Ta’anit – “The Fast” – Hunger Strikes
- When a natural calamity strikes, there’s work to be done. In modern times, we turn to our leaders, scientists, engineers, and similar folk to fix things for us. Sure, sometimes we have to get involved, but mostly these days, we want someone to do it all for us, limiting our participation to “thoughts and prayers”, more and more as simply rote online postings. In ancient times, where a natural calamity was more often perceived as an act of God, people took it as a sign that the community had done something wrong, and needed to mend their ways and repent. In some religions that took the form of human sacrifice, or other extremes of physical punishment, like mortification, flagellation, or blood-letting. Leave it to my people to pick for their extreme punishment… not eating.
- 11/14/21, Chapter 1, Page 2 – Rain. That’s where this tractate starts. There are times when rain is a blessing – after all, we’re talking about an agricultural society, who relied on rain for the growth of crops. We’re also talking about a desert society, who relied on rain for drinking and washing water. But rain is not always welcome, for example, the sages note, you don’t want it to rain during Sukkot, when we’re all living in flimsy outdoor huts. So when should religious leaders issue a call for prayers for rain? Why, immediately before the start of the rainy season, of course. That way, you can generally be assured that your prayers will be answered. Strikes me as akin to the rainmaking practices of conmen in the early 20th century.
- 11/15/21, Page 3 – Apparently rain, and specifically, prayers for rain, are going to be a big part of this tractate. An interesting discussion today noting that there are numerous prayers for rain in our tradition, but not for wind, clouds, dew, or sunlight. And why not? Because those are all “givens” – they occur regularly, no matter what. Rain, however, is more fickle, and in many places is limited to seasons. There’s some subtext going on here, with rain being equated to both individual and communal gifts from god… perhaps innate talent, intelligence, and/or drive… while the wind etc. are the conditions and circumstances we find ourselves in on a daily basis. I assume we’ll get into that more and more as the tractate goes on.
- 11/16/21, Page 4 – The rabbis discuss the making of unreasonable promises. They begin with being careful what you promise, and finish with being responsible for keeping your word, or appropriately handling not keeping your word, using examples of men who made promises that had potentially horrific consequences, as in the story of Jephthah sacrificing his daughter when he felt compelled to honor the letter of his vow, rather than the intent. I am taken back forty years to the weekend I took the est Training. I realize Werner Erhard was paraphrasing past philosophers, but: “If you play big and make big promises you may not keep your word. That’s not bad or wrong. Just tell the truth about it, i.e., clean it up if it happens.”
- 11/17/21, Page 5 – I’m back to the rainmaking conmen from days of yore, though in this case going back far further than the dustbowls of the Midwest in the early 1900s. I already noted my suspicions of a con on the opening page of this tractate, when we were told to hold off on praying for rain until just before the start of the rainy season. Those suspicions are compounded when, on today’s page we’re told to continue praying for rain, every day, until the rains are confirmed to have stopped, at the end of the rainy season. Then, and only then, do we stop praying for rain, not to be picked up again until next year’s rainy season pops around.
- 11/18/21, Page 6 – As the rabbis argue over when the rainy season starts and ends, I can’t help but be cynical after the previous four pages. Though they don’t discuss the prayers for rain that were covered on those pages, it seems pretty clear to me that the result of the argument is important not for any random reasons, or agricultural purposes, but in order to know when the period for offering their rainmaking prayers is. I mean, if you get it wrong, it won’t look like the prayers have anything to do with the rain and people might start to think they’re unrelated. Can’t have that.
- 11/19/21, Page 7 – A person who studies Torah is like a tree in a field, says today’s discussion. If they study with intent to learn and share their learning, you can “eat from them” and you both grow stronger. If they study for self-importance, you chop them down. The Torah itself is like rain, flowing into the scholar/tree, and spreading out like dew around them. However, if they are not worthy, the rain will fall hard enough to knock them down. There are more metaphors thrown about, the most important ones still relate to study, and compare the spark of learning to starting a fire, and the sharpening of knowledge to the honing of steel, conclude that it’s always better to study with someone else, rather than alone.
- 11/20/21, Page 8 – Everyone is different when it comes to studying and learning new material. If a student is struggling to understand a basic concept, it’s unlikely that they’re going to understand ideas that develop from that concept. If, despite their repeated trying to learn material, they are still floundering, it’s the responsibility of the teacher to find a new approach to the basic concept that the student can follow. It’s also the responsibility of the student’s fellow students to help where they can. Teaching and learning are not a one size fits all situation, and forging ahead while others drop behind does not benefit the community. So say the sages in regard to Torah study, though it’s clearly an approach that could apply to other subject matter.
- 11/21/21, Page 9 – It’s not unusual, when visiting a place we’re not familiar with, to make assumptions based on our own backgrounds and cultures. It’s also not unusual to find that, in those different circumstances that we misunderstood what was happening. Yet, time and again, we will offer up our opinions as if they were the truth, based not on facts, but on our underlying assumptions of what it would mean where we are from, or how we would have done things differently. This seems a fitting start to the week, after the last few days’ reactions to the Rittenhouse trial, at which probably none of us were present for either the events that unfolded, or the trial itself, but seemingly everyone, regardless of “side”, knows they’re right and what it means writ large.
- 11/22/21, Page 10 – Over a week into this tractate and finally we get to fasting. I’ve been a bit cynical about the timing of the rain prayers to coincide with the rainy season, and I’ll double down on that as we hit today’s discussion. First, that timing is adjusted depending on where in the world you are, not set in stone on the calendar based in Jerusalem. Second, the sages declare, if the prayers don’t work, i.e., the rains don’t come after you’ve been praying for a few days or a week or two, it then becomes the obligation of selected individuals in the community to take on three day fasts (only fasting during daylight hours), in rotation, until the rains do come. The responsibility is now passed to those individuals and whether or not they are sufficiently righteous for the rains to come.
- 11/23/21, Page 11 – Fasting for only a few hours might just not be considered fasting at all according to the rabbis. Basically, as I’ve said to friends in the past, I practice intermittent fasting – one of the trends of the last couple of years – on a regular basis. Between breakfast and lunch, between lunch and dinner, and between dinner and breakfast. Sometimes I break the fast, or at least shorten it, with a snack.
- 11/24/21, Page 12 – Okay, we’re getting serious about passing the buck on the responsibility for rain. If those voluntary fasts for three days don’t produce rain, then the rabbinical court declares an obligatory fast for three days for the whole community, but add in no working, no bathing, no sex, no wearing shoes, and no anointing oneself with oil. And if those don’t do the trick, they declare a seven day fast, but add in that all stores must be closed (that would seem a natural follow on to “no work”) and a system of alarms (not explained). And if those don’t work, no more fasts, but everyone is decreed to act like they have been rebuked by god, and stop creating new work projects, no new building or planting, no engagements or weddings, and even stop greeting each other. This all seems a bit desperate, and, of course, unrelated to whether or not it will rain.
- 11/25/21, Page 13 – Following on yesterday, the rabbis explore the issue of “no bathing” during the three and then seven day fast periods, should they become necessary. The issue is that you become, as they delicately put it, “unattractive” if you don’t bathe for various days, as not only would you be dirty and smelly, but might forego things like shaving for men, or hairstyling and makeup for women. Now, if you are married, or quite young, that’s not so much an issue for the rabbis, it seems. But, if you are of marrying age, yet still single, we can’t have you being “unattractive” to someone of the opposite sex, even for three or seven days, as it might make a negative impression, so go ahead and bathe and shave and primp a bit, just to keep yourself on the market, community rain crisis be damned.
- 11/26/21, Page 14 – Pregnant women should only participate in the first set of fasts. Pregnant women should only participate in the second set of fasts. Pregnant women should only participate in the third set of fasts. Pregnant women should not participate in the fasts. Well, I’m glad we cleared that up. Rich, important people, should only humiliate themselves in front of the community if there’s 100% certainty that by doing so, their prayers, their pleas, will be answered. If it’s not 100% certain, they shouldn’t be showing weakness in front of the community, we might come to not respect their riches and importance.
- 11/27/21, Chapter 2, Page 15 – Of course, the Temple priests get special treatment. Not just them, but the entire “patrilineal family”, i.e., the Cohens/Kohens, the descendants of Aaron, do as well. Though there’s disagreement about exactly which days they get to do either partial fasts or skip fasting completely, and or enjoy a bottle of wine, they do get to skip some of it. After all, they’re the Temple priests. Also it turns out that those three day and seven day fasts aren’t consecutive. Three day fasts, for example, are held on either Monday, Thursday, Monday, or Thursday, Monday, Thursday. So as not too put too much hardship into abject repentance for the community and all.
- 11/28/21, Page 16 – Age before wisdom? The order, the rabbinic leaders decide, of those who should lead the prayers for repentance (and rain) – An elder, regardless of knowledge, because of their life experience (quite the assumption); a sage, learned, but perhaps not as experienced; a young scholar, who is at least learning and on the road to wisdom; a person of imposing appearance, presumably just a last ditch effort to impress. Not quite the order I’d choose if it were up to me.
- 11/29/21, Page 17 – As mentioned on page 15, Temple priests are allowed to drink alcohol during the community fasts. No particular reason is given for this exception. But no day drinking, just in the evenings, and not on the evening before the day when their particular shift is “on call”. You might remember back in tractate Sukkah that the priests serve on a rotating basis. Some rabbis felt they should never drink during their year of service, as they could be called at any time. Some think that prohibition should continue to today, as, while the Temple doesn’t currently exist, it “could” be rebuilt at any moment and those of the priestly class line might be called to service. Others have pointed out that construction would likely take longer than it takes a priest to sober up.
- 11/30/21, Page 18 – There are certain days that have significance to the Jewish community on which fasting is not allowed. I was unfamiliar with the two days prior to Purim (Adar 14th). On Adar 12 and 13, respectively, are Trajan’s Day and Nicanor’s Day. The first is a commemoration of the death of Emperor Trajan, who was killed by the Romans, unfortunately mere moments after he’d killed two leading members of the Jewish community. The second commemorates the death of Nicanor, a Syrian-Greek military commander who followed on the Chanukah “revolt” in attempting to track down and kill the Maccabees, however, in the story, the prophet Jeremiah appears and hands a flaming golden sword to Judah Maccabee, who promptly slays Nicanor. Who knew?
- 12/1/21, Chapter 3, Page 19 – You might find it hard to believe after what we’ve all been through the last 20+ months, but there is no real definition in modern social policy as to what constitutes a pandemic. WHO’s definition is vague, more or less “it affects more than one country and a large number of people”. The Talmud, however, is quite explicit – in a town of 500 able bodied men, if three die on each of three consecutive days (that’s a 1.8% of the able bodied, adult population, mortality rate), it’s a plague. In commentary, they make it quite clear that that’s hard and fast. If those nine people die on one or two days and then no one on the third day; or they die across a period of four or more days, it’s not a plague. Just taking where I live now, the Buenos Aires metropolitan area has roughly 15 million people. In order to qualify as a plague by Talmudic standards, it would have required 270,000 to die from Covid in a three day period. We didn’t even hit half of that for the entire country (46 million) during the entire 20 months.
- 12/2/21, Page 20 – Not that this is news this far into the Talmud, but the rabbis and sages often screw up just like the rest of us ordinary mortals. A story on today’s page relates an encounter between Rabbi Elazar and an “exceedingly ugly” person. When the person greets him, Elazar doesn’t return the greeting, instead asking “Are all the people from your town so ugly?” The recipient of this responds with what amounts to “you are a wise sage who believes we were all created in God’s image, so how about you go and ask our Creator the same question?” Realizing the error of his thinking and actions, the Rabbi begs for forgiveness, but the man refuses to accept the apology, saying he’ll only accept in when Elazar fulfills his request – ask God both why they created ugliness, and then ask God for forgiveness for his question and action.
- 12/3/21, Page 21 – In a convoluted and meandering discussion of how various plagues can be spread and/or stopped, the rabbis touch on a variety of subjects, including cleanliness and personal protective measures, immediate burial of infected corpses, cross-species transmission, social distancing and lockdowns, and the importance of protecting the community against both immediate and future threat with more than just fasting and prayer. Given that, I find it curious that there’s been a fair amount of resistance to pandemic measures among certain groups of Orthodox Jewry. Perhaps someone needs to remind them of this Talmudic discussion.
- 12/4/21, Page 22 – Jews don’t customarily wear black shoes. That’s the stated assumption on today’s page. There was a follow-up conversation with a Jewish man spotted wearing black shoes, where it was discovered that he did so in order to pass himself off as a gentile, and collect information on behalf of the sages. A bit of research into other texts finds a few references to the not-wearing of black shoes, most of which avow that wearing black shoes is associated with mourning, and should not be worn when you’re not in mourning. So I find myself wondering about all the Orthodox and Chasidic folk out there who wear black shoes pretty much all the time these days. They’re obviously not trying to pass themselves off as gentiles, so what are they in mourning over?
- 12/5/21, Page 23 – Honi the Circle Drawer was basically a sorcerer who was just barely tolerated by the rabbis. In the story today, the rabbinically mandated fasts for rain hadn’t work, so the community went to Honi, who drew a circle on the ground, stood inside it, and offered up an incantation for rain. It began to rain, a trickle, so the people asked him for more. He offered another incantation and the rain fell in torrents, so they asked for less. He offered yet another, and the rain fell at a normal rate, but kept going, so they asked for it to stop. He basically asked for payment, after which, he offered a fourth incantation, and the rain stopped. The rabbis were not amused, and chastised him for his work, though couldn’t go too far, since he’d achieved the results they couldn’t.
- 12/6/21, Page 24 – In an interesting follow-on to yesterday’s story about Honi, who invoked mystical powers to bring rain, we are presented today with a series of stories. Various rabbis, various sages, various people of note, at various times, declare various fasts in order to bring rain. What’s interesting in this series of stories is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If the rain does come, sometimes it’s a drizzle, sometimes it’s normal, sometimes it’s a torrent. And if it’s too much, sometimes fasting seems to work to stop it, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s almost as if the fasting has no effect on whether or not rain falls. Imagine that.
- 12/7/21, Page 25 – I’m guessing most of us are familiar with the concept of “the butterfly effect”, the idea that if you go back in time and make a small change, e.g., accidentally step on a butterfly and kill it, it will have rippled, unforeseen consequences forward into time. On today’s page this is coupled with the concept of predeterminism, the idea that everything that happens follows an inevitable pattern. When Rabbi Elazar has a dream conversation with God, asking why he has to live in poverty, couldn’t God just make a small change and let him not be poor anymore. God responds that given that everything follows from what happened before, that the only way to do that would be to go back to the beginning of time and make the tweak there, so that everything, and everyone, would turn out differently. In essence, you can’t kill the butterfly unless it was destined to die since the beginning of time.
- 12/8/21, Chapter 4, Page 26 – There are four daily priestly benedictions that are supposed to be offered. The Temple priests (and designation non-priests in communities that are outside of Jerusalem) raise their hands and offer a communal benediction basically after breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then before bedtime. However, a large group of the sages and rabbis felt that the afternoon benediction should be left by the wayside, as it was virtually guaranteed that the Temple priests would drink to excess at lunchtime, and a drunk priest is prohibited from offering benedictions. The only exception they decree is on fast days, because the priests won’t have drunk anything. Those opposed to this point out that the priests only serve for a week, twice a year, offering benedictions, and surely they can refrain from day drinking for two weeks out of the year.
- 12/9/21, Page 27 – I’m not sure how the litany of fasts presented on today’s page meshes with fasting for rain. Different days are ascribed different fasts – Mondays for seafarers (the ocean was created on Monday), Tuesday for desert nomads (creation of dry land), Wednesday for illness and curses (creation of sun, moon, and stars), Thursday for pregnant and nursing women (creation of living beings). No fasts on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday – the first two in deference to the Sabbath, Sunday because, on the Sabbath, you are imbued with a little extra soul from the heavens, which is then removed at the conclusion of the holiday, leaving you weak on Sunday and needing to recuperate. No mention of rain.
- 12/10/21, Page 28 – There’s a story at the beginning of today’s page about a time period when the Greek kingdom banned the offering of fruits at the Temple in Jerusalem. As a way of enforcing that, anyone traveling into the city from the countryside had their carts and bags inspected. A group of pilgrims to the Temple filled baskets with fresh fruit then covered them with a couple of layers of dried figs, and claimed that they were taking the dried figs to be pressed into fig cakes. Setting aside that their ruse wasn’t uncovered, what’s noteworthy here is that these righteous people lied in order to complete a ritual. This opens up a can of worms that I’m sure will come back in the future, about whether it’s okay to lie (violating one of the ten commandments) in service to fulfilling other mitzvahs.
- 12/11/21, Page 29 – We’ve all seen movies and read stories about “being careful how you phrase your wish”. On today’s page, we encounter Rabbi Gamliel, representing the Temple, and a Roman officer who comes to carry out a decree to kill Gamliel. However, this officer isn’t so sure about the decree and asks Gamliel if, in exchange for saving his life, will Gamliel intercede with God and ensure that the officer is welcomed into Heaven. Gamliel agrees, and they go to the roof of the Temple, where, mysteriously, the officer falls from the roof and dies. There was apparently a Roman superstition that if an officer sent to carry out an imperial decree died before carrying it out, the decree would be voided. Gamliel lives, and we can only speculate that his prayer to God to accept the officer into Heaven was listened to.
- 12/12/21, Page 30 – Tu B’Av is a holiday that I’d venture most of those of us who grew up in Reform Jewish congregations are unfamiliar with. It’s held on the 15th of Av, around the end of July/beginning of August. It’s a joyous holiday, celebrating various historical events, the most important of which is often considered the right to intermarriage. Now, early on, there was no prohibition in Jewish tradition around tribal intermarriage, but you may vaguely remember the story we touched on back in Shabbat 97, where a ban was put in place in order to preserve property inheritance within a tribe. That was around 9000 BCE. This ban was lifted around 550 BCE, on the 15th of Av., only beating out the U.S. by about 2500 years.
- 12/13/21, Page 31 – On Tu B’Av, the holiday I mentioned yesterday, unmarried women go out to the vineyards and dance, displaying themselves to potential suitors, from their own or other tribes. The part that was interesting, was that they all dressed in pure white garments. As not every family could afford these, there was a requirement that the dress be borrowed from someone else, regardless of social status. Why? So that those who couldn’t afford them wouldn’t be embarrassed. Here in Argentina, the public schools require that children wear a white lab coat over their clothes to attend school. Why? So that the clothing that they wear underneath, regardless of brand or quality, is hidden, and no one has to be embarrassed as to what their family can afford. Here ends the tractate.