Fast Begins at 5:45am and ends at 5:06pm (these times are for the New York area, and are taken from the Chabad.org calendar).

The Fast of Asarah B’Tevet

Fast Begins at 5:45am and ends at 5:06pm (these times are for the New York area, and are taken from the Chabad.org calendar).

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 9, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on Av 9th of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

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.)

To read more about Asarah B’Tevet, Click Here.