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Four days each year, we fast to mourn for the Beit HaMikdash and commemorate the Churban. Though the Churban occurred almost two millennia ago, we continue fasting because its impact continues to this day. The Rambam (Taan. 5:1) explains that the Churban persists because we continue committing the sins that caused the initial Churban. We continue suffering the same fate because we keep making the same mistakes.

“Any generation in which the Beit HaMikdash is not rebuilt, it is as if it were destroyed in that generation (Yeru., Yoma 5a).” The Beit HaMikdash has not yet been rebuilt because we are guilty of the very sins that destroyed it.

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Asara B’Tevet: More Than a “Minor” Fast

Many of us are surprised to be fasting on a Friday. We do so because we are careful to always fast on precisely the tenth day of Tevet – no matter on which day of the week it falls. We would even fast on Shabbat if the tenth fell out on that day (B”Y, O”C 650:3). In this way, Asara B’Tevet has the same status as Yom Kippur. They (as opposed to even Tisha B’Av) are the only two fasts we observe even on Friday or Shabbat.

Why do we treat Asara B’Tevet this way? Why do we view fasting on the precise day the siege began as more important than doing so on the day the Beit HaMikdash was actually destroyed?

 

The Beginning/Decision

Rav Yonatan Eibeshitz (Yaarot Devash 1:2), the Bnei Yissachar (Kis.-Tev. 14), and the Chatam Sofer (Derashot) link Asara B’Tevet’s uniqueness to its having been the beginning of the process of the Churban. This beginning is significant because it was the moment Hashem decided to destroy the Beit HaMikdash and exile the Jewish people. Though the actual Churban and exile occurred many months after the tenth of Tevet, they were mere implications of the fateful decision Hashem made on that day.

The true significance of the siege of Yerushalayim lies in what it reflected about Hashem’s relationship with us. By cutting the Jewish people off from the world, Hashem displayed His separation from us as well.

Hashem taught this idea by instructing Yechezkel to hold an iron pan next to a model of Yerushalayim when the siege began on Asara B’Tevet (4:3). The Gemara (Ber. 32b) infers from this act that, after the Churban, a “mechitza shel barzel” (iron partition) separates the Jewish people from Hashem. The Churban of the Beit HaMikdash and actual exile occurred later on, but the partition was already in place from Asara B’Tevet – the day Hashem distanced Himself from us.

This is why the Asara B’Tevet fast is always observed on precisely the tenth of Tevet and no later – it is critical to mark the moment Hashem made this fateful decision.

Often, we notice the severity of a decision only once we see its implications. Asara B’Tevet teaches us to consider decisions and dangers while there is still time to change course. It highlights the siege’s more profound spiritual significance – Hashem’s decision to distance Himself from us.

 

Today’s Sieges

In the spirit of the Rambam’s words, Asara B’Tevet is a time to focus on the siege we continue experiencing today. Indeed, the State of Israel and the Jewish people continue to be besieged – on two levels.

Physically, Israel has been surrounded by an Iranian-supported “ring of fire” committed to our destruction. We have faced Hamas in the southwest, Hezbollah in the north, Syria in the northwest, and the Houthis and Iran in the east.

Though, over the past months, Hashem has helped us reduce this physical siege, Israel and Jews around the world have faced an additional virulent siege consisting of demonization, delegitimization, divestment, and sanction. In the eighty years since the Holocaust, Jews began to feel more welcome in countries across the world. After the Oslo Accords and even more so after the Abraham Accords, the State of Israel came to feel more like a nation among nations.

All this changed dramatically over the past year and a half. Though we were the victim of a massive barbaric terrorist attack, most of the world’s nations sympathize with the barbarians and their supporters and condemn us for defending ourselves. As we fight the Charvot Barzel (Iron Swords) war for our very survival, governments, universities, and organizations around the world call for divestment from the isolation of the State of Israel. A mere eighty years after the Holocaust, the Jewish people are once again alone and besieged.

Why are we constantly under siege? What is the solution?

 

The Deeper Explanation

The Asara B’Tevet commemoration of past sieges offers the answer. As we saw, Hashem taught Yechezkel the deeper significance of the siege. Hashem cut us off from the world to show us that He, too, distanced Himself from us. Today, too, we are attacked and besieged by other nations because we have not repaired our relationship with Hashem; we have not yet fixed the sins that fractured our relationship with Him and thus caused the Churban and subsequent suffering.

Physical and political sieges are the results of spiritual separation. They are a continuation of the ancient pre-Churban siege and are due to and reflective of Hashem’s separation from us. We are forced to fight the war and endure the sieges of Charvot Barzel because of the mechitza shel barzel erected almost two millennia ago.

Though Hashem has facilitated our return to our land, He expects us to return to Him as well. Until we do, He continues to facilitate our isolation and besiegement to remind us how far we still are from Him.

 

This Year’s Decision

The Chatam Sofer (Derashot) adds that each year, Hashem convenes the heavenly court on Asara B’Tevet to decide whether the Beit HaMikdash will be rebuilt this year. On the day he made the initial decision to destroy, He revisits and reconsiders.

On Asara B’Tevet this year, let’s give Hashem good reason to end our suffering by seeking to transcend the mechitza shel barzel. Let’s strengthen our relationship with Hashem so the millennia-long siege and associated Jewish suffering can finally come to an end through the building of the Beit HaMikdash speedily in our days.


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Rav Reuven Taragin is the Dean of Overseas Students at Yeshivat Hakotel and Educational Director of World Mizrachi - RZA. He lives with his wife Shani and their six children in Alon Shvut, Israel.