does pinhas die in i have lived a thousand years

Or how about this one at the very end of the Shemoneh Esrei: �May it be Your will, Lord our G-d and the G-d of our forefathers, that the Holy Temple be rebuilt, speedily in our days � and may we serve You there with reverence, as in days of old and in former years�. I always wonder what would happen if the President of the United States of America would enter any synagogue on a typical weekday morning during Shacharis (the Morning Prayer Service) and listen to some of the traditional blessings being said by the congregants as part of the Shemoneh Esrei (�Eighteen-Blessing�) prayer, such as the blessing of Tekaa b�shofar gadol, in which we ask G-d: �Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth�. The fast of Shivah Asar B�Tammuz, on the other hand, traditionally marks the beginning of a tragedy-filled, three week period ending on Tishah B�Av (the Ninth Day of the Hebrew month of Av), when both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, and the Jewish people lost their independence and were exiled from their land.Ĭan you see the irony here? At the very same time that we, as loyal and patriotic American citizens filled with gratitude for this wonderful country in which we live, are meant to be enjoying the beautiful Fourth of July fireworks after eating hot dogs and french (american?) fries at the neighborhood barbeque, we are also, as faithful and traditional Jews, supposed to be pondering the flames that engulfed our Holy Temple so many years ago when the Romans killed many of our people and expelled us from our true homeland. (Every ten to twenty years, these two commemorative days actually fall on the exact same day � the last time that happened was in 1996 and the next time will be in 2015 � but they are always within at least a few weeks of each other.)Īs we all know, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and the right to live in freedom in our own land.

Every summer around the beginning of July, I am always struck by the irony of the coinciding of July 4th, Independence Day, with the Jewish fast day of Shivah Asar B�Tammuz, the Seventeenth Day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz.

Does pinhas die in i have lived a thousand years