By HaRav Dov Begon is Head of Yeshivat Machon Meir. For laws of the fast day, click here.
From the Seventeenth of Tammuz until the Ninth of Av, the House of Israel observes customs of mourning over the calamities and destruction that befell Israel. The purpose of these fasts and mourning practices is "to awaken the hearts and arouse repentance.
They are to serve as a reminder of our evil deeds and the deeds of our forefathers, which were like our own deeds today, and which caused those calamities to come upon them and upon us. Through remembering these matters, we will return to doing good. Therefore, every person is obligated during those days to take them to heart, examine his deeds, and repent.
Five calamities occurred on the Seventeenth of Tammuz:
The Tablets were shattered when Moses came down from Mount Sinai; the daily offering ceased to be brought in the First Temple due to the siege of Jerusalem; the walls of Jerusalem were breached in the Second Temple; the wicked Apostomos burned the Torah; and an idol was placed in the Sanctuary" (see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 549, Mishnah Berurah).
At present, the root causes of the calamities that afflicted us in the past still exist in our generation, and we must repent for them - to rectify them both on the national level and on the personal level.
The breaking of the Tablets by Moses our teacher came because of the sin of the Golden Calf. Every generation has its own Golden Calf, including our own. The "Golden Calf" is the worship of money, materialism, and the pursuit of pleasure, which some people regard as life's ultimate purpose. This leads to forgetting values, ideals, and morality, and causes estrangement and disconnection from the Jewish Tradition, the Divine mission of the Jewish People, and from the Land of Israel. We must abolish today's Golden Calf by returning to ourselves, returning to our roots and to Jewish Tradition. In this way, we will reconnect with ourselves, with our People, and with our Land.
The daily offering (Korban Tamid), which was the communal sacrifice, symbolized the drawing near of all Israelites to our Father in Heaven, as one person with one heart. In our generation as well, we must find a way to unite Israel and bring the nation closer to Hashem by strengthening the love and faith that are so greatly needed in our times.
The wall of Jerusalem, which is the tangible expression of the Assembly of Israel and the unity of our Nation, had walls whose purpose was to protect the Holy City and the People of Israel. Sadly, in our own day the walls of Jerusalem are being breached through the breaking of all social boundaries, the destruction of values, and the abandonment of morality. A lack of identity and the absence of roots lead people into confusion and decline, even to the point of personal and family destruction. By returning to our universal and unique Jewish identities, we will fortify the walls of Jerusalem.
The burning of the Torah in the past is, regrettably, taking place before our very eyes today through the distancing of Jewish children and adults from the study of Torah. We must return to studying and teaching our holy Torah with love and faith. Everyone in the nation must be given the opportunity to learn Torah and to be influenced by its incomparable wisdom and beauty.
The idol in the Sanctuary. As is well known, a person's heart is compared to a sanctuary. The idol in the sanctuary of a person's heart in our generation consists of anger, evil inclinations, lusts, jealousies, and sinful thoughts. We must purify the sanctuary by removing the idols we “worship" - by erasing the corruptions in our hearts.
When we accomplish these acts of repair, we will merit the fulfillment of the words of the prophet:
"Thus says the Lord of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth shall become for the House of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful festivals. Therefore, love truth and peace" (Zechariah 8:19).
In anticipation of the complete Redemption.