Monday 2 January 2023

Asara b'Tevet (Tuesday 3 Jan)

Fast begins: 4:17am
Fast ends: 9:17pm
(Melbourne Australia)

Please click here for a Halacha Guide relevant to the fast of Asarah B'Teves.

We are grateful to Rabbi Lesches of Young Yeshivah for compiling and sharing this.



Fast of Tevet 10
Jewish History

On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later -- on Tammuz 17, 3338 -- the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Link: Asarah B'Tevet

Laws and Customs

Tevet 10 is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance, in remembrance of the siege of Jerusalem. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak to nightfall, and add the Selichot and other special supplements to our prayers. (More recently, Tevet 10 was chosen to also serve as a "general kaddish day" for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown.)

Links:
Learn about Tevet 10
Essays and Stories on the Holocaust