Q:
What is Shiva Assar b’Tammuz supposed to teach us?
A:
Shiva Assar b’Tammuz comes to teach a number of things. One of the things is, we have to look back על כל מחמדנו שהיה לנו בימי קדם all the wonderful things we had in the days of old but we didn’t appreciate them as long as we had them.
That’s a universal failing in human beings. They don’t appreciate fully what they have. I’m sure they appreciate it to some extent but the glory of a Jewish nation that lived together in Eretz Yisroel and Bavel—at one time only in Eretz Yisroel—that was something that was unequal.
Imagine the days of Bayis Rishon. Not one Jew lived anywhere except in Eretz Yisroel and they were so proud of their superiority. Yes, there were people, here and there, who were attracted to the foolishness of the goyim around but the vast majority of the Jews were loyal to everything. Even the ovdei avodah zarah were frum Jews. Even Achav who was a real oveid avodah zarah, he was a frum Jew; he had a kosher kitchen, and when the Navi told him some criticism he put on sackcloth and ashes and he fasted.
So once upon a time we had tremendous gifts that we didn’t appreciate sufficiently. And so among the purposes of this period of time now that we’re going to start Shiva Assar b’Tammuz is to look back and realize what we once had.
Of course it makes us sad that we don’t have them today but it’s important to realize that we still owe gratitude to Hashem for what He gave us in the days of old. Once upon a time we had a kingdom; a Jewish frum police force, shoftim v’shotrim. Even a policeman could be a tzaddik gomur. He wore tzitzis and he was defending the Torah laws. That’s why he was called a שוטר, because he had a stick, a שוט in his hand. Once upon a time anybody who did a small chillul Shabbos was put to death. And so there was never such a nation that was so devoted in their happiness in their observance
But what happened? When they were all together, they began thinking, “Maybe outside there’s also something good.” They didn’t realize the big difference between the outside and the inside. השמרו לכם פן יפתה לבבכם – Be on guard not to be persuaded that it’s better outside. ולא תתורו – You shouldn’t look; you shouldn’t spy to see what’s doing in other nations, maybe there’s something there too.
And that’s what happened in Europe when the people began thinking, “Maybe it’s better to live among the Germans; the Germans are civilized.”
And it seemed so. You couldn’t insult a Jew on the street in Germany. In Austria you could insult a Jew in the street. You know that Zigmund Freud tells a story about his father. His father was walking in the street and he bought a new hat, a new fur hat, so a gentile passed by and knocked it off. He said, “Jew get off the sidewalk.” But in Germany they were polite. I was in Germany for one day — it was polite in those days. So the Jews said, “Surely, ah! That’s culture, that’s science!” And that’s why so many Jews got lost in Germany
So Hakodosh Boruch Hu said, “I’m going to show you who Germany is.” That’s why the greatest wickedness the world ever saw came out of Germany in order to teach a lesson.
But in the days of old when they all lived inside of their own mechitzah they couldn’t realize what the outside world was and they couldn’t fully appreciate the great benefit that Hashem had given them of מחמדינו שהיה לנו מימי קדם. And therefore, that’s one of the purposes of fasting – we remind ourselves and we’re so sorry that once upon a time we failed to understand how happy we should have been. We failed to realize it.
Another purpose of course is to say, “What can we do to bring back those days?”
Now, you can’t bring it back by yourself but still every person is obliged to try, to at least make an effort. So therefore, the taanis tzibur is for the purpose of making at least one step in the right direction. It’s not merely to afflict yourself, not to eat. The taanis is for the purpose of making you think; you should make one step in the right direction. At least one thing you have to do as a result of a taanis tzibur. There shouldn’t be even the slightest change? Nothing at all?!
And therefore, right now we’re limiting ourselves to two objectives. One is to look back and see what we once had and we lost; we appreciate what our forefathers had, the happiness of ארץ חמדה טובה ורחבה. They lived among Jews and they lived al pi haTorah and that was their constitution lehavdil; they had no other laws except the laws of the Torah. What a happiness that was!
And also, another purpose of the taanis is to see what can we do to be mekarev the geulah; a little bit better we can be – at least one step in the right direction.
July 1997
