Before calendars were created, we shall learn later on in our massekhet that witnesses who saw the new moon testified to that effect in the Jerusalem court. Based on this testimony the court calculated when Rosh Hodesh, the new month began. Today’s daf TB Rosh Hashana 18 teaches that the court then sent out messengers with this information six times a year to inform the people in the outlying areas so that they could observe the holidays on the appropriate day. “In six months of the year the messengers go out from the court in Jerusalem to report throughout Eretz Yisrael and the Diaspora which day was established as the New Moon, the thirtieth or the thirty-first day since the previous New Moon. They go out in the month of Nisan, due to Passover, so that people will know on which day to celebrate it; in the month of Av, due to the fast of the Ninth of Av; in Elul, due to Rosh HaShana, which begins thirty days after the New Moon of Elul; in Tishrei, due to the need to establish the correct dates on which to celebrate the Festivals of Tishrei, i.e., Yom Kippur and Sukkot; in Kislev, due to Hanukkah; and in Adar, due to Purim.” (Sefaria.org translation)
The Gemara asks the question why two months in which there is a fast day are omitted. One fast is fast of the 17th day of Tammuz which memorializes the day the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem and the other fast is the third of Tishrei which memorializes the day the Babylonian appointed Jewish governor of Judea Gedaliyah was assassinated. The answer it is surprising. It seems whether a community wants to fast not depends upon the existential situation of the Jewish people.
“As Rav Ḥana bar Bizna said that Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Thus said the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall become times of joy and gladness, and cheerful seasons, to the house of Judah” (Zechariah 8:19). It calls them days of “fast” and it calls them “times of joy and gladness.” How so? When there is peace in the world, they will be times of joy and gladness, on which eulogies and fasting are forbidden; but when there is no peace, they are days of fasting. In a time when there is no peace, why are messengers not sent out also for the fourth and tenth months, so that people can know when to observe the fasts?
Rav Pappa said that this is what it is saying: When there is peace will be times of joy and gladness; when there is persecution and troubles for the Jewish people, they are days of fasting; and when there is no persecution but still no peace, neither particular troubles nor consolation for Israel, the halakha is as follows: If people wish, they fast, and if they wish, they do not fast. Since there is no absolute obligation to fast, messengers are not sent out for these months.” (Sefaria.org translation)
Classical Jewish commentators disagree on the meaning of peace and persecution. Nevertheless, they all agreed that the fast of the 17th day of Tammuz and the third day of Tishrei are obligatory. Until the Jewish people regain sovereignty by creating the State of Israel, we lived at the mercy of the host country. Throughout Jewish history we suffered expulsions, programs, and anti-Jewish laws. The Holocaust, one of the greatest tragedies of Jewish history, proves this point best of all. No wonder these commentators believe they did not live in an era of peace.
The establishment Jewish sovereignty in our ancestral home, the land of Israel, changes everything. No longer are the Jewish people only victims. Israel is the safe haven for all Jews. Whenever Jewish community is in danger, Israel rescues them. The ingathering of the Jewish exiles especially from lands of persecution like the former Soviet Union, Arab countries, and Ethiopia have saved their lives and gave them a sense of security. The Israel Defense Force has demonstrated time and time again that the Jewish people no longer defenseless. When one walks the streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, there is a sense of overall peace. Consequently, I do not fast these last days because the State of Israel has turned them into days of joy and gladness for me.
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