Since this year Asarah B’Teves has fallen out on Friday, some of our dear readers may be perusing these words before Shabbos, and some after. Either way, this fast day, unlike any other except for Yom Kippur, has interrupted our Shabbos. Although some poskim (see Nitei Gavriel, Teshuvah 14) hold that if we arrive home Friday night after sunset, we may break our fast, the majority (see Orach Chaim 551:10) hold that we must wait until tzeis hakochavim. That generally means that the table is set, we are hungry from the taanis, but we can’t make Kiddush. To the Torah Jew, this must feel shocking. A mere rabbinic edict is overriding the de’Oraisa mitzvah to make Kiddush. The only other rare occurrence when this can happen is if someone has a bad dream on a Thursday night and is fasting on Friday. Then, also, he must wait to make Kiddush. But this year, every healthy Jew is enjoined to postpone Kiddush, oneg Shabbos, and the seudah, which is sending a delicious aroma through the air. Although this is simply the halacha, let’s probe a little more deeply as to why we are seemingly invading the sanctity of our beloved Shabbos with aveilus over the churban Bais Hamikdosh. We don’t do this on Tisha B’Av or Shivah Assar B’Tammuz. What is the message we should be hearing and absorbing?
First, let’s review what happened on this day. The evil Nevuchadnetzar began to besiege Yerushalayim on this day. The Chasam Sofer (Drasha for Asarah B’Teves and in his commentary to the siddur, “Selichos” for this day) explains the significance of this event. Up in heaven, Yerushalayim was being judged. Nothing irreversible had yet happened. If we had taken the hint and repented, there would have been no churban. The Bais Hamikdosh would not have been destroyed. The immense kedusha of Kohanim offering korbanos, Levi’im singing their shiros, and Klal Yisrael receiving kapparah would have continued as if nothing happened. But sadly, we didn’t react sufficiently and Hashem allowed the enemy to complete its nefarious plan. Thus, Asarah B’Teves, unlike all other fast days, is not mainly about what actually happened, but what could have happened, and we tragically didn’t react appropriately.
To bring the Chasam Sofer’s words a bit closer to home, in the years leading up to Churban Europa, known as the Holocaust, the Nazis ym”sh enacted many decrees against Klal Yisroel. Rav Elchonon Wasserman and other gedolim sounded the alarm that Hashem was sending us dispatches from heaven, which we needed to heed. The Nuremberg laws separated Jews from Germans in ways that we should have done ourselves. We were forbidden from attending German schools, sharing their swimming pools, and even sitting on the same park benches. Unfortunately, we heard and saw only the Nazi iniquity, ignoring what our Father in heaven was telling us. Had we listened to Rav Elchonon’s words in his Sefer Ikvesa DeMeshicha, we might have been spared the worst slaughter in Jewish history. This is why Asarah B’Teves falling on Friday is so important. It reminds us that some warnings are so consequential that they even override Shabbos. We sit around, stunned, unable to make Kiddush, but this is a leil Shabbos that we will surely remember.
In the current atmosphere of world anti-Semitism, this exhortation is even more crucial. As the Ramban (Parshas Lech Lecha) teaches us, although Paroh is guilty of attempted genocide, the gezeirah began with the Bris Bein Habesarim that Hashem made with Avrohom Avinu. Paroh is not exonerated, because he exercised his free will, but our obligation is to recognize the Hand of Hashem in all events. One of the times that this harbinger is most eloquent is when the tenth of Teves falls on Erev Shabbos and we must wait even to make Kiddush. This is not a bad thing. It allows us to suffer only briefly on Shabbos so that we will absorb the powerful missive. Many meforshim remind us that the word Shabbos is related to the word teshuvah, which means return. The Shabbos Mussaf consists of the Alef–Bais going backwards from the letter tof back to the letter alef. That alef itself takes us to the word Sinai, when we first heard from Hashem as a nation. No, we will not have to fast for an entire Shabbos, but even a few minutes are enough, if we take them to heart. Even though we later make Kiddush, eat a beautiful meal, sing zemiros and absorb the oneg of Shabbos, we have been gently chastised and moved out of our comfort zone and complacency.
Another amazing explanation for why the only fast we have that occurs on Friday and we fast into part of Shabbos is offered elsewhere by the Chasam Sofer (Drashos, page 103). He notes that the secular holidays always fall out during times of our mourning and sadness. For this reason, he continues, this fast sometimes overrides Shabbos, since it represents our eternal conflict with Eisav. Rivkah Imeinu was told, “Two nations are in your womb; two regimes from your insides shall be separated; the might shall pass from one regime to the other” (Bereishis 25:23). The Chasam Sofer continues that “during Teves, the Torah was translated into Greek, which brought three days of darkness into the world” (see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 580). Not coincidentally, that is when their holidays begin, their calendar marks a new year, and they celebrate profanely. This is a fulfillment of the see-saw effect of the Yaakov-Eisav rivalry. When one is up, the other is down. When one is happy, the other is sad. We can now add to the Chasam Sofer’s wise words that Eisav and his descendants have always tried to destroy us and to lay claim to our times of holiness and joy (see Pachad Yitzchok, Purim, first and last maamorim).
Interestingly, Rav Gedaliah Schorr (Ohr Gedalyahu, Likkutim, end of Sefer Bereishis, page 154) states that “the essence of this fast day is to implant in us the middah of bitachon – trust in Hashem – to correct the lack of this trait in that generation.” We might ask: Where do we find that the people who were alive at that time were lacking in bitachon?
With the help of the Chasam Sofer, we can now better understand the Ohr Gedalyahu’s words. Hashem kindly showed a sign from heaven that we need to repent without major pain at that time. The siege of Yerushalayim was unpleasant, but not yet deadly, and allowed us to repent and avoid the churban itself. Unfortunately, our trust and faith in Hashem was not strong enough for us to react immediately to Hashem’s hints and signs. The antidote, as the rosh yeshiva teaches, is to strengthen ourselves in the middah of bitachon and heed Hashem’s warnings as soon as we receive them. Sadly, as Rav Shlomo Brevda (Sefer Veshochanti Besocham, page 27) used to lament, it often seems that the only thing we remember about Asarah B’Teves is that it is mercifully short, without realizing how much we can and need to accomplish in that short time.
So this Friday, we have our work cut out for us, but we also are being given a tremendous opportunity. We cannot only correct and redeem ancient errors, but can forge a path toward seizing this moment in time to bring the geulah sheleimah bimeheirah beyomeinu.
