Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
All right, my dear friends, welcome back to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. We are going to do a short and sad segment as we typically do a short and sweet one, but because the days that are right before us, the 17th of Tammuz, which is going to be this Thursday, is a day of sadness and it begins an entire three weeks, a time of tragedy, a
time of difficulty for the Jewish people. We call it the short and sad segment. So there is a mitzvah to fast on a day where tragedies befell the Jewish people. And what's the purpose of fasting? Fasting meaning not eating and not drinking on that day. The purpose is to awaken us and to look into our ways and repent from our evil ways that we sadly fall into. Hashem brought those tragedies to us because of our ways,
so too we should repent and do what we can to ensure that they don't happen again. So just a little bit of an overview. These days of fasting, particularly the one that is in front of us, the 17th of Tammuz, is a day of prayer, a day of sadness, of introspection. It's not a vacation day or time off or a time to travel. It's commemorating national tragedies. Additionally, this day, the 17th of Tammuz, begins the three-week period of mourning. It's called Bein HaMitzarim,
between the straits, between the times of tragedy. And the Mishnah tells us that five tragedies befell our people on the 17th of Tammuz. And that is, the tablets were broken due to the sin of the golden calf, which was just 40 days after being at Mount Sinai and having the revelation at Harsinai. So only 40 days ago, we were standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and celebrating the holiday of Shavuos.
The Tammiz offering was discontinued on that day. The walls of Jerusalem were breached in the Second Temple and, according to some opinions, also the First Temple as well was on that day. But because the Jewish people were so distant from their connection with the Almighty, they lost track of what day it was. And the Roman general, Apostamos, burned the Torah and an idol was placed in the Holy Temple on that day as well. So fasting means no eating or drinking and
from sunrise to sunset and in Houston in 2023, it'll be this Thursday, July 6th and that will be from 503 a.m. in Houston till the stars are out at 907 p.m. And the regular laws of fasting apply that one may shower and one may wear shoes on this fast. On Tisha B'Av it's different. It's a more severe fast. A pregnant and nursing woman who have difficulty fasting may eat. The same applies to a sick person.
But notwithstanding that they're eating, one should not wine and dine during this time as it is still a time of sadness and sorrow. It is proper to teach our young children about mourning for national tragedies, that they should understand, they should gain a sensitivity towards the sorrow of our people and that even though children may eat under the age of bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah for a girl under the age of 12,
even though they may, they should still learn to feel with the Jewish people. The purpose again of the fast is to arouse our repentance and our sensitivities. So we're not going to get into all of the details. We'll do this next week, God willing. We'll talk about the details of the three weeks, but just as for us to have an understanding that it is a period of tempered joy and spiritual sensitivity. Our sages tell us to take extra precautions during these days, which are prone to calamities.
There are many people who won't travel during these days, they won't go on excursions, they won't do any type of terrifying experience, they won't go bungee jumping and skydiving and do things like that during the three weeks, because these are things that you know, this is a time which is a time of great great precaution, our sages tell us. Additionally, to signify the nature of this period, the sages instituted the reading of special Haftoras that deal with calamity on the three weeks between
the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, and these three weeks are known as Gimel de Poronusa, the three weeks of tragedy. And it is important for us to realize that it's not just a fast day, it's not just a day that it's really the beginning of an era of challenging times, as we'll see when we talk about the 9th of Av, the 9th of Av was the day that the Jewish people cried from the negative reports, the negative false reports of our
our spies that we sent into the land of Israel to spy out the land. The spies came back with a negative report, which was not a true report, which was not a legitimate report, but the Jewish people cried in vain. And Hashem said, you cried in vain, I'll give you what to cry for, it shouldn't be in vain. You cried, I'm gonna give you something to cry for. Which our sages tell us that when we praise Hashem, when we tell Hashem how good things are,
Hashem says, you think this is good? Let me show you what good is. I'm gonna give you even better. And God forbid, if it's the opposite, where we kvetch and complain about things, then Hashem says, you think this is bad? I'll show you what bad is. We see in the Torah, there's a lot of sensitivity given to kvetching, to complainers. Hashem doesn't like complainers. We see that every time the Jewish people complained, it brought about a negative result.
So I think overall we have to learn and to appreciate, take this time to appreciate the unbelievable kindness of Hashem every single day. We have so many opportunities to do amazing things. We shouldn't let them fall aside. We shouldn't let those opportunities just pass us by. Because the Torah says that any generation in which the temple wasn't rebuilt in, it's as if it was destroyed in that generation. So we're thinking to ourselves, you know, we live in Houston, Texas and everything is fine and dandy.
Everything is just, you know, it's just normal. I pay my taxes. I'm nice to my neighbors and everything is fine. We have to remember that if the temple was not rebuilt in our days, it's as if it was destroyed in our days. That means we didn't merit. We're not good enough to have the temple rebuilt in our days. And that's what we mourn. That's one of the reasons we mourn today. Something that happened 3,000 years ago for a building being burnt. Come on.
We've had thousands of buildings burnt this year around the world and we don't cry for them. But we do cry for our temple every year because if it's not rebuilt in our days, it means that we're unworthy. Yet. And we pray every day that we be worthy of the building of the temple happening in our days. And we should all merit, Hashem should bless us all, that this should be the last fast. We should never have to fast again. We should merit even before this fast to have our temple rebuilt speedily in our days. Amen.
You've been listening to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast, a Torch production. Become a supporter at Torchweb.org because your assistance enables more Torah learning around the globe. To find more lessons offered by Torch, please visit Torchpodcast.com.