Asara B'Teves: The Tenth of Teves

Asarah B’Teves — The Tenth of Teves and the Beginning of the End

A Fast for the First Day of the Siege

Asara B’Teves marks the day Nevuchadnetzar’s armies first encircled Yerushalayim, setting in motion the chain that would lead, about nineteen months later, to the burning of the First Beis HaMikdash.

At Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, we hold this fast as a reminder that the smallest beginning carries the whole weight of what follows, and that the merit of tefillah and tzedakah is most needed not when the walls have fallen but while the siege is still tightening. The Tenth of Teves teaches us to act early, before a difficulty hardens into a ruin.

This is in some ways the most severe of the minor fasts, kept even on a Friday when the others would be moved, and tradition treats its date with gravity. Let us learn what happened, what the day demands, and where its sorrow opens, as it always does, onto hope.

Understanding Asara B’Teves

Asarah B’Teves (the tenth of Teves) is a public dawn-to-nightfall fast observed on the tenth day of the month of Teves, commemorating the beginning of the Babylonian siege of Yerushalayim that led to the destruction of the First Beis HaMikdash. It is the last of the four fasts of Zechariah, who calls it tzom ha’asiri, the fast of the tenth month, since Teves is the tenth month counting from Nissan (Zechariah 8:19). The fast is incumbent on all adult men and women, with the standard leniencies of the minor fasts, and it is codified among the four communal fasts (Rambam, Hilchos Taaniyos 5:2, with the accepted fast practice in 5:5; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 549:1, 550).

The day commemorates the siege as described by the navi: in the ninth year of King Tzidkiyahu, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nevuchadnetzar laid his armies against the city (Melachim II 25:1; Yechezkel 24:1–2). The Tenth of Teves stands at the head of the calendar of churban — the first wound, of which the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av are the bitter continuation.

The History and Origins of Asara B’Teves

The book of Melachim and the prophet Yechezkel both record the date with unusual precision: on the tenth of the tenth month, in Tzidkiyahu’s ninth year, Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel and all his host came against Yerushalayim and encamped against it, building siege works all around (Melachim II 25:1; Yechezkel 24:1–2). Yechezkel, exiled in Bavel, was told to record that very day, b’etzem hayom hazeh, on this very day — a phrase the navi uses to fix the date in memory the way it is fixed for the most solemn days of the year (Yechezkel 24:2). The siege he began that day would grind on for over eighteen months until the walls were breached and the Mikdash destroyed.

The Tenth of Teves is the first of a cluster of three difficult days in early Teves, which the early authorities record and some had the custom to mark (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 580). On the eighth of Teves, under the Greek king Talmai (Ptolemy), the Torah was translated into Greek — an event our tradition regarded as a calamity, for the Torah cannot be fully carried into another tongue (Maseches Soferim 1:7–8); the Shulchan Aruch records that darkness came to the world for three days (Orach Chaim 580:2). On the ninth of Teves, the Shulchan Aruch records a calamity whose nature it does not specify; later authorities, citing the selichos, associate the day with the death of Ezra HaSofer (Orach Chaim 580). These three days form a descent that culminates on the tenth with the siege. The chachamim who preserved this mesorah understood the siege through the lens our tradition has always used — as the consequence of the nation’s deeds, an accounting Hashem rendered, and never as a mere clash of empires.

The Prayers, Readings & Customs of the Fast

Asara B’Teves follows the order of the minor public fasts, set out in full on our 17th of Tammuz page. Selichos specific to the fast are recited at Shacharis, Avinu Malkeinu is said at the morning and afternoon services, and the Aneinu prayer is added to the Shemoneh Esrei by both the individual and the shaliach tzibbur. The Torah is read from Vayechal Moshe (Shemos 32:11–14, 34:1–10) at Shacharis and Mincha, including the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, and the Mincha haftarah of Dirshu Hashem b’himatzo (Yeshayahu 55:6–56:8) is read.

In the modern era, the Chief Rabbinate of Eretz Yisroel designated Asara B’Teves as Yom HaKaddish HaKlali, a general day of Kaddish and remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust whose dates of death are unknown, so that families with no yahrzeit might have a day to say Kaddish and light a candle. This is a later institution layered onto the ancient fast, not part of its original halacha, and it is observed as a widespread practice rather than a din. The pairing is fitting: a fast that mourns the first siege of Yerushalayim now also holds the memory of a more recent destruction.

What Asara B’Teves Means: A Deeper Look

Asara B’Teves marks the first tightening of the churban around Yerushalayim — the day the city was encircled and the destruction began to move from threat to reality. Let us draw out several of its ideas.

Mourning the first day, not the last. That Chazal fixed a fast for the start of the siege, rather than only for the destruction, teaches that the moment a calamity is set in motion is itself worthy of grief. The Beis Yosef explains why this day’s severity exceeds the others, citing the early authorities that the siege was the root from which all the later losses grew (Beis Yosef, Orach Chaim 550:2). For the reader, the lesson is sharp and practical: the time to daven and to give is at the first sign of trouble, while the gates are still wide, not after the walls have already come down.

B’etzem hayom hazeh — on this very day. The navi marks the date with the same emphatic phrase the Torah uses for Yom Kippur, and the meforshim see in this the reason for the fast’s unique stringency (Yechezkel 24:2). The Beis Yosef cites the Avudraham that, were it possible in our fixed calendar, the Tenth of Teves would be observed even on Shabbos, like Yom Kippur, because of this phrase; in practice, the fast’s concrete distinction is that it is kept even when it falls on Friday (Beis Yosef, Orach Chaim 550:2; Avudraham). The phrase teaches that some moments are so weighty they cannot be deferred.

The Torah in another tongue. That the translation of the Torah into Greek is mourned as a darkness troubles many, since spreading Torah seems a good. The deeper meaning, as the meforshim explain, is that Torah cannot be fully poured into a foreign vessel without loss — that the living Torah She’baal Peh resists translation, and what is rendered into another language is only its outer shell. The lesson reaches into our own lives: the most precious things lose something when reduced to a form convenient for outsiders, and some depths are guarded only by remaining within.

The Laws & Customs of the Fast

Asara B’Teves is a minor fast, observed from dawn until nightfall, in which only eating and drinking are prohibited; washing, anointing, and leather shoes remain permitted, as on the other minor fasts (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 550:1–2). The leniencies of the minor fasts apply: pregnant and nursing women who suffer are exempt, the ill do not fast and should ask a rav (Mishnah Berurah, Orach Chaim 550:5 and 550:8); one who wishes to eat before dawn may do so, but after sleeping one must ordinarily have stipulated beforehand in order to resume eating (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 564:1).

Its distinctive halachic feature is its severity regarding the calendar. Asara B’Teves is the only one of the four fasts that can fall on Erev Shabbos (Friday), and when it does, the fast is observed on that Friday and is not deferred, even though the day of mourning runs up against the entrance of Shabbos. In our fixed calendar it can never fall on Shabbos itself, yet the classical sources, as noted above, hold that its stringency is such that it would be kept even then — a status no other minor fast shares. The distinction between binding din and accepted minhag holds throughout, and the modern observance of Yom HaKaddish HaKlali is a respected later custom layered onto the fast, not a halachic requirement of the day.

A halachic note on this fast’s severity: Asara B’Teves is observed even when it falls on Friday — the only minor fast not deferred in that case — and classical authorities hold it carries a stringency approaching Yom Kippur because of the phrase b’etzem hayom hazeh. Still, the ill and pregnant or nursing women who find it difficult should not fast and should consult a rav.

The Spiritual Power of Tefillah and Tzedakah

The Gemara teaches that tzedakah rescues from death and turns aside a harsh decree (Bava Basra 10a; “u’tzedakah tatzil mimaves,” Mishlei 10:2) — and on a fast that mourns the very beginning of a decree’s fulfillment, that teaching could not be more pointed. The siege began on a single day; so does the work of averting one. Tefillah lifts our plea to the gates above, and tzedakah builds the merit that can turn a verdict before it hardens into ruin — the two joined into one avodah of return. The day that marks how quickly an end can begin is also the day that reminds us how quickly mercy can be summoned, if we act while the siege is still young.

This is the very purpose of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities. Rabbi Meir Baal Haness left a legacy to intercede in Heaven for those who give to the poor of Eretz Yisroel in his memory, and the Tenth of Teves — the first link in the chain of churban — calls us to forge a counter-chain of merit, beginning today. To fast for the siege of Yerushalayim and then to sustain the poor of that same city is to answer the day’s grief with the rebuilding it longs for.

Give Tzedakah in the Merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Asara B’Teves mourns the day the siege of Yerushalayim began — and teaches that the time to act is early, while mercy can still turn a decree. Let your fast become a merit for the poor of Eretz Yisroel and a stone in the rebuilding of the city. Donate Now

About Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, founded in 1799, is one of the oldest and most trusted tzedakah organizations serving the poor of Eretz Yisroel, upholding Rabbi Meir Baal Haness’s legacy that those who give to the needy in his memory find heavenly intercession in their time of need.

Today it distributes funds to Torah scholars, widows, orphans, and needy families throughout Eretz Yisroel — an unbroken chain of compassion and a zechus for the giver and their family.

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In the merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness, may the giving we begin today turn the start of mourning into the start of rebuilding.

Frequently Asked Questions About Asara B’Teves

Closing

A siege is set in motion long before the walls fall, and so is the rebuilding. On this fast we are asked to act while there is still time — to daven, to return, and to give to the poor of Eretz Yisroel while mercy can still turn the decree. May the merit of our giving hasten the promise of the navi, that this fast of the tenth month be transformed into gladness and joyful festivals, and may we soon see the Beis HaMikdash standing once more on its place.