שבעה עשר בתמוז

As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

On account of the terrible things, etc. Because on 17 Tammuz five misfortunes occurred. On it, the tablets were broken as Moses descended from the mountain, as is explained in the Torah [Ex. 32:19]; the daily offering was cancelled and was no longer sacrificed in the First Temple; [the walls of] the city [of Jerusalem] were breached [in advance] of the destruction of the Second Temple; the evil Apostomos burnt the Torah; and an idol was placed in the Holy Temple. On on 9 Av, the great destruction occurred. The First Temple was destroyed on [that day], as was the Second; and on that very day it was decreed that our ancestors that were in the desert would not enter the land; and on that very day, [Romans] conquered a great town, called Beytar [during the Bar Kokhba revolt], which was home to thousands of Jews, all of whom fell into the hands of the idolaters and all of whom perished, which was a calamity as great as the destruction of the Temple; and on this very day, destined for calamity, the evil Turnusrufus plowed the Temple and its environs, thus fulfilling what was said: "Zion will be plowed as a field" (Jer. 26:18). And on the day of 3 Tishrei, Gedalia son of Ahikam was murdered. He had been appointed to lead the remaining survivors after the [first] destruction [and his death led to] the extinguishing of the remaining embers of Israel, because [in the wake of it] all were exiled and thousands were killed. And on 10 Tevet, the evil king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar assaulted Jerusalem and laid it under the siege and distress that led to the destruction.

(17) And some of the elders of the land arose and said to the entire assemblage of the people, (18) “Micah the Morashtite, who prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, said to all the people of Judah: ‘Thus said GOD of Hosts:
Zion shall be plowed as a field,
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins
And the Temple Mount a shrine in the woods.’

And the Sages say: Whoever performs labor on the Ninth of Av and does not mourn for Jerusalem will not see her future joy, as it is stated: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all who mourn for her” (Isaiah 66:10). From here it is stated: Whoever mourns for Jerusalem will merit and see her future joy, and whoever does not mourn for Jerusalem will not see her future joy. This is also taught in a baraita: Whoever eats meat or drinks wine in the meal before the Ninth of Av, about him the verse states: “And whose iniquities are upon their bones, because the terror of the mighty was in the land of the living” (Ezekiel 32:27).