One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
תַּעֲנִיּוֹת
Fasts 4
Sefer Zemanim · The order of prayer on the last seven fasts for rain, the life a man must be living before he may lead it, and the measure taken in the ground rather than in the sky
7
Final fasts for rain, each following this order of prayer
4
Psalms of distress recited before the supplications
1
Handbreadth of rain into parched earth, and the fast ends
3
Handbreadths required before cultivated earth counts as answered
Part 1Ashes in the street, and a speech that undoes the day
- The ark is carried out to the open street. On each of the final seven fasts the ark is brought into the street of the city, the whole community gathers dressed in sackcloth, and ashes are placed on the ark itself and on the Torah scroll in order to heighten the grief and humble their hearts. (4:1)
- Two men are ashed by somebody else, in public. One of the people takes ashes and places them on the head of the Nasi and on the head of the chief justice, at the place where tefillin are laid, so that they will be ashamed and repent; everyone else takes ashes and applies them to his own head. (4:1)
- Whoever the town has, that is who speaks. A wise elder stands before the seated community to deliver words of rebuke, and where there is no wise elder a man of wisdom is chosen, and where there is neither, a man of stature, so that the rebuke is never omitted for want of the ideal speaker. (4:2)
- The rebuke tells them the fast is not the mechanism. He says that it is not sackcloth and fasting that have an effect but repentance and good deeds, proving it from Nineveh, where the verse records that God saw their deeds and not their sackcloth and their fasting, and from the prophetic call to rend your hearts and not your garments. (4:2)
- He continues until they are actually humbled. The speaker adds to these themes as far as his ability reaches until the community is brought low and turns in complete repentance, and only then does the community rise to pray. (4:2, 4:3)
RememberThe first words of the day tell the fasting town that the fast will not do it. The Rambam then lays out the longest order of prayer in the Mishneh Torah anyway.
Part 2Who is permitted to stand there, and where the prayer opens
- The speaker leads only if he also qualifies. After the rebuke a leader of prayer suitable for these fasts is chosen, and if the man who delivered the rebuke is fit to lead he does, and if not another is brought down before the ark. (4:3)
- He must be under pressure, not merely skilled. He should lead prayers often and read Torah, Prophets and Writings often, and he should have children, lack means, and have work in the field, so that the man standing before the ark is himself exposed to the trouble the town is praying about. (4:4)
- A household is disqualifying, not only a man. Neither his children nor any member of his household nor any relative dependent upon him may be a transgressor, his house must be empty of sin, and no unfavorable report may have been made of him even in childhood; he must be humble, acceptable to the people and possessed of a pleasant, sweet voice, and while an elder with all these traits is most desirable, a younger man who has them is fit. (4:4)
- The prayer is opened at the blessing of redemption. The chazan recites the Shemoneh Esreh in its usual form until Go'el Yisrael, then adds Zichronot and Shofarot verses that match the trouble at hand, together with the psalms of a man in a narrow place: I called to God in my distress, I lift my eyes to the mountains, Out of the depths, and A prayer of the afflicted. (4:5)
- Supplication first, then the first of the seven seals. Within that blessing he offers supplications as far as his ability reaches, saying please behold our affliction and wage our battle and speed our redemption, and concludes: He who answered Abraham our patriarch at Mount Moriah will answer you and hear the sound of your outcry on this day. (4:6)
RememberA man whose own house is spotless is still disqualified by a dependent relative who transgresses. He is not representing himself.
Part 3Seven names, the trumpets, and a measure taken in the ground
- Six added blessings, each sealed with a name and a place. Each of the six carries supplications and verses the leader knows well and closes on one who was answered: Moses and our ancestors at the Red Sea, Joshua at Gilgal, Samuel at Mitzpeh, Elijah at Mount Carmel, Jonah in the belly of the fish, David and Solomon his son in Jerusalem, and the people answer amen to each as they would to any blessing. (4:7, 4:8, 4:9, 4:10, 4:11, 4:12, 4:13)
- The seventh returns to the ordinary order, and this is done everywhere. For the seventh he begins Heal us, O God, and we will be healed, completes the Shemoneh Esreh in its usual sequence, and the trumpets are sounded; this order of prayer is followed in every place. (4:14)
- Jerusalem answered aloud between the blessings. On the Temple Mount, before the eastern gate, the leader closed with a longer formula and the people answered blessed be His name and the glory of His kingdom for ever and ever, while the synagogue attendant called out to sound a teki'ah, priests, or to sound a teru'ah, sons of Aaron, and the leader repeated the words before the priests blew. (4:15, 4:16)
- The alternating seven series belong to one courtyard only. The blessings alternate so that the priests sound teki'ah, teru'ah, teki'ah for one and teru'ah, teki'ah, teru'ah for the next until seven series have been blown, and the Rambam states that this order is followed on the Temple Mount alone, where trumpets and shofar are sounded together. (4:17)
- The graves, the Ne'ilah, and a measure taken in the dirt. Wherever these seven fasts are decreed the people go out to the cemetery after praying, weeping and offering supplication as if to say that without return they are as these, and Ne'ilah is recited in every place on every fast decreed for distress; and the community stops fasting when the rain has descended a handbreadth into parched earth, two handbreadths into ordinary earth, and three into cultivated earth. (4:18, 4:19)
RememberNobody decided whether the prayer was answered by looking at the sky. They walked out and measured how far the water had reached into their own ground.