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When the prophets instituted these four fasts, they modeled them after Yom Kippur. This meant each fast would start at night and last through the following evening, and would involve the four forms of self-denial in addition to fasting (35:13 above). This is how the fasts were observed during the seventy years of Babylonian exile. This was also the practice in the very difficult years immediately following the destruction of the Second Temple, when the Bar Kokhba rebellion took place, and Beitar and the rest of Judea were destroyed.
Fortunately, about 150 years after the Second Temple’s destruction, the Jews’ situation improved, and they were not persecuted as violently as before. Nevertheless, the Temple was still in ruins. It was agreed that Tisha Be-Av would retain its original form (as it commemorates the Temples’ destruction) until the Temple was rebuilt, but the other fasts would be made easier.
Accordingly, there are three primary differences between Tisha Be-Av and the minor fasts (Asara Be-Tevet, Shiva Asar Be-Tamuz, and Tzom Gedalia):
- Tisha Be-Av is an overnight fast, covering both night and day. The minor fasts are by day only, beginning at dawn and ending with the appearance of three stars.
- On Tisha Be-Av, washing, applying cream, wearing leather shoes, and having marital relations are prohibited. On the minor fasts, only eating and drinking are prohibited.
- The sick, as well as pregnant and nursing women, are exempt from fasting on the minor fasts. In contrast, only the sick are exempt on Tisha Be-Av, while pregnant and nursing women are obligated to fast. (On Yom Kippur, even those who are sick are required to fast, unless their illness is life-threatening; see 35:9-10 above.)
Brides and grooms in the first week of their marriage are required to fast on all these days.
Children under the ages of bar or bat mitzva are exempt from rabbinic fasts.
