Fast of Tammuz

This Thursday, July 9th, is the Fast of Tammuz beloved and marks the beginning of the three weeks of mourning. The purpose of such fasts in the Jewish calendar according to Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov's book, OUR HERITAGE, is "to awaken hearts toward repentance through recalling the misdeeds of our forefathers, misdeeds that lead to calamities". The fast is observed from the break of dawn till sunset. It is also customary to give to charity.

This three week period is called Bein Hametzarim "between the troubles" and it is customary to refrain from the following:

	do not wear new clothes
	do not listen to music
	do not bathe for pleasure
	do not shave
	do not cut hair
	no weddings
	no drinking of wine
	no eating meat
	no long journeys undertaken

There are other restrictions (and some of these prohibitions are void on Shabbat) but I just wanted to give a few so we could get a taste of what is entailed in keeping this mourning period.

The three weeks begin with the Fast of Tammuz 17. This day is a fast day to remember five tragedies that befell the Jews:

	1. Moses broke the first set of tablets of the law.
	2. The daily offering in the first Temple was discontinued for lack of sheep. [Daniel 11:31 "...and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." Daniel 12:11,12 "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days."]
	3. Right before the destruction of the second Temple, the walls of Jerusalem were breached.
	4. A wicked Roman ruler named Apostumus burned the Torah.
	5. An idol was erected in the Holy Temple.

At the end of the three weeks is Tisha B'Av, the 9th of Av. On this day five tragedies also occurred:

	1. The spies returned and gave an evil report which discouraged the Jewish people and ended with them wandering in the desert.
	2. The first Temple was destroyed.
	3. The second Temple was destroyed.
	4. The city of Betar was captured. Tens of thousands were killed. Apparently the Romans had been fighting against Betar for 3+ years before it fell. The Talmud (Ta'anit 68:4) says: "Eighty thousand war companies entered the city of Betar and the Romans were killing men, women and children until their blood was oozing out from the doors, windows and the pipes. The horse would drown in the blood to its nose and the blood would cause stones of 40 se'ah to roll away and would proceed 40 miles to the sea...There is a tradition that the Gentiles fertilized their fields with the blood of Israel for seven years, not using any other fertilizer.
	5. The Romans ploughed over the site of the Temple.

Other things that have happened on this date:

	1. First Crusade declared, 1095.
	2. King Edward I expels all Jews from England, 1290.
	3. Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1492.
	4. Pope Paul IV moves all the Jews into the ghetto, 1555.
	5. Start of WWI.

Jeremiah 1:1-2:3, 2:4-3:4 and Isaiah 1:1-27 are read on the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av. This Shabbat is called "Shabbat Chazon"-- "Shabbat of Vision."

For anyone who has been to Jerusalem and prayed at the Temple Mount you know what I mean when I say we mourn the loss of the Temple. Once you have been there you are never the same. You leave a piece of your heart there and you long to go back, knowing you will never be whole again until you do. Below is writing by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz an amazing teacher and writer. May it be Your will, HaShem, our G*D and the G*D of our forefathers, that the Holy Temple be rebuilt, speedily in our days. Grant us our share in Your Torah, and may we serve You there with reverence, as in the days of old and in former years. Shalom and Ahavah, Elizabeth

The Resonance of Jerusalem

By Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Everyone who lives in Jerusalem - especially those like me who were born here - is in love with the city, really in love. For us, it is not just a place, not just a house; it is a home. But it is even more than that: It is an object of love. Even visitors are in some way ensnared by Jerusalem. So many of their hearts are captured, but in different ways, for different reasons. Why is it so?

Jerusalem is many things to many people, because it is - and always has been - a kind of enigma. It is a place that is composed of many parts. They may seem to clash with one another, but somehow they achieve a kind of harmony that is felt by anyone who walks her streets or breathes her air or soaks up her sunshine.

Jerusalem is simple, but not naive. Jerusalem is simple in a most sophisticated simplicity, because Jerusalem has passed sophistication. It is a very old city. It is a city that has suffered much and has known so many things that it is now very simple, like some of those great masterpieces. The simplicity hides so many things. You look at it, you dream about it, and you think, what really is it?

Jerusalem is also, in many ways, a combination of contradictions: It is called, and its name itself implies, "City of Peace," yet so many wars took place here. It is perhaps one of the most quarrelsome and troublesome places in the world, but it is still a city of peace. There is a saying, especially in Jewish tradition, that it is "the house of God." The gate to heaven is understood to refer to Jerusalem, but Jewish tradition also identifies the valley of Gehinom (hell) near the walls of the Old City.

This is Jerusalem. This is what the Psalmist described as ir she'chubra lah yahdav, a city that was joined together. It is not just joined together because there is old and new, or because it is home to religious and non-religious, Arabs and Jews and Christians. It is a place that combines differences and brings them, somehow, together in a kind of harmony of contradictions. And there is another explanation, which seems very beautiful to me, that the name Jerusalem comes from yir'e shalem, which may be translated as "a complete view," another form of harmony.

It is historically, and perhaps theologically, significant that Jerusalem is unlikely as the site of a capital. It is not on a road, or on a river, or near the sea. It is somewhere ...in nowhere. Even so, it is a center - the place the Bible tells us that God chose. But why?

In life, as in geology, there are many strata: of substance, of meaning, and of energy. And in life, as in geology, there is physical causality, in which things move and are understood according to physical laws and reasoning. This physical causality - which some might call "real life" - is one level of existence.

There is also another, higher and very different level of causality - a spiritual one - in which there are rewards and punishments for good and evil. Usually, there are no connections between the physical and spiritual strata; they don't mix. People may move from one level to the other, but they don't mix. But there are - in spirituality, as in geology - points at which the levels touch, where two strata of existence somehow come together in one point, like a corner formed by two walls. The corner has no substance of its own, but - like a lap - exists because of the relationship of two other planes. This juncture is what Jacob called the ladder or gate to heaven, a place where influence, power, and insight can move either way, between the spiritual and material worlds.

Such a point is Jerusalem.

No one knows why it should be so, but Jerusalem is a fault-line in the stratification of the world order. Just as water may spurt forth from a geological fault, so, too, Jerusalem is a gushing wellspring of existence, a source of goodness and benefit. Because this point where the physical and spiritual worlds meet is the place where they can work together, things happen in Jerusalem that do not conform to ordinary rules. Here, more than anywhere else, the smallest events take on a cosmic meaning and enigmatic complexity that are beyond our understanding.

An event that happens in Jerusalem reverberates all over the world, yet a similar incident elsewhere passes almost unnoticed. Only here does the causality of the material world become entangled with the entirely different causality of the spiritual world. The energy of justice and the energy of power are pulled toward Jerusalem, as toward a lightning rod, and become entangled, sending shock waves around the globe.

Jerusalem is a place of power and resonance, waiting - perhaps hoping - for a voice that will be heard all over the world, a voice that will renew the message of peace and wholeness and holiness that has always issued from this holy city.

At this time of year, we mourn for Jerusalem, not as we mourn a relative - emerging, in stages, from our sudden grief: shiva to sheloshim to the 11 months of avelut. Rather, in keeping with Jerusalem's contradictions, we descend into mourning gradually: from the Three Weeks to the Nine Days to Tisha B'Av. We have no hope of seeing our loved ones again; the stages of mourning mark our fading, but always lingering, memories. As we mourn for Jerusalem, however, we hold out hope that we will see mourning swept away forever, by its peace and wholeness and holiness.