Rebuild it, and They will Come

The prayers for the fast of 17 Tammuz begin: “Permit G-d no silence, until He sets and establishes Jerusalem as the praise of the earth. For with You is the source of life; in Your light we will see light. Our G-d, we are contrite over our actions, we are shamed because of our wrongdoing.”

The order of the verses teaches us that the first thing a Jew must do is cry out to G-d and “permit Him no silence” until He rebuilds the Holy City.

How do we dare challenge G-d? Doesn’t G-d have His reasons why the exile persists? Therefore the prayer continues: “For with You is the source of life; in Your light we will see light” – it is Torah itself, G-d-s light, that instructs us to demand the Redemption.

Only thereafter can a Jew have a calm mind and heart to return to G-d, as the third verse describes. But he has already achieved the essence of repentance beforehand, when he turns to G-d and “permits Him no silence.” That ‘turn’ itself is true repentance.