A Festival Tomorrow
17 Tammuz · A Festival Tomorrow · Holidays · 5786
The Secret of the 17th of Tammuz · Broken Tablets · The Seed of Mashiach
A Festival Tomorrow
A shiur by M. Yéhouda Himi
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🎙 Full recorded shiur · M. Yéhouda Himi
The Secret of the 17th of Tammuz · Broken Tablets · The Seed of Mashiach
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The Secret of the 17th of Tammuz · Broken Tablets · The Seed of Mashiach
A shiur by M. Yéhouda Himi · A Festival Tomorrow · Holidays · 5785

The 17th of Tammuz marks five tragedies, including Moshe's breaking of the Tablets upon descending Sinai.

Just before the breaking, Aharon proclaims: "A festival to Hashem tomorrow" — an unwitting prophecy.

That same day, exactly three months after Ruth's return to Bethlehem, her period of discernment ends.

That very night Boaz marries Ruth, and the seed of David, ancestor of Mashiach, is conceived.

Hashem always sends the cure before the blow: redemption is hidden, like a treasure, in the lowest place.

📖 Full Text
1 Five Things on the 17th of Tammuz

The Mishna in Taanit lists five events of the 17th of Tammuz: the breaking of the Tablets · the cessation of the Tamid offering (First Temple) · the breaching of Jerusalem's walls · the burning of the Torah by Apostomos · the placing of an idol in the Sanctuary.

According to the Talmud Yerushalmi, Jerusalem's walls were breached on the 17th of Tammuz in both the First and Second Temple periods.
2 The Breaking of the Tablets — the Reckoning

Moshe ascends the mountain on 7 Sivan, stays 40 days and 40 nights, and descends on the 17th of Tammuz. What does he meet? — the sin of the Golden Calf. And so he shatters the Tablets.

As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf... he threw the tablets from his handsShemot 32:19
3 "A Festival Tomorrow" — Aharon's Words

The people turn to Aharon. He plays for time: "Take off your gold rings." And Aharon saw — he saw that they had murdered Chur, and understood that if he rebuked them, they would kill him too. And then: "A festival to Hashem tomorrow."

Tomorrow will be the day the Tablets break for all generations — and you call it a festival?! Yet the Torah is truth — Aharon's words cannot be emptied of their plain meaning.
A real festival must occur on the 17th of Tammuz — a kind of prophecy on Aharon's lips, even if he himself did not know what he foretold. Where is the festival? — in Megillat Ruth.
4 Megillat Ruth — the Secret of the Date

Naomi and Ruth return from Moav at the start of the barley harvest — 16 Nissan (the day after the festival, the start of the Omer). And the Midrash: from the start of the barley harvest to the end of the wheat harvest — three months.

16 Nissan → 16 Iyar → 16 Sivan → 17 Tammuz: the end of the three months — and the end of the discernment period for a convert/widow (three months to verify she is not pregnant).

At the close of the three months Naomi sends Ruth to Boaz: on the night of 17 Tammuz, Ruth lies at his feet at the threshing floor.

5 The Wedding Night — Mashiach Is Sown

The next day Boaz goes up to the city gate, performs the redemption ceremony, and by day's end he is the redeemer — and marries Ruth that very night.

And Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and he came to her, and Hashem gave her conceptionRuth 4:13
From the sequence we learn she conceived from that very union. And the Midrash: Boaz — very old — died that same night, as if he had waited only for this purpose. From that conception: Oved → Yishai → King David — the root of Mashiach.
6 The Cure Before the Blow · Treasure in the Low Place

The whole journey of breakage begins on the 17th of Tammuz — and Hashem sent the cure before the blow: that very night, the King Mashiach begins to be formed. This is "a festival to Hashem tomorrow," in its plain sense.

Why does Hashem lead Mashiach through such twisting paths — Ruth the Moabite, the daughters of Lot, Moav?
One who has made a great fortune does not carry it in a shining suitcase — but in a garbage bag, so no one notices. So Hashem leads Mashiach by a lowly road — so the Satan would never think to attack it.
Rebbe Nachman: the treasure is hidden in the ordinary and the low. "I went down to the garden of nuts" — the nut falls in the mud, yet its inner kernel is never soiled (like the mind, like the Tablets). May the opening of the 17th of Tammuz be the opening of the Redemption — and may Mashiach Tzidkenu come.

🎯 Test yourself

Five questions. Click an answer.

1
What was the first event on the 17th of Tammuz?
The Gemara in Taanit lists the breaking of the Tablets as the first of the five events.
2
Why did Aharon say "a festival to Hashem tomorrow"?
The Torah is truth — if it says "festival," a real festival must occur that day: the seed of redemption.
3
When did Ruth's discernment period end?
Three months of harvest from 16 Nissan end on 17 Tammuz — the close of the discernment period.
4
What was sown on the night of 17 Tammuz?
Boaz weds Ruth that night, and from her: Oved → Yishai → David → the root of Mashiach.
5
Why does Hashem lead Mashiach by hidden paths?
Like a treasure hidden in a lowly place — so the Satan will not sense it and attack the plan.

Result

📅 Seven-Day Programme — 17 Tammuz Shiur 1
Sunday
Study the five events of the 17th of Tammuz (Taanit 26). Know the day.
Monday
Read Shemot 32 — the breaking of the Tablets. Feel the magnitude of the loss.
Tuesday
"A festival tomorrow" — look today for a hidden cure inside one of your own hardships.
Wednesday
Read Megillat Ruth chapters 3–4 — the night of 17 Tammuz, Boaz and Ruth.
Thursday
Trace the chain: Ruth → Oved → Yishai → David → Mashiach.
Friday
Before Shabbat: "I went down to the garden of nuts" — find the clean kernel in the low place.
Shabbat
For the ilui neshama of Rav Amos Guetta zatsal — learn and pray that the opening of 17 Tammuz be the opening of the Redemption.
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