The fast of Tevet commemorates a significant stage in the destruction of the Temples and also serves as an opportunity for us to evaluate our actions on a personal and moral level. But what lessons do we learn from the very fact of the destruction of the two Temples? What is the message conveyed by God's visible distancing of His Shechina (Divine Presence) from us, and what have we lost as a result?

The purpose of the Fast

Maimonides explains in his work on the Laws of Fasts:
"The essence of the fasts to commemorate the destruction of the Temples is not sadness or mourning, which was the response of the time; the essence is rather to open up the gates of repentance, and to remind ourselves of our bad deeds and those of our forefathers that had such terrible repercussions for us all...These thoughts should bring us to a recognition of our own shortcomings and an acknowledgement of our need to engage in a Teshuva (repentance) of our own."

Accomplices to the Destruction?

The Rabbis said in the Talmud (Jerusalem, Yoma 1),
"Any generation that fails to witness the rebuilding of the Temple in its lifetime can be considered to have brought about its destruction."
Despite the striking force of this statement, its meaning is clear: every generation has the power to repent for its misdeeds and to turn to God in mercy, pleading for redemption from oppression in the Jewish homeland and for the rebuilding of the Temple. The mere fact of the continuing absence of the Temple and our continued oppression within our homeland must therefore imply a continuing abundance of sins in our generation, which have prevented God from turning to us in mercy.

A pact with God

In Chapter 18 of Leviticus, the following is written:
"And the land shall not spew you out when you defile it, as it spewed out the nations before you..." The author of "The Book of our Heritage", Eliyahu Kitov, explains this verse as an assurance by God that the Jewish People will never be "spewed out" of the Land of Israel as a result of their sins in the same way as other nations have been and will be, but will rather be only temporarily exiled from it and enabled to return after a certain amount of time.

It is possible, however, to read this verse in an entirely different way, as a warning to the Jewish People not to allow themselves to be "spewed out" in the same way as God has spewed out other nations. It is in the light of this interpretation that the centrality of the essential link that continues to exist between the Land of Israel, the People of Israel and the God of Israel is heightened and renewed every day that we are privileged to enjoy in the Land of Israel.

Teshuva on an individual level

The ongoing struggle we continue to encounter with a dubious partner in peace is rendered greater meaning by our acknowledgement of this teaching: as long as the only issue is understood to be one of peace talks with our Arab partners, the Jewish People cannot hope to achieve true peace. The true peace is one more abstract, yet to be found within the heart of every individual Jew who chooses to acknowledge his role within a process of individual self-analysis which may rouse God to mercy for him on an individual level, and for the Jewish People as a national whole.

Teshuva on a national level

The question is not only of politics, but also of a crucial need for the unifying of all who are privileged to live in the Land of Israel. We must remember that we are partners in another pact of peace which unites God, the People of Israel and the Land of Israel, but that the continuation of this legacy is only to be guaranteed through the unifying of the Jewish People in the Holy Land, not as a result of their undermining or degrading through religious bigotry, prejudice or any of the other forms of intolerance that are sadly often such striking features of Israeli life.

Learning the lesson: maintaining the link

The fast of the Tenth of Tevet, along with the other fasts commemorating the destruction of the two Temples, illustrates the breaking of this link as a result of the failure of the Jewish People to cherish and maintain it. It is in our reaction to this reminder that we are bound to excel or to fail, yet it is tragically by the very different perceptions of the way in which to maintain the link , that the modern State of Israel fails so critically today. We must remember that the Temple guaranteed a closeness with God that we have been unable to recapture in its absence, and that it is through certain actions and not others that we will be able to re-establish a semblance of the closeness we have lost.