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This past Thursday marked the Seventeenth of Tammuz, the Fast Day on which we recall and mourn the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans. The three weeks between the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av (which mourns the destruction of the Temples) are called the period of bein ha-matzarim — “Between the straits.” It is a widely held view in the Jewish tradition that this period should be a time of intense communal self-reflection.

The Jewish calendar is composed of a series of period; understanding the flow of one to another is key to appreciating the sine-curve of the Jewish people’s soul over the course of any given year.

Many modern readers understand this period of the calendar as follows:

* The Three Weeks: Looking at communal, historical, and interpersonal failures

* The Month of Elul, which comes just a seven weeks after Tisha Ba’Av, which is focused more on direct, individual preparation for personal judgment. On the day after Elul, we get to Rosh Hashanah.

* Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur: The culmination of that self-reflection.

In light of our now being in the middle of this period of communal self-reflection, we asked Rabbi Zachary Truboff, the author of Zionism In Crisis: Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7, to discuss the ways in which he believes those of us who are deeply committed Zionists need to think anew and ask ourselves very hard questions—a challenge that is always critical, and is even more urgent during this period.

If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.

Rabbi Zachary Truboff is the Director of the Institute for Agunah Research and Education at the International Beit Din. His latest book, Zionism in Crisis: Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7, is a call for Jewish self-criticism and teshuvah in the wake of the war. His first book was Torah Goes Forth From Zion: Essays on the Thought of Rav Kook and Rav Shagar. He received semicha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg zt”l. Before making Aliyah, he served for nearly a decade as rabbi of Cedar Sinai Synagogue in Cleveland. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Jen, and their four children.

You can read more of rabbi Zachary Truboff’s writings in his substack.

For our paid subscribers

The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.

For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.

For Hebrew speakers, a panel about an article I just wrote for HaShiloach, on the intellectual roots of American Jewish anti-Zionism. Panel includes Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, Dr. Masua Sagiv (previously on our podcast) and Dr. Sagi Barmak, Editor in Chief of HaShiloach. July 21 at 630 pm in Jerusalem.

For tickets: https://hashiloach.org.il/american-jewry/

Many Israelis could not travel for months this past year, because the skies were closed, or if they were open because it was not clear that they would stay open so it felt risky to leave, or because we didn’t wish to leave our children and grandchildren when war could break out again.

So with things quiet(er) for the moment, many Israelis are traveling more than usual this summer.

We, too, will be away the weeks of July 5th and July 12th. Podcasts will continue on schedule, as always, for our paid subscribers. But other posts will come at a slower rate during that period.