Fast of Gedaliah

Fast of Gedaliah –Sep 8, 2013, Tishrei 3

Commemorates the assassination of Gedalya Ben Achikam and start of Babylonian exile of the Jewish people (Early 6th century B.C.E.)

The Fast of Gedalia (Hebrew: צוֹם גְּדַלְיָּה‎ Tzom Gedalya), also spelled Gedaliah, is a Jewish fast day from dawn until dusk to lament the assassination of the righteous governor of Judah of that name, which ended Jewish rule following the destruction of the First Temple.

Origins

When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, he killed or exiled most of its inhabitants and appointed Gedaliah, son of Achikam, as governor of the now-Babylonian province of Judah. Many Jews who had fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other neighboring lands returned to Judah, tended the vineyards again, and enjoyed a new respite after their earlier suffering.

However, Baalis, king of Ammon, was hostile and envious of the Judean remnant and sent a Judean, Yishmael Ben Netaniah, who was descended from the royal family of Judea, to assassinate Gedaliah. In the seventh month (Tishrei) of 582/1 BCE (some four to five years following the destruction of the Temple, although the exact year is unclear and subject to dispute; others claim the assassination took place in the same year as the destruction), a group of Jews led by Yishmael came to Gedaliah in the town of Mitzpa and were received cordially. Gedaliah had been warned of his guests’ murderous intent, but refused to believe his informants, having the belief that their report was mere slander. Yishmael murdered Gedaliah, together with most of the Jews who had joined him and many Babylonians whom the Babylonian King had left with Gedaliah. The remaining Jews feared the vengeance of the Babylonian King (in view of the fact that the King’s chosen ruler, Gedaliah, had been killed by a Jew) and fled to Egypt.

In the Bible

The events are recounted briefly in the Hebrew Bible in 2 Kings 25:25–26

But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mitzpah.

And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

A fuller account is in Jeremiah, chapter 41, where the murder of a group of envoys and the kidnapping of the gubernatorial staff and family are also related.

Institution of fast

The surviving remnant of Jews was thus dispersed and the land remained desolate. In remembrance of these tribulations, the Jewish sages instituted the ‘Fast of the Seventh’ (see Zechariah 8:19) on the day of Gedaliah’s assassination in the seventh month.

It is suggested that Gedaliah was slain on the first day of Tishrei but the fast is not commemorated until after Rosh Hashanah, since fasting is prohibited during a festival. The Rabbis have said that the aim of this fast day is to establish that the death [i.e. murder] of the righteous is likened to the burning of the House of God. Just as they ordained a fast upon the destruction of the Jewish Temple, likewise they ordained a fast upon the death of Gedaliah.