שבת פרשת חקת

The Kiddush this week is being sponsored by the Shul.

Mazel Tov to the Wasserman family upon the upcoming marriage of Daniel. The Oifruf will be in 770 and the Kiddush will be in the new Shul at 386 Kingston Ave (former Nosh World).

Good Shabbos.
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Happening this week

1 Tammuz, 5774 – Sunday, June 29, 2014
Rosh Chodesh

3 Tammuz, 5774 – Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Lubavitch Fire (1851)
A great fire destroyed much of the town of Lubavitch, including the home of the third Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (the “Tzemach Tzeddek”, 1789-1866) and many invaluable manuscripts of Chassidic teaching.

R. Yosef Yitzchak Released from Prison (1927)
The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), who was arrested on Sivan 15 of 1927 by agents of the GPU (soviet secret police) and the Yevsektzia (“Jewish section” of the Communist Party) for his work to preserve and disseminate Jewish learning and observance throughout the Soviet Empire. Held in the notorious Spalerno prison in Leningrad, he was repeatedly interrogated and beaten. Initially sentenced to death, international pressure compelled the Soviet regime to first commute the sentence to ten years hard labor in Siberia, and then to a three-year term of exile in Kostrama, a town in the interior of Russia.

On the 3rd of Tammuz, 18 days after his arrest, he was released from prison and allowed six hours at home before reporting to the Leningrad train station to embark on his exile. Many gathered at the station to see him off. Though he knew that there were GPU agents present, he spoke to the assembled crowd, encouraging all to persist in the very activities for which he had been arrested. “This,” he proclaimed “all the nations of the world must know: Only our bodies were sent into exile and subjugated to alien rule; our souls were not given over into captivity and foreign rule. We must proclaim openly and before all that any matter affecting the Jewish religion, Torah, and its mitzvot and customs is not subject to the coercion of others. No one can impose his belief upon us, nor coerce us to conduct ourselves contrary to our beliefs!”

(On the 12th of Tammuz, after serving only nine days of his three year term, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was informed that he was free to return home. Shortly thereafter, he was allowed to leave the Soviet Union and resettled in Riga, Latvia.)

Rebbe’s Yahrtzeit (1994)
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson of righteous memory (b. 1902) passed away in the early morning hours of the 3rd of Tammuz, of the year 5754 from creation (1994).

Candle Lighting

8:12 PM

Friday Mincha

8:22 PM

Kabolas Shabbos

8:57 PM

Shabbos Mincha

8:10 PM

Shabbos Ends

9:21 PM