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Why is a mere siege (Asara B'Teves) significant enough to warrant its own fast day? The shiur develops that galus occurs in four stages that reverse the four languages of geulah. The siege represents the loss of the highest level - v'lakachti - which undoes our freedom and connection to Torah (תורה).
This shiur examines the four fast days commemorating the destruction and exile, as listed by the Rambam (רמב"ם) in Hilchos Ta'anis: Tzom Gedaliah, Asara B'Teves, Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, and Tisha B'Av. Rabbi Zweig raises a fundamental question: why does a mere siege of the city (Asara B'Teves) merit its own fast day when it seems insignificant compared to the actual breaching of walls or destruction of the Beis Hamikdash? The shiur develops a novel framework based on the parallel between the four languages of geulah (hotzei'ti, v'hitzalti, v'ga'alti, v'lakachti) and the four stages of galus. Just as redemption from Egypt proceeded through four distinct stages - cessation of work, relief from pressure, Krias Yam Suf, and Kabbalas Torah (תורה) - so too the process of entering galus reverses these stages in opposite order. The first step into galus (Asara B'Teves) therefore undoes the highest level of geulah (v'lakachti - Kabbalas Torah).
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Hilchos Ta'anis 5
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Why is Asara b'Teves—merely a siege on Yerushalayim—a fast day at all, and why does it carry the unique stringency of never being postponed? The shiur develops the yesod that geulah unfolds in four stages (the arba lashonos), and galus reverses them in mirror order. The siege was the first step back—undoing kabbalas haTorah, the fourth and highest stage of freedom. A person locked in place, unable to travel, loses his ben chorin status, and with it his capacity for Torah.
Can korbanos be brought when the Beis Hamikdash is destroyed? The Rambam and Raavad debate whether "Hashem es Mikdasham" creates a din of Avoda during Churban. Rabbi Zweig develops a distinction: the Rambam holds kedusha Rishona enabled both korbanos and tefillah; the Raavad holds only tefillah remains when the edifice is gone, since Hashem's presence endures even without a physical structure.
Why don't the last eight verses of the Torah require a minyan to read? The shiur develops a fundamental chiddush in the Rambam: Simchas Torah has two distinct takanos of Kriat HaTorah — Zot HaBracha is read from the din of Yom Tov (inyan hayom), while VaYom Moshe is read from the din of Shabbos (siyum haTorah). This explains why a new minyan is required for the last eight verses, and why the Raavad's minhag of having the oleh read (not the baal koreh) signals that the final aliyah is purely Talmud Torah, not shemiat dvar Hashem.
Why does the Rambam rule that one may not violate even a shvus (rabbinic prohibition) on Yom Tov to obtain a shofar, yet permit shofar blowing on Shabbos Rosh Hashanah despite the gezeirah of carrying it to an expert? The Lechem Mishneh wrestles with an apparent contradiction: in Hilchos Shofar 1:4 the Rambam treats shvus like a full lav vis-à-vis the mitzvah of shofar, but in 2:6 he allows shofar on Shabbos even though it involves overriding both a lav and an asei.
