The prophets and the Sages instituted the fasts for healthy people, not for sick people. anyone who is sick is exempt from fasting, even if his condition is not life-threatening.
I live in a predominantly Ashkenazic community where the “Three Weeks” are observed with no music, and certainly no celebrations or weddings. A Sefardic family in the neighborhood has scheduled a wedding during the Three Weeks.
After davening Mincha on Rosh Chodesh, I (a woman) wanted to make up Hallel and Musaf that I did not have a chance to do in the morning. I saw that I did not have enough time before sunset to do both. Which one should I have done?
The laws of Birkat Shehechiyanu, which comes first Shehechiyanu or the blessing on the food? reciting the Shehechiyanu on house renovations and on similar fruits, reciting the Shehechiyanu on a Mitzva, the first time lighting candles.
The three weeks that begin on the night of the Seventeenth of Tammuz and continue until the Ninth of Av are days of national woefulness. The sages therefore advise being especially careful during this period, for it is a time designated for calamity.
Josephus hints to his people that even during the period in which non-Jews succeeded in forcing the Jews of Syria to work on the Sabbath, thus concealing the physical Sabbath River, they did not succeed in concealing the spiritual Sabbath River.
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.
It is forbidden to use arrogance in a contemptuous manner, placing oneself above others, yet there are certain situations in which one has to be bold, not reserved, and to know one's self-worth. Our sages teach that in the generation of the messiah chutzpah will abound.