On Sivan 4 of the year 2448 from creation (1313 BCE)--two days before the revelation at Mount Sinai--Moses wrote down the first 68 chapters of the Torah, from Genesis 1:1 ("In the Beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth") to the Giving of the Torah in Exodus 19 (Exodus 24:4; Rashi ibid.).
A mob, accompanied by the bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, France, razed the local synagogue to the ground. The bishop then informed the Jews that he, as bishop, could have but one flock, and unless they were willing to embrace Christianity, they must leave the city. Five hundred Jews were forced to be baptized and the remainder fled to Marseilles.
Pope Sixtus IV instructed his local bishops that all Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition (see "Today in Jewish History" for Adar 7) should be sent back to Spain.
The Cossack rebellion against Polish rule in Ukraine, under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnitzki (may his name be blotted out) began on the 4th of Sivan of the year 5408 from creation (1648 CE). In their bloody march through the Ukraine, Volhynia, Podolia, Poland proper and Lithuania, Chmielnitzki's peasant army massacred between 100,000 and 300,000 Jews. Three hundred Jewish communities were destroyed.
Links: Rabbi Abraham Abele Gombiner
Tomorrow is the forty-ninth -- and last -- day of the Omer Count. Since, on the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall of the previous evening, we count the omer for tomorrow's date tonight, after nightfall: "Today is forty-nine days, which are seven weeks, to the Omer." (If you miss the count tonight, you can count the omer all day tomorrow, but without the preceding blessing).
The 49-day "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai which commences tomorrow at nightfall.
Tonight's Sefirah: Malchut sheb'Malchut -- "Receptiveness in Receptiveness" (also: "Sovreignty in Sovereignty")
The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot -- that G-d assumes through which to relate to our existence: Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut ("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits. The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot."
Links:
How to count the Omer
The deeper significance of the Omer Count
Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted from the prayer service.
You are Jacob. This is the story of your soul.
As Jacob journeyed from Beersheva to Haran, so your soul journeyed from the wellspring of all souls to this formidable world.
As Jacob made a vow as he departed, so too your soul made such a vow, Jacob’s vow. She said:
“If G-d will be with me and protect me on this journey and provide me the bread of Torah wisdom to enlighten my soul, and the clothing of mitzvahs to shine light in places where it has never shone before...
“And if I make it through the turmoil of earthly life, the burdens, the passions, the anxieties, the fears, the utter noise and cacophony of a fragmented, confused universe...
“...to find the Infinite G-d in all these ways of humankind, to imbue them with my soul’s sense of divine purpose, to render them, as well, a way of knowing G‑d...
“'...then G-d will be my G-d and this stone that I have set as a monument will be the House of G‑d.' (Genesis 28:20)
“My soul will find peace within her most inner self, in the ultimate bond with the Infinite.
And the world I entered will also be redeemed, until even the stones beneath my feet and the granite of the building in which I work will cry out, “We, too, are a place for the Infinite Light to dwell!”
You are Jacob, bearer of light, warrior of peace.