Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
„An idolatrous image was set up in the Temple, an enemy camp spread over the city, and in the fury of his malice, in the wrath of vengeance, the daily offering was abolished, the evil brought ruin.”From Meged Yerachim, Tammuz 5671
With the opening of the month of Tammuz, Rav Kook brings us back to the events that opened the path to the destruction. The Mishnah tells that on the seventeenth of Tammuz the daily offering was abolished, the city was breached, and an idol was set up in the Sanctuary. Rav Kook concentrates these events into four lines, whose initial letters form the word 'Tammuz.' The destruction moves from the outside inward: the enemy camp surrounds the city, the wall is breached, the daily service ceases, and finally the idol is placed within the Temple. Destruction does not come in a single moment, and correspondingly building too is something built consistently and persistently. The repair begins with restoring the daily offering, with the small, consistent faithfulness that rebuilds the wall from within.
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.