Hello John and Doves,
Christmas Day, December
25, 2020 falls on the Fast of Tevet or Asarah B'Tevet.
The Fast of Tevet is on
the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet.
Asarah B'Tevet is a day
of fasting, mourning, and repentance.
The fast is a reminder
of the siege of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar II of
Babylonia. This siege continued into the destruction
of Solomon's Temple and the conquest of the Kingdom of
Judah.
"So in the ninth year of
Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem
with his entire army. They encamped outside the city
and built a siege wall all around it. And the city
was kept under siege until King Zedekiah's eleventh year.
By the ninth day of the
fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that
the people of the land had no food. Then the city
was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the
city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate
between the two walls near the king's garden.
They headed toward the
Arabah, but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and
overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army
was separated from him. The Chaldeans seized the
king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah,
where they pronounced judgement on him. And they
slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes.
Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze
shackles, and took him to Babylon."
On the seventh day of
the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar's reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain
of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered
Jerusalem. He burned down the house of the Lord, the
royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem - every
significant building. And the whole army of the
Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down the
walls around Jerusalem.
The Nebuzaradan captain
of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in
the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the
king of Babylon and the rest of the population." 2
Kings 25:1 - 11
What is so special about
the tenth day of the tenth month? In Ezekiel 24: 1-2
"In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month,
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
write down the name of this day, this very day.
The King of Babylon has has laid siege to Jerusalem this
very day."
This starts the parable
of the Cooking Pot.
The Lord tells Ezekiel
to tell 'the rebellious people' a parable: Put a
cooking pot on the fire, pour water into it. Add meat and
bones. Bring it to a boil and cook the bones.
Then the Lord said, "Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the
pot now encrusted, whose deposits will not go away!"
Take out the meat. "For the blood she shed is in her
midst: She poured it on the bar rock; she did not
pour it on the ground, where the dust would cover
it.
To stir up wrath and
take revenge I put her blood on the bare rock, so that it
would not be covered. Therefore this is what the
Sovereign LORD says: "Woe to the city of
bloodshed! I, too, will pile the wood high. So
heap on the wood and kindle the fire. Cook the meat
well, mixing in the spices; and let the bones be
charred. Then set the empty pot on the coals till it
becomes hot and it copper glows, so that its impurities
may be melted and its deposit burned away. It has
frustrated all efforts; its heavy deposit has not been
removed, not even by fire.
"Now your impurity is
lewdness (behavior that is deemed morally impure).
Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be
cleansed from your impurity, you will not be clean again
until my wrath against you has subsided." "I the
LORD have spoken, The time has come for me to
act. I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor
will I relent. You will be judged according to your
conduct and your actions, declared the Sovereign
LORD." Ezekiel 24:4-14
"The Chasam Sofer
teaches us that what was happening up in heaven was that
Jerusalem was being judged and evaluated. On that
day, up above, Jerusalem was found wanting and the
decision for its destruction was finalized....Asarah
B'Teves, represents an immediate clear and present
danger..." to this day. "Thus, on Asarah B'Teves,
each one of us must endeavor to attempt to replace the
Torah lost during these tragic days." That is why
the Jewish people fast on this very day.
https://yated.com/the-enduring-mystery-of-asarah-bteves/
The
Enduring Mystery of Asarah B’Teves - Yated.com
The words "this very day" in
Hebrew are "B'etzem hayom hazeh". This phrase
appears twice in the Lord's message to Ezekiel.
The phrase, "this
very day" "creates a domino effect: it
leads to siege, destruction, and exile. It grows
in its intensity, its sadness, its finality. It
is the beginning of the end. That is what we
observe on 10 Tevet.
https://www.alephbeta.org/fast-of-10-tevet
Asara
B'Tevet: Why Do We Fast? | Aleph Beta
Asarah B'Tevet is the
first of four feasts surrounding the destruction of the
first Temple. The Fast of Tammuz (17th of Tammus),
Tisha B'Av (9th of Av), and Tzom Gedaliah (3rd of
Tishri)
This phrase is used in
Genesis 7:13 'On the very same day entered Noah, and
Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's
wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the
ark."
And in Genesis
17:23 "On that same day Abraham obeyed God and
circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his
household, including the slaves born in his home and those
he had bought."
This phrase is
associated with important events on 'a' particular day.
B'etzem hayom hazeh:
The Hebrew word "hayom" means day, a reference to the Era
of Redemption. Together they refer to the great revelation
that will take place on a specific day.
http://www.moheltoronto.com/resources/maamar-betzem-hayom-hazeh/
Ma’amar
B’etzem Hayom Hazeh – Rabbi Goldstein
On this day, the Jewish
people recite the Kaddish or memorial prayer for those
whose date or place of death is unknown - especially for
those lost during the Holocaust.
According to the Talmud,
the Torah was translated into Greek during the month of
Tevet in the third century, B.C. This translation is
known as the "Septuagint". "Seventy refers to the
Jewish scholars who translated the Torah.
"Messianic Jewish scholar
Alfred Edersheim wrote that an early Aramaic source
document called "The Scroll of Fasts", which included
additional commentary in medieval Hebrew (called
scholium), may refer to the 9th of Tevet as the day of
Yeshua's birth (i.e. sometime during late December in our
Gregorian calendars).
https://hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Winter_Holidays/Asarah_B_Tevet/AsarahBTevet.pdf
asarahBTevet
It's interesting that this
fast is on the tenth day of the tenth month. The
number ten symbolizes the completion of a cycle. We
have the Ten Commandments. The Ten Plagues of
God. Ten generations of men lived on the earth
before the Great Flood. There are ten toes on
Nebuchanezzar's statue. There are ten virgins.
There are ten horns and ten kings in the Revelation. " It
is the number of heaven and the world and universal
creation." https://mysticalnumbers.com/number-10/
Number 10
- Meaning - Symbolism - Fun Facts - in Religion
In Hebrew, the letter Yod
equals ten. It is the first letter in the name of
God.
"According to the Jewish
sages, the yod represents the world to come and
completeness...It is the smallest letter of the
Aleph-Bet...It symbolizes wisdom and the super-natural.
https://hebrewtoday.com/alphabet/the-letter-yud-%D7%99/
The
Letter Yod (Yud) (י) - Hebrew Today
Rabbi Glazerson has a
video on his Torah code youtube channel: The Secret
of the Tenth of Tevet, December 16, 2020
"Tenth of Tevet"
"messiah" "repentance" "the trial" "in
heaven"
On a specific day, America
will be judged and evaluated, like Jerusalem.
America will be found wanting. It will be our "B'etzem hayom
hazeh"~ .
The day of the Rapture, is
also on a set day, "B'etzem hayom hazeh"! As is
the start of the Tribulation Period for the whole
world.
May our 'day of
redemption' be soon!
Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem!
Maranatha!
Chance