Asara B’Tevet | Discovering Asara B'Tevet | An Introduction to Asara 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. See our calendar for exact times.
Jerusalem Surrounded
8 Tevet: Translating the Torah Into Greek
9 Tevet: Passing of Ezra the Scribe
A Composite of Sadness
How to Pray Today
What does it commemorate?
Jerusalem Surrounded
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.1
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.
The 10th of Tevet also commemorates two tragic events that occurred close to that date, which were incorporated into the Selichot of 10 Tevet.
8 Tevet: Translating the Torah Into Greek
In an effort to translate the Torah into Greek (following an unsuccessful attempt 61 years earlier), the ruling Egyptian-Greek emperor Ptolemy gathered 72 Torah sages, had them sequestered in 72 separate rooms, and ordered them to each produce a translation. On the 8th of Tevet of the year 3515 (246 BCE), they produced 72 identical translations. This was miraculous, especially since there were 13 places where the translators intentionally diverged from the literal translation.4
Despite the miracles, the rabbis viewed this event as one of the darkest days in Jewish history, comparing it to the day the Jews made the golden calf.
Now, translating the Torah is not a bad thing. After all, Moses himself had translated the Torah into 70 languages.
But, unlike that divine endeavor, this was a human project, initiated by a mortal ruler. As such, it could become a “golden calf”-a humanly defined vessel for the divine truth. Instead of faithfully conforming to their sacred content, the foreign garments could allow for distortion of the Torah’s original meaning.
Indeed, the Greek translation advanced the agenda of the Hellenist Jews to bring Greek culture into Jewish life, transforming the holy Torah into just another book of wisdom in Ptolemy’s great library.
Read: What Was Wrong With Translating the Torah Into Greek?
9 Tevet: Passing of Ezra the Scribe
Ezra the Scribe passed away on the 9th of Tevet of the year 3448 (313 BCE), exactly 1000 years after the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
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