We’re Not Fasting on the 17th of Tamuz This Year

 This year we will not fast on the 17th of Tamuz!  The 17th of Tamuz is one of the six days that we are required to fast.  It is in commemoration of the day (in the year 69 CE) that the Romans, who had come to destroy Israel, breached the wall of Jerusalem, leading to the destruction of the Holy Temple three weeks later.  That day is also a fast day, the Ninth of Av.  The other four official fast days are Yom Kippur, the fast of Gedaliah on the third of Tishrei, the Tenth of Tevet and the Fast of Esther on the day before Purim.

But this year we will not fast on the 17th.  This is because the 17th day of Tamuz is on Shabbat, and we are not allowed to fast on Shabbat, except if it is Yom Kippur.  So the fast this year is actually on the 18th of Tamuz, “pushed off” to Sunday.  We do still refer to the fast day as the 17th of Tamuz, but it is not technically on that day.  So if someone tells you they saw a very religious person eating on the 17th of Tamuz, don’t judge them negatively, it may have been on Shabbat.

When we eat and drink on the 17th of Tamuz, it arouses within us a yearning for the day when this day will cease being a fast day altogether.   This day, along with the other fasts commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile, will one day be great holidays.  This will happen when Moshiach comes and rebuilds the Holy Temple.  The third Temple will be more grand than the other two, but also it will be qualitatively greater in many ways.  It will be an eternal building, never to be destroyed, having been built by Hashem.

There is a lot of discussion among our Sages about the seeming contradiction.  We say that Moshiach will build the third Temple, and yet we say that it is eternal because it will be built by Hashem.  One explanation is that the physical building will be built by Moshiach, but it contains within it the eternal spiritual Temple created by Hashem, and together they make up the totality of the Temple.  The eternal spirit of this Temple will therefore extend to the physical building.  

This day will therefore become a holiday after the redemption.  Destruction of a building is not a good thing.  But clearing the way for a bigger and better building is good.  When someone tears down a house that they have lived in and become familiar with, they are sad to lose the familiar home.  But when the new home is built, they celebrate the fact that they were willing to let go of the old and bring in a bigger and better house.  Similarly, as sad and painful it was for us to lose the Holy Temple, and as long and difficult the exile is, when the new Temple is built we will celebrate the destruction of the old one as the first step toward building the new.

This concept, that the destruction is not for negative purposes but in order to achieve the ultimate goodness, inspires us to use the time of the “Three Weeks,” the time from the 17th of Tamuz till the Ninth of Av, for inspiration and spiritual growth.  While we mourn the destruction of the two Temples and we bitterly decry our exile, we are energized to work toward the great future.  Rather than feeling depressed and in despair, we are empowered to do what we can to hasten the redemption.  

The Rebbe instituted the custom to study Ezekiel's prophecy of the future Temple, as well as the laws of the building of the Temple and the Talmudic discussion of it, throughout this three-week period.  It is a time for us to increase our Tzedakah and general Mitzvot in order to bring about the actualization of the dream of the great revelation that will happen in the third Temple.

May we merit to celebrate this day as a holiday this year, and then there will be more than one reason we are not fasting on the 17th of Tamuz.