Harkening back to ancient times, Jews united – and fasted for deliverance for besieged Israel on Thursday.
Shocked by the unimaginable carnage at the hands of Hamas terrorists that claimed 1,200 Israeli lives and about 100 hostages, the Jewish community that usually connects through food continues to abstain.
“We have a traditional practice for moments like this: ta’anit tzibbur [Hebrew for communal fast] – a fast that draws the whole community to unite to save those in crisis,” the Hadar Institute said on its Facebook page on Wednesday.
The Upper West Side-based Jewish educational institution, which on Wednesday led the fast, called on a number of Israeli hostages – “babies, children, entire families, the elderly and victims of the Holocaust” – saying “we have a religious and racial obligation to stand up. for sacrifice and cry to God.”
About 500 rabbis and leaders from around the world – including Canada, France and Argentina – joined Thursday’s dawn-to-dusk fast.
A man with an Israeli flag attends a solidarity ceremony for Israeli victims of a deadly attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas at the Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest on Oct. 11. 2023. Zsolt Szigetvary/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Just as food is synonymous with Jewish feast days, fasting is also synonymous with the command to commemorate the tragic events of the past, as a reminder to mend one’s ways.
“It is the accepted practice of the Jewish community, in times of trouble and distress, to declare a general fast on a particular day or days, in the hope that the power of prayer and almsgiving, fasting and self-purification, will bring heavenly salvation,” he wrote. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in “A Guide to Jewish Prayer.”
Those who want to draw strength from each other and strengthen Jewish unity like the initiative.
The Jewish community will fast to free Israelis terrorized by Hamas. Present / Facebook
“Jews all over the world will be fasting tomorrow. I don’t know the last time in history the Jewish community started fasting,” Jewish journalist and activist Daniella Greenbaum Davis write on X. “We are begging our god: please. Stop this bloodshed.”
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And it wasn’t just Jews who felt compelled to participate. “As a Catholic, I’ll go with it. I hope that’s ok!?” one user write on X.
“There is a long tradition in Judaism to designate additional fasting days in moments of crisis and communal need,” Hadar’s executive director and fasting organizer, Rabbi Avi Killip, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
People take part during a demonstration at Israel’s Fiftieth Anniversary Square, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Oct. 10. 2023. Isaac Fontana/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock American-Israeli families whose loved ones are missing and believed to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza speak at a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 10, 2023. Debbie Hill/UPI/Shutterstock
“In the face of this attack, which is so deliberate against Jews, it feels powerful to have an ancient Jewish ritual response, and I just feel grateful to have that outlet.”
Mark Twain’s prophetic quote, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” evokes another hastily assembled Jewish communal fast.
Queen Esther tried to preempt the extermination of the Jews by advising the Jews “not to eat or drink for three days, night or day,” and finally succeeded in crushing their enemies in the ancient Persian empire, part of modern-day Iran. It’s a bitter equation, given that Iran is generally thought to be behind Hamas’s heinous attacks on Israel.
Israeli forces remove the bodies of civilians, killed a few days earlier in an attack by Palestinian militants on this kibbutz near the border with Gaza, on Oct. 10. 2023 in Kfar Gaza, Israel.Getty Images
Fasting brings together a sense of unity for those who want to channel their grief constructively.
“In hours of extreme shock and helplessness, Jewish tradition turned to public fasting,” wrote NYC-based Katja Vehlow, a conservative rabbi, on Facebook.
“I really like the idea of a day of joint prayer on behalf of the hostages in Gaza, especially for the Jews of the diaspora. I invite you to dip your toes into this tradition, to mourn, and cry and find hope as we gather our strength for what comes next.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
