Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Shabbat and Holidays
- Jewish Holidays
- The Holidays of Tishrei
- Shabbat and Holidays
- The High Holidays
- The Fast of Gedaliah
The Torah study is dedicatedin the memory of
Yaakov Ben Behora
After the King of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, there remained a small number of Jews in the Judea region. The King then appointed Gedaliah ben Achikam to rule over them, and those Jews who had previously fled to neighboring countries began to gather around him. This small group managed to persevere in the land until, on the third of Tishrei, Yishmael ben Natanya came and murdered Gedaliah ben Achikam. At that point, the remaining Jews were scattered and the demise of Jerusalem was complete.
The sages teach that the day of Gedaliah ben Achikam's assassination was declared a national day of mourning "in order to teach us that the death of a righteous person is tantamount to the destruction of the House of God" (Rosh Hashanah 18b). Certainly the death of this particular saint, who was then the central pillar of the land's small Jewish vestige, together with the fact that a Jew was involved in this act, made the destruction all the more unbearable.
This event occurred during the Ten Day of Repentance. Zachariah the Prophet foresaw that in the future these days would become occasion for celebration and rejoicing: "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall become times of joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts to the House of Judah; therefore, love the truth and peace" (Zachariah 8:19).
Some days possess special intensity. Such days, if we are worthy, are capable of being transformed into holidays. Yet if, Heaven forbid, we are not worthy, they can become days of extreme trial. When worthy, these Ten Days of Repentance are days of rectification and refinement; when not, as was the case in the time of Gedaliah ben Achikam, they occasion severe ruin. But the possibility of rectification is there, it remains, and this, of all days, possesses the unique capacity for being transformed into a day of positive construction and revitalization, new life and sanctity. May it be God's will that this be a year of redemption and salvation, and that the light of faith and Torah shine upon the entire nation of Israel.
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The translated scriptural verse in this article was based upon The Jerusalem Bible (Koren Publishers)
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Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
