| Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement. Love Yehuda Lave Join my blog by sending me an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com
| | | | | | The fast day of 17th of Tammuz: History, Laws and Customs-Fast starts at 4:15 AM The fast of the 17th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, known as Shivah Asar B'Tammuz, is the start of a three-week mourning period for the destruction of Jerusalem and the two Holy Temples. The fast actually commemorates five tragic events that occurred on this date: - Moses broke the tablets when he saw the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.
- During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering the daily sacrifices due to the lack of sheep.
- Apostomos burned the holy Torah.1
- An idol was placed in the Holy Temple.2
- The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, in 69 CE, after a lengthy siege. (Three weeks later, after the Jews put up a valiant struggle, the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av.)
The Jerusalem Talmud maintains that this is also the date when the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem on their way to destroying the first Temple.
Practically speaking: A fast day is an auspicious day, a day when G‑d is accessible, waiting for us to repent - Healthy adults—bar- or bat-mitzvah age and older—abstain from eating or drinking between dawn and nightfall. Click here for exact times in your location.
- Pregnant and nursing women may not have to fast. Someone who is ill should consult with a rabbi. Even those exempt from fasting, such as ill people or children, shouldn't indulge in delicacies or sweets.
- It is permitted to wake up early before the fast begins and eat, provided that prior to going to sleep one had in mind to do so.
- During the morning prayers we recite selichot (penitential prayers), printed in the back of the prayerbook. The "long Avinu Malkeinu" is recited during the morning and afternoon prayers.
- The Torah is read during the morning and afternoon prayers. The reading—the same for both morning and afternoon—is Exodus 32:11–14 and 34:1–10, which discusses the aftermath of the Golden Calf incident, how Moses successfully interceded on the Israelites' behalf and attained forgiveness for their sin. After the afternoon Torah reading, the special fast-day haftarah, Isaiah 55:6–56:8, is read.
- During the Amidah prayer of the afternoon service (Minchah), those who are fasting add the paragraph Aneinu in the Shema Koleinu blessing. (It is also added in the cantor's repetition of the Amidah in both the morning and afternoon services, as its own blessing between the blessings of Re'eh and Refa'einu.) Additionally, the priestly blessing is also added in the repetition of the Amidah in the afternoon service.
- If the 17th of Tammuz falls on Shabbat, the fast is postponed until Sunday. Click here for more about this Shabbat.
Abstaining from food and drink is the external element of a fast day. On a deeper level, a fast day is an auspicious day, a day when G‑d is accessible, waiting for us to repent. The sages explain: "Every generation for which the Temple is not rebuilt, it is as though the Temple was destroyed for that generation." A fast day is not only a sad day, but an opportune day. It's a day when we are empowered to fix the cause of that destruction, so that our long exile will be ended and we will find ourselves living in messianic times; may that be very soon.
| | | | | | | The Three Musketeers at the Kotel | | | | | | The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember. The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave. | | | | | | | IDF Spokesman: 'European aid funds were found in Hamas tunnels | | | | | IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin from Hamas terror tunnel in Gaza | | | | | Some four thousand years ago, a small merchant vessel slipped quietly through the calm, sapphire waters of the Argosaronic Gulf, her low wooden hull laden with cargo. She had likely departed from a coastal settlement in the Argolid, her crew – no more than four or five mariners – navigating by sightlines and seasonal patterns: the shapes of hills and islands, the direction of cloud-banking, the feel of wind and current beneath the sail. In her hold were hundreds of ceramic vessels – storage jars, sauceboats, cooking pots, and tableware – carefully packed for transport, bound for coastal villages or trading outposts along the southern edge of the Myrtoan Sea. This was no exploratory journey, but a regular voyage across known waters. This was the Early Bronze Age, a time before the rise of Mycenae and before the sprawling Minoan palaces of Knossos and Phaistos reached their height. Writing had not yet come to Greece. But seaborne commerce was already shaping the Aegean. The ship's route lay along an emerging web of maritime trade that linked South Euboea with the gulfs of the Argolid and Saronic – an early network of direct exchange that marked a shift from down-the-line transmission to something more intentional, more connected.
| | | | | | Traces of an ancient voyage: a broken amphora lies on the seabed, evoking the cargo scatter of the Dokos shipwreck. [Shutterstock] | | | | | | | View from Hydra across the Argosaronic Gulf, with Dokos to the left and the Peloponnese in the distance. Inhabited since at least 6000 BC, Dokos was once a strategic node in early Aegean maritime networks. [Shutterstock] | | | | | | In an astonishing event off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, a rogue wave was recorded that reached a staggering height of 17.6 meters. This immense wave, roughly the size of a four-story building, broke records and has left scientists and sailors alike in awe. | | | | | | Those we have lost Stories of civilians and soldiers killed since Hamas's onslaught on Israel on October 7, 2023
Every day you can look at another victim and send him/her prayers
Those we have lost | The Times of Israel Categories
Civilians IDF Israel Defense Forces soldiers and reservists Police officers
Israel Police and Border Police officers First responders
Local security team members, firefighters and medics Supernova festival
Those who attended the Supernova or Psyduck festivals Foreigners
Foreign workers, tourists and students | | | | | See you tomorrow bli neder We need Mashiach now! What is disliked by you, don't do to others. Be nice and kind and smile! Love Yehuda Lave | | | | | Yehuda Lave, Spiritual Advisor and Counselor | | | | |
