One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
תַּעֲנִיּוֹת
Fasts 3
Sefer Zemanim · The graded series of fasts decreed when the rain does not come, the severities that arrive with each stage, and the ceiling written into the sequence before the first fast is taken
17
Marcheshvan, the day the Torah scholars begin
13
Communal fasts for rain, and not one beyond
24
Blessings in the prayer on the final seven fasts
7
Fasts in the last series, the only ones with trumpets
Part 1The ladder, from a private fast to a public one
- The scholars begin, and nobody is told. If the seventeenth of Marcheshvan arrives with no rain having descended from the start of the season, the Torah scholars begin fasting on a Monday, then the Thursday, then the Monday, and all students of the Torah are fit to accept these upon themselves. (3:1)
- Rosh Chodesh Kislev, and the court decrees. With still no rain the court decrees three communal fasts on Monday, Thursday and Monday, eating and drinking are permitted at night, and the entire people enter the synagogue to pray, cry out and make supplication as on every fast. (3:2)
- The second three, in the manner of Yom Kippur. If those pass unanswered the court decrees three more, on which eating and drinking stop while it is still day on the preceding day, as on the fast of Yom Kippur. (3:3)
- What the second three forbid. Work is forbidden by day and permitted at night, washing the whole body in hot water is forbidden though face, hands and feet are allowed and the bathhouses are closed, anointing is forbidden except to remove filth, marital relations are forbidden, and shoes are forbidden in the city and permitted on the road. (3:4)
- The final seven, and who joins them. If those pass the court decrees seven more, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday, Monday, Thursday and Monday, and only on these seven are pregnant and nursing women obliged to fast, though on the earlier fasts they should not indulge in delicacies and should eat only what their babies require. (3:5)
RememberThe first fast for a drought is voluntary, unannounced and taken only by the people watching the calendar. Nobody else in the town knows it is happening.
Part 2What the last seven add, and where the alarm is heard
- The priestly watch on the final seven. On these seven the men serving in the weekly priestly watch fast the entire day, while the men of the beit av, those engaged in the Temple service that day, fast for part of the day and do not complete the fast, and every prohibition of the second series applies to these as well. (3:6)
- Reserved for the seven alone. Only on these do we sound the trumpets, pray in the street of the city, call on an elder to admonish the people toward repentance, add six blessings to the morning and afternoon prayers so that twenty-four are recited, and close the stores. (3:7)
- The stores, and the Sabbath that still has to be bought for. On Mondays the doors are left slightly ajar toward evening and may then be opened, on Thursdays they may be opened the whole day so that food is bought in honor of the Sabbath, a store with two entrances opens one and closes the other, and a store with a display area in front of it may open normally on a Thursday. (3:7)
- When the seven pass, life contracts instead. Commercial activity is reduced, along with construction associated with joy such as decorative patterns on ceilings and walls, plantings associated with joy such as myrtle, and the erection of tents. (3:8)
- The one door that stays open. Betrothals and marriages are reduced except for a man who has not yet fulfilled the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying, while one who has fulfilled it is forbidden relations in a year of famine; greetings are reduced, and the Torah sages do not exchange them at all, conducting themselves as people rebuffed and ostracized by God, though a sage still answers a common person in a weak and concerned tone. (3:8)
RememberThe trumpets are held back until the eleventh fast. A town that opens with the alarm has nowhere left to escalate.
Part 3Thirteen, and where the asking stops
- The scholars alone continue. After the thirteen, the Torah scholars go on fasting Monday, Thursday and Monday until the month of Nisan reckoned by the spring season has passed, and this is not required of the community; on these they eat at night and may work, wash, anoint, have relations and wear shoes as on other fasts. (3:9)
- The ceiling is fixed in advance. No more than these thirteen communal fasts are decreed because of a lack of rainfall, and the scholars who continue do not fast on Rashei Chodashim or on Purim. (3:9)
- Rain that would be a curse. Once the month of Nisan has passed, when the sun enters the sign of the bull, they cease fasting altogether, because rain descending in that season after a year with none from the beginning would be a sign of a curse. (3:9)
- Lands whose rainy season falls elsewhere. The schedule above governs Eretz Yisrael and places like it; where the rainy season begins before or after the seventeenth of Marcheshvan, individuals begin three fasts on Monday, Thursday and Monday when the time for rain arrives and none descends, and they do not fast on Rashei Chodashim, Chanukah or Purim. (3:10)
- Wait, then decree the full order. After those three the people wait approximately seven days, and if rain still does not descend the court decrees thirteen communal fasts according to the order described above. (3:10)
RememberThey stop not because hope ran out but because the season did. There is no sense fasting for a thing you would not want if you received it.