The Fast of Tammuz, June 26-27

 


The Fast of Tammuz, June 26-27

"The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70" 

The fast of Tammuz, according to Rabbi Akiva's interpretation, is the fast mentioned in the Book of Zechariah as "The fast of the fourth Hebrew (Zechariah 8:19), Tammuz, the fourth month of the Hebrew calendar.

According to the Mishnah (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6), five calamities befell the Jewish people on this day:

1.  Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai;

2.  The daily tamid offering ceased to be brought;

3.  During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, the city walls were breached, leading to the destruction of the Second Temple on Tisha B'Av;

4.  Prior to Bar Kokhba's revolt, Roman military leader Apostomus burned a Torah scroll;

5.  The Romans erected an idol in the Temple.

The Babylonian Talmud places the second and fifth tragedies in the First Temple period.

The Book of Jeremiah (39.2, 52.6–7) states that the walls of Jerusalem during the First Temple were breached on the 9th of Tammuz. The Babylonian Talmud dates the third tragedy (breach of Jerusalem's walls) to the Second Temple period. However, the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit IV, 5) states that in both eras the walls were breached on 17th Tammuz and that the text in Jeremiah 39 is explained by stating that the Biblical record was "distorted", apparently due to the troubled times.

                   

The Seventeenth of Tammuz occurs forty days after Shavuot.

The Children of Israel made the Golden Calf on the afternoon of the sixteenth of Tammuz when it seemed that Moses was not coming down from the mountain as he promised. Moses descended the next day (forty days) When he saw that the Israelites were violating many of the laws he had received from God, he angrily smashed the tablets.

Customs

As a minor fast day, fasting lasts from dawn to shortly after dusk. It is customary among Ashkenazi Jews to refrain from listening to music, public entertainment, and haircuts on fast days.

If the 17th of Tammuz falls on a Shabbat, the fast is instead observed the next day, the 18th of Tammuz. This last happened in 2019, and will happen again in 2022.

A Torah reading, a special prayer in the Amidah (Aneinu), and (in many congregations) Avinu Malkenu are added. Ashkenazi congregations also read a haftarah (from the Book of Isaiah) and also recite a series of Selichot (special penitential prayers) reflecting the themes of the day.

 

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