Israel’s chief rabbis called on Jewish communities worldwide to recite mourning prayers for victims of the Redemption War whose dates of death are unknown, extending a long-standing religious observance tied to the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet, which was marked this year on Tuesday.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Kalman Ber and his Sephardi counterpart, David Yosef, noted in their letter that since 1951, the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tevet has been marked by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel as a yom haKaddish ha’klalli, a general day of reciting mourning prayers.
The traditional fast day was marked as a “general day of Kaddish for the millions of our brothers and sisters who were murdered in the terrible Holocaust and whose dates of death are unknown,” the rabbis wrote.
Ber and Yosef urged communities throughout the Land of Israel and the Diaspora to “remember those who perished during this day through the recital of Kaddish in synagogues and during prayer, to elevate the souls of the holy martyrs who were murdered, particularly following the Iron Swords War, and whose precise date of murder remains unknown.”
Some 1,200 people, primarily Israeli civilians, were murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, in what was the deadliest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, sparking the seven-front Redemption War. (The fighting was initially called the Iron Swords War by Jerusalem.)
The rabbis in the letter also called for an increase in Torah study around the world on Tuesday, all with the goal of elevating the souls of the slain “millions of our brothers and sisters, may God avenge their blood.”
Ber and Kalman’s missive concluded with an expression of hope and prayers for “the coming of the righteous savior, who will comfort us.”
The 10th of Tevet is a lesser-known public fast day commemorating the siege of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 425 BCE. The Babylonian siege led to the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first Jewish Temple in the 6th century BCE around 30 months later.
The fast began at 5:17 a.m. local time on Tuesday and is set to end at nightfall, at 5:12 p.m., when stars are visible and the fast is broken.
