This fast is a fairly serious one in terms of halacha. The אבודרהם says that if עשרה בטבת would fall out on Shabbos we would still fast, something that we don’t find by most fasts. Yet, if you look at the impetus for the fast it seems to pale in comparison to our other fasts. What happened on עשרה בטבת? The Babylonians came and surrounded the wall of ירושלים where they built a tower to be able to strategically hold the siege. And then they waited. And waited. Until two and a half years later, on the 17th of טמוז when they broke through the wall. Put that up again the destruction of both temples (תשעה באב), the actual breach of the wall (שבעה עשר בטמוז), or even when גדליה בן אחיקם got murdered, which signified the crushing of any possible hope that the Jewish state would survive. Laying siege and then camping out for over two years just doesn’t seem like such a big deal. So why is it a fast that has an element of stringency over other fasts which seem to commemorate more tragic events?
We hear about the story of עשרה בטבת from two different vantage points in תנ”ך. We hear the story of what happened in מלכים ב’ פרק כה’, how נבוכדנצר and his army surrounded the walls and choked the city until there were no more supplies or food, causing a huge famine. While this is going on Hashem is talking to יחזקאל in בבל and telling him about what is going on in ירושלים. In יחזקאל פרק כד’ no specifics are given, all we hear is בן אדם כתב לך את שם היום את עצם היום הזה סמך מלך בבל אל ירושלים בעצם היום הזה. Son of man, write for yourself the name of this day, the essence of this day the king of Babylonia “leaned” on ירושלים on the essence of this day.
The phrase בעצם היום הזה is a phrase that doesn’t appear frequently in תנ”ך. It appears a few select times; when Noach went into his Ark, בעצם היום הזה בא נח ושם ויפת בני נח ואשת נח ושלשת נשי בניו אתם אל התבה. When Avraham perform his ברית מילה, בעצם היום הזה נמול אברהם וישמעאל בנו. When the Jews left Egypt after 210 years of slavery, ויהי בעצם היום הזה הוציא יה-וה את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים על צבאתם. By Yom Kippur when we get cleansed from all past year’s sins, כי ביום הזה יכפר אליכם לטהר אתכם. And lastly, our story of עשרה בטבת. What is the underlying theme of these events? Especially since עשרה בטבת seems so much less important than the rest of them.
The word בעצם is translated by most as that “very” day, which seems to make it an emphatic word, like the word is meant to highlight the significance of the day. We know that the word עצם means bones as well, and it is also used to denote essence. An essence, purpose or mission are ideas which tie to the word בעצם. I think that what was so special about each of those days and about עשרה בטבת is that they are days packed with essence. They make up the skeleton or fundamental structure of a larger chunk of time. These days hold a huge amount of potential that unravels as time proceeds.
Yom Kippur for example is the day that we meet with our Creator and get cleansed in the process, this day is the essence of our moving forward and washing off a year of misdoings. The day Avraham gave himself a ברית מילה was the day that our nation began to be born. This was the first time that a human was physically transcending nature. Noach, that day was the structure for a whole new world to emerge from the ashes of destruction. יציאת מצרים was literally the birth of a nation that is still around 3,370 years later, all those lives, troubles, pains, successes and joys were wrapped up in potential on that night.
So, this day so many years ago when נבוכדנצר surrounded the beautiful walls of ירושלים, he was building the structure that would directly lead to the breach of the wall on the 17th of טמוז, the destruction of the בית המקדש on תשעה באב and the assassination of Gedaliah on 3rd of תשרי. And that is what we are mourning for. That is the essence of this fast day.
I think the אבודרהם chose the stringency of having to fast on Shabbos to highlight this point. The מהר”ל says that each Shabbos holds the power of the week to come in potential. Hashem actively created the first 6 weekdays, and then he created Shabbos. And in that Shabbos, He put the power for the next six days and the next Shabbos to unfold. Shabbos is also a day of powerful potential. And for this reason, עשרה בטבת which is the mourning on the level of potential will override Shabbos which is the power of potential.
On the message of potential, my wife told me something amazing which ties in very nicely. We say every morning, אשר נתן לשכוי בינה להבחין בין יום ובין לילה. When the rooster crows at the tip of dawn, to the human eye it looks blacker than ever. The rooster is able to be בוחן to probe and search to see the very beginning of the day, the moment when the day as we know it is still potential. And every morning we remind ourselves that it all may look black as night, but, it is the beginning of a new day. And that is why our day’s start either at night or at the break of dawn, before light is recognizable. Our special characteristic in the world is to see potential and help bring it into existence in reality.
May we be zoche to have the siege undone and have our בית המקדש rebuilt today.