Tzom Tammuz

The 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz is one of Judaism’s “minor fasts,” in which the fasting is only from sunrise to sunset, rather than a full 24 hours. Like many Jewish fasts, the fasting is done to commemorate calamities that happened to the Jewish people on that day in history: According to the Mishnah, both the incident of the Golden Calf, and the Roman army’s breaching of Jerusalem’s walls before its eventual destruction, occurred on this date.

It can sometimes be difficult to find meaning in ritual fasts, especially when they are connected to historical events that seem to have little connection to our world today. At least one ancient rabbi was aware of this, and sought to reframe the significance of the day. In the Talmud, Mar Zutra says: The merit of fasting is from the tzedakah, the acts of justice, that should occur as a result.

It is a Jewish tradition on fast days to donate to charity the amount of money that you would have normally spent on that day’s food. But not only that: On days that we are hungry, we should subsume those feelings into being hungry for justice, eager in our desire to make the world fairer and more compassionate.

Tzom kal u’mo’il: May you have an easy and beneficial fast – beneficial for yourself and for those in your community.