It was on שבעה עשר בתמוז (Shiva Asar b’Tammuz) – the seventeenth day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz – that Roman forces broke through the walls of Jerusalem, eventually crushing the Jewish revolt, destroying our city, smashing our national framework, uprooting us from our homeland and selling us into exile.
From the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av, when the Romans finally reached the Temple Mount, is three weeks. Three weeks of fighting for every inch of street and ground.
Three weeks of hacking through Judean rebels fighting with a furious violence – rebels unwilling to surrender Jerusalem at any cost.
Anyone who’s ever visited ancient Jerusalem knows it takes less than 20 minutes to get from any city wall to the mount. That the forces of Yoḥanan ben-Levi and Shimon bar-Giora managed to hold back the Roman fifth, tenth, twelfth and fifteenth legions for three entire weeks is a feat almost beyond imagination.
We lower our heads in awe at the courage of the Zealot and Sicarii fighters.
For thousands of years, Jews throughout the world have fasted on this day, refraining from food or drink until sundown – all because the Romans broke through the walls of Jerusalem.
Our national memory is long.
