Jews around the world honor Tevet 10 as a day of fasting, mourning, and repentance, specifically commemorating the siege of Jerusalem and the subsequent destruction of Solomon’s Temple. It is an abbreviated, complete fast day (i.e. the observant Jew refrains from consuming any “food and drink from daybreak to nightfall”). (Asarah B’Tevet (Tevet 10) – Jerusalem Under Siege – Chabad.org) Consequently, penitent prayers and liturgies (aka “selichot”) are recited in synagogues on this day.
Some synagogues honor the victims of the Holocaust on this day as well.
There are a few biblical references for Asarah B’Tevet 10:
1Now it came to pass in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his entire army advanced against Jerusalem, set up camp by it, and built a siege wall all around it. 2So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society, Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 2 Kings 25:1-2.
And in the ninth year, in the tenth new moon, on the tenth of the new moon, the word of יהוה came to me, saying,
2“Son of man, write down the name of the day, for on this same day the sovereign of Baḇel has thrown himself against Yerushalayim.The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Eze 24.
19“Thus said יהוה of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months, are to be joy and gladness, and pleasant appointed times for the house of Yehuḏah—and they shall love the truth and the peace.’ The Scriptures, 3rd edition. (Northriding: Institute for Scripture Research, 2009), Zec 8:19.
If anything, this Zechariah passage supports the idea that people observed Asarah B’Tevet during the time of the Babylonian Captivity.
21In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me saying, “The city has been struck down.”Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society, Holy Scriptures: Tree of Life Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), Eze 33:21.
I should be mention that some Jewish sages argued that Asarah B’Tevet should be observed on Tevet 5 instead of Tevet 10 based on this passage (Rosh Hashanah, Tractate 18B).
Every year, people revisit the memory of this horrific event at Asarah B’Tevet, which is considered a “Memory Place”, and commemorate it with a fast. This event holds a “place” on Yah’s annual calendar.
Of this and other annual commemorations of the Temple’s destruction, Maimonides commented:
There are days in which all the people of Israel fast to repent the misfortunes which befell them. The fasting will serve as a reminder of our bad deeds and the deeds of our fathers which have caused us hard times. Remembering our misguided ways gives us the opportunity to be better people…” (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Taaniot, Chapter 5, 1)
Although I don’t give credence to the so-called Jewish sages and their writings, I can appreciate Maimonides’ point that these traditional fasts remind our Jewish cousins of their “misguided ways and give them the opportunity to be better people.” (Asarah B’Tevet (Tevet 10) – Jerusalem Under Siege – Chabad.org)
It must be remembered that Asarah B’Tevet 10, and the other remembrance fast days, are Jewish memorial days that we are not required as Nazarene Israelis to keep. May this day, however, serve as a time of reflection-even introspection if you will–of those behaviors and violations and transgressions of Yah’s Torah that led to Jersualem’s fall and the destruction of the Temple. And like Maimonides alluded to, may we also consider that which Yehovah our Elohim expects of us, and take whatever actions that are necessary in our lives to make sure we live accordingly.
Shalom