Why Do We Fast on 17 Tammuz

it's unusual it's uncomfortable so you finally survived you reached the end of the fast the whole day you're thinking about food when usually bail you barely have one meal you've survived the fast but then we arrive right now and we all have to ask ourselves a question did we achieve the point of the fast does God actually care whether you eat or not God doesn't go to sleep God doesn't fast so does God's care whether you eat or not if he cared whether you eat or not then he would say you have to fast all year don't ever eat all you would tell you have to fast once a week if it's so important to fast fast once a week Shabbat once a week fast once a week you ate overtime on Shabbat Sunday should be a day of fasting probably be healthy too as much as we eat on Sabbat people increase their body weight five percent a week just on Shabbat so if fasting was so important fast every Sunday the answer is no Hashem does not care if you eat as a matter of fact he specifically tells us this he tells us to the prophet Joel the prophet John chapter 2 verse 13 is mentioned here in maseketanit page um uh what is this 15 8. it says so here the prophet is telling amisael rent your hearts not your clothes the people started doing chuva what's the first thing people do when they do chuva they learn from the Prophet Daniel Prophet Daniel told them hey do Chivas start fasting but he was worried is God listening is God not listening so Daniel's best friend was the uh angel Gabriel best friend we barely have humans best friends he had an angel's best friend damn it so in chapter 2 verse 10 of the Book of Daniel 's talking to his best friend he said I'm worried is Hashem accepting my prayers or not don't worry since you started fasting your prayers started started becoming acceptable tuition so fasting is working but here the prophet Joel is saying the opposite he's saying listen forget about the fast forget about ripping your clothes putting uh all types of ashes on your head which is we don't do any more and the Catholics took over and ruined it same thing with prayers by the way you know in the old days we used to pray we used to Bow Mr Bowen all fours the Muslims ruined it we're not allowed to do it except on Yom Kippur amen this is actually how we used to pray we used to pray on all fours just like the Muslim you see him on in the middle of Midtown Manhattan they pray they stop traffic five million people are waiting to go home they're praying in the middle of the street they don't do anything to anybody nothing middle of Brooklyn middle of Manhattan middle of anything they hit everyone has to pray in the same place all the guys that have the little Huts they leave the Huts they put the carpets on the floor and they start praying no Bouchard they're not ashamed at all they're excited they're celebrating it middle of the street they pray in the airports everywhere if only amishai was as proud about their prayer that's actually what goes to their credit by the way foolishness also goes to their credit when they use the name of God to kill his Nation too but nonetheless we as Jews used to pray like this we used to go on all fours and actually pray to Hashem beg Hashem to give us the forgiveness but they came and ruined it so we're not allowed to do it anymore that's why we pray the way we do by the way that's why for example we do when you bow on uh uh in the old days you would go all down you go all the way down so anyway here we have the prophet telling us the opposite of what Daniel said and Daniel we learned fasting is good Prophet Joel is telling us listen forget about the Fest forget about ripping your clothes forget about bowing on the floor forget about the ashes forget about everything the only point of the fast is to rip your heart apart what does it mean rip your heart about so in essence this is not a contradiction this is in essence this is not a contradiction in essence what this means this is actually him supplementing it the Prophet Daniel told us when you fast Hashem views it in a positive way but the prophet Joel is explaining only if the fast includes chuva if you're fast includes using lack of material lack of food for you to replace that with spirituality with learning Torah with prayer it's a good fast but if all day you're sleeping you're better off eating if you're sleeping all day just eat let's make a difference if you're planning to go back to your life after the fast and nothing changed so fast you're wasting your time this is why in Yom Kippur it says it if someone is not planning on doing chuva after Yom Kippur it's better off they don't even do it why didn't the rabbis teach this because they say listen people are so crazy now that if you tell me better off not doing it it's not going to come at all so don't tell them but the point is is that the point of the fast is for us to do chuva that's the point of the fast [Music]