"Please pray for the Peace of Israel"  Psalm 122  [Chapter-2]

Moses Destroys the Tablets of the Ten
Commandments, by James Tissot

Defying Coincidence

The 17th of Tammuz is a day of ominous coincidences.

As people remember the breach of the wall, this is not the only tragedy that happened on this day.  Throughout history, a host of others occurred, as well.  The Mishnah (book of rabbinic teachings) records five in all.

The first tragedy happened in the days of the Israelites after the Exodus.  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Tablets of the Law (Ten Commandments) and saw the Israelites worshiping the Golden Calf, he smashed the tablets.To understand the timing for this, it is helpful to know that Tammuz 17 occurs 40 days after the Jewish holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost).  On Shavuot, Moses ascended Mount Sinai where he remained for 40 days.On the 16th of Tammuz, thinking that Moses would not return, the Israelites constructed the Golden Calf.  The next day, the 17th, when Moses descended, he saw that they were violating the laws God had given and he destroyed the tablets.

Another tragedy occurred during the First Temple Era.  The daily Temple sacrifices were cut off on Tammuz 17 (Taanit 28b) because the city was under siege by the Babylonians, and it was no longer possible to attain the necessary animals for the sacrifices. A year later to that very day, Nebuchadnezzar and his invading army breached the walls of Jerusalem  (2 Kings 25:2–7).  (Although Jeremiah 39:2 and 52:6–7 seem to indicate that this breach happened on the 9th of Tammuz, the Jerusalem Talmud [Tannit 4:5] states that it took place on the 17th and that the timing given in Jeremiah was distorted due to the distress of the times.) Three weeks later, the First Temple was destroyed on Tisha B'av. The Mishnah states that during the Second Temple Era, Titus’ armies also breached the walls on Tammuz 17, and three weeks later, they destroyed the Second Temple on Tisha B’Av in AD 70. The breach of the walls of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First and Second Temples on these same dates, so many years apart, defies coincidence. It speaks of the hand of God and judgment, and that is why the summer is such a time of mourning and repentance. But there is yet more that has happened on these days.

Ancient walls in Jerusalem.

It was also on this date that the Jewish King Manasseh had an idol placed in the Holy Temple (2 Kings 21:7). As well, a Greek oppressor named Apustemus burned the Torah on this day during the time of Antiochus Epiphanies.

Five events in more recent times that also occurred on the 17th of Tammuz include the following:

1.     1239 – Pope Gregory the IX ordered the confiscations of all copies of the Talmud.

2.     1391 – 4,000 Jews were killed in Toledo and Jaen, Spain.

3.     1559 – The Jewish quarter of Prague were burned and looted.

4.     1944 – The entire population of the Kovno ghetto was liquidated.

5.     1970 – Libya ordered the confiscation of all Jewish property.

Civilians looking at the massacre of 68 Jews in the Lietukis garage of
Kovno in Lithuania on June 25 or 27, 1941.