Fast Days

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no festive days for Israel like 15 Av and like Yom Kippur… Yom Kippur, because it has forgiveness and pardon, the day on which the final tablets were given…

That day was established as Yom Kippur to make known that He forgave and retracted from the evil that He had spoken of doing to His nation, and therefore the fast of Kippur was established on the 10th of Tishrei; thus I heard.

But on the 10th of this seventh month, it is a Day of Atonement, it shall be for you a sacred assembly, and you shall afflict your souls and bring a sacrifice to God. You shall not do any labor on this very day, for it is a Day of Atonement to atone for you before the Lord your God. For every soul who is not afflicted on this very day shall be cut off from its nation. And every soul that does any labor on this very day, I will destroy that soul from the midst of its nation. You shall not do any labor, it shall be a statute forever for your generations in all your settlements. It is a Shabbat of rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls…

Our rabbis taught…It says “and I shall destroy that soul” (Vayikra 23:30) – affliction that is destruction of the soul. And what is this? This is eating and drinking….It was taught in the school of Rabbi Yishmael: Affliction is said here, and affliction is said there [“He afflicted you and made you hungry and gave you manna to eat” (Devarim 8:3)]. Just as there, affliction is hunger, so here, affliction is hunger.

Reish Lakish said, why is no prohibition stated with affliction?… Rav Acha bar Ya’akov said, derive “Shabbat Shabbaton” [Yom Kippur] from Shabbat Bereishit [Shabbat observed weekly based on the seventh day of Creation]. Just as there, [the Torah] did not punish unless it prohibited, so here it did not punish unless it prohibited

Yom Kippur is derived from Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav, for Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav, and it was also taught in the school of Rabbi Yishmael: Scripture says “man or woman” – the verse equates a woman to a man for all the punishments in the Torah.

Rav Yehuda said: The large date that they said – is larger than the volume of an egg, and the rabbis have a tradition that with this, his mind is settled.

To fast on the 10th day of Tishrei … among the roots of the mitzva, that it is among God’s kindnesses over all His creatures to establish for them one day in the year to atone for sins with repentance … Therefore, we are commanded to fast on it, because food and drink and other pleasures of the sense of touch awaken our physical nature to be drawn after desire and sin … It is not fitting for a bondsman on the day he comes in judgement before his Master to come with a spirit dark and confused from food and drink, with thoughts of the physicalitywithin which it resides … it is good for him to elevate his intelligent soul, and to subdue the physical before it on that honored day, so that it will be fitting and ready to receive its atonement …. It is an affliction for a person as long as he does not eat a date’s worth, for a person’s mind is not settled with less … and similarly, what they said, that the measure of drinking is a person’s cheek full … and with less than this there is no prohibition of excision …. It applies in every place and at every time, for males and females. One who violates it and ate on Yom Kippur the measure of a date’s worth violated a positive commandment, and violated a negative commandment that is liable for excision, as it is said “For every soul who is not afflicted on this very day shall be cut off”

And the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me, saying. Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests saying: When you fasted and lamented on the fifth and the seventh [months], these seventy years, did I fast? And when you eat, and when you drink — behold you are the ones who are eating, and you are the ones who are drinking… These are the things that you should do. Speak truth, each person to their fellow — truth and a peaceful judgement you shall judge in your gates. And do not think evil of each other in your hearts, and do not love false oaths … So says the Lord of Hosts: the fast of the fourth and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth [months] will be for the house of Yehuda rejoicing and happiness and good appointed times, and truth and peace you shall love.

Rabbi expounded: … The fast of the fourth is the 17th of Tammuz when the [wall of the] city was breached… The fast of the fifth is Tisha Be-Av, the day the Temple was burned… The fast of the seventh is the 3rd of Tishrei when Gedalya ben Achikam was assassinated… the fast of the tenth is the 10th of Tevet when the King of Babylon besieged Jerusalem…

In the ninth year of his rule, in the tenth month on the 10th of the month Nevuchadnetzar the King of Bavel came with all his army upon Yerushalayim and encamped upon it and built a siege-tower around it. And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of the King Tzidkiyahu. And the famine was great in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

The fast of the tenth – this is the 10th of Tevet when the king of Bavel besieged Jerusalem…

The city was breached – that was on the 17th. Isn’t it written (Yirmiyahu 52:6) in the fourth month on the 9th of the month the famine was great in the city, and it is written after that (Yirmiyahu 52:7) “and the city was breached…”? Rava said: there is no contradiction. Here [it refers to] the first [Temple] and here to the second. As it is taught, with the first [Temple] the city was breached on the 9th of Tammuz, with the second on the 17th.

Even though it says in the Bible: “In the fourth month on the 9th of the month the city was breached,” we do not fast on the 9th but rather on the 17th … because the city was breached on the 17th during the Second [Temple period] they established the fast on the 17th of the month because the destruction of the Second Temple is more severe for us.

Five things happened to our forefathers on the 17th of Tammuz….On the 17th of Tammuz the tablets were broken, the [daily] Tamid offering ceased, the city [wall] was breached, Apostomus burned the Torah, and an idol was erected in the sanctuary.

The First Temple was destroyed, as it is written (Melachim II 25:8) “In the fifth month on the 7th of the month, that is the nineteenth year of King Nevuchadnetzar, king of Bavel, Nevuzaradan, the chief of the guards, and officer of the king of Bavel, came to Yerushalayim and burned the House of God…” And it is written (Yirmiyahu 52:12) “In the fifth month on the 10th of the month, that is the nineteenth [year] of King Nevuchadnetzar, king of Bavel, Nevuzaradan, the chief of the guards, stood before the king of Bavel in Yerushalayim and burned the House of God…” And it is taught [in a baraita], it is impossible to say on the 7th, for it was already said on the 10th. And it is impossible to say on the 10th, for it was already said on the 7th. How is this? On the 7th, foreigners entered the Sanctuary, and they ate and sinned there on the 7th and 8th, and on the 9th close to dark they lit it on fire, and it kept burning the entire day…and according to the rabbis, the beginning of the calamity is more significant.

Five things befell our forefathers on the 17th of Tammuz, and five on Tisha Be-Av… On Tisha Be-Av it was decreed that our forefathers would not enter into the land [of Israel after the sin of the spies], and the first and second Temples were destroyed, and Beitar was captured, and the city [of Yerushalayim] was ploughed over.

The building was important because it encompassed an ever-evolving relationship with God, an ongoing act of creation. Without the relationship, it was but mortar and stone….In the Temple, we constantly recreated and expanded our relationship with God through a variety of moments and actions and experiences. And today, we mourn the loss of all those moments.

The fast of the seventh – this is the 3rd of Tishrei, when Gedalya ben Achikam was assassinated. And who killed him? Yishmael ben Netina killed him. This teaches you that the death of righteous people is comparable to the burning of the House of God.

Go and gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat and do not drink for three days, night and day; also I and my maidens will fast thus, and thus I will come to the king not in accordance with the law, and if I perish, I perish.

In this time all of Israel has the custom to fast on the 13th of Adar, to commemorate the fast that they fasted in the days of Haman, as it says (Esther 9:31) “The matters of the fasts and their crying out.”

“Be glad with Jerusalem and exult with her all who love her; rejoice with her in joy all who mourn for her” (Yeshayahu 66:10). From here they said: Everyone who mourns for Jerusalem will merit to see her happiness.

Why is it we fast and You do not see? We afflict ourselves and You do not know? Because on the day of your fasts you do business and oppress those indebted to you… Is this the fast I choose? A day for a person to afflict his body, bow his head like a bulrush, and lie in sackcloth and ashes?! Is this what you call a fast and a day that is favorable to the Lord?! Rather this is the fast I desire: open the fetters of evil and unbind the cords of the yoke to set free the oppressed and break every yoke. Rather share your bread with the hungry and take the downtrodden poor into your home; when you see nakedness cover it, and do not ignore your flesh… Then you will call out and God will answer and save you, and say “Here I am!” if you remove the yoke [of oppression] from your midst, [and cease] to lay a finger or speak evil.

There are days that all of Israel fasts because of the tragedies that happened on them, to awaken the hearts and open the paths of repentance, and it should be a remembrance of our evil deeds and the deeds of our forefathers that were like our deeds now, which caused these tragedies to befall them and us. And upon remembering these things we will return to do good as it says, “They will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers.” (Vayikra 26:40)

Judaism developed a very peculiar philosophy of memory… one does not simply recollect the past or just remember bygones, but reexperiences that which has been… and it actually merges past with present – or shifts the past into the present. Judaism has recommended what I would call a “unitive time consciousness” – unitive in the sense that there is a tightening of bonds of companionship, of present and past.

[B]y compressing defining tragedies spanning millennia of Jewish history into one yahrzeit – Av 9 – the day reminds us of our relationship to time and to the past. Each horrific event (temple destructions, expulsions) engendered dislocations: of place, prayer, ritual, culture, community, language, and life. Mourning these events on Tishah Be-Av telescopes the centuries, collapsing each event into one day of our lives, fusing past with present, permitting us to feel a ripple of that original dislocation when the Israelites refused to enter the Promised Land because they had lost faith in God.

And Mordechai knew all that had been done, and Mordechai rent his garments and donned sackcloth and ash and went out into the city and cried a great and bitter cry. And he came up to the gate of the king, for one may not come to the king’s gate wearing sackcloth. And in each and every province where the king’s word and decree arrived, there was great mourning for the Jews, fasting and crying and wailing, sackcloth and ash were laid out for the masses.

And Esther said to respond to Mordechai: Go and gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat and do not drink for three days, night and day; also I and my maidens will fast thus, and thus I will come to the king not in accordance with the law, and if I perish, I perish.

The plain meaning of sacrifices… for we have established that the essential [feelings of] our hearts follow our actions. Therefore when a person sins, his heart cannot be properly purified by speech alone, by turning to the wall and saying “I have sinned and I will not continue to do so,” but he must do a great action [to overcome] the matter of his sin, to take goats from his pens and trouble himself to bring them to the established Temple to the kohen and do all the actions that are written concerning sin-offerings. Through this great undertaking, the evil of sin will be ingrained in his heart and he will avoid it the next time.

Rav Sheshet, when he would sit in fast, after he prayed would say thus: Master of worlds, it is revealed before you, that at the time when the Temple was standing a person would sin and bring a sacrifice, and all that would be offered [on the altar] is its fat and blood and the person would be atoned for; and now, I sit fasting, and my fat and blood are lessened. May it be Your will that my fat and blood that has been lessened will be as if I had offered it before You upon the altar, and that I will find favor before You.

Mishna : The messengers go out for six months: For Nissan because of Pesach, for Av because of the fast, for Elul because of Rosh Ha-shana, for Tishrei because of establishing the festivals, for Kislev because of Chanuka, and for Adar because of Purim, and when the Temple was standing, they would also go out for Iyar because of Pesach Katan. Gemara : They should also go out for Tammuz and Tevet, as Rav Chana bar Bizna said in the name of Rav Shimon Chasida: that which is written, “So says the Lord of Hosts: the fast of the fourth and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth [months] will be for the house of Yehuda rejoicing and happiness.” They are called a fast, and they are called rejoicing and happiness – at a time when there is peace, they will be for rejoicing and happiness, when there is no peace – a fast. Rav Papa said: It was said thus: At a time when there is peace, they will be for rejoicing and happiness; when there is persecution [a textual variant: decrees] – a fast; neither persecution nor peace, if they want, they fast; if they want, they do not fast. If so, Tisha Be-av as well! Rav Papa said: Tisha Be-Av is different, since troubles were multiplied on it. As the master said: On Tisha Be-Av the First and Second Temples were destroyed, and Beitar was captured, and the city [of Jerusalem] was ploughed over.

The prohibition of eating and drinking on it is like the manner of the prohibition on Yom Kippur, except that this [Yom Kippur] is punished by spiritual excision and this [Tisha Be-Av] is from divrei kabbala and one receives lashes for rebelliousness.

Tisha Be-Av in our times, when there is neither persecution nor peace, is also a rabbinic decree and is not from divrei kabbala, which are similar to divrei Torah, as it says in the first chapter of Rosh Ha-shana, “If they want, they fast.”

We fast on 13 Adar. Rema: And this fast is not obligatory, therefore, one can be lenient when necessary…

The explanation of “they do not want” – the community, but an individual cannot separate from the community as long as there is no communal consensus not to fast.

There is no persecution in a known location in Israel – If most of Israel want, and they agree not to fast, they don’t fast, and if most of the community want, they fast. Nowadays, they want, and the custom is to fast, therefore, it is forbidden to breach boundaries…

We are obligated to fast on Tisha Be-Av and 17 Tammuz and 3 Tishrei and 10 Tevet because of the bad things that took place on them.

All are obligated to fast these four fasts, and one may not deviate from this established tradition.

“Neither persecution nor peace, if they want, they fast; if they want, they do not fast” – one can say that since our forefathers already accepted it upon themselves, presumably they [the generation of Rabbi Yehuda Ha-nasi] also accepted it.

What is the difference between a ta’anit tzibbur and a ta’anit yachid? On a ta’anit tzibbur we eat and drink while it is still daytime [on the previous day, and begin fasting the evening], which is not so for a ta’anit yachid [which only begins in the daytime]. On a ta’anit tzibur labor, washing, anointing, wearing shoes, and cohabitation are prohibited, which is not so for a ta’anit yachid [when only eating and drinking are prohibited]. On a ta’anit tzibbur, we gather in synagogues, which is not so for a ta’anit yachid…

It stands to reason that each of the four fasts is a ta’anit tzibbur, and the prophets decreed upon them all the stringencies of a fast, we stop eating while it is still day [i.e., the fast begins at sunset], and washing, anointing, wearing shoes, and cohabitation are prohibited, like Tisha Be-Av… But nowadays, since in a time without persecution they are nullified, they wanted and adopted the practice to fast on them, but they did not want to practice these stringencies on them. But according to the original enactment, they were certainly prohibited in all these, for the decree of the prophets is no worse than the decree of beit din for the middle and last fasts [in a year of drought], and whatever the prophets enacted, they enacted on the model of Torah laws, Tisha Be-Av and the four fasts are like Yom Kippur for affliction, and similarly regarding the fast of the Megilla … halachically, washing is prohibited as I explained, but nevertheless nowadays, go out and see what the nation does.

When we fast, as adults, we remove ourselves from the material world in the efforts of reminding ourselves of our place in it and of our mortality. While at times fast days become “about the food” the intention is…that even though we know we will survive the day, we are reminded of our fragile, human existence… In that framework, we are guided to connect to the message of the day itself rather [than] focusing solely on the practice from which we are abstaining.

At a time when there is peace, i.e., any time when the Temple is standing, [the fast will] be for rejoicing and happiness

At a time when there is peace, they will be for rejoicing and happiness. The meaning of “at a time when there is peace” – when Israel are dwelling on their land.

When there is peace – when the hand of the non-Jews does not control Israel

…Regarding the quality of the fasts, I think that until God establishes our destroyed Temple before our eyes, on the mount of mountainous heights, glorious in the eyes of all the nations, it is not possible for us to nullify them…. And when God illuminates for us with the light of His full salvation, all the fasts will be transformed to rejoicing and happiness and good appointed times, and the light of complete salvation, and the splendor of our righteous Mashiach and the building of our holy Temple come about for us, through our not forgetting the House of our God and all our brethren, all the nation of God who are given to difficulty, and we join in their pain and sorrow through our fast days as in the past…

Meaning, they will not be “for rejoicing and happiness” until “truth and peace you shall love” – but when you do not have truth and peace, you will return to fasting, as during the Second Temple at the time of the destruction, as is written in the first chapter of Yoma, during the second Temple when there were Torah and acts of kindness, why was it destroyed? Because there was baseless hatred. And this is what is written at the end of the verse, at a time when there is peace among you, they will be for rejoicing and happiness; when there is no peace, as with the destruction of the Second Temple when there was baseless hatred, you will return to fasting.