Fast of Gedalia
The Fast of Gedalia (Hebrew: צוֹם גְּדָלִיָּה) is a Jewish fast day starting at dawn up to the time of sundown to wail the killing of the virtuous ruler of Judah of that name, which finished Jewish rule and consummated the ruin of the 1st Temple.
Sources
When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem, he murdered and expelled the majority of its residents and nominated Gedaliah, son of Achikam as ruler of the now-Babylonian district of Judah. Many Jews who escaped to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and additional adjacent kingdoms gone back to Judah, looked after the vineyards once again, and took pleasure in a brand new stay following their earlier hardship.Baalis king of Ammon, nonetheless, belligerent and jealous of the Judean remainder, dispatched and spurred a Jew, Yishmael Ben Netaniah, who was a descended from the royal people of Judea, to murder Gedaliah. In the 7th month, Tishrei, a pack of Jews directed by Yishmael reached Gedaliah in the city of Mitzpa and was taken in nicely. Gedaliah had been cautioned of his visitor's homicidal intention, yet declined to believe his sources, having the conviction that their account was j a case of defamation. Yishmael assassinated Gedaliah, in conjuction with the majority of the Jews who had accompanied him and a lot of Babylonians whom the Babylonian King had left with Gedaliah. The outstanding Jews dreaded the retribution of the Babylonian King since his designated leader, Gedaliah, had been murdered by a Jew and ran away to Egypt.
In The Bible
The occurrences are quickly reported in the Hebrew Bible in 2 Kings 25:25-26.However, it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mitzpah.
Furthermore, all the people, both little and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and arrived to Egypt; for they were fearful of the Chaldeans.
A stronger narrative is in Jeremiah, chapter 41 where the homicide of an ensemble of representatives and the abduction of the gubernatorial personnel and family are also associated.
Custom of fast
The remaining remainder of Jews was hence scattered and the land rested uninhabited. In recollection of these difficulties, the Jewish authorities established the 'Fast of the Seventh' on the day of Gedaliah's murder in the seventh month.It is implied that Gedaliah was murdered on the 1st day of Tishrei however the fast was deferred until after Rosh Hashanah, since fasting is forbidden for the time of a commemoration. Regarding this fast day, the Rabbis have expressed that its purpose is to institute that the dying of the virtuous is compared to the burning of the house of God. Just as they installed a fast upon the devastation of the Jewish Temple, likewise, they inducted a fast upon the dying of Gedaliah.
Times
The fast is observed right away subsequent the 2nd day of the High Holiday of Rosh Hashana, the 3rd of Tishrei in the Jewish calendar. The Gregorian time for The Fast of Gedalia changes each and every year derived from when it coincides with the 3rd of Tishrei.When Rosh Hashanah comes on Thursday and Friday, the fast is put off up to the Sunday, which would fall on the fourth of Tishrei, because no public fast can be watched on the Shabbat except for Yom Kippur.
In 2008, this fast day was watched on October 2.
In 2009, this fast day is watched on September 21.