During this month, on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, we begin the period of mourning for the destruction of the Temples and the Jewish exile. In the Ashkenazic world, there are no weddings until after Tisha B’Av and enjoyable occasions and trips are minimized. The Sephardim begin their period of commemoration mourning on Rosh Chodesh Av or on the week in which Tisha B’Av itself falls. This period of time does allow us to assess what we do have and the progress that we and civilization have made over the past nineteen hundred and thirty eight years since the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Please see this article for more information about this important time.
Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis / Torah.org
