Yiddishe Chochma [Jewish wisdom]:
Az me muz, ken men. ~ When one must, one can.
(IsraelNN.com) Jews throughout the world are fasting Sunday in observance of the Tevet 10th, one of four fast days in the Jewish calendar commemorating of the destruction of the Temple. This was the date on which the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem commenced. That siege eventually led to the destruction of the First Temple.
On these days, adult Jews refrain from food and drink from sunrise until the stars come out at night, and engage in prayer, soul searching and tshuva, or repentance.
I get occasional emails from Yeshiva.org.il in which students share shiurim and summarize what they're learning. The most recent email was about this Fast. In typical Talmudic style, the students are very fastidious about their assertions, much like lawyers establishing legal precedents. It takes them seven or eight paragraphs to establish without question that, according to various tractates,
"we are now at the height of cold and winter,
during which the nights are long."
Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect and gratitude for yeshiva learning and for Talmudic thinking in general. It's just that, in that amazing mix of Lawyer and Mystic, I tend less toward the former and more toward the latter. And so it was not until this part that my interest was truly aroused:
The Maharal of Prague explains that it is no coincidence that Israel's trials began during the coldest part of the winter - in Tevet - and reached their finale at the height of summer - in Tammuz and Av. Just as we have celebrative days at certain times of the year, so too some days are fit to bear sanctity and others are not. (see Netzach Yisrael, ch. 88)
The equinoctial periods of Tishrei and Nisan, because of their balanced nature, are fit to bear sanctity. Therefore, these months contain most of Israel's Festivals and special days. However, there are other times of year less sympathetic to Israel - periods of poles in cold or heat.
It is interesting that in Temple times, when the Rabbinic Court would intercalate Hebrew months by adding an extra day when necessary, they would not send out messengers to sanctify the month of Tevet. This was because they did not want to grant permanence to the fast of the Tenth of Tevet. Perhaps, they hoped, days of peace will come and nullify this fast.
Tevet, then, reflects a beginning of hardships, and we pray to see the day when we will be able to erase these hardships from Israel, a time in which even the equinoctial periods will harmonize with Israel ...
And so we find ourselves in a time that is not only cold and dark, but also "not fit to bear sanctity," a time that is "less sympathetic to Israel." We come upon this pole in time that "reflects a beginning of hardships" ... and what do we do?
Jewish tradition has the answers we need and the complete instructions - Calamities for Dummies, if you will. It's not like the Jewish people have never been at this pole in time before; so who would know better than our sages how to cope with it?
But how many of us are paying attention? And how many of us who are paying attention, will actually bend to the obvious?
For some, a fast sounds too easy, too simple to be curative. Others consider fasting too difficult.
It's crazy, but true: most of us are too weak and too selfish to save ourselves. We have the tools, yet refuse to use them. What's the word for funny and sad mixed together? We won't hesitate to dress up tonight, drink and party, simply because it is December 31st on the calendar of the nations ... but ask Jews to fast today simply because it is the 10th of Tevet in Jewish time, and watch the resistance bubble up. I know, because it happens to me too. Nobody ever said being a Jew would be easy.
We don't resent it when a medical doctor tells us we should fast, and if the dentist gives us an appointment for 9AM on a Wednesday, we show up for it if we possibly can. We know these things are good for us, for our bodies. But what about our Jewish souls and obligations? What about our appointments with the Creator? Ah, then we are our own worst exile, through and through. Gd's mercy on all Israel? We are suddenly inconvenienced. There is "no time" for that.
I can only pray that more Jews than ever will participate in the mitzvah that is called for at this place in time. May more and more of us fast and cry out to the Gd of Israel, this year, this day, in the cold and the dark, "until He shows mercy upon us."
Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed:
On the Tenth of Tevet Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon placed Jerusalem under siege. The wicked ruler brought famine and distress upon the city, until it was finally conquered and its Holy Temple destroyed.
Fast days of this sort are not merely occasions for recalling the tragedies of our past. They are, more than anything else, days of repentance and introspection. Moreover, the Torah commands the Jewish people to cry out and to sound trumpets even when new calamities beset us, and the Sages established a Mitzvah to fast in response to such hardships, until God shows mercy upon us.
Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, the "Rambam," describes the sort of calamities which justify such behavior: when foreign nations wage war upon the Jewish people, or impose taxes upon us, or attempt to take our land away from us, or make decrees to nullify Torah commandments - even the most seemingly insignificant among them. In such cases we are obligated to fast and to cry out to God until He shows mercy upon us.
And here, we find that in the past few years nations have indeed come upon us and demanded that we relinquish portions of the Land of Israel to strangers. This is one of the calamities concerning which we are supposed to fast and cry out about. It follows that the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, in our day, must be directed towards the rectification of this calamity.
Our fasting must be an attempt to rebuff the pressure of the nations, together with their threats of terrorism and war, and their desire to take our land from us.
Therefore, let this day be a day of fasting, prayer, and crying out to the God of Israel, that He provide us with the strength to defend our land, to stand up to pressure, and to never, under any circumstances, give in to the forces which desire to destroy us.
Until the days of peace come, Amen.
