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17th of Tammuz

Seventeenth of Tammuz
Official name Hebrew: שבעה עשר בתמוז‎‎
Observed by Jews
Type Jewish religious and national
Significance Date when the walls of Jerusalem were breached
Observances Fasting, prayer
Date 17th day of Tammuz
2017 date July 11, dawn to nightfall
2018 date July 1, dawn to nightfall
2019 date July 21, dawn to nightfall
Related to The fasts of the Tenth of Tevet and Tisha B'Av, the Three Weeks & the Nine Days

The Seventeenth of Tammuz (Hebrew: שבעה עשר בתמוז‎‎ Shiv'ah Asar b'Tammuz) is a Jewish fast day commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple. It falls on the 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz and marks the beginning of the three-week mourning period leading up to Tisha B'Av.

The day also traditionally commemorates the destruction of the two tablets of the Ten Commandments and other historical calamities that befell the Jewish people on the same date.

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 [month]" (Zechariah 8:19). This refers to Tammuz, which is the fourth month of the Hebrew calendar.

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

The Babylonian Talmud (Taanit 28b) places the second and fifth tragedies in the First Temple period, while dating the third tragedy (breach of Jerusalem's walls) to the Second Temple period.

The walls of Jerusalem during the First Temple, on the other hand, was breached on the 9th of Tammuz (cf. Jeremiah 39.2, 52.6–7). However, the Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit IV, 5) states that the breach of Jerusalem in the First Temple occurred on 17th Tammuz as well; the text in Jeremiah 39 is explained by stating that the Biblical record was "distorted", apparently due to the troubled times.


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