The Tur (Orah Chayyim 429, 470), and the Shulchan Arukh (1488-1575, Orah Chayyim 470) record the custom/ law that firstborn sons fast on erev Pesach. The Shulchan Arukh also quotes that some say that firstborn girls also fast. The Bach (1561-1640, Poland, 470) records that this is the correct practice, but the Rama (16th century, Poland, 470) writes that this is not the custom.
This fast is unique since it has no apparent biblical source unlike the six other fasts during the year. In addition, Daniel Goldschmidt (1996, pp. 384-386) notes that the timing of this fast is difficult. In the time of the Bet ha-Mikdash, the people were offering the korban pesach and celebrating, while the firstborn sons were fasting? Thus, the fast could only have started after the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash, but why? What is the reason for this fast?
The Tur writes that the reason for the fast is to remember the miracle that the firstborn sons were saved from the tenth plague when G-d killed the Egyptian firstborn sons. (Shemot Rabbah 18:3 writes that even the firstborn Egyptian girls died, except for Batya, Pharaoh's daughter who saved Moshe, and this is claimed as the reason why the firstborn girls should also fast.) Goldschmidt notes that this reason is also difficult. We fast to remember bad things (Tisha B'av) or for penitence (Yom Kippur), but not to remember miracles. Furthermore, Goldschmidt wonders how the firstborn suddenly developed this feeling of gratitude for having been saved for the tenth plague 1,000 years (at least) after the plague?
Goldschmidt quotes from the Orchot Chayim (R. Aharon ha-Cohen of Lunel, 14th century) that the reason for the fast is because the firstborn sons participated in idolatry in Egypt! The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 16:2) records that the Jewish people practiced idolatry in Egypt, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no source that states that the firstborn sons did anything worse than the rest of the people.
Goldschmidt concludes that there must have been a folk belief that erev Pesach was a day of suffering for the firstborn sons, and hence they fasted to remove this danger. Goldschmidt argues that this fear can explain a unique law by this fasting, that the parents, father or mother, fast if they have a firstborn child who cannot fast (Rama, 470:2). Only this fear of danger could explain why it is necessary for there to be a fast for a child who is exempt from fasting. This would be similar to the Ashkenazi custom that one does kapporet even for the unborn child, see Rama 605. Yet, his suggestion begs the question, where did this folk belief come from? Also, it seems that the custom of the parents fasting for the young child only began in the end of the Middle Ages. The Darkei Moshe (Rama) quotes the idea from the Maharil (1365-1427, Germany), but the Tur does not mention this fasting by a parent for their child.
In order to understand the reason for the fast we need examine the source for this fast. The custom is not mentioned in the Talmud Bavli, but the Yerushalmi (10:1, 68B) quotes that R. Yehuda ha-Nasi did not eat matzah or hametz on erev Pesach. The Talmud offers a suggestion that he did not eat since he was a firstborn. However, the Talmud quotes that Rav Yonah Abba was a firstborn son and he ate on erev Pesach, and hence the Talmud concludes that R. Yehuda ha-Nasi did not eat to enter Pesach hungry for matzah. The Mordechai(13th century, Germany, Pesachim on 107B) and Arukh Hashulchan (1829-1908, Russia, 470:1) write that this Yerushalmi contradicts the idea of a fast by the firstborn since it rejects the idea that Rabbi Yehuda ha-Nasi did not eat since he was a firstborn. However, Rosh (1250-1327, the Tur's father, Pesachim 10:19) writes that the Yerushalmi is a support for the custom of the firstborn to fast since just the fact that the Talmud raised the possibility that the reason why R. Yehuda ha-Nasi did not eat matzah or hametz was because he was a firstborn shows that there was an idea that firstborns do not eat on erev Pesach. Hence, maybe in the time of the Talmud in Israel there was a custom for the firstborn to fast on erev Pesach though this was clearly not the custom of all of the people since Rav Yonah Abba ate on erev Pesach.
The next source that mentions this fast is Masekhet Soferim (9th century?) which quotes customs from the Jews living in Israel. Masekhet Soferim (21:3) quotes that while a person is not supposed to fast in the month of Nisan, the firstborn fasts on erev Pesach as well as pious people who want to enter the holiday with a desire to eat matzah. This is the first definitive source for the custom, but no reason is provided for the fast. In order to understand this custom to fast, we need to re-call that our fast of Esther on the 13th of Adar is first recorded in the period of the Geonim in Bavel, as it used to be forbidden to fast on the 13th of Adar, the day of Nicanor, see our discussion above, “A brief history of Ta'anit Esther.”
Amongst the Jews in Israel, there were different customs from Bavel as to when to observe the fast of Esther. Masekhet Soferim (17:4 and 21:1, see also Shulchan Arukh 686:3) records that there was a custom in Israel to fast on three separate days after Purim in Adar to remember Esther's fast. This fast was three days since Esther fasted for three days, and Masekhet Soferim (21:2) explains that while really the fast should have been in Nisan since this is when Esther fasted, the fast was moved to Adar since one does not fast in Nisan. Sperber (1990, pp. 192-199) notes that this was not the only custom amongst the Jews in Israel as to when to do the fast of Ether. He argues that the fast of "Behab," a three day fast in the beginning of Iyar, was also a variant of this custom as in this case the three day fast was moved to Iyar after Nisan.
In addition, Sperber quotes the possibility that some people in Israel fasted the three day fast in Nisan itself. This last possibility is most likely the basis for the fast of the firstborn on erev Pesach. The idea being that as Esther fasted in Nisan, Nisan was the proper time to fast to remember her fast. However, people did not want to fast for three days in Nisan since the month is not a time for fasting, so they made the fast one day. Why on erev Pesach? The answer is that Esther Rabbah (8:6) records that Esther's three day fast was on the 13th, 14th and 15th of Nisan, which means that erev Pesach was the middle day in her fast. (Rashi, on Megilat Esther 4:17, writes that Esther's fast was on the 14th, 15th and 16th of Nisan, which also includes erev Pesach.) Furthermore, by fasting on erev Pesach a person was also entering the holiday hungry to eat matzah.
Why just the firstborn fast? First, the fast was not initially limited to the firstborn as Masekhet Soferim quotes that those people who want to enter the fast hungry for matzah also fasted (see also Shulchan Arukh 470:3). However, my guess is that even if the fast began as a general fast, due to the difficulty of fasting and getting ready for Pesach, it quickly became the practice that the firstborn sons fasted as representatives of the family. In addition, following the Tur's rationale for the fast, the fast by the firstborn would be similar conceptually to Esther's fast. She fasted to avert Haman's decree, and according to the Tur, the firstborn sons fast since they were saved from the tenth plague.
The fast spread from Israel to Ashkenazi communities in the early Middle Ages, (Tosafot Pesachim 108A, Rav) though according to the Meiri (Provence, 1249-1306, on Pesachim 107B, p.230) only some places in France and Germany accepted the fast. It appears that the Sefardim did not accept this fast until the time of the Shulchan Arukh, since as noted by Goldschmidt, the fast is not mentioned by the Geonim, the Rif or the Rambam. (This is an example of the strong connection between the practices in Israel and Ashkenazim in the Middle Ages.)
This idea that the fast of the firstborn originated to remember Esther's three day fast can explain a unique aspect of the fast. As mentioned above, within this custom there is the idea that the firstborn girl should also fast, and that the mother fasts for her son who cannot fast. This feminine aspect is relatively rare in Jewish law, but accords with the idea that the fast is to remember Esther's fast.
In addition, this idea might explain why today the fast of Esther is only one day, on the 13th of Adar. If we fast to remember Esther's fast, then we should fast three days like she (and all the people) did. In fact, we see from Masekhet Soferim that people fasted three days, so why do we only fast one day? According to the idea above, the fast in Nisan was changed from three days to one day in order to limit the fasting on Nisan. Maybe, afterwards, when the people in Bavel began to fast to remember Esther's fast, they combined two ideas from Israel, one to have a one day fast, and two, to move the fast to Adar from Nisan. Once this occurred, then the most logical one day fast was the 13th of Adar, the day before Purim.
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