Fast of Tevet

Fast of Tevet

The Fast of Tevet is one of four fasts described in Zechariah 8:19 [1]. Zechariah 8:19 states: "Thus says Y-hova [2] 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 be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful appointed times; therefore love truth and peace".

OBSERVATIONS ON THE HOLIDAY

In last year's post, I identified that while the fasts are required to be 'joyful and glad' occasions, the Fast of Tevet is currently observed by modern Judaism as a day of mourning and sadness [3]. This year I looked a bit closer into some of the elements of the passage. 

'HOSTS'

The first interesting thing I noticed is that Y-hova is called 'Y-hova of hosts'. While I always used to think this was essentially a word without real meaning! (I guess I had envisioned some vague concept of being a 'host' for other people, like at a party!), it actually comes from the word 'tsaba' [4], which refers to war, combat and struggle. 'Hosts' is the word Y-hova uses to describe His people when He tells Moses that Pharoah will not listen to him when he asks him to 'let my people go', so that Y-hova may 'lay His hand on Egypt' (Exodus 7:4 [5]). 

 Y-HOVA TZEVAOT

The phrase 'Y-hova tzevaot' first appears in 1 Samuel 1:3 [6], which recounts the fact that Elkana [7] went to worship 'Y-hova tzevaot' every year in Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli the Priest were (Hophni and Phineas). The two sons of the Eli were eventually killed by Y-hova because they were committing immoral practices with women and Eli did not restrain them (1 Samuel 2:22 and 1 Samuel 3:13) [8]. This story is interesting because Eli is recorded as berating his sons on finding out about their conduct in 1 Samuel 2:22-25 [9]. However, Y-hova remains displeased and revokes His promise that the house of Eli would 'walk before' Him forever (1 Samuel 2:30 [10]). This could suggest that keeping oneself away from immoral practices is itself a 'combat' of sorts.

LEGALITY POINT RAISED BY 'NAZARENE ISRAEL' ARTICLE

Another issue I noticed this year was the point made in an interesting article by (unaffiliated) Nazarene Israel [11]. When discussing Zechariah 8:19, it states:"Many people mistakenly believe this passage means that the House of Judah is to keep these man-made traditional fast days with joy and gladness, but this is not Yahweh's meaning at all. Rather, Yahweh is telling the Jews not to fast, but to be joyful on those days.

How did these fast days get started? When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took the Jews into exile, he burned the House of Yahweh ... and broke down the walls of Jerusalem ... The Jews responded by declaring four traditional fast days ... Notice that these do not refer to the Day of Atonements, or Yom Kippur, which is the tenth day of the seventh month ... [when] the Jews were back in the Land and the Temple was being rebuilt, [they] wanted to know if they should continue to keep the fast days that they had instituted because of the destruction of the temple. Yahweh responded with a series of questions".

These questions appear in Zechariah 7:2-7 [12], which says:

"2 Now the people sent to Bethel Sharezer and Regem-melech, along with their men, to pray before Y-hova 3 by asking the priests who were in the house of Y-hova tzevaot and the prophets saying, "should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?" 4 And came the word of Y-hova tzevaot saying, 5 "say to all the people of the land and the priests, 'when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for Me? 6 and when you eat and drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? 7 Should you not have obeyed the words that Y-hova proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were populous and prosperous and the Negev and lowlands were inhabited?'"Nazarene Israel suggests this means that:"In other words, 'Why did you make up your own days of fasting? Why did you not just keep My word?'"

THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF THE TORAH 

I fasted today because I assumed Zechariah 8:19 was referring to fasts instituted by Y-hova's word through the prophet Zechariah. It has now become apparent that the origin and legality of these fasts require further consideration. As IsraelAlia has tried to suggest, we are only allowed to follow rules instituted by Y-hova Himself through the Torah, which itself permits additional rules to be made only by the order of the Priests and Judges deciding together under the Deuteronomy 17:8-11 procedure [13]. 

'MOED'

Y-hova has confirmed that this day is indeed supposed to be commemorated as an 'appointed time' (Zechariah 8:19); but should we be fasting?! This discussion will form the basis of the next post on the Zechariah 8:19 fasts.

REFERENCES

  1. Zechariah 8-19: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/zechariah/8-19.htm.
  2. For why I write the name of Y-hova as I do, please see: https://www.israelalia.com/g-ds-name/.
  3. IsraelAlia post on the Fast of Tevet (2020): https://web.facebook.com/IsraelAliaCovenant/photos/4156172004398127/.
  4. 'Tsaba' (hosts), see: https://biblehub.com/nasec/hebrew/6635.htm and https://biblehub.com/bdb/6635.htm.
  5. Exodus 7:4: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/7-4.htm.
  6. 1 Samuel 1:3: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/1_samuel/1-3.htm.
  7. See entry on Elkanah: https://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_511.htm.
  8. 1 Samuel 2:22: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/1_samuel/2-22.htm; 1 Samuel 3:13: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/1_samuel/3-13.htm.
  9. 1 Samuel 2: https://biblehub.com/bsb/1_samuel/2.htm.
  10. 1 Samuel 2:30: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/1_samuel/2-30.htm.
  11. Nazarene Israel 'The Fasts of Zechariah Reconsidered': https://nazareneisrael.org/book/torah-calendar/the-fasts-of-zechariah-reconsidered/.
  12. Zechariah 7: https://biblehub.com/bsb/zechariah/7.htm.
  13. See IsraelAlia, 'Summary: https://www.israelalia.com/summary/.