Today, the 17th day of the month of Tammuz, marks the beginning of a three-week mourning period for the destruction of the Holy Temples. On this day 1,934 years ago, the conquering Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem, leading to the burning of the Second Temple on the ninth day of Av, three weeks later. (The first Holy Temple was also destroyed on the ninth of Av, some 500 years earlier.) Jews around the world are fasting and self-introspecting in commemoration of the Jerusalem wall-breach, the breaking of the Tablets of the Law at Sinai 3,314 years ago, and other tragedies that occurred on this date.
Rabbi Dov Begun, head of the Machon Meir Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, writes this week that our enemies\' goal today is the same as it was then: \"The division of Jerusalem in order to destroy it and weaken us. This will not come to pass; on the contrary, Jerusalem is the heart of our nation, which we must preserve and protect with total dedication and self-sacrifice.\"
Rabbi Dov Begun, head of the Machon Meir Institute for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, writes this week that our enemies\' goal today is the same as it was then: \"The division of Jerusalem in order to destroy it and weaken us. This will not come to pass; on the contrary, Jerusalem is the heart of our nation, which we must preserve and protect with total dedication and self-sacrifice.\"