What is Shiv’ah Asar B’tamuz?
 Shiva Asar B’Tammuz: The seventeenth of Tammuz is a sad
day in the Jewish calendar and is observed as a fast day. It is the anniversary of the day in 70 C.E.
when the Roman armies broke through the walls of Jerusalem during their
war against the Jews. Three weeks later they destroyed the Temple, and the
Jews were sent into exile.
According to tradition, many other tragedies
occurred on the seventeenth of Tammuz. For example, the Mishna says that
Moshe came down from Mount Sinai on this day, carrying the Ten
Commandments. When he saw the Jews worshiping the Golden Calf, he became
so angry that he broke the stone tablets on which the commandments were
written. It would take another eighty days for Moshe to go back up the
mountain and receive the commandments again.
|
