Asarah B’Tevet: Fast of Tevet
When
Asarah B’Tevet is a day-long fast, typically in late December or early January.
Scriptural Origins
Ezekiel 24
Jeremiah 39
Zechariah 8
History
In ~586 BC, on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tevet, the Babylonians laid siege on God’s holy city, Jerusalem, destroying the temple and city walls, and taking the Israelites into exile for 70 years.
This took place after the frequent and persistent urges of the Prophet Jeremiah to listen to the words that the Lord was speaking through him to the people.
The ongoing chaos, injustice, and sin of the Israelites, along with the proud and obstinate king Zedekiah, proved that their ears were unwilling to listen to the adjuring call to return to the commandments of God.
Take, for instance, one of the Lord’s confrontation of the Jewish people: “Your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free…” (Jeremiah 34: 14-16)
The people of God committed themselves to practicing the Lord’s commandments, but as their mouths proclaimed obedience, their actions displayed that which was wicked and antithetical to Adonai’s divine justice.
Simultaneously, the kingdom’s leader - Zedekiah - resented the prophetic words of Jeremiah, choosing to reject what was true for the sake of a wish-dream that his power and kingdom could not be purloined by the Babylonians. Rather than heeding wisdom, the king treated Jeremiah with hostility, having him threatened, beaten and even imprisoned.
Yet, as was forewarned, “In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it… The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city…” (Jeremiah 39: 1, 8-9)
Purpose
Asarah B’Tevet is a day of fasting and mourning, grief and remembrance, repentance and truth-telling. It’s a day of sadness at the recollection of Jerusalem’s destruction and exile, while also being a day of lament for the stubborn corruption of God’s people.
As to the prior, Jerusalem was the physical land established for the Israelites as a people who had at one point been Abrahamic sojourners, turned Egyptian slaves, then desert wanderers. It was the city at the center point of their home, and not only their home, but also the location of God’s Holy Temple — the place where his presence was known in magnificent density.
The city and Temple had fallen, and neither were supposed to. Jerusalem was meant to be the nation of all nations — God’s metropolis built for his set apart children. It was supposed to be a kingdom known for its justice and mercy, and a city on a hill for all to see the light and grandeur of the one true God.
But, as if in a mere moment, it was gone, and a people whose ancestry was once landless was now experiencing the shame of exile.
This day is a day of grief because the place in which the Israelites experienced the proximity, protection, and lavishness of God was now gone. It likewise is a day that calls us to name where the proverbial walls of our own souls have been breached — where we feel assaulted, evicted, and abandoned without any vision for future restoration. We are left to weep for where we feel a ruptured sense of connection with God and our own collective identity.
Simultaneously, the other core aspect of this day is remembering our rejection of the prophets. The prophets were God’s mouthpiece among the people, regularly reminding them of their history as a people, the context for God’s divine meta-narrative unfolding through them, and their effective trajectory based on the way in which they chose to walk, be it in righteousness or wickedness.
However, we as people — when challenged with the shame of our unrighteousness — will often lash out in defensiveness and rage. Rather than reflect upon the confrontation of others, we instead react as if such words were an attack on our dignity. We quickly turn the other party into the antagonist, and, in great irony, often end up behaving in the very manner of shame for which we took so great offense.
Such was the disposition of Israel, epitomized in the posture and actions of king Zedekiah towards Jeremiah. When Jeremiah named the sins of the kingdom, one official looked to the king and said “This man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm,” to which Zedekiah ordered that “they [take] Jeremiah and cast him into [a] cistern” (Jeremiah 38:4, 6).
During Asarah B’Tevet, while our hearts fill with sorrow at the loss of a home, we must equally grapple with our own ambivalence (and even hostility) towards prophetic truth and exhortations towards repentance. We are both victims of injustice as well as perpetrators of it, and for this our inmost being wails out with cries of lament.
On this day, we pause to pray and fast and long for a day in which repair for past wrongs has been made, our devotion to Adonai has been revitalized, and his kingdom has been restored.
Fulfilment
In the book of Hebrews, the author — reminiscent of the grand storyline of centuries of key Jewish figures — makes a statement of both sadness and anticipation:
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (Hebrews 11:13-16)
We who follow the ways of Yeshua have too “gone out” from a land. We are citizens of God’s kingdom while spiritual exiles and sojourners among manmade nations. Although we seek divine goodness in the countries and kingdoms of this world, we ultimately “desire a better country… a heavenly one.”
In the Gospels, we see John the Baptist (not to mention Christ himself) urging listeners to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). Repentance — the changing of our minds and dispositions to fixate our gaze on the Lord’s rulership — precedes our ability to fully embrace life in the Kingdom.
Asarah B’Tevet plays a fitting role here as it calls us to name with specificity those ways in which we have idolized the traditions and empires of man. Simultaneously, it moves us to confess how we have dismissed the hard yet truthful voice of the prophets beckoning us back to Adonai’s Kingdom and story.
Such reorientation and contrition are foundational as we aspire to kindle our desire to “seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). It’s a cultivation of lament and longing hand-in-hand — a cry for King Yeshua’s mercy to meet us in our sin, while also yearning for restoration and nearness in the thick of oppression. And it is here that we are reminded that, even in a world filled with darkness and chaos, we still “are God’s Temple and God’s Spirit dwells in [us]” (1 Corinthians 3:16), and “the kingdom of God is in [our] midst” (Luke 17:21).
As we practice this day of fasting to align our bodies and spirits in a solemn dirge before Adonai, we find reassurance that Christ continually meets our practice of Asarah B’Tevet with an ever-present hope.
Needs:
Bible
Candles
Other materials required for selected activities below
Modern Liturgical Adaptation
Opening Evening at Sundown
Matriarch, or Household Leader (turn off all lights, and light the candle(s) at sundown):
Blessed are you, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who is ever patient and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Be with us now in our fasting and lament, as we name the injustice and idolatry within us and around us. Be a light among us in this moment of darkness.
Leader:
O Lord, you gave us the prophets as a gift — to help us remember who we are, our story, and what you are doing among us.
The prophetic voice is a beautiful thing, helping us name what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, true and false. It is a beautiful thing, O Lord, but it does not come without a sting.
Too often, we shrug and turn away and even lash out against your anointed mouthpieces as they shine a light on the places of darkness in which we have chosen to walk. It hurts to step out of the shadows and be seen, and, like Adam and Eve, how quick we also are to try to run and hide and cast blame.
Father, in your mercy, help us.
Help us acknowledge where we have praised you with our lips but rejected you with our actions.
Help us bring to the surface our apathy and indifference towards the marginalized, even our own exploitation of the poor.
Help us expose our idols of busyness and money, individualism and autonomy, knowledge without love, safety without proximity, and all the other gods of man and beast.
Help us confess where we your people have done wrong under the guise of your name, and have sanctified our mistreatment of others and self.
As we engage this Fast of Tevet, we simply grieve where we still don’t see your kingdom among us, and where we have not lived as your holy Temple.
O God, we weep and cry out and long for your kingdom to come more fully. You say your kingdom is in our midst — would you give us eyes to see it and a heart to embrace our citizenship in it.
We are tired of giving the Empires of man and demons rulership in our lives, for King Yeshua, you alone are worthy of our allegiance.
In your kindness and mercy, would you, even now, heal us and restore us again?
[Confession Ritual]
Group: (Together say the Lord’s Prayer)
Our Father in heaven,
Holy is your name,
Let your Kingdom come,
And your will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven,
Give us today our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who have sinned against us,
Lead us away from temptation,
And deliver us from Evil,
For the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory all belong to you,
Now and forever.
Amen.
Reflective Questions:
What is your historical experience and understanding of grief and lament?
What things are you grieving in your own life today? In the world around you?
How might you give physical and emotional expression to your grief?
Where do you see the people of God rejecting the prophetic voice today? Where do you feel you’ve rejected the prophetic voice?
What do you think of when you think of God’s kingdom? Where do find it hard to see God’s Kingdom among you? Where might you see God’s Kingdom more?
What does it mean to you that we (the Church) are God’s Temple, and citizens of God’s Kingdom?
What has fasting historically meant/ been like for you? How can fasting function as a meaningful practice for embodying grief, confessing, and seeking first God’s Kingdom?
What pursuits of justice is God leading you to engage as a part of your “pleasing fast” before him?
Other Passages to Consider Reading together:
Isaiah 55:6-56:8
Exodus 32:11-34:10
Pick one to three activities from the following list to enter into the spirit of Asarah B’Tevet:
Light candles and spend time remembering the departed, particularly ancestors and telling stories
Recite Kaddish prayers and spend time In prayer in general
Spend the day fasting
Read lament Scripture, such as certain Psalms and passages in Jeremiah and Lamentations
Pray the Prayer of Examine (and of self-examination) and posture yourself for a time of confession with others (also praying Selichot, penitential prayers)
Allow the day to carry a solemn atmosphere (ex: using less electricity, not bathing, moving more slowly) and assume a more embodied posture of grief and mourning.
Spend time naming and grieving (with specificity) the various forms of darkness, suffering, and oppression you see in the world (particularly in proximity to your world)
(Towards the end of the Fast) Turn your gaze towards images of the Kingdom of God here on Earth, and go around sharing the pictures that each person is imagining