Rav Soloveitchik: 17th of Tamuz and 3 Weeks | Rabbi Jeremy Perlow | June 30 2026

Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to today's program. It's wonderful to see everyone as always. I want to talk today. We know this Thursday we have the fast of Shivas. So for many of us it's a sad day. We know in the Jewish calendar is a very sad day and I think it's appropriate that we devote some time to discussing the nature of the fast and what it is we're fasting for. Now the Shivasaramuz you had a question. Okay. Shivasaramuz the 17th of Tamuz is the introduction to the three weeks. Nowik famously he has a famous piece on this the three weeks he talks about what we call a kadasha and ashana we have what we call old morning and new morning so what's the difference so I think all of us are familiar unfortunately we've all seen someone who we love who has passed right at some point in our lives this happens people we love they depart from us we have a certain amount of time in this world and when someone passes we immediately feel the pain right no one needs to instruct you how to do it. No one needs to guide you. We know it feels difficult and it's challenging and with time we go through Shiva, we go through and for parents we also have seven days of morning, 30 days of morning, 12 months. We know this process that we don't really need guidance in. It's something we go through naturally. And yet when it comes to the loss of the beta mikdash, it's a little more challenging, right? Whereas when it comes to the loss of a relative, the pain subsides with time. When it comes to the beta mikdash, it's not like that. For most of us, we don't feel an immediate pain. Someone tells you for the first time, the beta mikdash is destroyed. We don't have a beta mikdash today. So most of us, we've never really all of us, we've never seen a beta mikdash. We don't know what it's like. We don't know what we're missing. We don't know how special that was. And to go and now have to experience that exper to go through that experience where we were told that the bikdash was is difficult. It's not so it's not so simple to connect with. So we actually have to do the opposite. We work up towards tishab right. The morning actually increases throughout the period of the three weeks. We go from the three weeks into the nine days into shabu until eventually get to tishab. And sovich famously he went ahead and he calls this old mourning. It's something more challenging. It's not directly in our periphery. It's not something we're thinking about right now. It's the pain is fresh. You feel it. It's immediate. That's for a family member, for a relative is something more challenging. And that's something I think that we have to work towards. And that's why we have the period of the three weeks to help us build up towards experiencing to understanding what it is that we we've lost. Now, what he did is he's a master at this. He took all the that we go through when we lose a relative and he matched them with of the three weeks. He says corresponds to all the of they correspond to the same we find during Shiva. So just as by Shiva, right, we sit on the floor, right? We're in morning. Just as in Shiva, we uh we we were not about to do, right? We're not allowed to wash ourselves in the same way we would normally do. We're not allowed to all the five provisions, right? Washing. He goes through several of them. And he explains obviously fasting is something which we don't do during sha. But he says the morning the morning components they all match. And he says so matches with the 30-day period after losing a relative matches the of uh the nine days. And finally the period of the three weeks corresponds to the of an entire year that you do for a parent. And uh there's many ramifications of Zvves thought that we can actually apply some of the hatarium. He used this both the kula and the both stringently and to be lenient. He thought we could actually take some of the we find by the laws of morning for a relative and apply them to the laws of morning that we find for the beta mikdash. So for instance we know the is during the three weeks we don't shave we don't take haircuts right so we know similarly we find during the entire year when a person loses a parent or we know that they have to mourn for an entire year so during that time let's say someone comes over to you and they say you look disheveled you need a haircut so are you allowed to go ahead and take a haircut is yes you can go ahead and you can take a haircut because at that point you're so disheveled that you're going to wait a whole year to go a haircut. At that point, you look so disheveled that someone even actually has to come over to you and tell you that means that you should you're allowed to take a haircut. So, correspondingly thought that maybe today people today shave every day. Some people go to work, they shave every single day. Soviet you could take this to be lenient actually that if you're the type of person who shaves every single day for work and now you're going to go with couple days and people are going to already say you're disheveled you're unckempt of during the three weeks not during the nine days but during the three weeks you could be lenient and actually shave for those who shave regularly every single day and would be otherwise be considered disheveled and people would come over and rebuke them. Okay, so not everyone agrees with salvation on this but he really took it and he he applied it. He felt you could be lenient in this regard. So again, this is what we call and the two different types of morning that we have. And I think what's important about this, it gives us a little bit of perspective of what it is we're trying to accomplish during this time. During the time of the three weeks, we need to build up to appreciate what it is that we've lost. So if you look here at the source sheet, I what I did for you here is I painted you for you a picture almost of the different sources that we have in the Rambam. And if you look at the first section part one, what is the goal of the three weeks and of fasting? So the Rambam here famously he describes two different types of fast days that we have right so most of us are familiar with the fast days we have on the Jewish calendar. We know there's six fast days throughout the year. We have yum kipur right the one only one in the Torah. We have tishab which is the most next next most important fast on the Jewish calendar. Okay that's the saddest day in the Jew in the Jewish calendar. And then we have four other fast days. Four other min we call them minor fast days. One of which is happy. That's which one? Tanya, right? The fast of Esther. Very good. And the other three are sad fast days. The other three are sad minor fast days. And those are Shiva Sarvatamus, the one we're about to do this Thursday. Good. Okay. We have Okay. The 10th of Tomala. Those three. Okay. The 10th of Tomala and Shivas. Those are the six fast days we have in the Jewish calendar. Now, if you look, it's interesting because the Rambam says that all of these we have here again, we'll call them the happy fasts and the four sad fasts. Okay, so Yumipur is actually a happy fast, believe it or not, because we get kapara. Hashem forgives us. We got the loot, we get a kapar. We don't think in these terms usually. Okay, but that's the yum kipur and that is tan. And then you have the other four fast days. The other four fast days are all sad. So tishabatamus the tent and all sad fast days. Now this is what the ramen calls category one these four sad fast days category one the second type of fast day I think most of us are not familiar with what's the second type of fast day he doesn't talk about right now any that's for another time we said that's not in the laws of what what does the call the second type of fast day look at the first source here he says there is a biblical commandment to go and cry out and to blast the the trumpets for every single trying and difficult situation which which is faced by the theor by the congregation and he cites the mitzvah a biblical mitzvah to blow the to blow trumpets and to cry out in fasting for every single difficult situation the Jewish people faces. Now I think most of us know we don't really experience this today. When was the last time that you heard the Israeli ravenets or the or the uh right the anywhere in the world that there was a difficult situation and they declared a fasting for the most part really don't do this today. Why is that? Okay. Ah, so he says here, it's not so clear from the wording of the Rambam, but he says, let's see what he explains a little more, right? He's talking about something which is probably local to a specific place, right? Loc example is de one of the plagues we know. Anything similar to this, this is what they would do. And he says, so so again, so it's probably not for the whole world, but even in that loca location, you know, we just went through a whole war. Maybe we could argue we're still in the war, okay? And yet we didn't find that we declared any fast days. Why is it that today we don't do this? Why is it co 19, right? We weren't declaring fast days. Why is it? Why not? So he says here, look at the next one. He says the reason we do it Yeah. So, some wanted to do it for that reason. But it's not so common that we find on other days on the Jewish calendar that we declare a fast. Now I'm not saying it hasn't been done. It has been done. Okay? But it's not common. So the question is why not? If you so if you look here the Rambam says he says doing this accomplishing this fast is part of look at the wording here. I bold it for you. It's the path. This is the path of repentance. When a s comes, when a situation of distress comes and you cry out about it, everyone will know it's because of their evil actions this came about, right? We don't believe in just mother nature, right? We don't believe in this. What is mother nature? It's like bugs bunny. It means nothing. Mother nature. Mother nature is a term to to kind to hide Hashem. It's Hashem. Hashem causes everything in the world. So if something bad is happening, we believe that it's because of our actions. And when we cry out about it, we're making a demonstration. Hashem, we want to do chuva. We want to be better. And Hashem sees that. And that's important. And now everyone around us sees that. And they see it must be that we have to work on ourselves. It must be that we have to improve. This is a last line. And this is what's going to cause them to remove the tragedy, to remove the difficult situation from upon the Jewish people. So what I want to highlight again is that the code phrase this is this is the this is going to be the the method to accomplishing chuva. Look at the next source source number two we find this term being used again and this one this time I think we'll notice that we do find I think this is a much more familiar to us. This is in peric the very next chapter in the Rambam where he writes he used the term again it's considered It's considered the way of repentance for the person who's doing chuva to cry out continuously before he right with tears and with supplications and to do according to his ability. He should distance himself greatly from the matter in which he sinned. Mo, he didn't go so far to say change your name. That's part of the path of meaning. What does that mean? I am someone else. I'm not the same person who sinned. I'm not the same person who made those mistakes. Change your ways for the better. Go into what he calls to actually leave your location. Go somewhere else. Be someone else. Feel like you're someone else. Exile atones for sin because it causes the person to be to yield himself to lower himself to be humble. And and I think this is very important. I think very often the the root of sin is arrogance. Feeling like I'm good, everything's good, everything's wonderful. But to actually have to go somewhere else and feel out of place a little bit, that's difficult. That's very challenging. And that feeling will actually humble oneself and allow one become suducha. So this is another time we find the use. What I want to point out now in source three is we find a very different phrase and I want to contrast these two phrases and this will lead us to understanding the two types of fast days that we find in the Rambam. Look at the last source in this section. Source number three. Now this should be more familiar to us. There are days that all the Jewish people fast obviously it's not everyone as we know some people are sick don't fast the talks about that later some people are ill who are not supposed to fast okay children but he says where the entire Jewish people fast because of the travel uh difficult situations the sorrowos which happened to them to awaken the hearts and to open the paths of repentance and he goes ahead and he whisks these are the days and he whisked the four fast days which we talked about the 17th of Tamuz and we have the 10th of Tat etc. He goes through in the next paragraph those four sad fast days. So you'll notice one thing which is very particular, very interesting perhaps is that the Rambam here utilizes a different phrase to open the path of repentance. So the question becomes why is it when the Rambam was talking about the obligation to make a declare a public fasting when there's a difficult situation for the entire Jewish people why is it there the Rambam says this is this is the path of repentance and yet when he's talking about the four sad fast days we do every year that we observe every year the Rambam uses the different term he says to open So this is not my question. This is Soviet's question and haram. And sovietic writes that only when a person is in a present crisis. He sees the crisis in front of him. He sees there's a war going on. He sees there's a plague. He sees there's people dying. He sees tragedy. That is itself. When a person goes ahead and acts on that, that itself is that's repentance. That's chuba right there. But when a person is remembering something of the past, a person is remembering either he's remembering the terrible thing of things of the past. That's something of the past. That's harder. That's more challenging to be able to achieve chuva. Then you have to really work on it. So that is only the beginning. Opens the door towards chuva. It's not true about and of itself. Which means a person could go through and fast the entire thing from from morning until night, do it 100% properly and not have fulfilled the mitzvah of chuva because the mitzvah of chuva is only accomplished when a person takes that fasting and he takes it to the next level and he looks inside his heart and he says what do I need to work on? How does this affect me today? That's the goal of the fastest. The rabbi writes that explicitly, goes on, he writes this explicitly that the goal of the fasting is just to take that moment to take that fasting and take it to the next level to apply it to our lives and think about how we're going to change as a result and remember that all these terrible things that happened once in a while a long time ago is not just a story. It's something we have to make a part of our lives and utilize it as a springboard for chuva. Okay. Okay. So I want to do now I want to go to the part two here. I want to talk about how we can apply the lessons of the tan. How can we go ahead and make this part of our lives? Let's think about this for a second. You know it's very nice that we can talk about doing tru from today until tomorrow. But what does that require from us? So I remember when I was a student in yeshiva university. I remember there was one guy every single fast day. He was in his 80s. He was very old man. He would get up right after Mina and make a clap on the beimma and everyone would turn, everyone would look and he he wasn't he wasn't so loud. He was an old man. He was uh he worked in the Wu. He was the librarian those who might know and he every single year he gave the same announcement every single time there was a fast day. He would say the miri says I don't know why he said the because it's the everyone says it. He says the miri says a person can fast the entire fast day and not fulfill the purpose of the fast day until he gives saddaka. Because and he went on to explain because when we give taka that changes us. It's not enough just to fast. We have to act. We have to use it as a springboard as a uh beginning towards the cha process. And so when a person gives he can actually accomplish much greater things than just the fasting itself. We know there's many manyukim throughout but people who fast and hashem says do you think I want your fast or do I think I want you to listen? We know the answer. We know what hashem wants from us. If you look here, there's a great story here in British Rabba. This is from the midrash. They talked about here Rabbi Tanuma. We know most of us are familiar with the midrash tankum. Okay, so Tanuma was the person who actually went ahead. He didn't write the whole midrash, but he helped compile it. He took he was in the fifth century. He was the Mora and he helped compile many of the midrash that we have today. So this is a story about him. So in his days, in his times, the Jewish people needed to fast. So they came to him and they said, "Rebi, please declare a public fast day." So as we just learned in the Rambam source one, that's the appropriate thing to do. A person the the situation is grave. The Jewish people need a salvation. You can go ahead and declare. So they needed rain. And so for three days, they went ahead and declared three different fast days. Usually it's a Monday, Thursday, Monday. We do this today. Sometimes called Bahab. Those who are familiar, Monday, Thursday, Monday. And they declared three fast days and still no rain came. He went up and he taught them my children, my sons. Alu, fill yourselves with mercy one upon the other. And if you fill yourselves with mercy, if you look mercifully upon others and you give to them, Hashem himself will be filled with mercy upon you. So they started they started to give to all the poor people around them and then they saw one person who was giving coins. He was giving sodaka to his divorce. They came to him. They went up to the rebu. They went back to and they said, "Why are we sitting here? We're giving. We're doing the right thing." And this one guy is going ahead and he's giving things to his divorce. How could it be? They thought he was doing something wrong. They thought he was doing something terrible. I'm sorry. What did you see? We saw so and so. He was giving money to his divorce. They went after him. They brought him. She is my divorce. Why did you give her money? I saw she was in distress and I had mercy upon her and I gave her that moment. He turned his face heavenward master of all the worlds. If this person who went ahead, he saw as divorcy and he decided he's going to give her food, he's going to give her money, he's going to give her saddaka, he saw her in distress and he was filled with mercy about you about you. It says, "You're gracious and merciful. We are the children of your beloved all the all the patriarchs. All the more so, Hashem, you should be filled with mercy for us. And as soon as he finished, the rain began to fall and the world was sustained. So here we have an incident which everyone's looking at this guy. They say, "What is he doing? He's doing something terrible. He's doing something wrong." And Rabbit looked at him and he saw the good and he saw that he was going ahead and he was doing the right thing. He was giving saddaka to even someone who was difficult for him to give sodaka to. How challenging is someone sometimes you have good divorces they end nicely but very often it's not that way and very often people end on very bad terms and he was able to look his divorce in the eye and say I care about you and I want you to have what you need to have and he gave it and it was in that they had rain so this is an example where we see someone who went ahead and he didn't just fast the fasting itself did nothing here what it accomplished what the fasting accomplished is it got the Jewish people to realize they're in distress and only that only when he gave sedaka did enable them to achieve the chuva that they so badly needed. Now I think another thing many of us are familiar with when there's tragedy what do we do as Jews we recite the right every fast day as we'll do this Thursday also we recite and the most important feature of the is we say the hashem's 13 attributes of mercy why do we do that so it's based on the following garban says he says shalom in source five he says there's a written if not for the haven't written this it would be impossible to say this what does that mean says right he's citing here from the we know that went ahead from this we learned and then put on the source sheet we'll see in a second though the teaches us told I'll just tell you the summariz I want you to go in this little crevice I want you to go between the mountains and I'm between the cracks and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to adorn myself I'm going to adorn adorn myself with a talis like and he showed Moshe the every time you see the Jewish people sin they should perform before me and I want to focus in on that word in a second they should perform before me it's a bold if they do it go ahead perform these words I will forgive them what are the three words. Hashem, what are the words they're supposed to say? The 13 attributes. If they can go ahead and say these words, Hashem says, I'm going to forgive them. And we know there's a covenant in these 13 attributes. If they recite these words, they will not return empty-handed. Because Hashem says, I'm making a covenant with you. So, you keep your end of the covenant and I'll keep mine. So most people read this and they say, "Okay, very nice." So we say the 13 attributes. Hashem will forgive us. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing. Right? What's the problem? They're not reading the GMAR carefully. What does the say? It doesn't say if you read these words. It says act, perform, be a different person. If you can act on these 13 attributes, you follow my ways. Just as I'm merciful, you should be merciful. Just as I have compassion, you should be compassionate. If you're able to do that, Hashem says, "Then it's a brief crew. It's an eternal covenant. I'm not going to go back on it. I'm going to forgive them." So, we have the recipe right here. In Why do we say the word so many times? We say it to get it in our heads and to bring into our hearts and to turn into action. But if it stops here, if it stops in our lips, if we can't do anything more than say the 13 attributes, we haven't accomplished our job. lip service. >> It's called lip service, right? What do we call by the way? What do we call? What's the other term for? It's work of the heart, not of the lips. You could say the words from today until tomorrow, but if you don't feel it, if you don't bring into your kishkas, if you don't make it a part of who you are, you haven't accomplished your goal. So that's why we hope that again there's three steps. Third, first step is we say the words. Second step, we internalize the words, make it a part of our who we are. And then finally, we take that internalization. We take those hopes and those thoughts and all those amazing intentions that we have and we have to turn them into action. That's the third step. That's the goal of midav and that's the goal of the yimid. Now what I want to do here, I want to take you on a historical journey something very interesting. We have in part three of fasting during okay we know the Jewish people uh at one point in time we had the first bit of mikdash we lost it and we began to mourn and then barakashem only a few years later right 70 years of g the Jewish people came back and we built bacheni we built the second temple so I understand during those 70 years they probably mourned they didn't have a betach but what about when we had bacheni did they have all these fast days during bacheni during the times of the second temple So believe it or not, this was the this is not my question. This was the question of the Jewish people who lived during the early years of Ba Cheni. When they first built the Bacheni, they first built the second temple. The Jewish people went to Zakaria and they said, "What should we do this year? Should we fast? Should we not fast? We were fasting all this time the past 70 years. We haven't had a beta mikdash. But what should we do this year?" They asked him. And Zakaria said a very very unclear and ambiguous answer. Okay. Look at six. This is what he said. This is what Hashem said. Master of Legions, the fast of the fourth month, which by the way, what's that? Let's count. We start from Nissan, right? That's the fast of the fourth month. The fast of the fifth month. What's that? Okay. The of the seventh month. Okay. Don't fall for it's not yipur. Actually it's t but it's not yipur. Okay, he's talking about right now these three fast days I'm sorry I'm sorry I skipped one the fourth fast day the 10th of right the 10th month the 10th of these will turn in to becoming days of of days of right joy and right different words for joy Okay, and for holidays and truth and peace will be loved. So it's a very interesting phrase here. We have again that these days seemingly he's telling us that these days will become days of rejoicing. But did he answer their question? >> What about right now? We want to know what we're supposed to do now. Right? So the Gamar and Rashashana uh we have here a very interesting comment and they talk about what exactly Zakaria's response was. What did he mean by this? And we're going to see now two different opinions. We're going to analyze all the words in this very carefully and we're going to see two different opinions as to what exactly Zakaria's response was. Did the people have these fast days during Beni or not? So look at the rash. What does this mean that we just read and then you can skip the quotation? We just read it. What does this mean? So they analyzed um three different words in the puk. Okay, this is the first opinion. The calls these days of fasting and the also refers to them as days of rejoicing. So which one is it? Says it depends shalom. At a time when there is peace these days will be days of joy. In shalom if there's no peace there will be days of so according to the first opinion it depends. Is there peace? Is there not peace? If there's peace then there'll be days of rejoicing. If there's not peace then there are days of tani or days of fasting. Okay. Now we actually do not pos like the first opinion. We follow the second opinion. All we should jump on this try and figure out what the second opinion means. The second opinion is a little bit more complicated. Okay. Now within the first opinion before we go on to a second opinion you have to already start thinking what does it mean shalom? What does it mean shalom? There's peace. Okay. But how do you define peace? What's the definition of peace? Right now we're not fighting with Iran to the same extent as we were before. Maybe arguably. Okay. So maybe we should stop the fasting. There's peace, right? Is that what it means? What is peace? So we have to see in a second. But let's see the second opinion first and then we'll come back to that question. The second opinion the says there's actually three possible situations. First situation if there is peace. I agree with you. If there is peace then there'll be days of rejoicing. Now there's actually different gear south here. There's different texts regarding what this word should be. You look in Aramar, they actually do not have the word. They actually have the word if there's decrees of the government. Now, the reason they did that, this is actually the if you look in the side of the garra, they said it's because of the sensor. They didn't want to put the word in the garra. Schmad implies that there is uh is a situation of tremendous uh pressure to say it nicely right from the non-Jewish authorities and to the extent that we would actually be obligated to go and do almost everything to stop them okay that's we call it's a very intense situation and they didn't want to use that terminology in the gar the sensor took it out so they said they made it more light but the text that we the correct text though they say on the side of the gumar the points out should actually bear so when there's So then we have to fast. Okay, that's situation number two. However, situation number three, if there's no situation of there's no immediate threat to the Jewish people that they're threatening us and there's no peace, then you have a choice. Oh, you got a choice. Interesting. If they want us, they can fast. If we want, we don't have to fast. Wow. Have you hear about these optional fasts? We don't talk about this, right? If that's the case, then what about also we should say the same thing. So to explain this question, I have to give you a little bit of context. Okay, the Mishna there that the is referring to was talking about the 12 months on the Jewish calendar on which we used to know six months of the year they used to send out messengers. The Mishna says that there's certain months in the year they used to send out messengers before Anroesh that people should know when Rotoesh was and they didn't have SMS they didn't have WhatsApp it wasn't so easy to communicate so they have to go by horseback and they have to send out messengers on horseback to communicate to all the different neighborhoods of Israel and they should know today's ro but they didn't do it for every single month because it's very difficult to send out messengers all across the country all over the globe it's very very difficult very challenging so they didn't do it everywhere So the places were close by they could do it and they didn't do it every month. They would do it on the important months and one of the months that they would do it for was a for the month of Av they would send out messengers because everyone needed to know when tishab was but for the month of tamuz and for tet for that matter also the gar the says they did not send out messengers. Why not? It seems to be that it wasn't so important to fast that it wasn't at the same level of obligation as to Shabbah and they would not send out messengers. And the Gomorrah wants to know now why do we have this discrepancy? Why is it they send out messengers for a but not for Tamuz? And the Gumar now answers is an optional fast. That's why Tamuz is an optional the fast of Shiva Tamuz in that time. Okay, key words was an optional fast. Why? Okay, we're gonna come to that in one second. But of the concludes is not why is it it's not the answer is different because there's more there's twice as many terrible things which happened on tishab there's so many terrible events which happened on tishab to the extent that it became required fast the tit not as much they weren't required fs in the same Okayishab that's a different level is up here. So says papa we have again to review this is the main opinion I want everyone to know is papa three opinion three different options sometimes we have there's a situation of shalom these fast days are days of rejoicing of sometimes we have days of when there's decrees against the Jewish people that's a situation when we have to fast and then when it's neither neither a time of peace nor a time of when there's decrees against the Jewish people then it's a choice onion. So most So let's go back to our questions now. How do we define peace? What makes something a situation of peace? Says says most of peace is defined by having a mikdash. So so long as we don't have a mikdash, it's not considered shalom. And therefore accordingly at the very least it's not going to be a situation of rejoicing. We're not going to be rejoicing on or the 10th of or some certainly so long as we don't have a beta mikdash. That's the way most reimar means if you won't notice it's in the plural. It's in the plural which means the gumar is alluding to the fact that this is a decision made on account of everyone by the bi. It has to be a communal decision. And now at this time period in Jewish history, we've accepted these days as days of fasting. We've accepted it. That's the reality. The days of fasting, they've the entire Jewish people accept upon themselves as days of fasting. And therefore, it's no longer optional. Fine. That's the way the Russia explains. Now the question is what about right? So they had a bit of migdash on the one hand. So it sounds like according to the definition of most they had a situation of peace. So did they fast on so when they had bayeni when the second temple was around? So it really the truth is it's a mul okay Rashi okay Rash's opinion is very complicated okay I'm going to try and explain it as simply as I can rashi holds that we have an appearance steer in Rashi that's why it's a little complicated there's apparent contradiction in Rashi okay because Rashi says he he says on the one hand it depends on whether there's a bit which is most the way most assume on the other hand he also says that it depends whether there's decrees against the Jewish people it depends whether the non-Jews have rulership they're governing the Jews if the non-Jews are governing the Jewish people. So it seems to be that's the primary criteria according to Rashi. So which is which is the what did Rashi mean by this? It appears to be a contradiction. So Likenstein famously he's one of the ones who went ahead and said that these are the same thing because when the Jewish people have a governing body when we ourselves are governing as Jews then we have the opportunity at the very least to create a mikdash. So many understand like this. I think on a simple level most assume the rashi is following all the other all the other shonyim but it depends whether we have a beta mikdash. So according to Rashi when there is no betam mikdash did the Jewish people fast I'm sorry during beni when we had a betam mikdash did the Jewish people fast so most assume that the Jewish people uh did not okay according to rashi he thinks that simple read of the gumar is the Jewish people did not shockingly the ram bomb okay I've quoted for you here in I'm going to summarize outside it's really based on ram elsewhere actually primarily which is in this parishio the rambom there explains based on this Mishna. And he goes ahead and explains that when the Jewish people had a second temple, he believes shockingly that they still fasted. It begs the question, why are they fasting? They haven't been a mikdash. Why are they fasting? So many different explanations to this Rambam have been provided. I think just on a simple level I think it's important to recognize that according to the Rambam the Rambam believes and uh I think this is a very rings true with us that even when we have a bit of mikdash if we're always nervous if we always feel then the second this could be taken away from us because there's guerot against the Jewish people that we're not in full domain that we don't feel like we have the ability to to for to act according to the way we'd like to act we're being governed by a higher body by the non Jewish the government so long as that's the case we don't really have the shalom that's required and therefore the Rambam says even if we have the beta mikdash we're still missing something it's still not perfect and I think this goes back to what we were talking about before the what is the goal of the fast days what are we trying to accomplish during these four sad fast days according to the Rambam he understands that the fasting is not just commemorating it's not just commemorating the fact that we don't have a midash but We're fasting because of the precarious state of Israel. We're fasting because the Jewish people are not yet where we're supposed to be. And therefore, even in the times of the beta mikdash, when they had a second temple, says the Rambam, they still fasted because we're not yet where we're supposed to be. All the more so today where we don't have a beta mikdash. All the more so today, do we have to be thinking about what we have to do to improve, to use these fasts, the launching pad to improve, to make sure that we please God, we shouldn't have to fast in upcoming years. They should turn the days of the sun. I want to do in the last few minutes that we have. I want to do the last section here on the source sheet to go through what exactly happened on Shiva Sarvatamus. The Mishna states that there are five terrible tragedies that took place on Shiva Sarvatamus and five terrible tragedies that took place on Tishab. In source 10, the bottom of page two, the mission records Shiva Saratamus. Go to the bold section. What is the most famous event that happened at Shiva Saratamus? Very good. The the construction of the golden calf which led to the breaking of the luot. That is the very first and most important event I want everyone to know that happened on the 17th of Tamuz. The golden of the calf and the breaking of the luot. Okay. Now, all the other sins on the list, you'll notice a little bit more ambiguous. They're not totally clear when they happened in Jewish history. There's different opinions on when they happened precisely. So, number two, again, there's five of them. So number one the golden calf okay in the breaking of the number two the Jewish people no longer had the okay the ra that was during the first temple period that the mission is talking about in he like that and the usi says it's actually also the babui says this actually referring to an incident in beni when they went ahead and the Jewish people had to go ahead and every single day they were paying lots and lots of money to have corbanos brought over the walls of the city because they laid siege and no one was allowed in or out and they had no means of getting the corbanotes and they were paying money that they could have corbanot being raised over the wall and one day to to spite the Jewish people instead of sending over a sheep which is the daily the daily offering which needs to be brought they sent over a pig. So that is again one of the tragedies which happened on Shiva Saratamus. Another famous one that the walls of the city were breached. Again, it's a discussion when exactly this is referring to. Um, in safer yahoo, they actually say this is a reference to the ninth of tamuz. And everyone trying to bend over backwards to understand what that means because we know it's the 17th of Tamuz. It's the Mishna. And so many say was the Garra says one answer is that the it's referring to the first temple and the times of the first temple is the ninth of Tamuz and the times of the second temple when the walls were breached that happened on the 17th of Tamuz. Okay. Uh the fourth item on the list of Apostamos Torah. We had a Torah was burned. Okay. Some explain this is the authoritative Torah of of Ezra that was burnt. Uh where some say it was actually there was a decree against the Jewish people to burn every Torah. Some say like that. Okay. Different opinions. And finally they went ahead and they put up an idol inside the that was King Manasha who did that. Okay. and say for me some say it might have been actually the same person apostamus who we just mentioned a different opinion so again so all these other four items it's not totally clear when in Jewish history they took place and who exactly it took place with it's a little bit more ambiguous but the one item which is certainly clear we know the exact date we know exactly how it happened it's in the Torah is the golden calf and in fact if you want to understand any fasting in the Jewish calendar a rule of thumb is you always need to go to the root cause what is the first event why is this happening happening? Why is it in every single generation we're seeing more and more troubles and tribulations? How does this continue to happen? How does this continue to unfold? You have to go back to the first event in Jewish history, and that is the golden calf. So, what's so bad about the golden calf? Turn the page. Last page. What's so bad about the golden calf? How do we see the golden calf affecting the Jewish people today? So, it's basically it's actually a in the Torah. The Torah says, Hashem says, "In a day when the Jewish people sin, when I have to remember them for evil, I have to remember them for bad, for the bad things that they do." Hashem says, the GMA explains what this means in source, I'm sorry, Rashing from the Gar explains what this means in 12. There is no time in Jewish history where Hashem punishes us. We're not, he's not tacking on a little bit more of the golden calf. In addition to the punishment we're meant to receive for whatever sin we did, Hashem goes ahead and he adds on a little bit because of the sin of the golden calf. The ego has so it's very interesting. We have here the Gar is telling us that to this day when Hashem has to punish us for the wrong things that we've done, we're still reeling. We're still suffering from the sin of the golden calf. Hashem has to punish us a little bit extra because of that sin of the golden calf. So it begs the question, why? We know each one of us is responsible for ourselves, our own actions. If my parents sinned or my grandparents sinned, why should I be held accountable for that? Certainly, we're talking here now thousands of years early in Jewish history. Why should I be held accountable? And the Gar says this explicitly. We know a person is is punished based on the audit. When is that? When they hold on to the actions of their forefathers, that's when the Jewish people will continue to be punished for the wrong things that their forefathers did. Which means if I follow the wrong incorrect traditions of my parents, if I continue to do wrong because that's what my parents did, that's what my grandparents did, then I'm held accountable. But if I can do what's right, if I can go against the tide, if I can do what's right in spite of the fact that my parents or grandparents or great-grandparents may have not, then Hashem will not punish us. That's the Gar answers, which means begs the question. So that's the case. So I would have said none of us today we don't do idolatry today we didn't build the golden calf today why is Hashem continuing to punish us because of the sin of the golden calf if we ourselves are not doing idolatry if we ourselves are not doing a vodar okay this is the burning question again on a simple level you could say well definitely we shouldn't be destroyed so easy we should have been destroyed so instead he decided he's going to take the punishment and divide it over a Jewish history okay I think that's True. But I think you could also say on a deeper level that it could be that the Jewish people are still suffering in the sense that we're still committing the same crime of the golden calf. We haven't yet removed ourselves from the sin of the golden calf. What's the sin of the golden calf? The sin of the golden calf is idolatry. What's idolatry? Idolatry means I have something else in my life other than Hashem. Then I'm not focused on Hashem. I'm focused on chasing after other things. I'm creating a barrier between myself and God. And that's very difficult because I think all of us we get distracted in life. We forget about what's important. We forget about our values. We forget about our relationship with Hashem. It takes the back it goes on the back burner sometimes. And to have that always at the forefront of our minds to think about Hashem in everything we do. The moment we say moji until we say at night and go to sleep, we're thinking about Hashem. If we can keep Hashem in our minds and if we can keep Hashem in our hearts and most importantly if we can keep Hashem in our actions and act on the purpose of the fast day then we will know that these days will turn into days of days of rejoicing for the entire Jewish people.