Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

When I wanted to find information about 17th of Tammuz, a minor fast day, that will happen on Sunday, I came across “Jewish Days, a book of Jewish life and culture around the year,” edited by Francine Klagsbrun and Mark Podwal. As it is organized chronologically and goes through literally every significant day of the Jewish calendar it was easy to find what I was looking for. The two and a half page description starts with,

Five dreadful things happened on the seventeenth of Tammuz, the Mishnah informs is: Moses broke the tablets of the Law; the daily sacrifice in the First Temple ceased; the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem; and someone named Apostomos burned the Torah scroll and placed an idol in the Second Temple.

The authors then go through rabbinic and academic sources to expound the history of these events. Independently from what they establish about their historical accuracy they conclude

Whether all these events actually happened on that day-and just what they were-is less important in Jewish thought than the concentration of emotion around the destruction of the First and Second Temple, both represented in this list.

For a day-by-day cultural and religious history of Judaism check out Jewish Days, or just read about certain days in the library itself.