31 Emor: Day 5 (Thursday) | God's Appointed Holy Days

13 Iyar 5786 AM | 1 AVE.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by Your Spirit and invited the nations to share in the richness of Your Word. We thank You for the people and state of Israel, including the Messiah, our First Fruits, through whom the harvest of life has begun.

Today is the twenty-sixth day of the Omer according to the minority Sadducean and Essene counts, which is 3 weeks and 5 days.

May the Spirit of Truth prepare my heart for the revelation of the 50th day.

The reading is Leviticus 23:23-23:32.

This is the link to the Daily Chumash with Rashi at Chabad.

The Daily Wisdom from the Lubavitcher Rebbe is titled "Spiritual Heights of the Sabbath."

3:28 PM EDT. 

Jonathan Writes:

I am deep in my first weekly "Monk Fast" of 2026. I decided late last week that Thursdays would be my best day for fasting. I had no idea that the reading today would focus on the single required fast day in the written Torah.

The video for today is Why do Jews fast on Mondays and Thursdays? How many public fast days do Jews have? 

My observance of my new monastic horarium, including my 6-8 AM Torah study block, has been non-existent to extremely erratic for the last four days. I have been consumed by political research and sleep. By Hashem's grace, perhaps I am now through the worst of it.

These two updates were also quite powerful:

• Is it possible for Israel to turn 3 ceasefires into lasting peace agreements?
• Siege warfare? Who'll blink first in tense Iran blockade 

End 4:16 PM.

Shalom.