The Fast of the 17th of Tammuz and its Modern Lessons By Rabbi Shai Finkelstein

okay hello everyone so we'll talk about a 17th of Tam about today about the day try to understand uh what is the Rea what is the background for this day and obviously what are the ramifications and the outcome for USS so five things happen took place on the 17th of T and five took place on so the tablets were broken which is a very interesting language it seems to be like they got broken broke them okay so we will talk about that it seems to be very strange I'm sorry it just got broken no I broke it so we will need to see why the why the M use that language the constantan was nullified or stopped stopped the city was bridged burned the Torah and he what he put an idol in the sanctuary in the bet mikdash now are we sure that all of those things happened and took place on the 17th of tamuz the answer is no uh with the five things that took place on Tab we know for sure that at least one of them did not take place in which is thean was was not but what do we do we basically pile everything on that day we call it a day that is ready or yeah it's ready for what for Calamity by the way just a really as a side note was very much against establishing y on the 28th of and he said you should do it when says is don't say you don't need to say a day of Sadness and Sorrow like and B is already a very sad day that it's just pile on it also y obviously no one asked him but um and I mean it was established to be in but there is obviously something in the that supports his opin that supports his opinion what he suggested put it on but no one listened okay um so Rashi says so was the one to put this Idol in the in the BET mikdash and again we're not sure for 17 of or not okay so what I would like to do today is to try to see if we have some kind of of CER of a connection between the five things that took place on that day oh it's just random Place random random things that happened and we just pile them together so let's talk little bit about so in it says like so when M approached the camp so he saw the the golden CF and the and the dancing and M was very angry and he threw the from his hands and he broke them at the bottom of the mountain who told Moshe to do that no one Moshe basically decided to do that by himself so was the some kind of an agreement from God or not so the says in by the way this is an old joke that from here you know that AEM is AI he didn't say he says right so here is a proof that is but obviously it's just a joke so which means this is a very interesting thing basically Moshe did something on his own um something very significant to do on his own it was not his to break the L were not his to break and he broke them and hasem agreed now why would a agree with that and why did Moshe think that that's the right thing to do we will talk about it but basically it just adds to the problem that we mentioned before the language of the I would expect the to say what broke the tablets why is it that it's it's very passive it's a very passive tense and doesn't say anything about MH R so says again that's obiously take this and you should place it where at the side of so the arc itself that was in the it contained two things one the the broken tablets that mosha broke and regular and the new ones second addition right so we have the broken ones and the new ones and obviously the question is why do I need what the broken ones in the same Aron with the new ones so to remember but to remember what what they're dear that they are dear you don't want to put them in G you want people to remember them but the question is why they were broken why they were broken so it's that in order to create fear despair sadness or hope okay so now take a look so ra salic says Hashem endowed men with time awareness the ability to sense and feel time and the existential stream of selfhood the time awareness is three basic component parts first retrospection without memory there is no time second the time experience includes exploration of things yet unborn and events not yet in existence third is appreciation of the present moment as one's most precious possession no one is worthy of time awarenesses if retrospection is foreign to him if he is incapable of relieving recovering and reproducing past experiences past events which are not re-experienced belong not to history but to archaeology archaeology involves past events that occurred Once Upon a Time disappeared and while they may be reproduced by memory are no alive anymore memory is not just a storehouse of latent Impressions there is there is also the living memory which reproduce and re-experiences the past okay so now basically salic suggested the following there is a huge difference between memory to remember something in history or archaeology archaeology and history are things that happened in the past you can always reread about it you can always get gain more knowledge about what took place in history but it stays there our memory and it mentioned many times in the Torah is what isit right what does that mean it's not only just to remember that you once were slaves in Egypt and that's it it's done basically that zikaron come to what to rejuvenate it to re-experience it in a way to fill it today we all know the r in not only to see himself but to show himself and that's why many they make like a PL a guy comes with a little H bag on his shoulders and they ask him where are you coming from he says where are you going to to okay so the idea is what is to really re-experience it like it's today when we say and we say we need to feel what the this Shabbat is this first Shabbat Shabbat this is the idea of what of memory in Judaism is not just to remember something that happened in the past but it's to relate it to what to what we have today so therefore when we speak about when we speak about uh what do you call it when we speak about the the idea and this is where I want to elaborate a bit is that the broken tablets are in the Aron they're not only just to remind us that it was broken because of us and the question is not who broke it the question is what was the outcome what was the outcome after Moshe broke the what was the outcome the outcome was Chua there was repentance and after the repentance what did we receive a second chance now is there a difference between the first and the second for sure yeah the first to were given by Hashem himself the way they were written whatever that's not the issue but they were given by Hashem himself the second one where Moshe did however there is an advantage to the second L which are you need to work harder that's an advantage the first says if you learn you will never forget which is great the second one you will learn and you will what you will forget but it demands more efforts because as more challenging it is you need to put more effort more effort means more connection to Hashem so it's interesting da after at least the opportunity or the chance to come closer to hem increased and this is something very interesting because more need you have more chances you have to come closer to Hashem and the effort you put in have to put in more right if you for example D today and you don't really need anything let's say everything is a two team in your life right everything is great in your life you don't need anything how your going to look like that like that's it a face but if you need something okay you need something um someone got forbit is sick someone is a hostage someone is in the Army your ding looks very different than if you don't need anything so the idea is you increase the need you increase closeness to Hashem this is a very interesting thing say yes be harder so the thing is that AA is something that you obviously you built but I will tell you one more thing about har is kados no not at all and we are not sure exactly where it is there are two options but let's say we know there is there what if everybody knew was kados probably more would know where it was the begin oh it might be but we don't know even let's say even if we know where it is it's not kados whatsoever let's say I find it it's not kados kados but there's no mikdash there's a m it's still kados right so there is a very interesting Sal this well he claims the following he says when you have ouri the entire Kusa came from above we didn't do a thing I mean we prepared for three days but we didn't do a thing to create the came from up above and then when Thea basically ascended up everyone can go on that har like there was nothing there har we sacrificed for and we were the ones to what to sanctify it and then agreed and bring the bet so even if the bet mikdash is gone the is still is still there take a look on another thing it's a very interesting we say on what only on bread something that comes from wa it can be too s of pizza or bread right we don't say after we eat an apple apple is very simple Apple we do what we do before and if we do after but it's very short but when it comes to something that comes from wheat or from the five grains we have a right from the Torah why is it to so you have to walk for it and when you walk for it you think it's yours therefore what do we have a reminder this is beautiful idea salov which means when I pick it from the app from the tree I know I didn't do much yeah I planted the seed water did but I to to make bread you need to go to through 10 different works that why by the way the has 10 words you look at me like that's why you hold the two with your 10 fingers okay so the what that's how I count what so um so I there's 10 things involved making bread yes you plant yeah now I forgot yeah 10 10 of them okay so you do 10 in order to get to the bread and then you say because more you are involved it's harder to see God that's the in the entire that we are about to read in three weeks the entire seph MOS is going over and over and over the fear and the prediction that he has of what shant which means everything is good I'm working hard I'm making money I'm plowing the field I'm harvesting the the the harvest I'm doing everything and then yeah you will become hard you will become pompus and then what you will forget God and if you think that mosha was wrong read tanak right Moshe was not wrong Moshe was on the spot exactly because if you read meim and then you read it with it's terrible basically that's exactly what happened uh they become strong they become too strong and obviously it started probably with whom which what can you do reached tremendous Heights um and since then there was a it was down down down here okay so the idea of putting and is not just to like you know in the Kish look what happened because of you it's not about that that was never the sense of punishment in in yut the idea is see what you lost see what you gained and try to what to to take with and put them together this is the idea of putting okay now let's talk a little bit about the second thing of and the says the foll uh page two on the top of page two when the aristos and do you remember the other guy's name hus aristos okay both of them were brothers and they fought for the control over so the says so was outside of and was was inside so even though they fought against each other they wanted to kill each other but they wanted to what to keep the constant sacrifice the so if you are inside obviously you are limited to how many Corb you can have so they they uh H hus who was from outside they will take a basket they will put a little lamb in that basket and they will bring it up and then they will get them down they will get them money okay there was an elder there was an older person there and he knew the Greek uh wisdom and I guess also the Greek language which means if you want to win that war you need to stop that Corban because that Corban protects the Jews inside of so the next day sorry from send a basket full with money and so they put a little piggy in the basket so when the pig reached the height of the wall so he put his fingers in the wall so entire Cur is the person who will raise pigs curse is the person that teaches his son or his daughter now this is obviously this is a very strange midash we can all agree but let's try to understand what's going on here first and foremost when you look at a a a midash like that we obviously need to try to find what clues for what for something that it's meaningful so first and foremost we have a the the this expression Z is mentioned many times in aot many times it's what it's okay it's the good guy but sometimes Zak is the one who instigate is the instigator for the entire story and you will find it in different aot you will see how this sometimes this Zak creates the entire story so that's what we have here that's one B we know that we are in favor of any wisdom but we have a problem with why do we have a problem because if you go back many years before you know that hanuka is being celebrated because of our victory over the Greeks the Greeks unlike many other enemies they were not interested so much in killing us I mean they were not they didn't oppose it but they that was not their main mission their main mission was to do what assimilate to assimilate us basically to nullify Torah and to create a new Tor now by the way this is not a this is not a a secret we know that many of the discussions in the talmud especially in the Babylonian talmud but also in the Yami talmud was a reaction to What to Greek philosophy and to Greek thoughts uh we know in the time of the tanim okay even in the time of the tanim and prior to the tanim we're talking prior to the the Greek um the Greek Empire was I think uh 2 Century BCC yeah BC um and um and their thoughts and their thought process definitely influence everyone else around them so in the also they say that when they wanted to darken our eyes Okay so to create darkness in the world so basically we had something against this and it was only approved to teach and to learn only for people are people that are associated with the because that that's the language that they spoke okay then we have the concept of Kaz a pig now Kaz which is interesting it's a symbol of whom the Romans very good not the Greeks the Romans now with um we know that we are talking now about what hus and Aristo what time are we talking about it's much after the we are talking about now the Romans R if I'm not mistaken it's a fast day and I didn't have coffee in the morning so I might be mistaken um like all of you I guess you didn't have coffee um but if I'm not mistaken we are talking more about the second temple second temple was destroyed by the Romans which is is in the midic language is the Christians and the Romans and therefore andil unlike any other kosher kosher animal why it's called kazil pret one okay very good he shows one sign of K and the other sign is not Kos which the Romans also try to what on one hand they try to be nice on the other hand they try to kill us but also which is interesting the mid says why it's called it's G become I don't know if it will become now with with now with the technology of meat you might able to do that no but they say that it's going to chew its cud and it's going to have more stomachs okay that's what I heard okay if if whatever it means I see that more from the spiritual perspective which means that there is hope for Rome for the for the Romans to what to return somehow to the to the mainstream okay to to join them to what to the people who believe in in one God at the end of the day so we had some I will call it some Expressions here that we understand that they are important okay so now you know 400 400 that's obviously many times 400 is an exaggeration so we are talking about the fact what that this pig that symbolized Rome basically put his fingers and his nails in the wall basically now he has what a holding that's what it means which means the Roman and the Greek influence infiltrated into what into the Jewish people that's the idea of the midash which means the minute that cor that that constant Corban came to an end because of that pig basically theban was something that even though hus and aristos hated each other and wanted to kill each other there was one common goal that they all agreed what the temple service and the you still bring and we all understand that's for we can kill each other but for is we're going to do it then the Greek and the Romans holding came and infiltrated into the Jewish people and that basically what separated us so what do we see from here so that's the second thing and we'll talk a little bit about relevant lessons to ourselves what killed us was what not the Zak and not the it was what inner fighting excuse me inner fighting between two brothers when you have inner fighting you are susceptible to what to advice from people who don't really have their your best interest in their mind so we started with what with the broken tablets again the broken we don't care if mosha break them or not this is not the issue the issue is what is the opportunity for fixing here we have what this hate between the two brothers that led to what to a tremendous destruction okay now take a look at let's talk a little bit about because he is the third one remember put the idol in the mdash so so he was 12 years old manasha when he started his reign as a king and he reigned for 55 years that's a long time the m a long time when you compare him when you compare him to uh to other kings um this is a lot many I mean some Kings did 40 years many of them were assassinated after you know few months or few years uh 55 years is a lot so he did evil in the eyes of God so you would think that what that God will cut him short but no um and he did everything that the go did so first and foremost Man's father was was one of the greatest kings ever okay um and that was his son if you remember the the talks about the idea that did not want to have children why because he knew that will come out and sends and he says to him what why are you making God's calculation God told you that you need to have children have children if they turn out to be okay so it comes to tell me about Mas who was exactly the opposite from his father that's one second which means Mas not only just followed the other evil Kings he what he created so he was a Jewish King who acted like a non-jew so there is one thing just to follow what your ancestors did and then there is what to recreate it so that was Mas says so the narrative basically describe how much meaning until who was also a very Wicked King was at the time of el he was the prophet at this time so was also he was the first king to start creating Idols not only just to follow them because the first first one who did Idols was who yam you remember yam yam split the king with I mean it was not like through a negotiation God just took it and gave it to and put one in and one in Dan why did he do that by the way why did he put the two to prevent them from and why was so worried that they will go to the bet mikdash not is dead so they will see so what himself one thing that you are missing you are correct but there is one thing for the same reason uh between the tribes okay so that's all true but he you give him too much credit yam does not deserve it sorry Yovan did it politically politically very good there is only one person who can sit down in the beta mikdash the Mel meel that come from the tribe of Yehuda you can't have two chairs you can't have a chair and a half he can't sit on his lap okay there's only one king who is going to sit on that Throne this is so was afraid at what I'm telling you all year long that what that I am the king and who was the prophet at that time appointed me and you believe me and now just imagine you go to the and who sits on that chair so what would I say about yov you are a liar there's only one king not you you are not a king that's why yov put these two aazav and he stopped the Jews from what from going to Y which by the way it's a little bit deviation but I think I should share it with you this is very interesting thing did you ask yourself why is it that YF was not chosen to be the tribe for Kings for the Jewish people why yehudah was chosen so everyone would say what because you admitted right because you admitted with Tamar and he also took responsibility for for bamin right if you compare Yehuda to YF yep didn't do too much wrong like Yehuda Yehuda was The Mastermind behind what selling yoseph and he was the one to be with his sister with his daughter-in-law and then lied and then he admitted okay I mean I'm not taking away from what he did but ysep was much more talented ysep created an Empire Yosef was away for 22 years kept his religion whatever that means to be a Hebrew at that time okay he brought his family he took care of them for years he built an Empire he saved an entire nation from what from starvation he's a dreamer he's a visioner much more talented than Yehuda no so why wasn't he picked and he is from Rael which was you know the Beloved wife to so why why Yuda not y very good so we are looking for what for what Joseph did he did something that was wrong that we see he never s told his father he could have sent a message that he thought that his father sold him the father sent him to to to see how they how the brothers doing so I think it was R Neal I think I read it I'm talking about years ago years ago I think think it's n suggested you know y came from the tribe of ysep had and came from no no he came from but he came I think from now n says wasn't that the reason that that yo changed his hands in terms of one of the Reas yeah one of the reasons now the thing is says yov saw in his prophetic Vision that Joseph has a little bit of an inclination to give higher priorities to Kingdom and kingship and royalty versus spirituality and God now not in ysep himself ysep was Flawless in that sense but in his children and you definitely see it with whom with yov to some extent I will tell you you could even see it with yosua who also came from the tribe of ysep when you read seph yosua at the end of yosua basically Yeshua says to the people what you're a little lazy you didn't conquer the land yet only at the beginning of seph then we have the description of what of the full conqueror and even then we are not really we didn't really destroy all the nations that we were told to we put them as slaves or whatever it was the idea is is that yosua didn't push maybe he couldn't but he didn't push the people to do what they were supposed to do that's a and b if you go to the and when the first time theim came along and says what we will not be able to do it who was the one to really to really fight them calev not yosua yosua came along little later the first encounter was between cev and the merim Yeshua came along later why Yu obviously and I spoke about it in the betu obviously had a little bit of a problem because if he would protect Moshe everyone will tell him what obviously you are you are protecting Moshe you are his his dedicated student you don't really have a standing but still yosua in a way was hesitating what to do so the idea is is that what we see with put these two capes one in Dan and one in betel in order to what to prevent the Jewish people to see who is quote unquote the real King it shows also a little bit of little low self-esteem okay you can still tell them what I am your king appointed me but if there is a Mitzvah in the the Torah to to go and to celebrate in go ahead what else did he do he added a like we need another one right he added the when in that's what the T says what is B made it up he made up another says you don't need to go in TI come here in no when we talk about our generation it's always good to learn T really it brings you to some kind of a reality that you know says don't say that in the past everything was wonderful because it was not every generation has their own issues I need one by one go ahead no you said why is he guilty yph no he's not guilty he he was just why wasn't y the uh oh so that's what ra say says that Jakob saw something in ysep even though in his actions there was it was Flawless him though but you know it's something has we called today DNA in the DNA there was something that was uh has some kind of an inclination to give more to rather than to doing A's Commandments yes right so prepares everything and the one who takes the glory is mashia right but still yeah but don't forget meaning ysep and his tribe will not be jealous anymore in the tribe of Yehuda yeah you need to have that yes why didn't the come from M from the Le tribe of Le oh that's easy that's very easy because you you can't be a and to be a Coen at the same time that's that's very easy now going back to to our okay so in it says was terrible okay he did he built all those uh all those uh Idols that destroyed and he created all of the ter do you hear what he did he built M altars for the idol for the idols where in the mikash itself I mean can you imagine that and then he built more altars where in the yards in the courtyards of the bet mikdash [Music] that's [Music] the meaning everything that it says in the Torah you shouldn't do he did everything everything in the book Ah that's makes no sense I'll kill him after two months right 55 years of doing something like that okay so oh okay you know what uh you know what I'm going to skip a lot because we I want to go to get to M at 120 but we are going to just read the narrative okay so he did all those terrible things turn to page three he put the pesel a which was the most disgusting pesel with really with with figures with with features of human beings and animals he put them where in in the house of H in the mdash itself that hasem told scho and David that what I will place my name there so you basically try to what to reject God from the BET mikdash okay we are now in that what sent to the prophet saying because did all these Abominations committed tremendous sins and every Jew in yud followed their King so therefore says the following therefore I'm going to bring a Calamity a destruction for the Jewish people that everyone would that would hear it will will be shock I'm going I'm going to what to wipe it out the description is like you are licking a plate and there is nothing in the plate and you basically you turn it you are done that's what I'm going to do with because he did this evil in my eyes they angered me from the minute that they took them out from until today also spilled a lot of blood so he committed spiritual sins and he called he also um um caused murder what murder according to kazal he murdered yes wa who did Mas he had enough from his prophecies and he killed him murdered him now it's not only that he murdered a prophet he murdered his grandfather yes's daughter got married withis which meansis and yes's daughter were the parents of mas which means yesah was the grandfather so he murdered his grandfather SL the prophet can you get worse than that and that's Mas okay that what happens when you give a 12y old to be a king right so that that's Mas this is the craziness of mas now was okay now turn to page um page four and that's a quote from I'm sorry that I'm summarizing it it's too many pages for for one so take a look that's now from verse 11 everyone has it like a in the middle of the page brought on them that the king of Assyria came to conquer Jerusalem so they captured man the king of Assyria captured man put him in handcuffs and with thorns he tortured him obviously and he brought him to B and when he F the depressor the pressure he D to God and hasem listened to him again so he to answered his his his quest listen to his petition and he became a king again and then in yeah Mas I see all of you are like what what's going on here this guy was a terrible guy and now he's all good okay we will talk about it in a minute in a few minutes that we have and then so what did he do he goes back to and he what destroyed everything he built all the money such a waste my gosh but he destroyed all the idols that he built and all the altars that he built and he and all the people were and this is wonderful end for that story now what's going on so I'm not going to um to uh to go through all the pages I'm going to tell it to you by heart it's t and uh and then we will try to sum it up according to kazal men was put in a little not a little a big barrel of boiling water you know in the ancient times they were very creative in terms of how to torture you so they lowered manha into this boiling pot and Mas start feeling the Heat and he says he start calling out to the gods to the a to the Bal to the mo to this and that and the other and obviously nothing nothing so then he says you know what my father told me don't forget he became a King when he was 12 which means died when he was young so he says I remember that my father told me there is another God this y v you know what I'll try him out I'll see get hurt and he says look God if you are there and you listen to me and you are as powerful as my father told me if you will save me I will believe in you I will what believe in you and hasem says okay this is a great opportunity is even though he not the best you know it's like making a deal with God if you will answer me I'll do that you need to do whatever God says to you even if he doesn't but whatever says the malim came along to hem and says to him what no way you should not accept thisa look what he did in is look what he did in look what he did forever don't help him let him die and they argue with God until Hashem had to do something to dig a tunnel very relevant to us right to dig a tunnel and to accept in hiding that's the language of which means what he dug a tunnel to bring like from inside to bring him back to do cha because it's obviously it's not a CH it's a chva because of the pressure so that's so kazal now has some kind of a dispute an inner dispute some people said that he was an evil King for 32 years and then he was for 23 years and some people said exactly the opposite for 23 years he was an evil King and for 32 years he was what he was a good King so he's known for What on one hand he is known for but at the same time he was also known as what as after such terrible terrible things that beat okay so therefore um therefore was I want to claim is the following if you go back to page [Applause] one let's try to figure out if there is a connection between the five events that took place on shiv so the first one is so the question is not who to blame but what do you learn from it I'm not saying that we don't need to find the people that should be blamed but I'm saying is the most important thing is what's the outcome what do you learn from it I don't care if Moshe broke it or if it was Aon or cev or yosua or or ruen or it was broken because of a reason and it presented us with what with an opportunity for rectifying our sins to do chuva and to gain something that it might be even better and stronger than what we had before just required what more efforts so that's so we spoke aboutus we know that what that the tamid was the common denominator that's something that brought us all together so it might be that we have disputes but when we all agree on what on one common goal we will continue to fight but we will not destroy ourselves the minute we stopped with the T the minute we stop helping each other don't forget I bring the sacrifices you bring the money the minute we stop talking to each other and we start talking ganit that's the end of it there is a destruction I don't think that I need to elaborate on the lessons right I think the lessons are pretty clear right the third one is so is more military aspect to it but also because the strength was not there it was bridged the and what do we learn from learn something very interesting even though he's definitely not one of the examples of a good King at all according to some he does not even have but still there is a that says that I think it was Raa I think Raa disrespected man and he said how come that man basically chased idols and Idol worshiping and he called him is just like he like my level man revealed himself to in a dream to this RAV and he says to him if you were at that time you will you will raise your dress because that's way and you will run after ID worship Idol meaning the the desire to worship idols was so strong that you couldn't stop yourself which means and I think that's maybe what hasem saw in man's attempt to repent it was a time of confusion everything goes we already saw it with El when El says to the people what you need to make a choice you can't have you know Sunday Tuesday Thursday I'm serving God Monday Wednesday Friday I serve the in the B you need to make a choice you can do all of them so the idea is is that hasem saw those circumstances and he understood that mashe will not be able to repent fully that's what he can do and what you do you accept him so I think the idea of shivas is the opportunity meaning the minute that the world city was Bridge does not mean yet that the bet mdash is what needs to be destroyed you can still what you can still fix it and when I see what's going on in our Beloved Country we definitely have a lot of work to do in terms of to do some soul searching in what can we better in in our lives and also to understand the outcome of we experience a and the outcome of is what is to try to find a new language a new Enterprise that we all can get together so I think those are some of the lessons that we can definitely learn from sh from the five things that took placing