During the month of Tammuz which this year is July 7th - August 4th, we are ushering in the summer's main Jewish historical event, the beginning of the cataclysmic loss of our Temple. While  Roman documents  would  never chronicle the unprecedented bloody fight and their own heavy losses, Jewish  sources  do talk about an amazing heroic stance of a few hundred Temple defenders  against  thousands of Roman soldiers.

The actual Roman blockade on the Temple mount started 5 months earlier on  the 10th day of the month of Tevet. There were five months of starvation and then heavy fighting with   the mighty Roman empire and all of its heavy blockade and wall busting equipment. The Romans  could not break into the Temple much to the chagrin of the Roman senate. Roman soldiers were brought from all over Europe to help.

Knowing that other oppressed nations around were eying this event carefully, considering it an encouragement for their own revolt, the destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem became  a "must do at all cost" for Rome. 

On the 17 day of Tammuz  (commemorated on July 24th this year), after five long months of blockade and fighting, the outer wall of the temple  was compromised and thousands of Roman soldiers poured into the inner parts of the Temple attempting to burn it. Little  did they know that they would be facing  another 22 days of extremely bloody fighting against very determined and brave Jewish defenders  inside the Temple plaza before the fight would  end. Weeks later the Temple was set ablaze on the 9th day of the month of Av and the few remaining defenders, exhausted by starvation and war, perished.

Over  the generations the days between the 17th day of Tammuz and 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av) (Aug. 14th this year) were dedicated  to intense mourning. Many Jewish mourning customs are practiced including  the avoidance of certain life cycle events such as weddings. The idea was to prepare oneself for the crescendo of the 9th day of Av, the memorial day for the actual destruction of the Temple.            

 However, over the generations  and especially in modern times, the significance  of this time period  has expanded from a sense of victimhood and despair to ushering in a ray of hope for a gentler,  more peaceful world. A modern understanding of the Temple destruction implies the hope of renewal and redemption.  The  old flames of the Burning Temple forever burned  its imprint on our hearts.

Our Temple, the symbol of our highest moral standards, decency and humanity now exist inside of us. This powerful imprint gives us the ability and strength to cling to that ray of hope for a better world  no matter how tumultuous our world becomes. In fact  the more chaotic and dangerous our world becomes with much evil around the stronger our belief in peaceful times should be. This  concept  is known in traditional Judaism as " Chevlei Moshiach"  the  birthing of the messiah (also known as Messianic Age) and that is what helped our ancestors in every generation  through some very hard  times  when their own survival  was in question.   We should therefore dedicate the 22 days of mourning to spiritual renewal, getting closer to our Judaism, our values, our Creator.   

B'Shalom

Rabbi David