Asarah B’Tevet The Fast of 10 Tevet and other sad events

A Month of Sad Events We remember three sad events that occurred in this month: The Torah was translated into Greek The death of Ezra The city of Jerusalem came under siege

The Torah was translated Event #1 The Torah was translated into Greek 8th of Tevet

The Greeks Take Control After the fall of the Persian Empire, the Greeks took control. They controlled much of the Middle East, including Israel. King Ptolemy (of Egypt) was appointed ruler of the region.

The Decree Ptolemy ordered that the Torah be translated into Greek. He assembled 72 of the greatest Torah scholars of the time. Each scholar was ordered to write his own translation of the entire Torah. Scholars were assigned to different rooms, so that no two scholars shared the same location.

Why Was This Decree So Bad? Until now, the Torah had always been written in its original Hebrew. Translating it meant that other nations could read it…and possibly misinterpret it. Ptolemy intentionally put each scholar in a different room – so that they could not communicate with one another. Prevented them from speaking about which changes to make.

A Miracle – But Not Enough A miracle happened – even though the 72 scholars couldn’t speak to one another, they all made the same changes. Changed the words of the pesukim that were hard to understand. Despite the miracle, the Torah was now officially translated into Greek. The final translations were made on the 8th of Tevet.

Event #2 The death of Ezra 9th of Tevet

Who was Ezra? A scribe (wrote Torah scrolls) Came from Aharon’s family line of kohanim One of the first leaders after the period of Nevi’im finished Led the Jews back to Israel after the first Beit HaMikdash was destroyed Granted permission by the Persians Many Jews accompanied him, but many did not Did not want to leave their comfortable homes behind Introduced new decrees to make people more religious

What His Death Meant The death of Ezra created a big loss for the Jewish people. Losing your star quarterback for the entire season Lack of leadership created chaos and confusion He died on the 9th of Tevet

Jerusalem is under siege Event #3 Jerusalem is under siege 10th of Tevet

Consequences The Jews were not observing Torah and mitzvot Hashem decided that they must receive a consequence for their bad choices. The Babylonians (Bavel) were chosen by Hashem to carry out this consequence. King Nevuchadnezer led the attack

The Beginning of the End The Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem Siege = when nothing can leave or enter the city, including food Built forts all around the walls of the city to make sure that nothing passed through The siege lasted for three years Intense famine Hope is lost

Timeline of Events 10th of Tevet 10th of Av 9th of Av THREE YEARS LATER… Babylonians lay siege around Jerusalem City walls are breached Beit HaMikdash destroyed

Why We Fast On the 10th of Tevet Even though the actual destruction of the Beit HaMikdash did not occur until the 9th of Av (7 months after the siege), we fast on the day when it all began, the day of the siege.

Write a thoughtful response to the following questions Think and Respond Directions: Write a thoughtful response to the following questions What three sad events took place around the time of Asarah B’Tevet? 2. In terms of the sad events that took place, how is the 10th of Tevet different from the 9th of Av? 3. How do you think the people of Israel felt on the 10th of Tevet? Describe a scene from Israel from that day. 4. How can we make changes in our daily routine to prevent something like from happening again?