[Avodah] fasting on Rosh Hashanah and selihot

[Dov Bloom]

See Tur OH 597, Bach al atar and Taz on SA OH who all discussed why one should NOT fast. They had to be speaking against an entrenched minhag to fast, otherwise why waste so much ink?
Mordechai HaShalem on RH p. 24-29 brings the RIBAM student of Rabeinu Tam who fasted and brought a proof from a Kal VaHomer... also a R Avraham miBihem and others...

Scholarly opinion holds that fasting on RH was a prevalent minhag of EY in times of the geonim, opposed by Geonei Bavel.  The vast majority of Rishonim opposed it, however there are threads of the practice in Ashkenaz during Rishonim times, not too surprising if one follows the theory that minhag EY influenced minhag Ashkenaz. 

The Tur OH 581 brings the geonim ( "R Cohen Tzedek - minhag shtei haYeshivot...") who had a minhag to say selihot on Aseret Yemei Tshuva. From the continuation of the Tur it is clear that there is a close connection between selihot and fasting ("veRov Tzibur Mit'anim...").
 
So.... we should say selihot and fast 10 days - right? 

However, our minhag now is NOT to fast on RH or Shabbat or erev YK. So we are missing 4 days out of the 10!

Solution: add at least 4 days of selihot before RH, so everyone (or at least rov tzibur)  can say selihot and fast 10 days, thus filling in the days we need to get to 10.

Result: the days of selihot in minhag Ashkenaz. 
This explains the strange starting days of slihot in minhag Ashkenaz: start always on MotzShabbat, if that gives you 4 days of selihot at least, fine. If not (RH is on M or T), move starting date up a week. 

>From: Cantor Wolberg <cantorwolberg at cox.net>
>Subject: [Avodah] Unusual Minhag
>Has anyone ever heard of fasting on Rosh Hashanah?