17th of Tammuz

On the tenth of Teves, 425 BCE, Nevuchadnezzar began the blockade of Yerushalayim. Thirty months later, on Yud Zayin Tammuz, after a long siege during which hunger and epidemics devastated the city, the city walls were breached.
King Tzidkiah tried to escape through an eighteen-mile long tunnel, but he was captured in the fields of Yericho by enemy soldiers who, while chasing a deer, saw him emerging. He was brought before Nevuchadnezzar in Riblah. There Tzidkiah’s sons and many other Jewish people were massacred before his eyes; then his eyes were put out, and he was led in chains to Bavel.

Today is Yud Zayin Taamuz, commonly known as Sheva Aser B’taamuz. It marks the first day of the "Three Weeks" and it is customary for us to fast and mourn over the above tragedy.

The Talmud lists some more of the terrible events in Jewish history that occurred on this day:

* In 1313 BCE, forty days after Maatan Torah, upon descending Har Sinai and witnessing the Yidden’s worship of the Golden Calf, Moshe smashed the Luchos inscribed with the Ten Commandments which he was carrying down from the mountain.

* Three weeks before the destruction of the first Beis HaMikdosh in 423 BCE, the daily sacrificial offerings (the Korban Tamid) in the Bais HaMikdosh were discontinued. The reason for this is Yerushalayim was now taken under siege and due to the lack of sheep they had to stop these Korbanos. For the Yidden at that the time this was a big part of their daily routine and not being able to continue doing it was devastating.

* This was also the day that the walls of Yerushalyim were broken into by the Romans (69 CE) during the times of the second Beis HaMikdash.

* We are also told that on this day Apostomos burned the holy Torah and an idol was placed in the Beis HaMikdosh (second.)

Refraining from food and drink is the external aspect of a fast day. On a deeper level, a fast day is an auspicious day, a day when Hashem is accessible and waiting for us to do T’shuva. The sages explain: “Every generation, for which the Temple is not rebuilt, it is as though the Temple was destroyed for that generation.”

A fast day is not only a sad day, but an opportune day. It’s a day when we are empowered to fix the cause of that destruction, so that our long Galus will be ended and we will find ourselves living in the times of Moshiach with the Rebbe and the Mikdash HaShlishi!