Asarah B'Tevet

The 10th of Tevet (known as Asarah B'Tevet) is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak to nightfall, and add Selichot (penitential prayers) and other special supplements to our prayers. The fast ends at nightfall, or as soon as you see three medium-sized stars in the sky.

For years, G‑d had sent His prophets to warn Israel about the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple if they didn’t mend their ways. But they derided the holy men as bearers of "false prophecies of doom", bent on demoralizing the nation. They even went so far as to kill one of the prophets.

Then it finally happened. On the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tevet, in the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem.

Ever patient, G‑d delayed the destruction to give the Jews yet another chance to repent. He repeatedly sent the prophet Jeremiah to admonish His nation, but they foolishly had him imprisoned. Thus, 30 months later, on Tamuz 92 (or 17,3 the very date the walls would be breached when the Second Temple was destroyed), 3338, the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that year the Holy Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people were exiled.

Unique among Jewish fasts, 10 Tevet is observed even when it falls on a Friday, though it interferes somewhat with Shabbat preparations.

It is viewed as the beginning of the chain of events that culminated with the destruction of the Temple and the subsequent exiles, something that we have never fully recovered from, because even when the Second Temple was finally built, it never returned to its full glory.

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, King of Egypt, ordered the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, a work which later became known as the Septuagint. Seventy two sages were placed in solitary confinement and ordered to translate the Torah into Greek.

Judaism sees this event as a tragedy, as it reflected a deprivation and debasement of the divine nature of the Torah, and a subversion of its spiritual and literary qualities. They reasoned that upon translation from the original Hebrew, the Torah's legal codes and deeper layers of meaning would be lost. 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.

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 Scribe, 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 Bahag (not those available to the Tur) add that Ezra and Nechemiah died on this day — but only after first stating that the Rabbis have given no reason for why the day is tragic.

Although the 8th and 9th of Tevet were established as separate fast days, the rabbis consolidated them into the fast of 10 Tevet, a day mentioned in the Bible by the prophet Ezekiel as a day of mourning, so that the month would not be full of sadness and mourning.

Accordingly, in recent times, 10 Tevet became the day to say kaddish for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown. An ancient Jewish custom, which was revived by the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, is to deliver words of inspiration that arouse the soul to repent on fast days such as this one.

There are a number of changes in the liturgy to be aware of. All page numbers below correspond to the Annotated Chabad Siddur.

- In the morning services, during the chazzan’s repetition of the Amidah, he should add in Aneinu, on page 48.
- The most significant addition is the Selichot, a collection of biblical verses and rabbinic dirges, which are added in the morning during the post-Amidah Tachanun. This means that when you get to the end of page 55, you take a leap to page 427, for "Selichot for 10 Tevet".
- Afterwards you say the "long" Avinu Malkeinu, on page 454, and then resume at the top of page 60.
- During both morning and afternoon services, we read the Torah, from Exodus 32:11–14 and 34:1–10, which you can find on page 468.
- In the afternoon, the reading (which is held before the Amidah) is followed by a haftarah from Isaiah 55:6–56:8, which you can find on page 469.
- During the afternoon Amidah, every individual who is still fasting says Aneinu, on page 108.
- During the chazzan’s repetition of the afternoon Amidah, he should add in Aneinu, on page 105.
- The chazzan also recites the Priestly Blessing, on page 110.
- As in the morning, say the “long” Avinu Malkeinu (page 454) in place of the regular truncated version on page 114.