Three Weeks of Penitence

We Jews start today the so called "Three Weeks" of gradually-increasing mourning over the destruction of the Holy Temples and Israel's exile. The Three Weeks end on the 9th of Av - Tisha B'Av - the Hebrew date on which both the First and Second Temples were destroyed, roughly 2,500 and 2,000 years ago, respectively. We still mourn them and work towards building the Third Temple, בימינו אמן - in the days of our life, may it be so. May these days of mourning turn into days of happiness, like at the end of the seventy years exile in Babylon, when the Prophet Zachariah decreed that

"כֹּה אָמַר ה' צְבָאוֹת: צוֹם הָרְבִיעִי (בתמוז) וְצוֹם הַחֲמִישִׁי (ט' באב) וְצוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי (ג' בתשרי) וְצוֹם הָעֲשִׂירִי (י' בטבת) יִהְיֶה לְבֵית יְהוּדָה לְשָׂשׂוֹן וּלְשִׂמְחָה וּלְמֹעֲדִים טוֹבִים וְהָאֱמֶת וְהַשָּׁלוֹם אֱהָבוּ".

The fourth fast (on the fourth day of the month of Tammuz), the fifth fast (in the month of Av), the seventh fast (second day of Tishri) and the tenth fast (tenth of Tevet) will be days of rejoice and peace for the House of Yehudah.

But the time has not come to rebuild the Temple. I am fasting.