Today is the 17th of Tammuz, my favorite fast day.
I like fasting. It’s not hard for me, and a little ascetic mortification, within reason, can sharpen you and make you reflect. So all things being equal I observe the “minor fasts.” Today, the 17th of Tammuz, is the hardest, because summer days don’t end until around 8:30 or later. But I find it symbolically and spiritually very rich, as I will explain now.
Besides the two “major” 25-hour fasts of Yom Kippur and the 9th of Av, our Jewish calendar includes four “minor” fasts, from pre-dawn to nightfall:
- Taanit Esther, remembering the Queen’s desperation to foil Haman’s plot [Esther 4.16]
- the 10th of Tevet, when Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem began
- Tzom Gedalia, marking the assassination of the righteous governor of Judea – by someone, I kid you not, named Ishmael ben Netanyahu [Jeremiah 40.8] – triggering the final collapse of Israelite society
- and the 17 of Tammuz, today.
Besides Yom Kippur and Taanit Esther, the fasts all began as expressions of mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. In fact, they were practiced almost immediately, back in biblical times, as attested by the prophet Zekhariah, who lived around 500 BCE [Zekhariah 8.19]:
כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר יְ’הֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֗וֹת צ֣וֹם הָרְבִיעִ֡י וְצ֣וֹם הַחֲמִישִׁי֩ וְצ֨וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜י וְצ֣וֹם הָעֲשִׂירִ֗י יִהְיֶ֤ה לְבֵית־יְהוּדָה֙ לְשָׂשׂ֣וֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָ֔ה וּֽלְמֹעֲדִ֖ים טוֹבִ֑ים וְהָאֱמֶ֥ת וְהַשָּׁל֖וֹם אֱהָֽבוּ׃ {פ}
Thus said the Lord of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month [Tammuz], the fast of the fifth month [Av], the fast of the seventh month [Tishrei for Gedaliah], and the fast of the tenth month [Tevet] shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah; but you must love honesty and integrity.
I care about the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. I think a ruined sanctuary is a healthy symbol for the broken character of the world. But I certainly don’t want to rebuild it and resume animal sacrifices. And my greatest fear is that some of our fanatical co-religionists will destroy the mosque that sits now on the Temple Mount to rebuild the Temple. I don’t even want to think about the “al-Aqsa Flood” that would follow, God forbid. So I mourn the destruction, but only in proper proportion.
Fortunately, the 17th of Tammuz draws on an alternative tradition. Take a look at this Mishna [Taanit 4.6]:
חֲמִשָּׁה דְבָרִים אֵרְעוּ אֶת אֲבוֹתֵינוּ בְּשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּתַמּוּז וַחֲמִשָּׁה בְּתִשְׁעָה בְאָב. בְּשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּתַמּוּז נִשְׁתַּבְּרוּ הַלּוּחוֹת, וּבָטַל הַתָּמִיד, וְהֻבְקְעָה הָעִיר, וְשָׂרַף אַפּוֹסְטֹמוֹס אֶת הַתּוֹרָה, וְהֶעֱמִיד צֶלֶם בַּהֵיכָל. בְּתִשְׁעָה בְאָב נִגְזַר עַל אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁלֹּא יִכָּנְסוּ לָאָרֶץ, וְחָרַב הַבַּיִת בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה וּבַשְּׁנִיָּה, וְנִלְכְּדָה בֵיתָר, וְנֶחְרְשָׁה הָעִיר. מִשֶּׁנִּכְנַס אָב, מְמַעֲטִין בְּשִׂמְחָה:
Five calamities occurred to our ancestors on the 17th of Tammuz, and five on the 9th of Av.
On the 17th of Tammuz the tablets were broken; the daily sacrifice ceased during Roman destruction; Jerusalem’s walls were breached; Apostemos burned a Torah scroll; and the wicked King Manasseh placed an idol in the Sanctuary.
On the 9th of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would not enter the promised land; the first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans; Beitar was captured; and Jerusalem was plowed under. When the month of Av begins, one limits joy.
The Sages wove the events of their own time – Roman domination – into the patterns of biblical history. That’s Jewish consciousness 101: the major events of sacred history recur cyclically in later generations.
And every year on this day, I am so spiritually moved by how the Sages made the 17th of Tammuz meaningful. On this day “the tablets were broken” – meaning that Moses descended from Mt. Sinai bearing the stone tablets on which God had inscribed the 10 Commandments, and upon seeing the Israelites worshiping the Golden Calf, he smashed them to bits. This works as an interpretation partly because 17 Tammuz falls exactly 40 days after Shavuot, the very period Moses was said to be on the mountain learning mipi hagevurah, from the mouth of the Mighty One.
Even more, I love how this midrashic maneuver shifts the focus of those of us who fast. Bewailing bad deeds of Romans and Babylonians and whoever Apostemos was – that’s all a little easy. I find it too simple a story about bad anti-Semites and the righteous Jews they victimized. It’s not false, but it’s not demanding either. All true religious teaching wakes you up, and propels you to repentance and virtue. If the destruction was all Nebuchadnezzar’s fault, what does that ask of me? It’s true: you have ruthless enemies. That doesn’t make you noble.
I find it much more meaningful to fast on the 17th of Tammuz because it’s the day we as a people worshiped the Golden Calf. Faithless and lazy, we lost the patience to learn Torah from Moses. Spiritually scanty, we preferred bling. And when Moses saw that, the divinely written Torah – which in its first version was “wholly holy,” as Marvin Gaye sang – was smashed into a million pieces. Heavenly Torah cannot remain intact when its earthly audience makes idols.
The Jewish people survived. I could argue we’re even a little better off, with both “the intact second tablets and the fragments of the first tablets lying together in the ark,” as the Talmud says. But today is my favorite fast day because of the profound symbolism of “breaking of the tablets.” The 17th of Tammuz reminds me that even after the most elevating encounter with Hashem, even the noblest people can slip into idolatry, and their betrayal can turn even divine words to dust, which we struggle to reassemble. Know you can destroy. Know you must rebuild.
In this dark time, may we mourners of Zion find פְּאֵ֜ר תַּ֣חַת אֵ֗פֶר שֶׁ֤מֶן שָׂשׂוֹן֙ תַּ֣חַת אֵ֔בֶל, “may we be crowned with a sash instead of ash, anointment of relief instead of grief” [Isaiah 61.3].
