Seventeenth of Tammuz

Seventeenth of Tammuz (שבעה עשר בתמוז Hebrew: Shiva Assar BeTammuz) is the seventeenth day on the Hebrew month of Tammuz. It is a half-day (dawn to dusk) fast in Judaism.

Background

The 17th of Tammuz is mentioned in Nevi'im (Prophets) - as "the fast of the fourth month" (Zechariah 8:19). The Mishnah (Taanit 4:8) lists five calamities that befell the Jewish people on this date:

1. Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai;
2. The daily tamid offering ceased to be brought;
3. The walls of Jerusalem were breached (proceeding to the destruction of the Temple);
4. Prior to Bar Kokhba's revolt, Roman military leader Apostamos burned a Torah scroll;
5. An idol was erected in the Temple.

The Babylonian Talmud (Taanit 28b) places the second and fifth tragedies in the First Temple, while dating the third tragedy (breach of Jerusalem) to the Second Temple period. Jerusalem of the First Temple, on the other hand, was breached on the 9th of Tammuz (cf. Jeremiah 52.6-7).

Place among the fasts

It is the second in the Four Fasts commemorating the destruction of the Temple and the Jewish Exile. It is preceded by the fast of Tenth of Tevet seven months earlier, begins the three weeks before full-day fast of the Ninth of Av. The last of the four fasts is the Fast of Gedalia immediately following Rosh Hashanah.

Bein hametzarim

The three weeks between the Seventeenth of Tamuz and the Ninth of Av are in themselves known as The Three Weeks, also known as bein hametzarim ("between the straits"), of a mounting sense of mourning for Jerusalem's and the Temples' destructions.