17 Tammuz 5784

The fast begins on Tuesday, July 23 at 4:56 in the morning and ends at 9:56 p.m. (Barcelona time)

Next Tuesday, July 23, is Tammuz 17, a day of partial fasting to remember the 5 disasters that occurred on that date, according to Mishnah Taanit 4:6, namely: on that date Moses broke the Tables when he saw the golden calf that the People of Israel had built in the desert in their absence; the Romans prohibited sacrifices in the Temple; the walls of the Temple of Jerusalem were destroyed; a certain Apostomos burned a sefer Torah (we do not know under what circumstances) and an idol was placed in the Temple (it may or may not have been Apostomos who did it as well).

The 17th of Tammuz inaugurates a 3-week period of mourning that culminates on the 9th of Av, another date that accumulates calamities and atrocities that have marked the history of the Jewish people, forcing us to resist or disappear. The memory of the moments that have marked our history has taught us to resist and move forward, despite everything. Today, in the month of Tammuz of this fateful 5784 that has brought us so much pain, in which we still grieve for the absence of the hostages kidnapped on October 7, for the permanently absent people who no longer have the possibility of ever returning , and for those who suffer violence and terror, what are we going to learn from the 17th of Tammuz? What meaning will we give to the Tammuz fast?

The Tammuz fast is a possibility that we all have together to calmly and humbly address the disaster that has befallen us. It is a time to leave behind our personalisms and our small, narrow spheres where we entrench ourselves with our selfishness and our pettiness, and sit down to meditate on what has happened to us as a collective, remember it and regret it, so that we can then get up and move forward with more. strength and with the firm belief in a better future.