Currently enjoying my #AsaraBeTevet break the fast, about an hour late due to kiddos’ bedtime routines! 🤣

For the curious, 5783’s fasts for my latitude (roughly 43.5ºN):
Yom Kippur: 24h58m
Gedalia: 13h51m
#AsaraBeTevet 11h13m
Ta’anit Esther: 13h25m
(Ta’anit Bekhorim: 14h59m)
17 Tammuz: 18h0m
Tisha B’Av: 24h32m

If you’re wondering why 9 Av isn’t as long as Yom Kippur, it’s not the time of year, it’s that YK gets Shabbat rules, starting at candle-lighting time (18 mins) before sunset and longer (42 mins) past sunset, while 9 Av starts at sunset and ends at nightfall (here, 33 mins after sunset).

Another #AsaraBeTevet note: due to where it falls in the solar year, this is the shortest fast, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Where I reside, today’s halakhic fast is only 11h 13m. Therefore, since it’s kind of a given that it is an “easy” fast, I amend my previous wish of Tzom Kal to Tzom Mashma’uti! צום משמעותי! (A meaningful fast!)

On this #AsaraBeTevet I’m contemplating how complex this day really is, three fasts in one, and realizing that the first two, the Septuagint and Ezra’s passing, are both deeply tied up in transmission of Torah. I think I might focus on those today knowing that Jerusalem and the Temple are the core of Tisha B’Av.

We are living in a time of rising #antisemetism. But more than that, we are witnessing how it's becoming more socially acceptable than it has been in a long time. It feels eerily like the beginning of something, but we don't know what. I think that makes tomorrow's fast of #AsaraBeTevet more meaningful, that was also the start of an era that we didn't know how it would end.
Here's an interesting discussion about the meaning of the Asara be Tevet, to help put it in focus:
https://www.alephbeta.org/into-the-verse-podcast/asara-btevet-why-do-we-fast