by Rabbi Yair Hoffman The Three Weeks Although the Three Weeks (from 17th of Tammuz to after Tisha B’Av) and the other two fasts are a period of mourning and introspection, the Navi Zechariah tells us (Zechariah 8:19) that, eventually, the four fasts of Klal Yisrael will be a source of joy and gladness, but only if we do one thing. We have to embark upon the goal of loving both truth and shalom. Rabbi Chaninah tells us (Shabbos 55a) that Hashem’s seal is truth. Shalom is also one of the names of Hashem, in addition to being a central theme of our daily tefillos. If we learn to love these ideals, the fasts will be turned around. The four fasts mentioned in Zechariah are: The fast of the fourth month [17 Tammuz] The fast of the fifth month [9 Av] The fast of the seventh month [3 Tishrei] The fast of the tenth month [10 Teves] Clearly, we are counting these four fasts from the month of Nissan. But why do we start from Nissan? Because this is the first month that we became a nation.  It is important to note that when we mourn properly – we gain enormously in our Avodas Hashem.  Let’s try to make the most out of this period too. Modified Dates The exact dates of two of the fasts were not always these dates. As far as the 17th of Tammuz, originally, in the time of first Beis HaMikdash we observed it on the 9th of Tammuz because that is when the city walls were first broken through. Hundreds of years later, during the time of the second Beis HaMikdash, on the 17th of Tammuz, the enemy breached the walls of Yerushalayim once again. The date of the Tammuz fast was moved from the 9th to the 17th. The fast of Tishrei was to be observed on the third because the tragedy had occurred on the second day of Rosh Hashanah itself, one day earlier, and we do not want to fast then. Purpose Of The Fasts The Rambam (Hilchos Taanis 5:1) explains that fasting does two things: It awakens our hearts and it urges us onto the path of teshuvah. The purpose of the fast is for the teshuvah, the returning to Hashem, that is instigated by the fasting. The Chayei Adam (133:1) explains that if we do not focus on things that are important, we have lost the essential theme of Chazal’s intent in the fast. What does “awaken our hearts” mean? It attunes us to the loss, that great loss, of the Shechinah dwelling in our midst. Klal Yisrael is unique among all the nations of the world because of our unique ability to achieve a dveikus b’Hashem — a cleaving and closeness to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It is this ability to achieve dveikus that gave us all the Nevi’im that we had. It is this ability to achieve dveikus which allows us to reach heights in our tefillos, our learning of His Torah, and in our middos. We had the Chofetz Chaim in our midst because of this ability to achieve dveikus b’Hashem. The Beis HaMikdash in our midst allowed us to achieve even greater dveikus. The loss of the Beis HaMikdash was a loss of who we are […]