In any event, this law/ custom to fast on the ninth of Tevet is an anomalous situation. We have a fast day, but we do not why. S. Leiman (1983) has a fascinating article that reviews various attempts to find the source for the fast day.
The most popular rationale (for example, Mishnah Berurah 580:13) is that the fast is to commemorate the death of Ezra, based on a medieval prayer that states that Ezra died on the 9th of Tevet. However, Leiman notes that if this is the reason for the fast, why would the Shulchan Arukh and the Tur write we that do not know the source for the fast?
A bizarre suggestion for the fast is that the fast is because Jesus was born on the ninth of Tevet. Leiman quotes this from several scholars, and I saw this mentioned in the notes to the new edition of the Tur. Leiman criticizes this answer as being implausible since even the Christians do not agree when Jesus was born, but there is a different Christian source for the fast.
Leiman quotes two sources from the 19th century who wrote that the fast was due to the death of Simon ha-Qalponi (Qalpos). This man is discussed in the book Toldot Yeshu, a medieval Jewish history of Jesus. He is said to have been a Tanna who was told by the Rabbis to infiltrate the Jewish-Christian groups to tell them to stop following Jewish law in order to separate them from Judaism. Leiman prefers this explanation since Toldot Yeshu states that Simon ha-Qalponi died on the ninth of Tevet and that the day became an annual fast. Also, this strange source would explain why nobody wanted to mention the reason for the fast. (Hayyim Simons, 1990, also favors this rationale.)
With this idea, both the fasts of the eighth and the ninth of Tevet are due to the battle between Judaism and Christianity in the middle and second half of the first millennium.
Bibliography:
Leiman, S. 1983, The scroll of fasts: The ninth of Tebeth, Jewish Quarterly Review, 74:2, pp. 174-195.
Simons, Hayyim, 1990, Reasons for the fast on the ninth of Tevet, Sinai, 106, pp. 138-151.
The most popular rationale (for example, Mishnah Berurah 580:13) is that the fast is to commemorate the death of Ezra, based on a medieval prayer that states that Ezra died on the 9th of Tevet. However, Leiman notes that if this is the reason for the fast, why would the Shulchan Arukh and the Tur write we that do not know the source for the fast?
A bizarre suggestion for the fast is that the fast is because Jesus was born on the ninth of Tevet. Leiman quotes this from several scholars, and I saw this mentioned in the notes to the new edition of the Tur. Leiman criticizes this answer as being implausible since even the Christians do not agree when Jesus was born, but there is a different Christian source for the fast.
Leiman quotes two sources from the 19th century who wrote that the fast was due to the death of Simon ha-Qalponi (Qalpos). This man is discussed in the book Toldot Yeshu, a medieval Jewish history of Jesus. He is said to have been a Tanna who was told by the Rabbis to infiltrate the Jewish-Christian groups to tell them to stop following Jewish law in order to separate them from Judaism. Leiman prefers this explanation since Toldot Yeshu states that Simon ha-Qalponi died on the ninth of Tevet and that the day became an annual fast. Also, this strange source would explain why nobody wanted to mention the reason for the fast. (Hayyim Simons, 1990, also favors this rationale.)
With this idea, both the fasts of the eighth and the ninth of Tevet are due to the battle between Judaism and Christianity in the middle and second half of the first millennium.
Bibliography:
Leiman, S. 1983, The scroll of fasts: The ninth of Tebeth, Jewish Quarterly Review, 74:2, pp. 174-195.
Simons, Hayyim, 1990, Reasons for the fast on the ninth of Tevet, Sinai, 106, pp. 138-151.
No comments:
Post a Comment