fast of gedaliah
I hope that you all had a good, restful, peaceful, penitent Rosh Hashana. I’d like to wish everyone a healthy, happy new year.
Now that Rosh Hashana is over, we must all prepare ourselves for the coming fast day. No, I don’t mean Yom Kippur, I mean the Fast of Gedaliah tomorrow! The Fast of Gedaliah takes place on 3 Tishrei, the day after Rosh Hashana. It is one of the four minor fast days (the Fast of Esther, the 17th of Tamuz, and the 10th of Tevet being the others; Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av are considered major, full-day fasts). The Fast of Gedaliah commemorates the assassination of Gedaliah ben Ahikam, whom Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylonia, had appointed governor of Judah after the first destruction of Jerusalem. Gedalia’s death ended any hopes that a Jewish state would survive the Babylonian domination. Soon thereafter, Nebuchadnezzar exiled all the Jews to Babylon.
Because the Fast of Gedaliah is a minor fast, the fast goes only from sunrise to sunset tomorrow, and there are no restrictions on work or bathing. There is a special Torah reading in the morning, and Torah AND Hafatarah are read at Mincha (the afternoon service; fast days are the only days on which we read a Hafatarah in the afternoon).
Even if you do not plan to observe the Fast (and, I must admit, the vast majority of Jews don’t), we must remember that from now until Yom Kippur we are in the midst of the Aseret Y’mei T’shuva (Ten Days of Repentance). During this period, we must continue to ask forgiveness of God and of our peers for all sins committed during the past year. According to tradition, our fates for the coming year are determined once and for all by God during these days.
This page was originally created by John Davis and Michael Kay, and can be found at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jdd16/guide/.
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