The 17th of Tammuz is one of those dates that brings into sharp relief the Jewish people's divide into two communities – religious and secular. Observant Jews fast, while most of the secular world ignore it. Which is a shame, because the history behind the 17th of Tammuz could speak to the secular public because it commemorates events that were a tragedy for our nation.
According to Jewish tradition, the 17th of Tammuz is the date on which the Roman siege broke through the walls of Jerusalem (the Jerusalem Talmud adds that the walls around the First Temple were breached on the same date over six centuries earlier). The Roman breach was a milestone in the history of our people. The foreign conqueror's three-month siege of the city had achieved its goal – from the moment the wall was breached, it was only a question of time when the inevitable destruction would be wrought and the city would finally fall.
In effect, the tragedy of the 17th of Tammuz led to a series of terrible events that included the Jews' losing their national home in the Land of Israel; the Romans' mass murder of Jews; the Jews being expelled from their land; and the start of a long, troubled exile. The battle loss of the 17th of Tammuz decided the fate of the Jewish people for the next 2,000 years. Everything that ensued – included the suffering of Jews in every Diaspora community, which reached its height with the Holocaust – is the result of the military defeat that took place 1948 years ago.
Anyone who considers the significance of the drama that took place during the defense of Jerusalem on the 17th of Tammuz will find that it has left traces. The Roman Jewish historian Yosef Ben-Matityahu relates that on the day the walls were breached, even the kohanim [Temple priests] were called upon to fight. But even that couldn't save the city from being ruin, the grief that set the fate shared by all Jews. Our national memory must be shared, just like the fight for Jewish sovereignty. The fast that accompanies the memory of the 17th of Tammuz and which the secular classify as a religious tradition shouldn't keep secular Jews from being aware of the date's pivotal importance for all of us.
Our adherence or lack thereof to the traditions of this date should not determine whether we remember or, heaven forbid, forget the loss of our independence. How sad that the date that symbolizes more than anything the loss of our people's self-governance is almost entire absent from secular Israeli consciousness, even though secular Israelis defend our renewed sovereignty. It's equally sad that some religious Jews so clearly remember the fall of the walls that defended Jewish sovereignty 2,000 years ago, and honestly weep over it, but refrain from defending the modern-day walls we have erected against our new enemies.
The tragedies of the past should unite the various factions of the Jewish people, not divide us. The memory of the 17th of Tammuz could become a bridge between the camps, and help us confront any future blows.
