The Three Weeks

Fast days are occasion for introspection and repentance. After all, we are not fasting over the distant, unrelated past; we are fasting in response to our own present situation. How is it that instead of mourning we remain complacent and indifferent?

For many generations we were unable to take practical steps toward hastening the redemption of Israel. We were in exile and simply could not change our plight. Today, God has removed foreign rule from the land and created a Jewish state in its stead.

There is a tendency, on fast days, for people to concentrate upon the calamities of the past and on the stages that led up to the destruction of the Temple. People reflect on the distant past when they aught - says the Rambam - consider the present.