The Fast of Esther - Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

master Wester is based on the Megillah that when mortified told Esther that Haman has a whole decree against the Jewish people so Esther said let us have a fast for three days let's bring all the Jews together we should fast for three days and then a sham will have mercy and I'm use rel and we are told there was actually a three day fast obviously people ate at night but there was a three day fast and then of course all of the events happened that culminated in Amman being hung and the Gazzara going away now what's interesting is chronologically the fast that is recorded in McGillis Esther the three day fast was not now it was actually during Pesach we don't realize unless you study the Megillah carefully you know really understands that most of the critical events that involved the hot solo bomb Israel occurred around Pesach I'm not scoring time the Gazzara that the that the Jewish people would be wiped out was indeed for the 13th of Adar but the whole idea of the parties of Haman and and the Holman getting hung that occurred during pacer fact the gomorrah tells us that the three day fast meant that that particular year they did not keep the mitzvah of the seder and they did not they did not eat on Pesach mean you know the first days of present was McLucas whether it was the 13th the 14th or 15th or the 14th or 15th or 16th but according to our miss hora hummin was hung hummin was killed on the second day of Pesach and that is why some Hassidim have a min hug that on the second day of Pesach they eat a Coachella pacer hamantaschen and they actually sing the poram song Shoshanna she anthem so based on all of this there are really two questions about connecting tynus esther to the three day fast avenger first we fast before poor him the FASTA Wester in the Megillah was during the month of Nisan right so it's the wrong time seconds it was a three day fast we only fast one day now maybe that's not such a catcher because I didn't want to make it that three day vest but because of these two questions that Esther's fest was in Nisan and it was three days and our fast is not dire and it's only one day many have actually suggested that the mock or the source of time is Esther is not the three day fast divest er but the McCoy of time is Esther is an unrecorded fast that is there was a minute that before Jewish people went to war they would fast now that itself is already unusual you'd figure you know you're going to war you got to be strong right they want to be in good shape so have a good breakfast have steak or whatever it would be and yet Claudius really understands that even when we have to go to war the issuer does not come from our military prowess the issuer comes from the connection we have with Hashem and therefore one fast to do chuhwa the--let's danke and therefore on the 13th of Adar which was the day that the Guardian were given the right to kill the Jewish people and that his favorite gave what's the right to fight back we badonk a fasted on that day and that became the fast the best in other words the fast of Esther on the 13th of Oz I'm not this year I'll get to that in a moment but the point is I mean the thing that's a little unusual about this is it is nowhere recorded in the Megillah that they fasted that day but it turns out the time it's a serious connection this is what the rush says Thomas Esther is connected to an unrecorded minimum use rail to fast on the day of Muhammad and it is not connected to the three-day fest of Esther now that's our summer and other people do learn indeed it is connected to the tightness of of Esther and we have it in our door instead of Nisan is because no you're not supposed to fast in the Sun and we have it one day instead of three days because the three day fast obviously would have been too difficult for most people so there's a much locust we shown him but one thing you need to know is that either way thymus ester is not mentioned in the Gemara and it's really a post Talmudic practice the idea fastening came after the cosima of the Talmud Bavli and in point of fact what's even more interesting is you know there is a safer that the Gemara refers to called McGillis Tanis I don't know if you have ever heard of this Maggie laughs Tanis the scroll of fasting and this is actually the very first work of the oral law that was ever written down this was written down more than a hundred years before the Mishnah and the Kumari refers to it the gomorrah quotes technically McGillis Tanis is called a bracer because it is a collection of teachings of Tana m that are not in the Mishnah but it's really different than a lot of other Brice's a lot of Brice's are after the Mishnah this is actually a bryce a-- that is earlier than the Mishnah what is miguel austin is why is Miguel Austin is important Miguel Austin is the scroll of fasting is a listing of all of the days of the year which we're not allowed to fathom aghast Anastasia knew not allowed to fast or give eulogies because there were great simplest that occurred from Israel now remember media Lawton this is not a compendium of the youngnam totem of the torah it doesn't mention pacer will was Lucas that's in the Torah Nicholas canoes mentions festive days that occurred during the Second Temple period where in commemoration of those great miracles we don't fast now the two days that are familiar to us that are mentioned are the two holidays or Hanukkah and Purim but we don't eulogize we we don't mourn we don't fast etc but there's a whole bunch of days that most of it you've probably never even heard of in which you weren't allowed to fast because of all sorts of great miracles that happened and one of the days that you're not supposed to fast because great miracles happens was actually the 13th of Adar 13th of Adar is mentioned in Magee lots tonight as a day that you're not allowed to fast and you're not allowed to eulogize and what happened on the 13th of Adar nothing is it worth for him nothing is it what porn it's part of the family story that the 13th of Adar is called the day of Nicanor and Nicanor was a syrian general in the days of Antiochus and there was a great great battle in which he brought tens of thousands of soldiers against you shall I am and miracles happened the time of the Maccabees and that became the ohmic nor in which 13 almost like having a three-day pour him all the time you shall I'm already we have two days of pour and we have the 14th of Aadhaar which is regular Purim and the fifteenth of other which is art for him but when you had young nick nor young Nick nur was not for him but it was also a day of celebration so it was interesting that according to mcElhatton it not only was there not a fast on the 13th of Adar you weren't allowed to fast on the 13th of other it had to be a celebration so you may ask me a question so wait a second here if the 13th of Adar is young Nick Nora and under the tongue I am in McGillis Thomas you're not allowed to fast how could tynus Esther have been invented at all so the answer to that is that the gemara tells us but la Miki last time is that when the bias Shanee was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 McGillis Tanya's holidays became inoperative except for Hanukkah and porom itself and that's why as I say if you looked at the number of days in McGill a Steines that you're not supposed to fast you'd have like 30 or 40 extra days added to the Jewish calendar a whole bunch of days but we don't follow those days today because we pass him but let me give us honest and that is why Thomas Esther could be could become a fast day because it was no longer covered by the holiday of Yom ignore which means in the time of them of the second McNish by definition there couldn't have been a time as Esther because it was young nick nor but the truth of the matter is even after the kerbin in the time of the mo ryeom there also was not gonna give us time and there also was not time as Esther Tannis Esther is really from the gone him that are actually after the Gemara and that and that is why if for example people don't feel well we are much more lenient in time as Esther than we are in any other vast because every other Kippur of course is a Torah fest but the other for fest some Gedaliah the tenth of today's the 17th of Tammuz and the ninth of of these are fasts that are absolutely at least rabbinic origin and therefore although we're more lenient than yom kippur and for them as well but we're stricter than thomas africanus esther is the most lenient of all fast days because it is not even a rabbinic requirement from the gomorrah itself it is post the Cosima posts the conclusion of the of the Gemara let me give you another example where McGillis Thomas actually contradicts a fast day and this is even more difficult we know that on the 3rd of Tishrei this is just a digression on the third day of Tishrei we have a fasting right after a session day after Esther sauna we have a fast day and this fast day is in the Gemara and it's even in the Tanakh this is the fast of Gedaliah okay although this is not the time of year but we can mention it Gedaliah was the last jewish governor after the temple was destroyed after the jews were exiled there was a small remnant of Jews that were allowed to remain in Israel they were very poor the book on net sir let them farm their stony fields and there was a governor who was placed over them a Jewish governor a righteous person at Sonic his name was Gedaliah been a seeker there's a bit of a mock locusts some say Gedaliah banoffee come was actually part of the Davidic line so calls him on that he was there it was as if there was some continuity of mouth host-based of it others say Gedaliah was not from Malthus based of it but he was a Sadiq and he was the last presence of a Jewish ruler in Eretz around the time of the first Corbyn and what happened was there was a man who was jealous of him a Jewish man Ishmael been the Sonia who killed him he assassinated to know you and the Gemara actually tells us that gundalia was at fault here because gundalia was such a Sadiq that when he was warned that someone is trying to assassinate him he refused to accept the law shown Hara and therefore he did not take the necessary precautions and how luckily this is a very very important lesson although it's true that just as you're not allowed to speak loshon Hara you're not allowed to even listen to Russian Hara but that just means you don't listen to it and believe it to be definitively true but you do take account that it might be true and you take the necessary precautions to protect yourself and others if somebody tells me god forbid that there's even if it's a Jewish man running down the street with a an Uzi with a machine gun who's planning on killing a bunch of people I don't say sorry I am NOT Maccabi Lashon Hara about a fellow Jim that would be stupid you take the precautions that you have to take Gedaliah acted with shame shame I am but he was killed as a result now why do I make a fast out of this I mean there were many tsadikim that were killed because you have to understand that the fast of Gedaliah was really the final nail in the coffin of the Korbin the basin mikdash had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar enough three months before right off but as long as there was a Jewish presence and a Jewish ruler in Eretz Israel there was still a sense that we still have a connection to the land and a connection to your sham I am so really the some Gedaliah is the hash Lama it is the completion of the Corbin base on Macduff and it is the definitive beginning of a godless okay that's some good Dahlia now why am i bringing this up so on one hand we read were supposed to have fast on the 3rd of Tishrei because this is Gedaliah benefit um was killed because I'll also make it more general points that Godot Mesa tsadikim of the death of the righteous is as great as the destruction of the temple okay but here is what's interesting in Magilla Stannis in the book Magilla Stannis it is actually recorded that the third of Tishrei is a holiday that you're not allowed to fast or eulogize right it's an interesting paradox the same way the 13th of Adar was young Nicanor and yet we have a tiny zester the third of Tishrei was also a simple i'll discuss in a moment what the simpler was and yet we have some Gedaliah so what's what's the simcha on the 3rd of Tishrei this is very interesting and this is not a military victory but it says the great symptom the 3rd of Tishrei was in the days of the cosmonium desmona ins which is way after Gedaliah right surrender in the 2nd temple the car managed to get people to stop using God's name in business documents now that's a little obscure what's going on here what's going on here is that people used to Rights tariffs documents I lend you money right I take an IOU and the way the stirrups were dated in those days they would be dated to the rain of a Kohen Gadol that would say this is the 23rd year of the Kohen Gadol rain that's how they would date stars instead of dating it from creation they would date it from a Kohen Gadol who was like the ruler and the the formula said the 23rd year of the Kohen Gadol who serves teyla lyon who serves the almighty god they wrote a ship's name in other words they wrote a Shems name in regular business documents so what is so bad with writing a chef's name in a business document because what happens I lent you a thousand dollars I have a star you pay me the money I give you the star what do you do you rip up the star you throw it into the garbage the shame Hashem god forbid is moot ow basta it is now in the garbage that's not covered fresh M's name so the Cohanim actually didn't want people to use the shamash m in a business document but they couldn't convince them so we're told I'm not I'm not sure exactly what the process was that and some anonymous year we don't even know the year and the third of Tishrei they managed to get an agreement that people would not would no longer use the shame of M in a business documents and that was enough to make it a young turf no fasting no eulogy you see by the way you know this is an interesting thing you have to sometimes understand from the hagatha cetera what is a festive day and what is not you know we would look at a festive day obviously military victory which of course many of them are in McGillis diners but something like this a small thing that people stop using Seamus camera I've been asked Amina you see from the from him that the smallest thing that enhances the holiness of God in the world is AG of all the gas emka educate a we're gonna make it a young TIFF that one step was taken to minimize the kill the desecration of us it's a big deal it is a big deal you see what they come and make a big enough deal even to supersede some Gedaliah which I'll address in a moment some good values of him and yet the how come him said the other way around we're gonna make it a celebration because a certain amount of the desecration of God's name has been taken away by people not using a Shems name in the business document so this is even more difficult because when it was young nick nor there had been no thymus ester yet so they ended a celebration and then McGillis Thomas became nullified so then the column could make it a fasting but with some Gedaliah you have an opposite problem some Gedaliah was already a fast day when this simpler came up so what's the cumin we're doing in Magilla status is they were actually cancelling and already existing fasting now why do we fast because once again Magilla stylus got cancelled after the Corbin so we go back to the first day again this is not directly no gang design it's Esther but there is a parallel because in both your gimel Aadhaar is yannick nor a day of celebration that became a fast day gimel Tishrei was a fast day that became a day of celebration that then became a fast thing again okay that's so the intersection between McGillis Thomas and this calendars and the fast day calendars are very very interesting one so McGillis thomas is a bit of a confusing name it is not a listening of fast days it is a listing of the days you're not allowed to fast and as I indicate that was the very first written list of the Torah Shabab path it has been preserved orally but apparently it was important was like a challenger was important for everybody to kind of have a list of the days that were festive so they martyred writing that down even before they permitted writing down the rest of Tours about them okay so be it as it may we have two explanations for Thomas Esther it is either connected to the three-day fest of Mordecai and Esther or it's connected to an undocumented tennis on the 13th of Adar okay now we know of course that normally we don't fast on Shabbos the only fast day of Shabbos is Yom Kippur which is a total requirement and we know that normally when you have a fast that would fall out on Shabbos you push it off to the next day ninth of us blinds the vibe that falls out on Shabbos so you first Saturday night and Sunday that's called Nichkhun this guy means it gets pushes it gets pushed off and that's true for the 17th of Tammuz all of these things now the Gemara itself in Megillah asks the question why do you push off why do you fast on the allah on the 10th of off why don't you fast on the 8th of UGS do it earlier instead of later so the gemara says when it comes to fast days which are days of sadness days of grieving days of mourning we like to push it off as much as we can meaning we never bring it on earlier than we have to and therefore if I can't do it on the right day all right if I cannot do it on the right day I push it off now Tommy's Esther is actually a very very interesting exception to this rule because think about it poor him the fourth - Esther is the normal date is the 13th of Adar okay now the 14th of Adar is Sunday like that's the 14th of Adar i4m is the 15th right is Sunday so the 13th of Adar is Shabbos so we're not allowed to fast on Shabbos and we don't want to do it on Friday because even Friday you try to avoid fasting because when you fast on Friday you enter Shabbos not feeling that well right you're gonna break your fast on some conquering of Malaga wine not always the best choice so since you can't do it on Shabbos and you can't do it on Friday you shouldn't do it on Friday so we got to do it Thursday but the question is wait a second here I thought under the general rule when a fast day would fall on Shabbos you don't make it earlier you make it later so logically therefore where the Ujima Aadhaar is on Shabbos well we later can you make it we can't fast on Sunday because that's the 14th of Aadhaar which is poor him and we can't fast even outside of your line we cannot fast on Monday because that is Shushan Purim that's well that still is a junction so the earliest week is fastest Tuesday okay so bids meaning why do I make tynus Esther earlier on Thursday I should make it later on Tuesday because that's the normal pattern that fast days that cannot be kept on Shabbos are pushed off now you might answer well maybe it doesn't make a lot of sense for that because Thomas s there is no desire to prepare us for poor him you can't really have a time assess there after poor but you know who knows who knows they're actually or were were she just that did have the fast afterwards there were some cheaters as I said this so I want to share with you a really beautiful thoughts from the shame is more which is really once you hear it it is so obvious it's really an obvious starett's but you know a person might not have seen it that is time is Esther is very different than every other fascinating every other fast day is over tragedies that occurred that we are mourning over tisha both the Corbin base on McDuff we are grieving we are morning we are sobbing the 17th of Tammuz the faith or a go and then of course the fact that you shall I am was broken through with this than the siege the Romans broke another of the Bible yeah the Romans broke through the walls each line you've ever lonely did it's the amount of time is but we don't we observe the date of the 17th the 10th of teh basis when that's who began the siege against Jerusalem that culminated in the Corbyn some Gedaliah was the last nail in the coffin with the last jewish governor being assassinated so all of the fast days putting aside Yom Kippur which is unique but all of the commemorative fastenings are about tragedies and sorrows and sadness that befall us before have befallen us as a result cause I'll say never bring it on earlier than you have to if the fast day is on Shabbos push it off Thomas Esther is actually exactly the opposite it is not a tynus about something bad that happened to us it's the other way it's actually a thymus of simcha whether you connect it to the three days that Esther fasted Esther annul Jewish people or whether you connect it to the fast of the soldiers it was not a fast that is commemorating a surah the other way around it was a fast that averted a surah because of our fasting not just fasting but our truven Hashem showed us rahman and the enemies were not able to destroy us it is not a fast over a but it is a commemoration of a fast that prevented a bond and therefore when we fast on tynus Esther we're not recalling the suffering of Amoz wrath we are recalling the mercy and compassion of Hashem and the kulluk of children's fellow to rip even the evil gus' a rose so what's wrong with doing that early the whole problem why we don't do something early we don't bring sorrows into our lives earlier than we have to but this fast that represents Yahshua Redemption nothing wrong with bringing it early dress for sure I'm a hug it gives me look it reminds me no matter how difficult the massif hashem is they show me at FEMA good so what's wrong there's no key sorry I'm doing it early right so this chamber Shmuel says very beautifully this is the only tightness where when it falls on Shabbos we do it earlier rather than late because this is not a tiny of Soros this is a tiny of Yeshua so it's like it says it's really a pleasure to Terrace but it's a very very good answer and that is why we bring it early as opposed to tissue bar of shivers orbitales a sort of at a base same Gedaliah we have to bring it we have to bring it later we cannot bring it bring it