In Chutz La’aretz, this week parshas Balak is read, and in Eretz Yisroel, this is one of the rare years when we read parshas Pinchas before the Three Weeks. Since both parshiyos include allusions to tzaar baalei chayim, I present: Tzaar baalei chayim
One should not use fast days for leisure or for field trips. One should even refrain from performing permissible acts such as showering or cutting one's hair. If a person spends the fast indifferently, he has not properly fulfilled his obligation.
The individual Chanukah candle symbolizes the Torah as a whole - one entity which is more than the mere sum of its commandments. The additional candles allude to the commandments - the concrete outward manifestation of the Torah's inner essence.
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.
After the destruction of the First Temple, the Prophets and the Sages of Israel legislated fasting on the Tenth of Tevet, for it was on that day that Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, and his legions placed Jerusalem under siege.