Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

Today is Tzom (Fast of) Gedaliah. Around the time of the destruction of the first Temple, Gedaliah son of Achikam had been selected by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, to serve as governor of Judah. Gedaliah was subsequently murdered  by a fellow Jew, Yishmael son of Netaniah.This Biblical tragedy marks the first time that a Jew in political office was assassinated by a fellow Jew.

As a child, I did not appreciate the gravity of this story. Since the Fast begins at sunrise and not the night before, I saw it as a practice fast before Yom Kippur, and nothing more.

Once I was a little older, I came to understand that this was one of four fasts associated with the end of the first Temple period, the others being the tenth of Tevet, the seventeenth of Tammuz, and Tisha B'Av.

It was only as a thirty-five year old rabbi that I saw a modern day parallel. On Saturday night after Shabbat had ended in Israel on November 4, 1995, Israeli prime minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated by a fellow Jew at a peace rally in Tel Aviv. In terms of Jewish history, the Rabin assasination was considered the most historic since the assassination of Gedaliah in Biblical times.

The Fast of Gedaliah takes place the day following Rosh Hashanah. While the Ten Days of Repentance focuses on personal behavior and the need for refinement, the historical fast reminds us of the far reaching implications when the actions of one person can change the course of history, be it 2500 years ago or 25 years ago.

May we take the meaning of today's Fast and the week of the High Holy Days seriously and comprehend the impact of a single person's choice of behavior.

Rabbi Howard Morrison