Tzom Gedaliah: The Fast of Gedaliah

The Fast of Gedaliah — When the Last Ember of Jewish Life in the Land Was Extinguished

A Fast Wedged Between Judgment and Atonement

The Fast of Gedaliah falls on the day after Rosh Hashanah, while the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah are still fresh and the verdict of the new year is not yet sealed — and that placement is the whole meaning of the day. We have just crowned Hashem as King; now we mourn the man whose murder snuffed out the last flicker of Jewish self-rule in Eretz Yisroel after the first churban. The grief is sharpened by its setting, for the lesson of the day is that the destruction of the righteous is weighed in Heaven like the burning of the Beis HaMikdash itself. At Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, this fast lands in the very heart of the days when tefillah and tzedakah carry their greatest weight, when a single act of giving can tip a scale that is still trembling.

This is the quietest of the four fasts, and in some ways the most painful, because what was lost was not a wall or a building but a future — a community that might have endured in the land was scattered to the winds by one Jew’s hand against another. Let us learn what happened, what the day asks of us, and why its sorrow is bound up with the call to return.

Understanding the Fast of Gedaliah

Tzom Gedaliah (the Fast of Gedaliah) is a public dawn-to-nightfall fast observed on the third of Tishrei, the day after Rosh Hashanah, mourning the assassination of Gedaliah ben Achikam, the Jewish governor of the remnant left in Eretz Yisroel after the destruction of the First Beis HaMikdash. It is one of the four fasts named by the prophet Zechariah, who calls it tzom hashvi’i, the fast of the seventh month, since Tishrei is the seventh month counting from Nissan (Zechariah 8:19). Like the other minor fasts, it is generally obligatory for healthy adults, with standard leniencies for the ill and for pregnant or nursing women and cases of difficulty. It is codified among the four communal fasts in the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch (Rambam, Hilchos Taaniyos 5:2; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 549:1).

The day occupies a singular position in the calendar, falling within the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. A first-time learner should know it commemorates a political murder with vast spiritual consequences; one who keeps it yearly should note its placement in the days of judgment, which transforms it from a fast of memory into a fast of urgent teshuvah. Rabbeinu Yerucham, cited by the Beis Yosef (Orach Chaim 549), holds that Gedaliah was killed on Rosh Hashanah itself, and that the fast was observed later because we do not fast on Yom Tov.

The History and Origins of the Fast of Gedaliah

After Nevuchadnetzar destroyed the First Beis HaMikdash and exiled the bulk of the nation to Bavel, he left a remnant of the poorest people in the land and appointed Gedaliah ben Achikam as governor over them (Melachim II 25:22). Gedaliah set up his seat at Mitzpah and urged the scattered survivors to settle, work the land, and serve the king of Bavel in peace, and under him the remnant began, briefly, to recover (Yirmiyahu 40:7–12). It was a fragile, hopeful moment — the last chance for an unbroken Jewish presence in Eretz Yisroel after the churban.

That hope was destroyed by Yishmael ben Nesanyah, a man of the royal seed, incited by Baalis the king of Ammon (Yirmiyahu 40:14, 41:1–2). Warned of the plot, Gedaliah refused to believe ill of Yishmael and would not act on the warning, and Yishmael murdered him together with the Jews and Babylonians who were with him at Mitzpah (Yirmiyahu 41:1–3). In the terror that followed, the surviving remnant fled to Egypt against the explicit warning of the prophet Yirmiyahu, and with that flight the last Jewish settlement in the land came to an end (Melachim II 25:26; Yirmiyahu 42–43). Chazal established the fast not for a building but for a man, the Gemara teaching that the death of the righteous is set equal to the burning of the Beis Elokeinu (Rosh Hashanah 18b). The chachamim who transmitted this mesorah saw in Gedaliah’s murder the bitter fruit of internal strife — a tragedy of the people against itself, never to be read as mere politics.

The Prayers, Readings & Customs of the Fast

The Fast of Gedaliah follows the standard order of the minor public fasts, the same framework set out in full on our 17th of Tammuz page. Selichos for the fast are recited at Shacharis, Avinu Malkeinu is added morning and afternoon, and the Aneinu prayer is inserted into the Shemoneh Esrei — by the individual in Shema Koleinu and by the shaliach tzibbur as its own blessing. At Shacharis and Mincha the Torah is read from Vayechal Moshe (Shemos 32:11–14, 34:1–10), with the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, and at Mincha the haftarah of Dirshu Hashem b’himatzo (Yeshayahu 55:6–56:8) is read.

What gives this fast its distinct character is its place in the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.The day’s mourning for Gedaliah folds naturally into the broader avodah of the Ten Days — the turning of the heart back toward Hashem before the seal of Yom Kippur.

What the Fast of Gedaliah Means: A Deeper Look

The day turns on a single, uncomfortable truth: that the ruin of a people can come not from its enemies but from within. Let us draw out four of its lessons.

A fast for a person, not a place. Alone among the four fasts, Tzom Gedaliah mourns the death of a man rather than the loss of a building, and Chazal’s teaching that the death of tzaddikim weighs like the churban of the Mikdash (Rosh Hashanah 18b) reframes how we value a single righteous life. From this we may sense that the loss of a leader who holds a community together is itself a kind of destruction of a sanctuary. For the reader, it is a summons to recognize the irreplaceable in the people who quietly hold our own world together, before they are gone.

The danger of a brother’s hand. That a Jew of royal lineage murdered the very governor who was rebuilding Jewish life is the heart of the day’s grief. Gedaliah’s murder can be read as a tragic example of internal Jewish violence and communal fracture, and the Gemara’s teaching that baseless hatred, sinas chinam, brought the destruction of the Second Beis HaMikdash (Yoma 9b) stands as a sobering moral parallel — it speaks of that later churban, yet it casts its light back on this earlier act of a brother’s hand. We are asked to examine where our own resentment, however justified it feels, corrodes the bonds that hold Klal Yisroel together.

Gedaliah’s fatal trust. The navi records that Gedaliah was warned and refused to believe the warning, and the meforshim debate whether his refusal was a flaw or a greatness — an unwillingness to accept lashon hara even to save his own life. Niddah 61a teaches that Scripture attributes the ensuing deaths to Gedaliah, because he should have taken Yochanan ben Kareach’s warning seriously. The tension teaches that even our virtues require wisdom: trust untempered by discernment can cost everything.

The remnant scattered. What followed the murder was worse than the murder — the flight to Egypt, against prophecy, that ended Jewish life in the land. The lesson is that a tragedy’s true weight is often measured not in the moment of loss but in the doors it closes afterward.

The Laws & Customs of the Fast

Tzom Gedaliah is a minor fast, observed from dawn until nightfall, with only eating and drinking forbidden — washing, anointing, and leather shoes remain permitted, as on the other minor fasts (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 550:1–2). The same leniencies apply: pregnant and nursing women who suffer are exempt, and one who is ill does 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).

The fast carries a distinctive calendar feature. When the third of Tishrei falls on Shabbos — which happens when Rosh Hashanah begins on Thursday — the Fast of Gedaliah is deferred to Sunday, the fourth of Tishrei, since we do not fast on Shabbos for the minor fasts. Because it sits within the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, the fast also overlaps with the heightened standards of teshuvah of those days, though it imposes no additional inuyim beyond the fast itself. The distinction between binding din and accepted minhag holds here as throughout the season, and each community follows its received practice.

A halachic note: Tzom Gedaliah is a dawn-to-nightfall fast in which only eating and drinking are prohibited. Those who are ill, and pregnant or nursing women who find it difficult, should not fast and ought to consult a rav. When the 3rd of Tishrei is Shabbos, the fast moves to Sunday.

The Spiritual Power of Tefillah and Tzedakah

The Gemara teaches that tzedakah saves from death and averts harsh decrees (Bava Basra 10a; “u’tzedakah tatzil mimaves,” Mishlei 10:2) — a teaching with extraordinary force on a fast that sits inside the days of judgment, when the decree is still being written. Tefillah opens the gates above and tzedakah builds the merit that sweetens the judgment passing through them; together they are the avodah the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah were made for. The murder we mourn today was the fruit of brothers turned against each other, and the repair of that fracture begins precisely in the open hand — in giving to a fellow Jew rather than turning from him.

This is the work to which Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities is devoted. 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 there is no season when that intercession matters more than the days when the new year hangs in the balance. To fast for Gedaliah and then to give to the needy of the land he died trying to rebuild is to answer his loss with the very thing that was lost — a Jew reaching toward a Jew.

Give Tzedakah in the Merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness The Fast of Gedaliah mourns a future cut short by hatred between brothers, and it falls in the days when judgment is not yet sealed. Let your fast become an act of repair — tzedakah for the poor of Eretz Yisroel in a season when every merit counts. 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 every hand that gives help rejoin the bonds that hatred once severed.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Fast of Gedaliah

Closing

The Fast of Gedaliah commemorates the killing of Gedaliah ben Achikam by Ishmael ben Netaniah, an internal Jewish act that deepened the destruction. Yet the day’s gift is its timing: it falls while the gates of teshuvah are still open, while a judgment can still be softened by the turning of a heart and the reaching of a hand. Let us answer the fracture it mourns with its opposite — tefillah, teshuvah, and tzedakah for the poor of Eretz Yisroel — and may we be comforted among the mourners of Tzion and see the scattered ingathered, b’karov.