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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
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TZOM GEDALIAH
This is the Fast of Gedaliah, in memory of the Jewish governor Gedaliah ben
Ahikam, who was murdered on the 3rd of Tishrei (582 BC) by Ishmael ben
Nethaniah.
As we read in Jeremiah 41:2, Gedaliah was appointed by the Babylonian King
Nebuchadnezzar as governor for those Jews who remained in Jerusalem after the
destruction of the Temple. After the murder of Gedaliah, the people, “both small
and great,” fled to Egypt (Jeremiah 40-42).
The Talmudic sages later decided to institute a fast day in his memory “to teach
us that the death of a righteous man (tzadik) is like the burning of the
house of God” (Rosh Hashana 18:2).
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