Tzom Gedalyah: The Fast of Gedaliah

After the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians, most of the remaining people in Jerusalem were sent into exile. However, a remnant of them were allowed by the conquerors to stay in the Land, under the governance of Gedaliah son of Achikam son of Shaphan. Gedaliah's father had been an ally and defender of Jeremiah the prophet, and his grandfather Shaphan had been the scribe who read the Torah to King Josiah, which had led to a temporary national repentance. Gedaliah encouraged the remaining Jews to gather food and prepare for the coming winter, while he handled diplomatic relations with the local Babylonian garrison. Many Jews who had been in hiding began to assemble to Gedaliah and to make preparations for life in the Land to go on.

Among the Jewish returnees was a band of men who had been staying with the neighboring Ammonites. Gedaliah was warned that these men, led by Ishmael son of Netanyah, planned to murder him, at the instigation of the king of Ammon. But Gedaliah refused to listen to the warnings, believing them to be slander and lashon hara (evil speech). As a result, the murderers found their opportunity in the month of Tishrei (according to most opinions, this took place on Rosh Hashanah itself), and they killed Gedaliah as well as many other innocents who were in the area, including the Babylonian emissaries, before taking captives and fleeing to the king of Ammon. On the way, they were intercepted by a fighting force of Jews who had been away on a mission, and came back too late to stop the slaughter. The pursuing Jews managed to rescue the captives, but the murderers escaped.

With no leader, and several slain Babylonians whose deaths would certainly be avenged by the king of Babylon, and no perpetrators in their hands whom they could blame for the crime, the remaining Jews all decided to flee to Egypt for safety. They first asked Jeremiah the prophet to inquire of G-d whether they should go to Egypt or stay in the land of Israel. G-d told Jeremiah to tell them that even though their situation looked grim, the Babylonians would not blame them for the deaths, and they would be safe if they stayed. But if they fled to Egypt, they would only be putting themselves on the front lines of the next war, and they would all die in the ensuing Babylonian invasion of Egypt. But the people refused to listen, blamed Jeremiah for lying to them and not telling them G-d's actual words, and proceeded to Egypt regardless. With their departure came the final end of Jewish sovereignty in the Land.

We fast not only for sadness at the death of a righteous man, but also because of the effect of his death: the extinguishing of the last Jewish community in Israel until the end of the Babylonian exile.

Was Gedaliah culpable for his own death and those of others?

"It is written, "Now the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain by the hand of Gedaliah…" (Jeremiah 41:9). But was it Gedaliah that killed them? Was it not in fact Ishmael that killed them? — But owing to the fact that [Gedaliah] should have taken note of the advice of Yohanan the son of Kareyach, and did not do so, Scripture regards him as though he had killed them." [Niddah 61a]

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the head of a yeshiva in Israel, writes:

"In his book 'Misillat Yisharim' (chapter 20), Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (also known as the Ramchal) wrote that 'weighing saintliness', that is, deciding when a particular trait is inappropriate or suitable, is "an extremely fundamental process".

The episode of Gedaliah ben Achikam (Jeremiah 40:13), the leader appointed by the Babylonian conquerors to govern Judea after the Temple's destruction, provides a clear illustration of this fact. Because of his abundant saintliness, which would not permit him to judge his enemy Yishmael adversely, or which would not permit him to receive slander, he said to Yochanan ben Kareach, 'You are speaking falsely of Yishmael.'

In the end, Yishmael murdered Gedaliah, and all the people with him, and Israel's last hope of rebuilding Judea was extinguished. The Talmud (Tractate Nidah 61a) attributes the death of those men who were killed to the sin of Gedaliah's abundant saintliness."

Gedaliah was permitted, and even required, to listen to reports about possible threats because of his position as protector of the Jewish people. When he refused to listen, he was abandoning his responsibilities to his people out of a misplaced sense of personal piety, and this led to the deaths of thousands. We must be careful that in our extra-stringent behavior, we do not end up causing others to be in danger of injury or death. This applies to spiritual injury as well.

Why don't we fast on the anniversary of Gedaliah's death?

We fast on the third day of Tishrei (or in the year 2024, the fourth of Tishrei), rather than on the actual anniversary of the assassination (which was on Rosh Hashana, the first day of Tishrei), because it is forbidden to fast on a holiday which G-d set aside as a time of rejoicing, for "eating the fatness and drinking the sweet" (Nehemiah 8:9-12). If a fast falls on a weekly Shabbos, we postpone the fast until the following day. Therefore, the fast of Gedaliah is always postponed from its 'standard date', and is never kept on the first of Tishrei.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe comments on this anomaly, and says that:

With regard to the postponement of a fast day, there is a Talmudic opinion (Megillah 5b) that “Once [the commemoration of a communal fast] has been postponed, it should be postponed [indefinitely, i.e., cancelled].” Understood literally, this statement expresses a minority opinion: that when a com­munal fast falls on Shabbos, the observance of the fast should not merely be postponed until Sunday (which is the halacha as we practice it), but that there is no need to fast at all. How­ever, rather than taking the Talmud in this way, the Hebrew wording of this expression leaves room for an extended interpretation: “Once it has been postponed, may it be utterly cancelled.” That is to say, a postponed fast is a time when there is a greater potential for bringing about the redemptive era, during which the misfortunes recalled by the communal fasts will be nullified entirely. We therefore are emboldened to ask that just as the fast has been postponed, so may it be a sign of favor that it will soon be completely cancelled.

The fact that the commemoration of the Fast of Gedaliah is always postponed each year, indicates that this day is uniquely empowered to hasten the coming of the Era of the Redemp­tion, when all the commemorative fasts will be transformed into “days of rejoicing and celebration.” May this be soon, speedily and in our days.

(See Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 33, the Seventeenth of Tammuz, 5748)