Tenth of Tevet

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#switch:|January 1|January 2|January 3|January 4|January 5|January 6|January 7|January 8|January 9|January 10|January 11|January 12|January 13|January 14|January 15|January 16|January 17|January 18|January 19|January 20|January 21|January 22|January 23|January 24|January 25|January 26|January 27|January 28|January 29|January 30|January 31|February 1|February 2|February 3|February 4|February 5|February 6|February 7|February 8|February 9|February 10|February 11|February 12|February 13|February 14|February 15|February 16|February 17|February 18|February 19|February 20|February 21|February 22|February 23|February 24|February 25|February 26|February 27|February 28|February 29|February 30|February 31|March 1|March 2|March 3|March 4|March 5|March 6|March 7|March 8|March 9|March 10|March 11|March 12|March 13|March 14|March 15|March 16|March 17|March 18|March 19|March 20|March 21|March 22|March 23|March 24|March 25|March 26|March 27|March 28|March 29|March 30|March 31|April 1|April 2|April 3|April 4|April 5|April 6|April 7|April 8|April 9|April 10|April 11|April 12|April 13|April 14|April 15|April 16|April 17|April 18|April 19|April 20|April 21|April 22|April 23|April 24|April 25|April 26|April 27|April 28|April 29|April 30|April 31|May 1|May 2|May 3|May 4|May 5|May 6|May 7|May 8|May 9|May 10|May 11|May 12|May 13|May 14|May 15|May 16|May 17|May 18|May 19|May 20|May 21|May 22|May 23|May 24|May 25|May 26|May 27|May 28|May 29|May 30|May 31|June 1|June 2|June 3|June 4|June 5|June 6|June 7|June 8|June 9|June 10|June 11|June 12|June 13|June 14|June 15|June 16|June 17|June 18|June 19|June 20|June 21|June 22|June 23|June 24|June 25|June 26|June 27|June 28|June 29|June 30|June 31|July 1|July 2|July 3|July 4|July 5|July 6|July 7|July 8|July 9|July 10|July 11|July 12|July 13|July 14|July 15|July 16|July 17|July 18|July 19|July 20|July 21|July 22|July 23|July 24|July 25|July 26|July 27|July 28|July 29|July 30|July 31|August 1|August 2|August 3|August 4|August 5|August 6|August 7|August 8|August 9|August 10|August 11|August 12|August 13|August 14|August 15|August 16|August 17|August 18|August 19|August 20|August 21|August 22|August 23|August 24|August 25|August 26|August 27|August 28|August 29|August 30|August 31|September 1|September 2|September 3|September 4|September 5|September 6|September 7|September 8|September 9|September 10|September 11|September 12|September 13|September 14|September 15|September 16|September 17|September 18|September 19|September 20|September 21|September 22|September 23|September 24|September 25|September 26|September 27|September 28|September 29|September 30|September 31|October 1|October 2|October 3|October 4|October 5|October 6|October 7|October 8|October 9|October 10|October 11|October 12|October 13|October 14|October 15|October 16|October 17|October 18|October 19|October 20|October 21|October 22|October 23|October 24|October 25|October 26|October 27|October 28|October 29|October 30|October 31|November 1|November 2|November 3|November 4|November 5|November 6|November 7|November 8|November 9|November 10|November 11|November 12|November 13|November 14|November 15|November 16|November 17|November 18|November 19|November 20|November 21|November 22|November 23|November 24|November 25|November 26|November 27|November 28|November 29|November 30|November 31|December 1|December 2|December 3|December 4|December 5|December 6|December 7|December 8|December 9|December 10|December 11|December 12|December 13|December 14|December 15|December 16|December 17|December 18|December 19|December 20|December 21|December 22|December 23|December 24|December 25|December 26|December 27|December 28|December 29|December 30|December 31=|{{#switch:|1 January|2 January|3 January|4 January|5 January|6 January|7 January|8 January|9 January|10 January|11 January|12 January|13 January|14 January|15 January|16 January|17 January|18 January|19 January|20 January|21 January|22 January|23 January|24 January|25 January|26 January|27 January|28 January|29 January|30 January|31 January|1 February|2 February|3 February|4 February|5 February|6 February|7 February|8 February|9 February|10 February|11 February|12 February|13 February|14 February|15 February|16 February|17 February|18 February|19 February|20 February|21 February|22 February|23 February|24 February|25 February|26 February|27 February|28 February|29 February|30 February|31 February|1 March|2 March|3 March|4 March|5 March|6 March|7 March|8 March|9 March|10 March|11 March|12 March|13 March|14 March|15 March|16 March|17 March|18 March|19 March|20 March|21 March|22 March|23 March|24 March|25 March|26 March|27 March|28 March|29 March|30 March|31 March|1 April|2 April|3 April|4 April|5 April|6 April|7 April|8 April|9 April|10 April|11 April|12 April|13 April|14 April|15 April|16 April|17 April|18 April|19 April|20 April|21 April|22 April|23 April|24 April|25 April|26 April|27 April|28 April|29 April|30 April|31 April|1 May|2 May|3 May|4 May|5 May|6 May|7 May|8 May|9 May|10 May|11 May|12 May|13 May|14 May|15 May|16 May|17 May|18 May|19 May|20 May|21 May|22 May|23 May|24 May|25 May|26 May|27 May|28 May|29 May|30 May|31 May|1 June|2 June|3 June|4 June|5 June|6 June|7 June|8 June|9 June|10 June|11 June|12 June|13 June|14 June|15 June|16 June|17 June|18 June|19 June|20 June|21 June|22 June|23 June|24 June|25 June|26 June|27 June|28 June|29 June|30 June|31 June|1 July|2 July|3 July|4 July|5 July|6 July|7 July|8 July|9 July|10 July|11 July|12 July|13 July|14 July|15 July|16 July|17 July|18 July|19 July|20 July|21 July|22 July|23 July|24 July|25 July|26 July|27 July|28 July|29 July|30 July|31 July|1 August|2 August|3 August|4 August|5 August|6 August|7 August|8 August|9 August|10 August|11 August|12 August|13 August|14 August|15 August|16 August|17 August|18 August|19 August|20 August|21 August|22 August|23 August|24 August|25 August|26 August|27 August|28 August|29 August|30 August|31 August|1 September|2 September|3 September|4 September|5 September|6 September|7 September|8 September|9 September|10 September|11 September|12 September|13 September|14 September|15 September|16 September|17 September|18 September|19 September|20 September|21 September|22 September|23 September|24 September|25 September|26 September|27 September|28 September|29 September|30 September|31 September|1 October|2 October|3 October|4 October|5 October|6 October|7 October|8 October|9 October|10 October|11 October|12 October|13 October|14 October|15 October|16 October|17 October|18 October|19 October|20 October|21 October|22 October|23 October|24 October|25 October|26 October|27 October|28 October|29 October|30 October|31 October|1 November|2 November|3 November|4 November|5 November|6 November|7 November|8 November|9 November|10 November|11 November|12 November|13 November|14 November|15 November|16 November|17 November|18 November|19 November|20 November|21 November|22 November|23 November|24 November|25 November|26 November|27 November|28 November|29 November|30 November|31 November|1 December|2 December|3 December|4 December|5 December|6 December|7 December|8 December|9 December|10 December|11 December|12 December|13 December|14 December|15 December|16 December|17 December|18 December|19 December|20 December|21 December|22 December|23 December|24 December|25 December|26 December|27 December|28 December|29 December|30 December|31 December=|}}}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox holiday with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| alt | begins | caption | celebrations | date | date2007 | date2008 | date2009 | date2010 | date2011 | date2012 | date2013 | date2014 | date2015 | date2016 | date2017 | date2018 | date2019 | date2020 | date2021 | date2022 | date2023 | date2024 | date2025 | date2025 | date2026 | date2027 | date2028 | date2029 | date2030 | duration | ends | firsttime | frequency | holiday_name | image | image_size | imagesize | lasttime | litcolor | longtype | mdy | month | nickname | observances | observedby | official_name | relatedto | scheduling | significance | startedby | type | week_ordinal | weekday }}

Tenth of Tevet (Template:Langx), or Asarah BeTevet (Template:Langx), the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet, is a fast day in Judaism. It is one of the minor fasts observed even in erev Shabbat from before dawn to nightfall, while other fast days are then postponed after Shabbat. The fast mourns the 587 BCE siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylonia—an event that began on that date and ultimately culminated in the destruction of Solomon's Temple (i.e., the First Temple), the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah, and the Babylonian exile of the Judeans.

The fast day is not related to Hanukkah but happens to follow that festival by a week. Whether the 10th of Tevet occurs seven or eight days after the last day of Hanukkah depends on whether the preceding Hebrew month of Kislev has 29 or 30 days in the given Hebrew year.

History

According to 2 Kings 25:1–25, on the 10th day of the 10th month of Tevet,<ref group="note">Counting from Nisan, per Template:Bibleverse See Template:Slink.</ref> in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign (588 BCE), Nebuchadnezzar II, the second Neo-Babylonian emperor, began the siege of Jerusalem. Eighteen months later, on the 17th of Tammuz at the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign (586 BCE), he broke through the city walls. The Romans would similarly break through the walls of Jerusalem on the 17th of Tammuz during their Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE). (In the Biblical calendar, each year in the reign of the Kings of Judah or Israel is dated from 1 Nissan. Hence, Tevet (tenth month) of Year 9 of Zedekiah is only 18 months before Tammuz (fourth month) of Year 11 of Zedekiah.)

The siege ended with the destruction of the Temple three weeks later, on Tisha B'Av, the end of the kingdoms. The elite of Judah were taken to exile in Babylon. The Tenth of Tevet is part of the cycle of three fasts connected with these events.<ref>Connection between the fasts</ref>

The first reference to the Tenth of Tevet as a fast appears in Zechariah 8,<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> where it is called the "fast of the tenth month". One opinion in the Talmud <ref>Rosh Hashanah 18b</ref> states that the "fast of the tenth month" refers to the fifth of Tevet, when, according to Ezekiel 33:21, news of the destruction of the Temple reached those already in exile in Babylon. However, the tenth is the date observed today, according to the other opinion presented in the Talmud.<ref>"Tenth of Tevet"</ref> Other references to the fast and the affliction can be found in the Book of Ezekiel (the siege)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and the Book of Jeremiah.

According to tradition, as described by the liturgy for the day's selichot, the fast also commemorates other calamities that occurred throughout Jewish history on the Tenth of Tevet and the two days preceding it:

• On the eighth of Tevet one year during the 3rd century BCE, a time of Hellenistic rule of Judea during the Second Temple period, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Ptolemaic pharaoh of Egypt, ordered the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. This work later became known as the Septuagint.<ref>Tur Orach Chaim 580, quoting Simeon Kayyara.</ref> Seventy-two sages were placed in solitary confinement and ordered to translate the Torah into Greek.

Judaism sees this event as a tragedy, reflecting a deprivation and debasement of the divine nature of the Torah and a subversion of its spiritual and literary qualities. They reasoned that the Torah's legal codes and deeper layers of meaning would be lost upon translation from the original Hebrew. Many Jewish laws are formulated in terms of specific Hebrew words employed in the Torah; without the original Hebrew wording, the authenticity and essence of the legal system would be damaged. The mystical ideas contained in the Torah are also drawn from the original Hebrew. As such, these would not be accessed by individuals studying the Torah in Greek (or any other language) alone.

Template:ErrorTemplate:Main other{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}

{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}

• On the ninth of Tevet, "something happened, but we do not know what it was..." (Shulchan Aruch). The selichot liturgy for the day states that Ezra, the great leader who brought some Jews back to the Holy Land from the Babylonian exile and who ushered in the era of the Second Temple, died on this day, and this is verified by the Kol Bo. But according to the earlier sources (the Geonim as recorded by Bahag and cited in Tur Orach Chaim 580), the specific tragedy of 9 Tevet is unknown. Some manuscripts of Simeon Kayyara (not those available to the Tur) add that Ezra and Nechemiah died on this day—but only after first stating that the Chazal gave no reason for why the day is tragic. Other suggestions are given as to why the ninth of Tevet is notable as well.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Observance

As with all minor ta'anit (Jewish days of fasting), the Tenth of Tevet begins at dawn ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) and concludes at nightfall ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). Following the general rules of minor fasts as outlined in the Shulchan Aruch,<ref>Shulchan Aruch § Orach Chaim 549–550, 561–562</ref> and in contrast to Tisha B'Av, there are no additional requirements beyond fasting (e.g., the prohibitions against bathing and wearing leather shoes).

Further akin to other minor fasts, Halakha exempts individuals who are ill, as well as pregnant and nursing persons who struggle with fasting.<ref>Shulchan Aruch § Orach Chaim 550:2.</ref> The Mishnah Berurah notes that it is still commendable to observe all the restrictions of Tisha B'Av on the minor fast days except for the restriction of wearing leather shoes. Even so, it says, one should not refrain from bathing in preparation for Shabbat when the Tenth of Tevet falls on a Friday.<ref>Shulchan Aruch § Orach Chaim 550 s.k. 6.</ref>

A Torah reading, the Aneinu prayer in the Amidah, and the Avinu Malkeinu prayer are added at both shacharit and mincha services in many communities unless the fast falls on Friday, when Tachanun and Avinu Malkeinu are not said at mincha. At shacharit services, Selichot are also said, and at mincha in Ashkenazi congregations, the Haftarah is read.<ref>Shulchan Aruch § Orach Chaim 566</ref>

The Tenth of Tevet is the only minor fast day that can coincide with Friday in the current Hebrew calendar. When it does, the unusual event of a Torah and Haftarah reading at the mincha right before Shabbat occurs. This is fairly rare; the most recent occurrence was on 10 January 2025 (as well as 22nd of December 2024 observance.) If it falls on Friday, the fast must be observed until nightfall, even though Shabbat begins before sunset (up to 72 minutes earlier, depending on the halakhic authority), and even though this requires one to enter Shabbat hungry from the fast, something typically avoided.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It cannot be determined for sure whether other fasts would have the same ruling, because no other fast day can fall out on Friday, except for the Fast of the Firstborn when Passover begins on Friday night.<ref group="note">However, the Ninth of Av can fall on Saturday night into Sunday. In such a case, one observes all stringencies of the fast (except the prohibition of wearing leather shoes) from sunset on Saturday evening.</ref>

Although this fast is considered a minor fast, David Abudarham attributed to it an additional theoretical stringency not shared by any other fast except Yom Kippur, namely that if the Tenth of Tevet were to fall out on a Shabbat, this fast would be observed on Shabbat. (This cannot happen under the current arrangement of the Hebrew calendar.) The reason the fasts of the Tenth of Tevet and Yom Kippur must be observed on the actual day on which they occur is because of the phrase "the very day" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) is used about both of them, in Ezekiel 24:2<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> about the Tenth of Tevet, and similarly for Yom Kippur in Leviticus 23:28.<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> This view is rejected by the Beit Yosef and all other major halakhic authorities, but was popularized by Rabbi Moses Sofer, who wrote a commentary based on the philosophy behind this view.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Although the Tenth of Tevet is an annual observance on the Jewish calendar, its placement toward the end of the Gregorian calendar year means that in some Gregorian years, there is no observance of the fast, while in other years, the fast is observed twice. Thus, the Tenth of Tevet did not occur at all in 2019. Instead, the "2019" observance of the fast took place in January 2020, while the subsequent observance occurred in December 2020.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Day of general kaddish

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel chose to observe the Tenth of Tevet as a "general Kaddish day" (yom hakaddish ha'klalli) to allow the relatives of those whose yahrtzeit (anniversary of their death) is unknown, including Holocaust victims, to mourn their loss.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Relatives may observe the traditional yahrtzeit practices for the deceased, including lighting a memorial candle, learning mishnayot, and reciting Kaddish. According to the policy of the Chief Rabbinate in Israel, the memorial prayer is also recited in synagogues after the reading of the Torah at the morning services.<ref>Tevet 10 – Holidays</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> To some religious Jews, this day is preferable as a remembrance day to Yom HaShoah since the latter occurs in the month of Nisan, in which mourning is traditionally prohibited.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• Fast of Gedalia
• Fast of Esther
• Fast of Seventeenth of Tammuz
• Fast of Tisha B'Av

External links

• Rabbi Eliezer Melamed – Peninei Halakha – The Laws of the Tenth of Tevet
• Tenth of Teves – Mrs. Shira Smiles talks about the fast day of the Tenth of Tevet Template:Webarchive
• Tenth of Teves – Rav Reichman gives you the Hasidic side of the fast
• Tenth of Tevet – Insights to the day

{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}}