Tonight, 18 December, at sundown is the start of 10 Tevet.

Read this study! Greg is a Messianic Jew.

Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!

Love and kind regards from sunny South Africa,

Aletta

The tenth day of the tenth month, the Fast of Tevet, is first mentioned in:

Zecharyiah (Zechariah) 8:19 Thus saith HaShem 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 feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.

Melachim (Kings) 25:1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, [that] Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem , and pitched against it: and they built forts against it round about

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 24:1 Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, the word of HaShem came unto me, saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, [even] of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.

Zechariah 8:19 Thus saith HaShem 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 feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.

The prophets tell us that when the Mashiach comes these mournful days will become days of gladness and joy:

The strength, both of the obligation to fast and its positive influences, of the Tenth of Tevet stems from the fact that it commemorates the first of the tragedies associated with the destruction of the Temple . Thus this date begins the process of destruction. It is well known that the beginning of any process contains more power than the subsequent stages and for this reason, there is added power to the Tenth of Tevet. The positive influences of the Tenth of Tevet are connected to the fact that a fast day is a day of will when our prayers and teshuva (repentance) are more willingly accepted by HaShem.

As we are taught that the beginning is wedged in the end, and the ultimate end purpose of the destruction of the Holy Temples will be the rebuilding of the third and eternal Temple , the Tenth of Tevet is an auspicious day to hasten the coming of the redemption.

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 66:10 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all of you who love her; rejoice with her with great rejoicing, all of you who mourn for her.

"He who mourns Jerusalem will be privileged to see its rebuilding."

There is a special torah reading for the tenth of Tevet. The reading is Exodus 32:11-14; 34:1-10. The Haftarah is taken from Isaiah 55:6 – 56:8.