Shavuah Tov!!! Wishing everyone a blessed week!
The 10th of Tevet is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance which began before sunrise until nightfall.
Today we commemorate the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies and the emperor Nebuchadnezer on the year 3336 from creation (425 BCE). Before the siege, for years H”S had sent his prophets to warn Israel of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple if they didn’t change their ways. But sadly the people disregarded them as crazy and continued on their evil ways. H”S repeatedly sent the Prophet Jeremiah to admonish them, but they were so foolish that the imprisoned him.
The 10th of Tevet is viewed as the beginning of what would bring the destruction of the Temple and subsequent exiles a year and a half later on the 9th of Av. Ever since the Jewish people haven’t been able to get back to their glory.
We also commemorate two tragic events that took place on the 8th and 9th of Tevet.One was the translation of the Torah to Greek. The Egyptian Greek Emperor Ptolemy kidnapped 72 Torah sages and put them in separate rooms and ordered them to translate the Torah.On the 8th of Tevet of 3515(246BCE), miracously they produced 72 identical translations.Despite the miracles the sages viewed it as one of the darkest days in Jewish History compared to “the sin of the golden calf.”
Moses had translated the Torah in 70 different languages, but the difference was that he did it by H”S instruction. But Ptolemy’s agenda was to make the Torah a simple history book and degrade its original meaning.
The third event was the death of Ezra the Scribe on the 9th of Tevet 3448(313BCE), 1000 years after the giving of the Torah at Mt.Sinai. He was the one who helped the Jews return to their homeland and build the Second Temple. Amongst other great things he did was he formalized prayer, instituted the 24 books of the Tanach and helped continue Jews to live according to Halacha.
Our calendar has a circular energy, whatever happened thousands of years on this day still affects us. Use the day wisely and adopt one new mitzvah.In many communities this day is used to say Kaddish for the Holocaust victims.
