“Five calamitous matters occurred to our forefathers on the seventeenth of Tammuz, and five other disasters happened on the Ninth of Av. On the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken by Moses when he saw that the Jews had made the golden calf; the daily offering was nullified by the Roman authorities and was never sacrificed again; the city walls of Jerusalem were breached; the general Apostemos publicly burned a Torah scroll; and Manasseh placed an idol in the Sanctuary.” (Mishnah Ta'anit 4:6)
In this Mishna, Chazal outline five distinct calamities that befell our ancestors on the seventeenth of Tammuz. To the casual observer, these are separate historical tragedies, but through the sharp theological lens of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, these five events are actually one recurring human pathology: the dangerous illusion of intrinsic holiness.
In Shemot Perek 32, Moshe descends Har Sinai and witnesses the Golden Calf. In turn, he smashes the divine Tablets. How could Moshe destroy an object crafted by the finger of God?
Leibowitz offers a chilling explanation. Moshe realized that the text on the Tablets was meant to demand an ethical commitment from the people. The moment the people substituted that living commitment with the fetish of the Golden Calf, the Tablets themselves were in danger of becoming just another idol. Moshe understood that there is no such thing as an inherently holy object. If the people do not uphold the moral standards demanded by the covenant, the Tablets cease to be holy.
“This was demonstrated to us by Moses; he broke the Tablets the very moment he realized that the people had violated the commandment, 'You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness.' We must understand that the phrase 'a sculptured image or any likeness' does not apply specifically to the Golden Calf made by Israel, but rather to any given element in nature, such as: a nation, a land, a homeland, a flag, an army, an idea, a specific individual, and the like, when they are elevated to the status of holiness”. (Talks of Yeshayahu Leibowitz on the Parasha, Ki Tisa 20)
Moshe did not destroy a holy object; he destroyed a piece of rock that the people were about to worship as an empty symbol. This is the exact same thread that unites all five calamities of the seventeenth of Tammuz.
We mourn the ceasing of the Korbanot, but the Prophet Micha reminds us that ritual divorced from justice is an abomination to God: With what shall I approach GOD, Do homage to God on high? Shall I approach with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Would GOD be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, The fruit of my body for my sins?
“With what shall I approach GOD, Do homage to God on high? Shall I approach with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Would GOD be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, The fruit of my body for my sins? “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, And what GOD requires of you: Only to do justice And to love goodness, And to walk modestly with your God”; (Micah 6:6-8)
The sacrifices did not stop because the enemy blocked the temple doors; they stopped because they had long ceased to be an expression of Mishpat and Ahavat Chesed.
We mourn the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, but physical walls only stand when the moral walls of a society are intact. When a society’s internal foundation crumbles, the external stones inevitably collapse.
The burning of the Torah scroll represents the vulnerability of the text when its spirit is neglected. If the Torah is treated merely as an external artifact or a cultural heirloom rather than a demanding ethical framework, it becomes susceptible to being burned.
The closest thing we have to a tangible Temple today is the Holy Land itself. However, when we elevate land or political power to the status of ultimate sanctity, we are placing a tzelem b’heichal, an idol in the sanctuary.
Shiva Asar B’Tammuz demands that we stop worshiping the containers of holiness and start pouring justice back into them. Holiness is not a status to be claimed or inherited; it is an active choice to protect the vulnerable and recognize the divine spark in every human being. Only when we break our idols can we begin to heal the breaches in our walls.
תֹּאמַר לְצִיּוֹן קוּמָה. וְשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּתַמּוּז הֲפָךְ לָנוּ לְיוֹם יְשׁוּעָה וְנֶחָמָה (ואתאנו לך - פיוט סליחות לי"ז בתמוז)
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Tova Kahan is project manager of the Protective Presence Consortium, specializing in community building and social responsibility. Tova specializes in bridging environmental practice with community engagement. She is a graduate of several advanced leadership and cross-cultural facilitation programs, and is currently training in the “Tehillah” Leadership Program.
In this Mishna, Chazal outline five distinct calamities that befell our ancestors on the seventeenth of Tammuz. To the casual observer, these are separate historical tragedies, but through the sharp theological lens of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, these five events are actually one recurring human pathology: the dangerous illusion of intrinsic holiness.
In Shemot Perek 32, Moshe descends Har Sinai and witnesses the Golden Calf. In turn, he smashes the divine Tablets. How could Moshe destroy an object crafted by the finger of God?
Leibowitz offers a chilling explanation. Moshe realized that the text on the Tablets was meant to demand an ethical commitment from the people. The moment the people substituted that living commitment with the fetish of the Golden Calf, the Tablets themselves were in danger of becoming just another idol. Moshe understood that there is no such thing as an inherently holy object. If the people do not uphold the moral standards demanded by the covenant, the Tablets cease to be holy.
“This was demonstrated to us by Moses; he broke the Tablets the very moment he realized that the people had violated the commandment, 'You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image or any likeness.' We must understand that the phrase 'a sculptured image or any likeness' does not apply specifically to the Golden Calf made by Israel, but rather to any given element in nature, such as: a nation, a land, a homeland, a flag, an army, an idea, a specific individual, and the like, when they are elevated to the status of holiness”. (Talks of Yeshayahu Leibowitz on the Parasha, Ki Tisa 20)
Moshe did not destroy a holy object; he destroyed a piece of rock that the people were about to worship as an empty symbol. This is the exact same thread that unites all five calamities of the seventeenth of Tammuz.
We mourn the ceasing of the Korbanot, but the Prophet Micha reminds us that ritual divorced from justice is an abomination to God: With what shall I approach GOD, Do homage to God on high? Shall I approach with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Would GOD be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, The fruit of my body for my sins?
“With what shall I approach GOD, Do homage to God on high? Shall I approach with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Would GOD be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, The fruit of my body for my sins? “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, And what GOD requires of you: Only to do justice And to love goodness, And to walk modestly with your God”; (Micah 6:6-8)
The sacrifices did not stop because the enemy blocked the temple doors; they stopped because they had long ceased to be an expression of Mishpat and Ahavat Chesed.
We mourn the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem, but physical walls only stand when the moral walls of a society are intact. When a society’s internal foundation crumbles, the external stones inevitably collapse.
The burning of the Torah scroll represents the vulnerability of the text when its spirit is neglected. If the Torah is treated merely as an external artifact or a cultural heirloom rather than a demanding ethical framework, it becomes susceptible to being burned.
The closest thing we have to a tangible Temple today is the Holy Land itself. However, when we elevate land or political power to the status of ultimate sanctity, we are placing a tzelem b’heichal, an idol in the sanctuary.
Shiva Asar B’Tammuz demands that we stop worshiping the containers of holiness and start pouring justice back into them. Holiness is not a status to be claimed or inherited; it is an active choice to protect the vulnerable and recognize the divine spark in every human being. Only when we break our idols can we begin to heal the breaches in our walls.
תֹּאמַר לְצִיּוֹן קוּמָה. וְשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּתַמּוּז הֲפָךְ לָנוּ לְיוֹם יְשׁוּעָה וְנֶחָמָה (ואתאנו לך - פיוט סליחות לי"ז בתמוז)
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Tova Kahan is project manager of the Protective Presence Consortium, specializing in community building and social responsibility. Tova specializes in bridging environmental practice with community engagement. She is a graduate of several advanced leadership and cross-cultural facilitation programs, and is currently training in the “Tehillah” Leadership Program.