The 17th of Tamuz

Is one permitted to say the Selichot of a fast day before Shacharit? As the 17th of Tammus here in Australia is winter and Shacharit starts late in the morning so to save time, it would be great to say selichot before Shacharit.

Fast days are occasion for introspection and repentance. After all, we are not fasting over the distant, unrelated past; we are fasting in response to our own present situation. How is it that instead of mourning we remain complacent and indifferent?

There is a tendency, on fast days, for people to concentrate upon the calamities of the past and on the stages that led up to the destruction of the Temple. People reflect on the distant past when they aught - says the Rambam - consider the present.

Did Jews fast over the destruction of the First Temple when the Second Temple stood? Must pregnant and nursing women abstain from eating and drinking on minor fasts? Rabbi Eliezer Melamed addresses these and other important questions.

What do we mourn during this time of Redemption? What do we lament during the three weeks when we see Israel coming back home?

A day of fasting is not one of dieting. We are not fasting for something far-removed from ourselves, but rather for our situation this very day.

One of the tragedies that we mourn on the 17th of Tammuz is the burning of the Torah - the ultimate repression of the ultimate book.

Israel proceeds, generation after generation, to rectify the Original Sin, and other sins which hinder the complete and lofty appearance of the Torah.

The purpose of the fast is not to recall past tragedies, but to provide a means for "waking the hearts and clearing the paths to repentance."