From our Prayers

We have come before You, Creator of all spirits.  Because of our sins we are heavy with sighs.  Evil decrees abound, and our wailings are many, for on the seventeenth day of Tammuz the tablets (of the ten commandments) were broken (Selichot)

The Talmud and the ethical works cite the worship of the golden calf (Shemot 32:1-6) as the major transgression of the Yisraelim.

Although this sin occurred on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, it is not the sin itself which is cited as the cause for our sufferings, but rather Moshe's reaction to the sin, his breaking the tablets of the law.

The Torah states that the first tablets given to Moshe were engraved by G-d himself.  "The tablets were the work of G-d, and the inscription was the Divine inscription" (Shemot 32:16).  The inscription on the tablets was miraculous, because it penetrated the stone and could be read from either side.

The original tablets were directed by Divine revelation.  Man could look at the tablets and have a clear understanding of what the Divine will was.  Regardless of the vantage point, the Divine message was evident, without confusion, and without the possibility of distortion.

When we lost the first tablets, we lost this clarity of perception of the Divine will.  Our struggle for spirituality is now so much more difficult.  We therefore grieve for the irreparable loss of the manifest Divine will.

                                                    From the Sages

On the seventeenth day of Tammuz, Menashshe, king of Yehudah, erected an idol in the Sanctuary (Taanit 26b).

No other king in Yisrael is so thoroughly condemned as Menashshe.  Bringing an idol into the Sanctuary was the epitome of defiance of G-d.

In later years, after he was taken captive to Assyria, Menashshe repented.  The Talmud states that the angels pleaded with G-d not to grant Menashshe forgiveness, because his sin was so grave.  The Divine response was, "If I deny anyone forgiveness, those who would repent may think that their sins, too, are grave, and they will be discouraged from teshuvah (repentance)."

It is therefore a Divine dictum, "Nothing stands in the way of sincere teshuvah."