The fast on the tenth of Tevet

In contradistinction to the fasts of the eighth and ninth of Tevet, where people do not fast, the custom to fast on the tenth of Tevet is followed, see Shulchan Arukh, Orah Chayyim 549:1. A possible reason for this difference is that the fast of the tenth of Tevet has a Biblical source. Zechariah (8:19) records that the fasts of the four, five, seven and ten, which were for the destruction of the first Bet ha-Mikdash, would become days of joy. It is assumed that Zechariah is referring to the months starting from Nisan, and then the verse is referring to fasts in the fourth month (Tammuz), the fifth month (Av), seventh month (Tishri) and the tenth month (Tevet). Yet, still the verse only tells us that there is a fast day in Tevet, but it does not tell us on what day is the fast.

The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 18b, also Tosefta Sotah 6:3-7) quotes an argument between R. Shimon b. Yochai and R. Akiva as to when is the fast in the month of Tevet. R. Akiva says it is on the tenth of Tevet (our practice) since that is the day when Nebuchadnezzar surrounded Jerusalem prior to his conquest of the city and the destruction of the first Bet ha-Mikdash, see Kings II 25:1, Yirmiyahu 52:4 and Yechezkel 24:1. However, R. Shimon b Yochai claims that the fast is on the fifth of Tevet, since on that day Yechezkel and the Jews of Bavel learned of the destruction of the first Bet ha-Mikdash, Yechezkel 33:21.

R. Shimon agues that his explanation of the verse is preferable since the verse in Zechariah lists the fast on the tenth month last, which implies that the fast of the tenth month was based on events that occurred last. This order accords with his view that the fast is when the people in Bavel found out about the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash. However, if the fast was because Jerusalem was surrounded, then the fast of the tenth should have been quoted first in the verse since the city was surrounded before the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash. However, the Talmud answers that R. Akiva follows the counting of months and then ten would be last, even if the events that are the basis for the fast of the tenth occurred first.

A new development regarding the fast is that in 1949, by the first fast of the tenth of Tevet after the founding of the state of Israel, the Rabbanut in Israel attempted to establish the tenth of Tevet day as a day of mourning for the Holocaust. They declared that people should light candles, to say kaddish, tehillim, kel maleh, and to sing ani maamin at the end of the tefillah, (quoted in Levinsky, 1956, Vol. 7, pp. 94,95).

This proposal was very reasonable. By combining the memorial of the holocaust with a fast day, it increases the chance that later generations will remember the Holocaust. The fasting is a concrete event that will ensure that when people ask why are we fasting, they can be told about the horror of the Holocaust. (Many want to incorporate the memorial for the Holocaust on Tisha B’av which is also a fast day, but then the focus is on the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash and not on the Holocaust.) In addition, for many people it is difficult to relate to the idea that we fast on the tenth of Tevet because the walls of Jerusalem were surrounded since the focus of our mourning for the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash is during the summer on Tisha B’av. Thus, by adding a reason to fast on the tenth of Tevet this would increase the significance of the fast, and is similar to the idea that the Mishnah (Ta’anit 4:6) lists various calamities that befell the Jewish people on the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’av.

In 1951, when the Knesset was deciding on which day to establish a memorial for the Holocaust, the Mizrahi (religious) party pushed for the tenth of Tevet, but Mapam (left wing) party wanted the day to remember the Warsaw ghetto uprising. This began in 1943 on erev Pesach, but since this day was not possible it was proposed to have it a few days after Pesach on the 27th of Nisan. The Mapam did not want the day to be a day of mourning but a day to inculcate people about the “new Jew” who would fight and not meekly die.

Roni Stauber (2001) in a review of this debate notes that the 27th of Nisan was chosen since most of the Knesset favored Mapam’s view and also the Mizrahi agreed in the end since they thought that there could be two days to remember the Holocaust, one, the religious day, the tenth of Tevet, and one, the national day, the 27th of Nisan. Throughout the 1950s, the Rabbanut continued to proclaim and to relate to the tenth of Tevet as a memorial day for the Holocaust. In 1959, there was another discussion in the Knesset to switch the national memorial day for the Holocaust to the tenth of Tevet, but this was defeated largely because of the precedent of the previous eight years.

Today, the association of the tenth of Tevet with the Holocaust seems to be forgotten, except that children in religious national schools in Israel have a ceremony on the day to remember the Holocaust. The Siddur Rinat Yisrael in its calendar in the back of the Siddur notes the association between the tenth of Tevet and the Holocaust, but does not proscribe any special prayers to be said on the day to remember the Holocaust. I think we should return to the initial decision by the Rabbanut and recite prayers on the tenth of Tevet to remember the Holocaust since this will help to ensure that the tragedy of the Holocaust will always be remembered.

Bibliography:

Levinsky, Yom Tov, 1956, Sefer ha-Moadim, Tel Aviv: Dvir.

Stauber, Roni, 2001, The debate in the 1950’s regarding the establishment of a Holocaust remembrance day, in A state in the Making: Israeli society in the first decades, edited by Anita Shapiro, Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History, pp. 189-203.