Shavuot
In the Hebrew year 2448 (1313 BCE), 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt, the Ten Commandments were proclaimed in Divine revelation to the entire Jewish people at Mount Sinai. (The name of this holiday, Shavuot, means "weeks," in recognition of the 7 weeks of anticipation leading up to the Sinai experience). The Torah's ideas of monotheism, justice and peace have changed mankind forever. Today we celebrate Shavuot by staying up the entire night learning Torah -- eager to receive it anew.
2368 [1393 BCE]:
According to tradition, Moshe who was placed in a basket in the Nile by his mother three months after his birth so he would not be killed, was saved by the daughter of Pharaoh (Sotah12b).
2924 [837 BCE]:
Yahrzeit of King David (Shabbat 30a), a humble shepherd who was anointed the second King of Israel by Shmuel the prophet. David fought many wars, defeating Israel's enemies (including most famously the Philistine giant Goliath by slingshot), and securing and expanding its borders. David reigned for 40 years, during which he made Jerusalem the Jewish capital, purchased the future site of the Temple Mount from its Jebusite owner and prepared the foundation for the Holy Temple (which was built by his son, King Solomon). David served as the head of the Sanhedrin and was the foremost Torah authority of his generation. He is also the "sweet singer of Israel" who composed the Book of Psalms that for 28 centuries has embodied the joys, sorrows and yearnings of the Jewish people. David was promised an eternal dynasty of Jewish kingship; he was succeeded by his son Solomon, and according to tradition, the Messiah will ultimately be descended from David. His life story is recorded in the Book of Samuel.
5520 [1760]:
Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name" also known as the Besht), who founded the Chasidic movement. His approach consisted of worshipping G-d with joy and believing that simple prayers when uttered in earnest were more important than elite intellectualization. While adding nothing "new" to Judaism, he re-emphasized the "inner soul" of Torah that had been buried under the hardships of exile:
"the immense love that G-d has for every Jew, the cosmic significance of every mitzvah a person performs, the divine meaningfulness that resides in every blade of grass, in every event, and in every thought in the universe."
Though he left only a few writings of his own, he was immortalized by the often miraculous stories of his life as told by his closest followers. When he died, he had about 10,000 followers, which grew into the Chasidic movement, encompassing more than half of European Jewry at its peak.
1899:
Birthday of Fritz Lipmann, German-American biochemist who received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of coenzyme A.
1942:
Anne Frank received a diary for her 13th birthday and made her first entry. On July 7, Anne, her sister and her parents went into hiding. Helped by sympathetic Dutch friends, they lived in secret for 25 excruciating months until they were deported to Bergen Belsen, where she died from typhus shortly before it was liberated. Anne's last entry is dated Aug. 1, 1944. Since its first edition published in 1947, it has appeared in more than 50 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Through her diary, Anne became the symbol of Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust and was named one of 100 most influential people of the 20th Century by Time magazine.