Wednesday, June 28, 2006

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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