One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
תַּעֲנִיּוֹת
Fasts 1
Sefer Zemanim · The commandment to cry out and sound trumpets over communal trouble, the fast that hangs on a sentence spoken the afternoon before, and the hour of noon that decides whether an answered prayer ends the fast or finishes it
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Positive Torah commandment here: to cry out and sound trumpets over trouble
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Fasts in the opening pattern of a communal decree: Monday, Thursday, Monday
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Days no fast is decreed on at the outset: Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah, Purim, Chol HaMo'ed
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Quarters of the fast day given to Torah reading and to supplication
Part 1The alarm, and the word the Rambam calls cruel
- Crying out is Scriptural, fasting is Rabbinic. It is a positive Torah commandment to cry out and sound trumpets over any difficulty affecting the community, learned from the verse about an enemy who attacks you and extended to famine, plague, locusts and the like; fasting over such trouble is a Rabbinic ordinance added to it. (1:1, 1:4)
- The trumpet is a path of repentance. When trouble comes and the people cry out and sound the trumpets, everyone will realize that it occurred because of their evil conduct, as the verse in Jeremiah says that their sins turned away the rains, and that realization is what causes the difficulty to be removed. (1:2)
- Calling it a chance occurrence is a cruel conception. Saying that what happened is merely a natural phenomenon and this difficulty is merely chance keeps the people attached to their wicked deeds, so this time of distress leads to further distresses, as Leviticus warns that indifference to God is answered with indifference and vengeance. (1:3)
- The trumpets carry the day, the shofar does not. On these fasts we cry out, offer supplications and sound trumpets alone; in the Temple both are sounded, with the shofar blasts shortened and the trumpet blasts extended, because the mitzvah of the day belongs to the trumpets. (1:4)
RememberThe trumpet is not a request. It is a public admission that the trouble is addressed to somebody.
Part 2Who fasts, on which days, and who is excused
- Monday, Thursday, Monday, and never consecutive. Communal fasts decreed over difficulties are not held on successive days, since the community could not sustain it; the pattern runs Monday, then the following Thursday, then the following Monday, repeating until mercy is shown. (1:5)
- The Sabbath is guarded, with named exceptions. No communal fast is decreed on a Sabbath or festival, and on those days there is no shofar, no trumpet, no crying out and no supplication; but for a city surrounded by gentiles or by a flooding river, a ship sinking at sea, or even one individual pursued by gentiles, thieves or an evil spirit, we fast, cry out and plead, and the trumpets sound only to gather people who can help. (1:6)
- Begun is not the same as begun today. A fast is not decreed at the outset on Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah, Purim or Chol HaMo'ed; but where the community has already fasted even one day over a distress and the schedule brings a fast onto such a day, they fast, and they fast the entire day. (1:7)
- Exemptions, and the night before. Pregnant women, nursing women and children do not fast on communal fasts of this kind; eating is permitted on the preceding night except for fasts instituted over rain, and wherever eating that night is permitted a person may eat until dawn provided he has not slept, since one who has slept may not eat on rising. (1:8)
RememberThe instrument that declares nothing is accidental goes silent the moment hands would help more than horns.
Part 3The private fast, and the hour that ends it
- Acceptance before sunset is the whole mechanism. A fast not accepted before sunset on the previous day is not a fast; one accepts it after the afternoon prayer by stating that tomorrow he will fast, eating that night does not detract, a resolution of three or four consecutive days is accepted in one statement and needs no restatement, and a man who resolves only at nightfall has not fasted even if he never ate. (1:10, 1:11)
- A disturbing dream, and fasting by the hour. One troubled by a dream fasts the following day without prior acceptance, even on the Sabbath, saying Anenu in each prayer, and then owes another fast for nullifying the Sabbath pleasure; and a man who has eaten nothing until noon or three may accept the remaining hours as a fast and say Anenu, since he accepted it before those hours began. (1:12, 1:13)
- Conduct while fasting, and completion. A faster should not indulge in pleasures, act frivolously or be happy and of good spirits, but conduct himself with serious concern as one in mourning; he may taste as much as a revi'it provided he spits it out, and if he forgets and eats he completes the fast. An individual fasting for a sick person who recovered, or over a difficulty that has passed, completes his fast, as does one who travels to a town that is not fasting. (1:14, 1:15)
- Noon divides the answered fast. When a community fasting for rain sees rain before noon they do not complete the fast but eat, drink and gather for the Great Hallel, which is recited only when the spirit is satisfied and the belly is full; after noon, since most of the day passed in holiness, they complete it, and the same applies where a distress passed or a harsh decree was nullified. (1:16)
- The fast day is an audit. On a communal fast the court and elders sit in the synagogue from the end of the morning prayers until noon reviewing the conduct of the city, removing stumbling blocks and investigating those who pursue violence and those who coerce and humble others; the third quarter of the day is given to the blessings and curses with a haftarah suited to the distress, and the fourth to the afternoon service, supplication and confession. (1:17)
RememberA fast is not a quantity of hunger. It is a decision made while it was still day.