Parashat Pinchas/ Three Weeks

Mending the Broken Pieces Together

by Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon

Founder and Board Chairman, JobKatif

The three weeks open with the fast of the 17^th of Tammuz. The Mishnah in Ta’anit (4:6) says: Five things occurred to our ancestors on the 17^th of Tammuz: the Tablets of the Ten Commandments were broken, the people of Israel were no longer able to bring the Tamid Sacrifices, the walls of the city of Jerusalem were breached, a Torah was burnt, and an idol was put into the Holy Temple.

Aside from the fact that all these events occurred on the same date, is there any deeper connection that ties them all together?

An obvious connection is between the breaking of the tablets and burning a Torah. In both cases there is a destruction of the Torah, one by Moshe our leader and the other by an enemy.

A parallel can also be drawn between the breaking of the Tablets and putting an Idol in the Holy Temple. The reason why the tablets were smashed in the first place is because the Jewish people themselves were creating an idol! The Tablets actually broke on the very spot where it was written “Don’t make for yourself an idol.”  Breaking the tablets reflects the breaking of the law of idolatry, which is what happened when there was an idol placed in the Holy Temple.

Another similarity is that in all the cases something is destroyed: broken Tablets, the walls of Jerusalem are breached, a Torah is burned, an idol in the temple represents the destruction of spirituality in the Temple. Not having the ability to give the Tamid Sacrifice is more complicated but it too is a sign of destruction. It represents breaking a routine, going up to the Temple and being close to G-d. Many people think that not being consistent is not such a problem, when in fact it can slowly cause you to abandon all you believe in. This is exactly what happened with the termination of the Tamid Sacrifice. This crack slowly seeps into the very foundation of the Jewish people until it completely breaks their unity. This is what allows the Romans to destroy the Temple and exile the people of Israel.  We can learn an important thing from this: Our enemies can only break us if we were already broken to begin with.

Four out of the five events listed in the Mishnah represent spiritual destruction, but the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem is a physical destruction. If we look at all the other examples we see that a physical destruction only occurred after there was a spiritual one. The breaking of the Tablets happens only because the people were worshiping an idol. Following this pattern we see that only after the Torah was burned and an idol was placed in the Temple were the walls of the city breached.

All the things that occurred leading up to Tisha B’Av represent some sort of damage done to the Jewish people. We cannot compare the destruction of Gush Katif to the destruction of Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem effected the entire nation as the Holy Temple was destroyed and was followed by the exile of the entire Jewish people. However, one should, as we now know, always pay attention to the seemingly small cracks. The expulsion of Gush Katif caused a spiritual crisis- a piece of the land of Israel was actually given away and thousands of people’s spirits were broken. These people lost their homes and work. There are still hundreds of people out of work and without a permanent home 5 years later!

We will try to mend this break. Although we cannot repair all the damages that occurred thousands of years ago, we can help a piece of the nation of Israel rebuild their lives again, together!

Shabbat Shalom!