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<TITLE>The Mystery of the 9th of Tevet</TITLE>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">[From discussion on Areivim]</SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">With respect to the controversy over the origins of the 9<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet, I delivered a shiur on this very topic two Shabbatot ago. While the shiur was primarily based on R. Prof. Shnayer Z. Leiman's classic article from the Jewish Quarterly Review, I offered at the end of the shiur a much simpler explanation into the reason why the author of Megillat Ta'anit Batra did not know what historical calamity is commemorated on that day, which flows directly from the passage immediately preceding the reference to the 9<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet.</SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">Megillat Ta'anit Batra explains that the 8<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet commemorates the “translation of the Torah into Greek during the days of Ptolemy the King and pursuant to which a darkness came into the world for THREE days.” While Prof. Leiman’s linkage of the fast of the 9<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet to the yahrtzeit of St. Peter based on the Toldot Yeshu tradition and buttressed by the uncensored version of Rashi on Avoda Zara 10a is indeed compelling and makes for a delicious “Jewish Da Vinci Code” story, I think that it is much more plausible to posit that the writing of the Septuagint was considered to be so catastrophic, to the extent that it was effectively equated to the three day plague of darkness in Mitzrayim, that the Rabbanan decreed a three day fast day! We have a biblical precedent for this from Megillat Esther. Since the 10<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet was already designated as a fast day from the destruction of Bayit Rishon and the 8<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet was deemed to be a fast day due to the Targum Shivim, I believe that the 9<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet became a fast day not due to any independent event that coincided on that day but simply as it was the second day of a three day fast. If so, why did the author of Megillat Ta'anit Batra write that “our Rabbis did not write what was the reason for instituting this fast day”? I would posit that the Rabbanan indeed provided the reason for this fast day as part of the three day fast lamenting the translation of the Septuagint, yet our author of Megillat Ta'anit Batra simply did not know this information that really was in front of him the entire time.</SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">After I delivered the shiur, I was told by a neighbor to access Prof. Shulamit Elitzur’s critical edition of Megillat Ta'anit Batra, Lama Zamnu, that was published only this past summer, and sure enough, she makes the very same suggestion in the last footnote on her discussion of the 9<SUP>th</SUP> of Tevet; see footnote 170. Barukh Shekivanti l’Da’at Gedolot!</SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">Anyone interested in accessing my sourcesheet and underlying materials is invited to go to </SPAN><A HREF="http://the-eisens.com/9th_of_tevet_source_material.htm"><SPAN LANG="en-us"><U><FONT COLOR="#0066CC">http://the-eisens.com/9th_of_tevet_source_material.htm</FONT></U></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN></A><SPAN LANG="en-us"> </SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">B’virkat HaTorah,</SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us">David Eisen</SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN></P>
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