On the day of Monday, September 14, Jews around the world fast from dawn until nightfall in memory of the assassination of Gedaliah, the governor of Judea during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. The fast falls on the first non-festival day following Rosh Hashanah—that is, the 3rd of Tishrei.
This year, the fast begins at 4:39 a.m. in Dnipro and ends at 7:27 p.m.
This fast commemorates events that took place nearly two and a half millennia ago. As is known, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, while at war with Egypt, repeatedly seized Judea, whose rulers favored a pro-Egyptian stance. Judea was first conquered in 605 BCE, yet the Babylonians allowed it to retain its own administration, king, and status as a state. Seven years later, Judea sided with Egypt. The Babylonians took captive the Judean king Jeconiah and ten thousand members of the national elite, including military personnel, arms makers, and courtiers. King Zedekiah was installed as the ruler of Judea, though now with the status of a vassal governor.
Six years later, Zedekiah led another revolt, having compromised himself by allying with Egypt. The Babylonians crushed Judah; after a two-year siege, Jerusalem was captured and the First Temple destroyed. The king fled through a cave (now a tourist attraction) but was captured and blinded, and his sons were executed, thereby bringing an end to the four-hundred-year reign of the Davidic dynasty. A vast number of people—primarily members of the upper classes—were taken into captivity.
However, Nebuchadnezzar did not wish to destroy Judah and the Jewish people; he allowed the common people to remain on their land to engage in farming and crafts. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam—a wise and just man and a friend of the prophet Jeremiah—as ruler of Judah.
Gedaliah vigorously encouraged the cultivation of fields and vineyards, and the Jewish community began to revive. News of this spread, and many Jews who had fled to safety in neighboring countries during the war began to return. Governor Gedaliah urged the people to remain loyal to Babylon and promised peace and security. It can be said that this promise was kept: the Babylonian garrison stationed in the land did not mistreat the Jews but actually protected them from hostile neighbors.
However, the peaceful development of Judea did not please everyone; among those who had returned to the land was Ishmael, a prince of the House of David who, like his kinsmen, favored a pro-Egyptian stance. After making preparations and securing allies, he attacked Gedaliah on the second day of the New Year—the year 3339 according to the Jewish calendar—killing him and many of his supporters, and also wiping out the small Babylonian garrison stationed in the city of Mizpah.
For Judea, the consequences were dire: it lost the last vestiges of its independence. Nebuchadnezzar abolished the Kingdom of Judah altogether, turning it into a Babylonian province and carrying its inhabitants off into captivity—except for those who had fled to Egypt. However, this offered only a brief reprieve for those who had chosen Egypt; a few years later, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, and the majority of the Jews perished in the process.
Gedaliah has gone down in history as a wise statesman who did not pursue short-term political (or “geopolitical”) goals, but rather sought to secure what mattered most: a Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. His death—and the calamities brought upon everyone by those who sought to play a game on the “chessboard”—marked the final act in the chain of tragedies surrounding the destruction of the First Temple and served as a grim warning to future generations.
A fast was instituted to commemorate the death of Gedaliah; however, since Gedaliah was killed on the second day of the month of Tishrei—a day that holds the status of *Yom Tov*—the fast commemorating the events of that time is observed on the third of Tishrei, and in cases where the third of Tishrei falls on Shabbat, the fast is postponed by another day.
Wishing you an easy fast, dear readers!
