The Adams Street Shul

Written by Rabbi Norbert Weinberg This Tuesday, July 19, is the Fast of Shiva Asar b-Tammuz (the Seventeenth Day of Tammuz), which will inaugurate The Three Weeks of mourning for both our Holy Temples, in connection with the fall of Jerusalem, the first destroyed by the Babylonians (586 B.C.E.) and the second by the Romans (70 C.E.).

There are six public fast days in the year.  One is Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).  Another is Taanit Esther (the Fast of Esther), connected to the Purim festival.  The other four all commemorate an aspect of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples.

Following are the four fast days:

1. Asarah B-Tevet (the Tenth Day of Tevet) ... This fast day usually falls in the winter around December.  It commemorates when the siege by the Babylonians began against Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.

This day has modern ramifications since this is the event that laid the foundation for our long Exile, not yet terminated.  The Rabbinate of Israel has thus declared this day as the yahrzeit for the many martyrs of the Holocaust whose dates of death are unknown.  I have adopted the practice of lighting a yahrzeit candle for them on this day and saying the Kaddish.

2. Shiva Assar B-Tammuz ... On this day, the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, which made the fall of the city an immanent certainty.  A number of other tragedies befell us at this time of year.

3. Tisha B-Av ... The fast of the Ninth of Av, which occurs exactly three weeks after the above Fast.  Many tragedies occurred on this day, the greatest of which was the destruction of both Holy Temples.

4. Tzom Gedaliah ... This fast occurs on the day after Rosh Hashanah.  The assassination of the Jewish governor, Gedaliah, marked the end of the first Jewish Commonwealth.