Fast Days

Although the Jewish year is filled with wonderful holidays in abundance several times a year – six to be precise – we fast. Some people find fasting quite arduous, so there are some pointers that can help ease the fast-related hunger pangs.

The Jewish calendar contains several fast days, most of them commemorating various landmark events that revolve around the destruction of the Holy Temples. Learn how these days are observed.

Barring any specific medical conditions, some good planning and some practical coping techniques will allow most women in a low-risk pregnancy to manage a twenty-five hour fast without any complications to the pregnancy or risk to their babies...

There is an ancient custom that on a public fast day, the rabbi delivers a special sermon known as "divrei kivushin" (lit. "words that conquer the heart.")

Five times a year we read this prayer, on each of the five traditional days of fast

In Jewish tradition, a communal fast day is an auspicious time On High. This Divine favor then manifests itself in this world below, and can be intensified by man’s deeds. Maimonides writes that fasting is one of the paths of repentance, and hastens ...

Behab (בה"ב) is comprised of three Hebrew letters: bet – the second letter of the alphabet; hey – the fifth letter; and again bet. The sequence stands for Monday, Thursday and Monday. (As the Jewish week begins on Sunday, the morrow of the Shabbat, ...