The Fast of Gedaliah – The Forgotten Jewish Fast Day and the Hope It Inspires

The day after Rosh Hashanah, the Fast of Gedaliah (Tzom Gedaliah), marks one of the pivotal events in Jewish history that many tend to overlook. And while many Jews do still fast during the day, even those who do are usually unaware of the day’s significance. This is probably because we have to put ourselves in the shoes of our ancestors to really appreciate what it’s about.

A short history of the Fast of Gedaliah

The way most people learn about the Fast of Gedaliah is by telling the first part of the tragic story and leaving out the second part.

In the first part of the story, the Jews are banished from the land of Israel by the Babylonians. The First Temple — which had been built by King Solomon, and had been standing for 410 years since — was also destroyed. We mark the days surrounding those events with fasts that are more well-known, including Tisha B’av and the Seventeenth of Tamuz. The tragedies surrounding those events are referred to in the famous words, “If I forget you, oh Jerusalem…” and “On the rivers of Babylon…” and many others. That was in 586 BCE.

In that year of 586 BCE, the downtrodden Jews have been strewn all around, but mostly live in the Babylon area (where some will stay until the creation of the modern State of Israel). However, the most downtrodden and poorest Jews had been allowed by the Babylonians to stay in Israel – they weren’t worth the bother.

Fast forward one year to 585 BCE and the poor Jews who had remained in Israel are slowly building the Jewish State back up. Not only that, but the Babylonians are supportive of the small country and even provide military support. The Babylonians appointed a leader to run the Jewish State, named Gedaliah, and he began to enjoy growing levels of success. Jews from the diaspora even began making their way back to the country. Things were looking up and there was hope. That is, until Gedaliah was murdered by fellow Jews and the country fell apart.

And that’s where the story, as it’s told, normally ends. But the next part of the story is probably the most important.

The rest of the story

In the next part of the story, the Jews asked the prophet Jeremiah to ask God whether to give up and go off to Egypt or to stay. When he did, guess what? Jeremiah came back with an answer. From God. To STAY. But the Jews who were there were so broken that they gave up and left anyway.

That’s the tragedy.

We gave up. At that point, we still could have picked ourselves up and kept going. We had a stamp of approval from God Himself via a trusted prophet with a perfect track record of being right. But we gave up. That’s a tragedy and that’s something to focus on fixing while fasting. The Fast of Gedaliah marks the day when we gave up because we’d lost hope.

It’s no surprise, then, that today’s rebuilt Jewish State is built on hope. Its national anthem “HaTikva” means “The Hope.”

Hope renewed

Today, we don’t have prophets to tell us God’s will.

But what we do have is today. We can take stock and consider what there is to learn from our rich, and often tragic, history. And we can connect to the mission our forefathers and foremothers started, continued, sometimes failed at, sometimes lost touch with, but never completely gave up – even though they sometimes ran out of gas.

And that’s an important theme in Jewish fast days. Getting stronger and renewing our hope and faith.

Thank you for reading, and remember that it’s not just about the knowledge, it’s about what you do with it. If you happen to be fasting while reading this, have a good, meaningful fast.