Asarah BeTeiveit

Tragedies start small

while we still have time to change

Time to take the chance

The tenth of Tevet commemorates the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem. A year and a half later (on the seventeenth of Tamuz) the walls were penetrated. Three weeks after that (on the ninth of Av), the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed.

Asarah beTevet is unique among the fast days, in that it demarcates something that does not seem that horrible. One of the lessons of this day is that the beginning of a tragedy is also a tragedy. This can be compared to two short lines that each appear to be straight. However, one of them is very slightly curved, and so when you extend it the crookedness becomes more extreme, more noticeable.

There is a sad extension to this tragedy began a year and a half before it exploded and there was no return. The Jews had a year plus to contemplate their situation, reflect on their ways. They could have done teshuvah, but they didn't. That is also a part of what this day is about.

As the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch puts it (121:1), "The fasting is only a preparatory step intended to inspire repentance. Therefore, those people who, while fasting on these days, go on strolls and waste the day on idle matters, have grasped the secondary character of the day, but ignored its essence.