Rebuilding the Walls

R

ambam teaches us that a fast day is a day of introspection and teshuvah. Understanding the reason behind the fast lends meaning to the day and guides us toward proactive steps we can take to bring redemption. Chazal teach us that five calamities happened on Shivah Asar B’Tammuz.

1. When Moshe Rabbeinu descended from Har Sinai and saw the people worshipping the Golden Calf, he broke the Luchos.
2. Toward the end of the Second Beis Hamikdash era, Apostomus, a Greek general, publicly burned a sefer Torah. (Some explain that this was a special Torah written by Ezra Hasofer.)
3. The enemies prevented the Jews from offering the daily sacrifice.
4. An idol was erected in the Beis Hamikdash.
5. The walls of Yerushalayim were breached, which led to the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash.

What’s the connection between these seemingly disparate events, and what message can we take from them?

Monumental Loss

The sin with the Golden Calf wasn’t just a localized event; rather it changed the entire course of history. Hashem intended that the Revelation at Har Sinai would climax with the Jews receiving the Luchos. There would have been a complete fusion between the Jews and the Torah, and they would have been fundamentally free from sin.

Likewise, notes the Seforno, before the sin with the Golden Calf, there was no necessity for a Mishkan, nor for any specific place for Hashem to reside in. Hashem could be found within everyone; each person was a repository for the Shechinah. When the Jews sinned with the Golden Calf, they lost the chance for that deeper, higher level of connection.