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Dec. 28th, 2017 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretIt's 10th of Tevet, the Jewish holiday whose observance in the Northern Hemisphere consists of skipping lunch. (A sunup to sundown fast day in deepest winter, when sundown is around 5:15pm) Nobody pays any attention to the Tenth of Tevet. It serves to commemorate the beginning of the siege that led to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. It thus runs parallel to the 17th of Tammuz, which commemorates the breach of the walls of Jerusalem leading to the destruction of the Second Temple. Both Temples were destroyed a few weeks after the 17th of Tammuz, on the 9th of Av. Which means that 17 Tammuz/9 Av form a tightly coupled pair, bookending a period of mourning called the Three Weeks. There's a clear sense on 17 Tammuz that we're beginning a period of mourning, and that's why the minor fast exists. But 10 Tevet lacks that sense of structure. You don't observe 10 Tevet and think "I'm starting up a period of observance and mourning that will last about seven months." Particularly not since the edifice whose destruction you would be mourning, the First Temple, was rebuilt! Also, particularly not since the subsequent seven months include the joyful holidays of Tu Bishvat, Purim, Pesach, and Shavuos. So 10 Tevet feels orphaned, separated from its context.
It's therefore hard to find meaning in the observance of the fast. I think you can try a Zionist spin on the day- we observe 10 Tevet as a reminder of the centrality of the Temple in Jerusalem to Jewish identity, a centrality that hasn't died even though the Temple hasn't existed in two thousand years. You can attempt a Messianist spin on the day- we observe 10 Tevet as a reminder that when Moshiach comes we won't observe 10 Tevet. 10 Tevet is thus a declaration of faith in the ultimate redemption as much as it's a mourning custom. You can use it to think about piety, because there are a half dozen familiar stories about great Rabbis who did manage to find 10 Tevet a moving and spiritual day, and interrogating their methods of feeling such sorrow over a 2500 year old disaster is valuable.
But I think my preferred take on 10 Tevet is my familiar cynical Orthoprax one: 10 Tevet matters because it's uninspirational. It's a thing you observe even though it has little meaning because it's part of the cycle of the Jewish year and Orthodox Judaism is about doing ritual observances even when you don't feel them because it's the religion as a whole that has meaning, not the individual rituals.
It's therefore hard to find meaning in the observance of the fast. I think you can try a Zionist spin on the day- we observe 10 Tevet as a reminder of the centrality of the Temple in Jerusalem to Jewish identity, a centrality that hasn't died even though the Temple hasn't existed in two thousand years. You can attempt a Messianist spin on the day- we observe 10 Tevet as a reminder that when Moshiach comes we won't observe 10 Tevet. 10 Tevet is thus a declaration of faith in the ultimate redemption as much as it's a mourning custom. You can use it to think about piety, because there are a half dozen familiar stories about great Rabbis who did manage to find 10 Tevet a moving and spiritual day, and interrogating their methods of feeling such sorrow over a 2500 year old disaster is valuable.
But I think my preferred take on 10 Tevet is my familiar cynical Orthoprax one: 10 Tevet matters because it's uninspirational. It's a thing you observe even though it has little meaning because it's part of the cycle of the Jewish year and Orthodox Judaism is about doing ritual observances even when you don't feel them because it's the religion as a whole that has meaning, not the individual rituals.