Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

The mishna discusses the five major communal fast days. Five calamitous matters occurred to our forefathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and five other disasters happened on the Ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken by Moses when he saw that the Jews had made the golden calf; the daily offering was nullified by the Roman authorities and was never sacrificed again; the city walls of Jerusalem were breached; the general Apostemos publicly burned a Torah scroll; and Manasseh placed an idol in the Sanctuary. On the Ninth of Av it was decreed upon our ancestors that they would all die in the wilderness and not enter Eretz Yisrael; and the Temple was destroyed the first time, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the second time, by the Romans; and Beitar was captured; and the city of Jerusalem was plowed, as a sign that it would never be rebuilt. Not only does one fast on the Ninth of Av, but from when the month of Av begins, one decreases acts of rejoicing.

And He gave to Moses when He finished speaking with him [(the statutes and the judgments in Mishpatim)] on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets written by the finger of G-d. ["There is no 'earlier' and 'later' in the Torah" (This section is out of chronological order.) The incident of the golden calf preceded the charge to build the mishkan. For on the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken, and on Yom Kippur the L-rd was reconciled with Israel. And the next day they began donating for the mishkan, which was erected on the first of Nissan.] ("when He finished (kechalotho) speaking with him") ["kechalotho" is written defective (without the vav). The Torah was given to Moses as a gift, as a bride (kallah) is given to a groom, for he could not (in the order of nature) have learned all of it in such a short time.] ("when He finished speaking with him") [Moses heard the halachah first from the L-rd, and then they "reviewed" it together.] ("tablets" — luchoth) ["luchoth" is written defective (without the vav), intimating (in the Hebrew) that the tablets were identical.]

We are required to fast on the 9th of Av, [and] on the 17th of Tammuz, and on the 3rd of Tishrei, and on the 10th of Teves because of the bad occurrences that occurred on those [days].

The mishna further taught that on the seventeenth of Tammuz the city walls of Jerusalem were breached. The Gemara asks: Was this tragedy something that occurred on the seventeenth of Tammuz? But isn’t it written: “In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine was severe in the city” (Jeremiah 52:6), and it is written immediately afterward: “Then a breach was made in the city” (Jeremiah 52:7), which clearly indicates that the city was breached on the ninth.

(1) A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:aI.e., all human experiences are preordained by God; see v. 11.

(5) They who sow in tears
shall reap with songs of joy.