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Fasts
Although not observed by the majority of Progressive Jews, fasting has played an important part in Jewish religious expression and there are six mandatory (for Torah Jews) communal fasts each year. The most important, Yom Kippur, is kept to some degree by perhaps the majority of Jews; the second, Tish B’Av (the ‘Ninth of Av’), is less widely observed. It commemorates the Romans’ destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, but has also become associated with several tragedies for the Jewish people which began or ended on that day, for instance the defeat of the Bar Kochba Revolt, the suicide of the Jews of York, the expulsion of the English Jews, the 1492 Spanish expulsion, and the start of the 1942 deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Like at Yom Kippur, the fast extends beyond eating and drinking to cover bathing, leather shoes, anointing, and marital relations. Torah study is also prohibited, except for certain sad portions like Job or Jeremiah. Orthodox Jews take the fast extremely seriously, and even pregnant women are required to forego food and drink, although several Charedi rabbis have graciously declared that pregnant and nursing women are allowed to eat and drink in “shiurim” - only eating or drinking half a mouthful at a time, at regular intervals - so that they still keep the fast without making themselves ill. Most Modern Orthodox rabbis have declared that pregnant and nursing women are not obliged to keep the fast, though. Unlike at Yom Kippur, there is no festive pre-fast meal - it is traditional to eat a simple meal, seudah ha-mafseket, with round foods like eggs or lentils, which symbolise the lifecycle and mortality. More traditional Jews sprinkle ashes on their meal, or sit on the ground to eat, though this does not apply if the preceding day is Shabbos, when mourning is forbidden. The evening service takes place in near darkness, with the synagogue lit by low lamps and candles. Most prayers are recited rather than sung, and Megillat Eicha (Lamentations) is leyned using a special, mournful cantillation trope. The decorative parochet of the ark is often removed, or it may be draped in black. Rather than the ordinary siddur a special book, Kinot (‘elegies’) is used. Mournful prayers recalling the destruction of Zion are woven in to the ordinary service, as are special additions to the Amidah. Worshippers often sit on the floor, steps or low benches to symbolise their grief, and it is customary not to greet anyone entering the synagogue. Tisha B’Av is also the only morning service when neither tallitot or tefillin are worn. At Mincha, as the mood lifts a little and the liturgy becomes more hopeful, tallitot are worn. Special Nechamtot, comforting prayers, are also recited at this service. The mourning does not end with the onset of night, however; traditional Jews will not break the fast with meat or wine, remembering that the Temple continued to burn until midday on the tenth of Av.
Due to its close connection with the Temple and the traditional desire the reinstatement of animal sacrifice and the Temple service, most progressive communities has ceased to observe Tisha B’Av, seeing it as incompatible with the progressive rejection of the Temple. Others, however, use the day as an opportunity to remember the victims of the Jewish tragedies that have become associated with the day over the centuries, either through adapted services, discussion events, or trips to lectures or museums.
In addition to these two major fasts, there are four minor ones: the Seventeenth of Tammuz (Shiva Asar be-Tammuz); the Fast of Gedaliah (Tsom Gedaliah), on the third of Tishrei; the Tenth of Tevet (Asarah B’Tevet); and the Fast of Esther (Ta’anit Esther), on the thirteenth of Adar. The first of these, Shiva Asar be-Tammuz, starts the three-week mourning period before Tisha B’Av called Bayn Ha-Metsarim (literally, “in the straits"). It is, according to the Mishnah, the day when Roman forces first broke through the walls of Jerusalem. Traditionally, during this period no weddings are allowed. The mourning practices intensify in the last nine days, with no meat being consumed, no haircuts allowed, and no washing of clothes that do not need to be worn again before Tisha B’Av. The second of the four fasts, Tsom Gedaliah, marks the assassination of a Jewish leader, Gedaliah ben Ahikam, who represented the last vestiges of Jewish autonomy under Babylonian domination. Asarah B’Tevet commemorates the start of Nebudchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. In Israel, it is also the day when Kaddish is recited for the dead whose names, times or places of death are unknown, and it has thus come to be considered a day of remembrance for the unknown victims of the Holocaust. The final of the minor communal fasts, Ta’anit Esther, has its origins in the biblical story of Esther, who fasted before she went before King Ahasuerus to save her people.
Fasts
Although not observed by the majority of Progressive Jews, fasting has played an important part in Jewish religious expression and there are six mandatory (for Torah Jews) communal fasts each year. The most important, Yom Kippur, is kept to some degree by perhaps the majority of Jews; the second, Tish B’Av (the ‘Ninth of Av’), is less widely observed. It commemorates the Romans’ destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, but has also become associated with several tragedies for the Jewish people which began or ended on that day, for instance the defeat of the Bar Kochba Revolt, the suicide of the Jews of York, the expulsion of the English Jews, the 1492 Spanish expulsion, and the start of the 1942 deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Like at Yom Kippur, the fast extends beyond eating and drinking to cover bathing, leather shoes, anointing, and marital relations. Torah study is also prohibited, except for certain sad portions like Job or Jeremiah. Orthodox Jews take the fast extremely seriously, and even pregnant women are required to forego food and drink, although several Charedi rabbis have graciously declared that pregnant and nursing women are allowed to eat and drink in “shiurim” - only eating or drinking half a mouthful at a time, at regular intervals - so that they still keep the fast without making themselves ill. Most Modern Orthodox rabbis have declared that pregnant and nursing women are not obliged to keep the fast, though. Unlike at Yom Kippur, there is no festive pre-fast meal - it is traditional to eat a simple meal, seudah ha-mafseket, with round foods like eggs or lentils, which symbolise the lifecycle and mortality. More traditional Jews sprinkle ashes on their meal, or sit on the ground to eat, though this does not apply if the preceding day is Shabbos, when mourning is forbidden. The evening service takes place in near darkness, with the synagogue lit by low lamps and candles. Most prayers are recited rather than sung, and Megillat Eicha (Lamentations) is leyned using a special, mournful cantillation trope. The decorative parochet of the ark is often removed, or it may be draped in black. Rather than the ordinary siddur a special book, Kinot (‘elegies’) is used. Mournful prayers recalling the destruction of Zion are woven in to the ordinary service, as are special additions to the Amidah. Worshippers often sit on the floor, steps or low benches to symbolise their grief, and it is customary not to greet anyone entering the synagogue. Tisha B’Av is also the only morning service when neither tallitot or tefillin are worn. At Mincha, as the mood lifts a little and the liturgy becomes more hopeful, tallitot are worn. Special Nechamtot, comforting prayers, are also recited at this service. The mourning does not end with the onset of night, however; traditional Jews will not break the fast with meat or wine, remembering that the Temple continued to burn until midday on the tenth of Av.
Due to its close connection with the Temple and the traditional desire the reinstatement of animal sacrifice and the Temple service, most progressive communities has ceased to observe Tisha B’Av, seeing it as incompatible with the progressive rejection of the Temple. Others, however, use the day as an opportunity to remember the victims of the Jewish tragedies that have become associated with the day over the centuries, either through adapted services, discussion events, or trips to lectures or museums.
In addition to these two major fasts, there are four minor ones: the Seventeenth of Tammuz (Shiva Asar be-Tammuz); the Fast of Gedaliah (Tsom Gedaliah), on the third of Tishrei; the Tenth of Tevet (Asarah B’Tevet); and the Fast of Esther (Ta’anit Esther), on the thirteenth of Adar. The first of these, Shiva Asar be-Tammuz, starts the three-week mourning period before Tisha B’Av called Bayn Ha-Metsarim (literally, “in the straits"). It is, according to the Mishnah, the day when Roman forces first broke through the walls of Jerusalem. Traditionally, during this period no weddings are allowed. The mourning practices intensify in the last nine days, with no meat being consumed, no haircuts allowed, and no washing of clothes that do not need to be worn again before Tisha B’Av. The second of the four fasts, Tsom Gedaliah, marks the assassination of a Jewish leader, Gedaliah ben Ahikam, who represented the last vestiges of Jewish autonomy under Babylonian domination. Asarah B’Tevet commemorates the start of Nebudchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem. In Israel, it is also the day when Kaddish is recited for the dead whose names, times or places of death are unknown, and it has thus come to be considered a day of remembrance for the unknown victims of the Holocaust. The final of the minor communal fasts, Ta’anit Esther, has its origins in the biblical story of Esther, who fasted before she went before King Ahasuerus to save her people.