Today is the tenth day of Nissan, which is marked by at least three great milestones:

a.      It is the day that the Bnei Yisroel took the Egyptian gods--their sheep--away and tied them to bedposts in order to inspect them for blemishes before Shechita four days later.  This was an act of tremendous faith by Bnei Yisroel, not only in taking them for slaughter, but also in holding them this way for four days--and the Egyptians, in fact, ended up being powerless to stop them or harm them.

b.      Towards the end of our stay in the Desert, Miriam HaNevia passed away.  Miriam was so great that, even as a young girl, her suggestion to her father Amram, the Gadol HaDor, was accepted and the decree he had made to have the husbands and wives of Bnei Yisroel separate was annulled.

c.      Just one year after Miriam’s passing on this date, Yehoshua Bin Nun and Bnei Yisroel crossed over the Yarden River which had been dried up through a miracle.  Some recommend reading from Sefer Yehoshua, Chapters 3 and 4, and reciting Tehillim Chapter 114, in honor of the occasion.

Reprinted with permission from Hakhel MIS