Everyone says that today is the ‘easy’ fast. In most countries it comes in relatively late as we can manage breakfast beforehand if we wish, and it ends in time for supper. In fact today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. So in reality we are just skipping lunch.
Perhaps we can then use that time to focus on the meaning of the day.
What are we even commemorating? The start of a siege that lasted for a year and a half that culminated with the destruction of the first Temple. Nothing too horrific actually even happened. So today is a really ‘easy fast’.
The Rambam (Hilchos Taaniyos 5:1) tells us why we are really fasting today.
“There are days when the entire Jewish people fast because of the calamities that occurred to them then, to arouse [their] hearts and initiate [them in] the paths of repentance. This will serve as a reminder of our wicked conduct and that of our ancestors, which resembles our present conduct and therefore brought these calamities upon them and upon us. By reminding ourselves of these matters, we will repent and improve [our conduct], as [Leviticus 26:40] states: “And they will confess their sin and the sin of their ancestors.””
The purpose of the fast day is to use the events of the past to motivate us to wake up and make a change, this is no endurance test or day of meaningless self affliction.
The events of the day are recorded in two pesukim in Melachim 2 25:1-2 1
“And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylonia came, he and his entire army, against Jerusalem and encamped against it, and they built works of siege around it. And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.”
The pesukim then go on to describe the starvation that the people of Yerushalayim suffered and the carnage that ensued when the Babylonians broke into the city on the 9th of Tammuz.
I would like to suggest that here lies the message of the day, nothing much happened – and that’s the whole point. The real tragedy isn’t the what happened, it’s what didn’t happen. The Jewish people failed to realise that their actions had caused this tragedy, they were blind to the realisation that they were well on the way to destruction and dispersion. They just carried on as normal and hoped that the siege would be broken. They didn’t take notice of the smaller messages, so unfortunately they were sent much bigger ones.
Such inactivity and inertia is described by the Rambam (Hilchos Taaniyos 1:3) as a cruel outlook on life.
“Conversely, should the people fail to cry out [to G-d] and sound the trumpets [as a response to the tragedies that have befallen them,] and instead say, “What has happened to us is merely a natural phenomenon and this difficulty is merely a chance occurrence,” this is a cruel conception of things, which causes them to remain attached to their wicked deeds. Thus, this time of distress will lead to further distresses.”
Today is a short day, but it is an important one. It goes without saying that the Jewish people the world over are facing security threats of differing levels of severity. Asarah Be Teves is an opportunity to take a step back and look at the situation from a different perspective. Fasting gives us an opportunity for introspection and reflection. Perhaps, if we can make a change within ourselves, we can affect the world around us as well.
May this be the final fast of Teves and may it lead to a Shiva Asar Be Tammuz and Tisha B’Av that are days of true happiness.
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