"The problem with any national movement is that it has certain things that it doesn't want to look at."

Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis · Jul 6, 2026 · 7m

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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…