From TorahVort.com
Tenth of Tevet
This year on the 10th Tevet, is one of the fasts which the Jews participate in every year.
On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian head Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Only 30 months later -- on Tammuz 9, 3338 -- the city walls were breached, and on Av 9th of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed (A reason why we fast later on in the 9th AV).
The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for a seventy year spell. In fact the Jews were primarily punished in exile for 70 years, because as the Beit Hamikdash had been standing during the first temple; they had failed to keep and observe 70 years of shmittah (one out of every seven years, allowing the land to lay without working on it) properly.
The first temple was destroyed due to the Jews failing to keep to the laws of ‘man to G-d.’ Idolatry had become one of the major transgressions during the time of the Second Temple era, after the death of King Shlomo, soon after the tribes of Yehudah and Benjamin stayed in Jerusalem while the other 10 tribes rebelled and relocated. As this happened both sides had many King’s over many years.
Many of the Kings had been wicked and did what was ‘evil in the eyes of Hashem’. It was a man of the name Yeravam ben Nevat that led Israel astray, he became a king of the ’10 tribes’ and instituted a golden calf in which the 10 tribes worshipped. As time progressed the division amongst the tribes grew, soon after there was the exile of the 10 tribes. A period which had seen King’s increasing the usage of idolatry including King Omri and King Achav.
Before the Temple was destroyed, as more and more wicked kings came about from the tribe of Yehuda (Davidic Line), including King Menashe, whom came from a righteous father, he did what was ‘evil in the eyes’ of Hashem for many of his years reigning as King, as time went on Torah study became less and less common, which in turn led to intermarriage and forgetting of Torah and lack of observance. In turn Hashem brought about the destruction of the First Temple.
The 10th of Tevet, is observed as a day of fasting, morning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak to nightfall, which this is in fact the shortest fast which we have and we add the Selichot and other special supplements to our prayers. More recently also, The 10th of Tevet was selected to also serve as a "general kaddish day" for the people that suffered and were victims of the Holocaust, many of whom the day of their martyrdom is unknown.
'The important significance of the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, as well as that of the other fast days, is not firstly the grief and morning which they evoke. Their target is to awaken the hearts towards people repenting; to recall to us, both the evil acts of our fathers, and our own evil acts, which triggered anguish to befall both them and us and thereby to make us to return towards doing good.
The aim of fasting, therefore, is to subjugate our evil inclination by restriction of pleasure; to open the gates to our hearts and bring us to repentance and good acts through which the gates of Divine mercy may be opened for us.
We are going to take out the Torah during the fast and reading sections of Parshat Ki Tisa in the book of Shemot, we will read parts of chapter 32 and 34, this was the parshah in which the Jews and the ‘Eruv Rav,’ instituted the golden calf and Moshe smashed the tablets on the ground in retaliation due to the shocking form of idol worship that had been taking place.
