Seventeenth 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 |
| 2016 date | July 24, 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 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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