JCC Association's Early Childhood Curriculum Project 'This New Month'

Fast of Tammuz - Shivah Asar B'Tammuz (July 9, 2009; Tammuz 17, 5769)

A minor fast day that begins the three tragic weeks of communal mourning. Those who fast begin at sunrise and end at sunset. They do not eat or drink but they may work. The prophet Zechariah (8:19) refers to the fast of the seventeenth of Tammuz as the fast of the fourth month. (Tammuz is the fourth month of the Jewish calendar.)

According to the Mishna in the Tractate Taanit (which means fasting), several tragedies occurred on the 17th of Tammuz that we acknowledge by fasting:

The Romans under Titus (70AD) breached the walls of Jerusalem.
Moses broke the first tablets after descending Mount Sinai and seeing the golden calf amidst the people.
The daily sacrifice ceased to be offered in the First Temple during the siege of Jerusalem.
A Roman heathen by the name of Apostomos on that day burned the Torah in the sanctuary and set up an idol.
In 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem which led to the final destruction of the First Temple.

The Three Weeks of Mourning - Bein Ha-Metzarim - "time between the straits" (July 9 - July 30, 2009; Tammuz 17 - Av 9, 5769)

The three week (21-day) period from the Fast of Tammuz ( 17th of Tammuz) to the Fast of Tisha B'av (9th of Av) is a period of mourning. There are several customs of grief-- During this time, weddings and other festive celebrations are not performed and some people do not cut their hair. The Jewish people enter into a minor mourning period that ends with the major fast of Tisha B’Av, when we remember the destruction of the First and Second Temples.

The Fast of Tammuz: Should we continue to fast?

The tradition of mourning Jerusalem and the First and Second Temples began after the Jews were exiled to Babylonia. When they returned and began rebuilding the Temple, they questioned the continuation of the fasting on the 17th of Tammuz (the commemoration of the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans) and the ninth of Av (the total destruction of the Temples).

The question was recorded by the prophet Zechariah, but according to the sources no direct answer was given. Instead, Zechariah spoke of justice while his prophecies suggested that soon all fast days would be turned into days of celebrations.

Observing the Fast days today

Maimonides, the medieval Jewish philosopher and legalist extraordinaire, envisioned a time during the Messianic era when all fasts would no longer be necessary. Many pious Jews continue to fast on both fast days even though we have no Temple to rebuild and we have our homeland again. These fast days mark and mourn the past events of Jewish history. More liberal Jews have turned these fast days into mini-celebrations acknowledging the reality of the State of Israel and the miracles that surrounds its continued existence.

The significance of the Temples and their destruction

The First and Second Temples served as the seat of religious life no matter where the Jews settled. Many saw Jerusalem as the center of Israel; the Temple was at the center of Jerusalem and the source of goodness and God's presence.

The rabbinic view contends that the First Temple built by King Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians in the year 586 BCE because the people practiced idolatry. (A constant reminder that the incident of the golden calf was still part of the consciousness of the Israelites.) The second Temple completed in 515 BCE by Zerubabel, governor of Judea and King Herod who added to its grandeur five hundred years later, was destroyed, according to rabbinic thought, because of the "hatred without cause" that turned Jew against Jew.

The Saduccees and the Pharisees disagreed on fundamental issues concerning Judaism and Jewish life. The Saduccees were the priests and the aristocrats who believed in the Temple rites and the written Torah. They sided with the Romans and politically became their ally.

The Pharisees were the sages and the scholars who made use of the oral traditions and interpreted the laws in many ways. Although they were generally pacifistic in outlook, they found Roman rule deplorable and oppressive.

In 70AD, the Roman legions led by General Titus, breached the walls of Jerusalem. It was clear that the Romans would destroy the city of Jerusalem. Three weeks later on the ninth of Av, the Romans burned down the Temple, killed thousands of Judaens and exiled many more thousands. The Saduccees disappeared as a sect of Judaism. However, the Pharisees continued to be the teachers of Judaism and became the rabbis and scholars we have today.