This week we celebrate the writer Benjamin Tammuz and his unexpectedly romantic spy-thriller from 1981, Minotaur. On the occasion of the novel’s 2006 re-release, Paul La Farge wrote, “The subject of the novel is love: hopeless, romantic, absolute.” Yet Tammuz doesn’t make it easy for readers. “Minotaur‘s subject is the kind of love that exists between writer and reader, between writer and writer; the book is a love letter from a hard-bitten man from a faraway country,” La Farge continued. “The question is: Will we be seduced? The novel puts formidable obstacles in our path.”

It makes sense that Tammuz crafted this story, the most successful of his eight novels, as a challenge. Born July 11, 1919, in Russia, Tammuz studied at the Sorbonne and then moved to Israel, where he was a leader of the now-defunct Canaanite movement, whose followers sought a Hebrew, rather than Jewish, state. A prolific author, much of his writing chronicled pioneer life in pre-1948 Palestine. It’s not a stretch, then, to see Tammuz himself as the hard-bitten man from a distant land.

And yes, his last name is also a month. And, rather coincidentally, the 17th of Tammuz, a day of general mourning and the beginning of the solemn three-week period before Tisha B’Av, falls this year on July 19, the date of Tammuz’s death from cancer in 1989, at the age of 70.

Read The Spy Who Loved Me, by Paul La Farge

There’s nothing like a good countdown to get ready for Tisha B’Av, the day we grieve the destruction of the Temple. To get in a mournful mood, the three weeks prior to Tisha B’Av—known as Bein Ha’Metzarim, or the period between the straits—are marked by a series of fasts and abstinences designed to induce somber reflection. The timing isn’t random: A fast begins on Shiv’ah Asar B’Tammuz, the 17th of Tammuz, the day the walls of the Second Temple were breached by the Romans in 70 C.E. Also, as the 17th of Tammuz occurs exactly 40 days after Shavuot, tradition suggests that it was on this day that Moses descended from Mount Sinai, saw the Golden Calf, and smashed the tablets. While customs vary, it is common to observe the restrictions of the period more stringently the nearer one gets to Tisha B’Av. The final nine days preceding Tisha B’Av are the period of greatest observance.

ANY DOS AND DON’TS?

The three weeks begin with Shiv’ah Asar B’Tammuz, a minor fast day which begins at dawn and ends shortly after dusk. (By contrast, the Tisha B’Av fast day lasts from sundown to sundown.) Throughout the three-week period that follows, Jews refrain from holding weddings and bar mitzvahs, as well as from having other public celebrations, and from buying new clothes. It is also prohibited to play or listen to music, or to get a haircut.

During the nine final days, many Jews refrain from eating meat or poultry, drinking wine, taking hot baths, or wearing freshly laundered clothes. This corresponds neatly with the spirit of the Mishneh, which commands, “From the beginning of Av, happiness is decreased.”

ANYTHING GOOD TO READ?

Special haftarot are chanted during each of the three weeks. Known as the “three of affliction,” these portions from the Hebrew prophets do not correspond to the weekly Torah portions, but instead contain the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah warning of the fall of Jerusalem.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Take a textual tour of the Temple.
• Relive Moses’ smashing of the tablets.
• Enjoy a healthy diet with some vegetarian recipes.
• Get serious with the prophet Jeremiah.
• Ponder the state of modern-day Jerusalem.

If we Jews, never a well-liked bunch, were to mark each and every injustice that had befallen our people over time, we would spend most of our days commemorating catastrophes.

Conveniently, then, there’s the Seventeenth of Tammuz, a catchall day during which, according to tradition, some of the most gruesome chapters in Jewish history unfolded. It began with Moses, strolling down the mountain after conferring with God and seeing that his impatient people had meanwhile found other, more glittering idols to worship. Furious, Moses smashed the tablets, the first of many no-good things to happen on the Seventeenth of Tammuz. The Babylonians crashing the gates of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.? The Romans burning the Torah in 50 C.E.? The Libyans confiscating Jewish property in 1970? It’s all here, on one grim day.

The Seventeenth of Tammuz also marks the beginning of a period known as the Three Weeks, or Bein Ha’Meitzarim (“between the straits”), which ends with Tisha B’Av. It’s a period of general mourning in which weddings and celebrations are forbidden and life takes on a generally somber tone.

Together with three other occasions on the Jewish calendar—the Third of Tishrei, the Tenth of Tevet, and the Thirteenth of Adar—the Seventeenth of Tammuz is more of a historical reminder than a religious ritual. This is why the fast is faster and the restrictions not so strict.

ANY BAD GUYS?

Nothing but: Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian, besieger of Jerusalem and destroyer of the First Temple; Pope Gregory IX, confiscator of all known copies of the Talmud in 1239; even King Menashe, a malicious Biblical Jewish monarch who, on this date, placed an idol in the Holy Sanctuary of the Temple.

WHAT DO WE EAT?

This being a day of fast, not much. But take heart: fasting on the Seventeenth of Tammuz begins at dawn and ends with nightfall, so rumbling stomachs don’t have very long to wait before breaking bread.

ANY DOS AND DON’TS?

Again, as fasting days go, this one is more casual. Keep on these leather shoes, for example: unlike on Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av, they’re not forbidden. Neither is bathing, which, given the fact that the Seventeenth of Tammuz falls in the height of the summer heat, is a blessing. Also, special recitations—Vayechal, the very prayer that Moses offered the Lord immediately after seeing the Golden Calf, and Anenu, a traditional prayer of distress—are added to the morning and afternoon prayers.

ANYTHING GOOD TO READ?

Alas, no. With the exception of the prayers mentioned above, this is a day of reflection on sorrow and misfortune, on the destruction of the Temple and other historical horrors.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO:

• Get Scholarly with Yale University’s Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism.

• Admire Rembrandt’s depiction of Moses smashing the tablets.

• Watch as scientists struggle to authenticate a tablet pertaining to King Solomon’s Temple.

• Read the book of Zechariah, in which the fast of Seventeenth of Tammuz is mentioned.

• Prepare for fasting with some ecumenical dietary advice.