The Three Weeks

It's time to end 2,000 years of "electric shock."

The three-week period between Shiva Asar B’Tammuz and Tisha B’Av is kept by Klal Yisrael as a time of mourning. In this article, we will review and explain the halachos that apply during the Three Weeks.

A day of fasting in the Jewish calendar – such as this Sunday's Fast of Tammuz – is not one of dieting, but rather a day of introspection and teshuva (contrition and remorse). We are not fasting for something far-removed from ourselves, but rather for our situation this very day.

At first glance, it seems that the purpose of the month of Tamuz is to make us depressed. How should we relate too this month?

It is a mitzva to educate our children to observe the mitzvot relating to Tisha Be-Av and mourning over the destruction of the Temple, just as we teach them about all other mitzvot.

When the ninth of Av falls out on Shabbat, the fast is postponed to Sunday. On that Shabbat, we show no signs of mourning.

Most of the passages recited in the Korbanot section were included in the regular prayer service. On Tisha Be-Av, when one may not study Torah, the question arises: May one recite these passages?

The Babylonians conquered the Temple on the seventh of Av and set it ablaze toward evening on the ninth of the month, and it continued burning throughout the tenth. The Jewish people refrained from eating meat and drinking wine on that date.