Tisha B’Av 5778-Why is there not a special fast day for the Holocaust ?

Many people have raised this question and argue that a special fast day should have been made to commemorate these terrible events and to spend the time in religious contemplation, as one is supposed to do on the other fast days in the year. Some argue that the Yom Hashoah (27Nissan in Israel or 27th January in Europe-day of liberation of Auschwitz) covers this requirement. However these days are not fast days with all of the added implication that such a day brings. The Rabbinate in Israel instituted Yom Hakadish for those who do not know when their parents died and this is fixed for 10 Tevet, which is a fast day in its own right. But there still seems to be no clear answer to the fundamental question of the separate fast day which many people feel would be appropriate to reflect over the terrible events of the Holocaust .

Rabbi Meir Zvi Gruzman, (a wonderful lecturer in Tenach and Talmud at Bar Ilan in Israel) makes the following suggestion. He firstly increases the scope of the question by asking why has there been no fast day to remember the Spanish exile in 1492 , or the events in 1648/9 in Poland(Chelmenitsky massacres)? He explains that our sufferings in the galut have come from 4 main causes.

1)      Attacks from the nations around us, as we see in the Torah beginning with Amalek, Moav and so on.

2)      Loss of independence. We have lost our political and cultural independence and this has affected our observance of the religion and the way we have functioned as Jews in the golah.

3)      There has a lack of a central place of worship and culture. Many disputes have arisen and different practices have proliferated, as we see today in so much of the religious world.

4)      Exile itself has caused us extreme trauma and anguish. We have tried to maintain separation through a series of laws and practices, but the assimilation rates have been going up and the Jewish world is again facing a crisis of identity, especially in the USA with  70% assimilation.

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When we examine the events surrounding each fast day, these generic elements are all reflected in the fast days, each one expressing an element of one of the causes of suffering.

a)      10th Tevet. The attack of the nations against us.

Jeremiah 25:9

ט  הִנְנִי שֹׁלֵחַ וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶת-כָּל-מִשְׁפְּחוֹת צָפוֹן נְאֻם-יְהוָה, וְאֶל-נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ-בָּבֶל עַבְדִּי, וַהֲבִאֹתִים עַל-הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת וְעַל-יֹשְׁבֶיהָ, וְעַל כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה סָבִיב; וְהַחֲרַמְתִּים--וְשַׂמְתִּים לְשַׁמָּה וְלִשְׁרֵקָה, וּלְחָרְבוֹת עוֹלָם.

9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Jeremiah27:v.6-8

ו  וְעַתָּה, אָנֹכִי נָתַתִּי אֶת-כָּל-הָאֲרָצוֹת הָאֵלֶּה, בְּיַד נְבוּכַדְנֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ-בָּבֶל, עַבְדִּי; וְגַם אֶת-חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה, נָתַתִּי לוֹ לְעָבְדוֹ.

6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him.

ז  וְעָבְדוּ אֹתוֹ כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם, וְאֶת-בְּנוֹ וְאֶת-בֶּן-בְּנוֹ--עַד בֹּא-עֵת אַרְצוֹ, גַּם-הוּא, וְעָבְדוּ בוֹ גּוֹיִם רַבִּים, וּמְלָכִים גְּדֹלִים.

7 And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come; and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondman.

ח  וְהָיָה הַגּוֹי וְהַמַּמְלָכָה, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יַעַבְדוּ אֹתוֹ אֶת-נְבוּכַדְנֶאצַּר מֶלֶךְ-בָּבֶל, וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יִתֵּן אֶת-צַוָּארוֹ, בְּעֹל מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל--בַּחֶרֶב וּבָרָעָב וּבַדֶּבֶר אֶפְקֹד עַל-הַגּוֹי הַהוּא, נְאֻם-יְהוָה, עַד-תֻּמִּי אֹתָם, בְּיָדוֹ.

8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I visit, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

See also: Jeremiah 51:v.35-37

Nevuchadnezzer is described as a ‘servant of God’ but he is guilty for going far beyond the level of persecution allowed to him by God against the Jews, and for this he is punished.

The retribution is also promised against the nations who have attacked us and this is all represented in a generic way by commemorating the events of the 10 Tevet (beginning of the siege of Jerusalem).This is a day when our enemies began their attack against Jerusalem (and it is appropriate to fix Yom Hakaddish on this day as mentioned above).

2) 17th Tammuz: Loss of independence with all its consequences. This final breach of the walls of Jerusalem becomes the paradigm of the loss of of our ‘melucha’ and this day becomes generic for all the times in our history when we were taken over by a foreign power.

3) 9th Av: loss of a central place of worship.

The burning of the Temple is not just a physical tragedy of the burning of a building but it is the day when we lost our distinct focal point in the worship and culture of our religious life. This day therefore is a generic reminder of all the acts of violence against our religious lives as Jews which are too numerous to mention, culminating in the Shoah and destruction of other centers of Jewish life, such as in Arab lands.

4)3rd Tishrei-fast of Gedalia-Exile.

The exile of the Jews from Israel was completed after the assassination of Gedalia and the fleeing of the remaining Jews to Egypt, fearing the retribution of the Babylonians. This is a generic fast day which reminds us of the effects of galut and assimilation and how destructive our internal conflicts can become, as seen in our lifetime, with the murder of Yitzchak Rabin (by another Jew)in 1995.

Rabbi Gruzman argues that all our fast days, when taken together cover ‘all the bases’ of the causes of our anguish in the last 2000 years, and no new fast day is needed.

I would add that there is an additional Rabbinic teaching which is very inspiring, that these days will become new days of Yom Tov and Festivals. The end of our troubles will mark a great turn in the history of the world and this is why we end Tisha B’av with signs of optimism, such as making the restrictions of the day lighter from midday onwards. The messianic overtones are always heard on Tisha B’av and let us pray that we will not need to think of making any more fast days but will look forward to the new days of joy which will soon be upon us.

Rabbi Ian Shaffer                    SCW/Cherry Hill NJ                 July 2018