Three Weeks, The

July 19–August 9, 2011

A summary of the laws and customs that pertain to the Three Weeks mourning period for the Holy Temples—17 Tammuz through 9 Av.

This class begins with a history of the three-week period of mourning for the Destruction of the Holy Temple and continues with an analysis of a prophecy of Jeremiah that hints to the future transformation of "bitterness into sweetness."

What do a garden hose nuzzle, a rocket, a hydraulic power plant, a shofar, and this article have in common? They all operate on the Pinch Principle

If joy is the revelation and expansion of the soul, then sorrow is a soul’s concealment and contraction. In sorrow the soul retreats, silencing all outward expression, shriveling to its narrowest sliver of selfhood . . .

Do good. Don’t wait for others to start. Be an initiator, the others will respond. It’s impossible that they won’t. Some will react sooner; for others, the process will take more time. Ultimately, the heart opens to the heart.

Three weeks of the Jewish year -- Tammuz 17 to Av 9 -- are designated as a time of mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temple and the resultant galut (physical exile and spiritual displacement) in which we still find ourselves

The kabbalah of the Three Weeks: a buried seed of goodness, a 21-day almond-wood, walls that protect and walls that imprison, the pregnant Tet, and a cosmic birth that puts history to rights

During the three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, we mourn the loss of both Holy Temples in Jerusalem. The Torah tells us, however, that when we study the laws of the Temple’s construction, we are already rebuilding it.