Walking along the impressive walls of Jerusalem gives a new perspective on how serious it was when they were breached by invaders. Imagine if this was your home city being invaded: Would you be focused on food and drink or would you have more important things on your mind?
Have you ever experienced a real loss? The loss of someone very close to you? Fortunately, I have not had this experience, but I do know people who have. And I know one thing about true grief from watching them: Other things become completely unimportant. You don’t want to eat, you don’t want to drink, you don’t care what clothes you’re wearing. All you can think of is that overwhelming sense of loss.
The 17th of Tammuz is a fast day that marks the beginning of the 3 weeks leading up to the major fast of Tisha B’Av. These are 3 weeks of mourning that build in intensity and we start them out by fasting on this day, a day which has been a day of sadness for the Jewish people.
Numerous things happened historically on the 17th of Tammuz that we now mourn. First, this is the day when Moses came down from Sinai and saw the Jews worshipping the Golden Calf; as a result he broke the tablet G-d had given him. Second, during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering the daily sacrifices due to the lack of sheep. Because we don’t offer sacrifices anymore, it’s hard to appreciate their significance, but they are important to our relationship with G-d and are an important way we achieve a sense of the gravity of our sins and what we must do to reverse them. Apostomos, who was either a Greek or Roman officer, burned the holy Torah. He also placed an idol in the Holy Temple (King Menashe of Judea did this, too, in a previous year on the same date). Finally, and most importantly, after a long siege, Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem in 69 CE. As a direct result of this breach, the Romans were able to destroy the second holy Temple. Also, according to the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonians also breached Jerusalem’s walls of Jerusalem on this date, before they destroyed the first holy Temple. In more recent times, in 1391, in Toledo and Jaen, Spain, more than 4,000 Jews were killed. In 1559, Prague’s Jewish Quarter was burned and looted. Finally, in 1970, the country of Libya ordered that all Jewish property be confiscated.
These should be sobering thoughts. The Jewish calendar is not linear, but circular – we relive what happened in the past as if it is happening today. Imagine how you would feel watching Moses’s disappointment at seeing the Golden Calf. Imagine having the walls of your city breached by an invading army. Imagine having your holy place of worship violated and desecrated right before your eyes. Imagine having all of your property looted or burned; imagine your friends and family being brutally killed. If you were in any of those situations, would you really feel like eating or drinking right now? Or would you have other things on your mind?
On a fast day, G-d is especially open to hear our prayers and to accept our teshuva (repentance). Today, instead of complaining that we are hungry and thirsty, let us focus our thoughts, minds, actions, and emotions on mourning the loss of the holy Temple and G-d’s presence in our midst. Let us merit to see the days of moshiach, when these fast days will be turned into days of celebration!
