Why Do Jews Fast? Yom Kippur, Tisha BeAv, Esther

Several times a year, Jews all over the world stop eating and drinking for a day. Sometimes for twenty-five hours, from evening to evening, as on Yom Kippur or the 9th of Av; sometimes from dawn to nightfall, as on the 17th of Tammuz or the Fast of Esther. Why these privations, and what does each date commemorate? Here is a complete answer: the verses, the Talmud, the codes of Jewish law, the history and the deeper meaning of this practice.

In short: in Judaism, fasting (in Hebrew taanit or tzom) is never an end in itself. It is a way to “awaken hearts and open the paths of teshuvah”, the return to G-d (Rambam, Hilkhot Taaniyot 5:1). Only one fast is commanded by the Torah itself: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Vayikra [Leviticus] 16:29-31). The others were instituted by the prophets and the Sages: four fasts recall the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (the 10th of Tevet, the 17th of Tammuz, the 9th of Av and the Fast of Gedalia), and the Fast of Esther recalls the prayer of the threatened people at the time of Purim. So Jews fast for two reasons: to return to themselves and to G-d, and so as not to forget. And the prophets promise that one day these days of mourning will become days of joy (Zecharia [Zechariah] 8:19).

A calendar of fasts: the complete list

Before explaining the why, here is the what. The Jewish calendar has six public fasts, to which a few individual fasts are added.

For the current year, 5787: the Fast of Gedalia (Monday, September 14, 2026) and Yom Kippur (Monday, September 21, 2026) have already passed. Next come the 10th of Tevet on Sunday, December 20, 2026; the Fast of Esther on Monday, March 22, 2027; the 17th of Tammuz on Thursday, July 22, 2027; and Tisha BeAv, from the evening of Wednesday, August 11, 2027 until nightfall on Thursday, August 12.

There are also individual fasts that not everyone observes: those of firstborns, of bride and groom, of the anniversary of a death, or the voluntary fasts known as “BeHaB” (Monday, Thursday, Monday) after Pesach and Sukkot (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 492:1).

What the Torah says: “you shall afflict your souls”

The Torah prescribes only one day of fasting, and it does not even use the word “fast”. It says: “In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work […] for on this day atonement shall be made for you, to purify you” (Vayikra 16:29-30). The Hebrew expression, inui nefesh, “afflicting the soul”, appears again in the calendar of festivals (Vayikra 23:27-32) and in the book of Numbers (Bamidbar [Numbers] 29:7).

How do we know it means not eating? The Talmud (Yoma 74b) derives it from another verse, in which Moshe reminds the people of the years in the desert: “He afflicted you (vaye’ankha), He let you hunger, then He fed you with the manna” (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 8:3). The affliction the Torah speaks of is therefore hunger. The Oral tradition, recorded in the Mishnah (Yoma 8:1), adds four other privations: not washing, not anointing oneself, not wearing leather shoes and abstaining from marital relations.

The Sefer Ha-Chinukh, which explains each of the 613 commandments, gives the reason for this fast (mitzvah no. 313). G-d, in His kindness, set a day to atone for the sins of His creatures, provided they do teshuvah. Now food and bodily pleasures weigh down the soul and turn it away from the truth; it is not fitting to come before one’s Master in that state on the day of judgment. Fasting frees the soul so that, on that day, it can stand before G-d.

The Bible also describes many “spontaneous” fasts. Moshe stays forty days and forty nights on Sinai “without eating bread or drinking water” (Shemot [Exodus] 34:28; Devarim 9:9). King David fasts and sleeps on the bare ground to plead for the healing of his child (Shmuel II [II Samuel] 12:16). Esther asks the whole people to fast for three days before she dares to appear before the king (Esther 4:16). Ezra proclaims a fast before the dangerous journey back to Jerusalem (Ezra 8:21-23), and Daniel fasts to pray over the exile (Daniel 9:3). In all these cases, fasting accompanies intense prayer at a moment of danger or decision.

Why go without food? The reasons for fasting

A wake-up call

The key to the whole subject is found at the beginning of the Laws of Fasts of the Rambam (Maimonides). He sets out a principle: it is a commandment of the Torah to cry out to G-d and sound the trumpets whenever distress strikes the community (Hilkhot Taaniyot 1:1, based on Bamidbar 10:9). And he explains why: “This is one of the paths of teshuvah. For when trouble comes and they cry out and sound the trumpets, everyone knows that it is because of their bad deeds that harm has come upon them” (1:2). According to the Rambam, the Sages added the obligation to fast in times of such distress (1:4).

The Rambam adds a very strong sentence. If, on the contrary, people say “what is happening to us is just the way of the world, mere chance”, this is a “cruel attitude” (derekh akhzariut), because it leads people to cling to their bad deeds (1:3). Fasting is therefore first of all a refusal of fatalism. It says: what happens has a meaning, and we bear a responsibility.

Writing memory into the body

For the fasts of mourning, the Rambam spells out their purpose: “There are days on which all Israel fasts because of the calamities that befell them, in order to awaken hearts and open the paths of teshuvah. This will be a reminder of our bad deeds and of the deeds of our fathers, which were like our deeds today, and which caused these calamities” (Hilkhot Taaniyot 5:1).

In other words, one does not fast only to mourn the past. One fasts because the causes of the catastrophe, hatred, pride, injustice, may still be with us. A speech is forgotten; hunger felt in one’s own body is forgotten far less easily. Fasting moves memory from the head to the stomach.

An offering of oneself

The Talmud records the prayer Rav Sheshet would say after a day of fasting: “Master of the world, it is known before You that when the Temple stood, a person who sinned would bring a sacrifice, of which only the fat and the blood were offered, and this would atone for him. Today I have fasted, and my fat and my blood have diminished. May it be Your will that my diminished fat and blood be considered as though I had offered them on the altar” (Berakhot 17a). Since the destruction of the Temple, fasting has become a way of offering oneself in place of the animal.

Drawing closer to the angels

On Yom Kippur, tradition compares the person who fasts to the angels, who neither eat nor drink (Midrash Devarim Rabba 2:36). This is why many dress in white (Rema, Orach Chaim 610:4), and why on that day alone the sentence “Barukh shem kevod malkhuto le’olam va’ed”, said quietly all year round, is recited aloud (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 619:2). Here fasting expresses not sadness but elevation: for one day, the soul takes up all the room.

What fasting is not

Judaism is wary of asceticism. The Talmud records a debate (Taanit 11a): according to Rabbi Elazar, one who fasts is called “holy”; according to Shmuel, he is called a “sinner”, because he inflicts on himself a suffering the Torah does not ask of him. Jewish law keeps both ideas: one fasts seriously on the appointed days, but one does not mortify oneself for the sake of mortification. The body is not an enemy. The rest of the year, eating a Shabbat or festival meal is even a mitzvah.

Fasting without change is useless: the voice of the prophets

The prophets of Israel were the first to criticize a fast that remains merely outward. The most famous text is that of Yeshayahu, which is read on Yom Kippur. The people complain: “Why have we fasted and You did not see?” And the prophet answers in G-d’s name: “On the day of your fast you pursue your business and oppress your workers. […] Is this the fast I desire? […] Is it not rather this: to loosen the chains of injustice, […] to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house?” (Yeshayahu [Isaiah] 58:3-7).

The prophet Yoel says the same thing in a single phrase: “Return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and lamenting; rend your hearts and not your garments” (Yoel [Joel] 2:12-13). And Zecharia, asked whether the people should keep fasting after the return from Babylon, answers with a question: “When you fasted […] these seventy years, was it for Me that you fasted?” (Zecharia 7:5).

The Mishnah draws a practical rule from this. At the public fasts decreed in times of drought, the eldest of the community would address the people: “Our brothers, it is not said of the people of Nineveh, ‘the L-rd saw their sackcloth and their fasting’, but ‘the L-rd saw their deeds, that they had turned from their evil way'” (Mishnah Taanit 2:1, quoting Yona [Jonah] 3:10). Fasting is a lever. What matters is what it lifts.

Yom Kippur: the only fast in the Torah

Yom Kippur, the 10th of Tishrei, stands apart. It is not a day of mourning but the holiest day of the year. The Mishnah even says that Israel had no days as joyful as the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur (Taanit 4:8), because it is the day of forgiveness.

The fast lasts about twenty-five hours: it begins a little before sunset and ends after the stars come out the next evening, in order to “add from the ordinary to the holy” (Yoma 81b). All five privations apply. On the day before, by contrast, it is recommended to eat well: the Talmud teaches that whoever eats on the 9th of Tishrei is considered as though he had fasted on both the 9th and the 10th (Berakhot 8b).

It is also the only public fast observed even on Shabbat: the others are postponed or brought forward, because Shabbat is a day of delight. Yom Kippur, however, is called by the Torah “a Shabbat of Shabbats” (Vayikra 16:31). For its prayers and its meaning, see our article on Yom Kippur (links at the end of the page).

The four fasts of the destruction

“The fast of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh and the tenth month”

Four fasts come from a single verse of the prophet Zecharia, spoken at the beginning of the return from Babylon, around 518 BCE: “Thus says the L-rd of hosts: the fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall become for the house of Judah days of gladness, joy and happy festivals; but love truth and peace” (Zecharia 8:19). The months are counted from Nissan, the month of the Exodus from Egypt. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 18b) identifies these four fasts.

These fasts therefore already existed in the prophet’s time, shortly after the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians. Together they tell the stages of a single catastrophe, like the four acts of a tragedy.

The 10th of Tevet: the beginning of the siege

“In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem” (Melakhim II [II Kings] 25:1). On that day the prophet Yechezkel, then in exile in Babylon, is commanded to write down the date: “Son of man, write down the name of the day, this very day: the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem on this very day” (Yechezkel [Ezekiel] 24:2).

This fast has a peculiarity. According to Rabbi David Abudarham, a 14th-century Spanish halakhic authority quoted by the Beit Yosef (Orach Chaim 550), if it fell on Shabbat it would have to be observed on that very day, because of the words “this very day”. The fixed calendar means this never actually happens. In Israel, the Chief Rabbinate made the 10th of Tevet the “General Kaddish Day”, on which Kaddish is recited for victims of the Holocaust whose date of death is unknown.

The 17th of Tammuz: the breach in the wall

The 17th of Tammuz commemorates the breach opened in the walls of Jerusalem. For the First Temple, the book of Yirmeyahu dates the breach to the 9th of Tammuz (Yirmeyahu [Jeremiah] 39:2); for the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans, it took place on the 17th (Talmud, Taanit 28b). It is this date that was kept.

The Mishnah (Taanit 4:6) lists five calamities that occurred on this day: Moshe broke the first Tablets of the Law when he saw the golden calf; the daily offering (the tamid) ceased to be brought in the Temple; the city wall was breached; Apostomos, a Roman officer, burned a Torah scroll; and an idol was set up in the Sanctuary.

The 17th of Tammuz opens a three-week period of mourning, in Hebrew bein hametzarim, “between the straits” (after Eikha [Lamentations] 1:3), which leads up to the 9th of Av. During this time no weddings are held and festivities are avoided. From the 1st of Av, the mourning intensifies: “When Av begins, joy is diminished” (Mishnah Taanit 4:6).

Tisha BeAv: the day of destructions

The 9th of Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. The Mishnah (Taanit 4:6) gathers five calamities on it: the decree that the generation of the desert would not enter the Land of Israel, after the report of the spies (Bamidbar 14); the destruction of the First Temple; that of the Second; the fall of Betar, the last fortress of the Bar Kokhba revolt (135 CE); and the ploughing of Jerusalem by the Romans.

The Talmud tells the origin of this day. After the spies’ report, “the people wept that night” (Bamidbar 14:1). G-d then said: “You wept for nothing; I will establish for you a weeping for generations” (Taanit 29a). That night was the 9th of Av. Chroniclers of the tradition later noted other calamities that occurred around this date, such as the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 and from Spain in 1492.

Tisha BeAv is a full twenty-five-hour fast, with the same five privations as Yom Kippur. Mourning customs are added: people sit on the ground or on a low seat until midday, read the book of Eikha (Lamentations) and kinot (elegies), and do not greet one another. Even Torah study is forbidden, except for sad texts such as Eikha, Iyov (Job) or the laws of mourning, because “the precepts of the L-rd gladden the heart” (Tehilim [Psalms] 19:9; Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 554:1). According to the most widespread custom, men put on tallit and tefillin only at the afternoon service.

Why was the Temple destroyed? The Talmud answers bluntly: the first, because of idolatry, immorality and bloodshed; the second, at a time when people studied Torah and performed the mitzvot, because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred (Yoma 9b). The story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza (Gittin 55b-56a) illustrates it: a public humiliation, which the Sages present allow to happen without protest, sets off the chain of events that leads to the war against Rome.

The Fast of Gedalia: the end of hope

After the destruction of the First Temple, the king of Babylon left a small population in Judea and appointed a Jewish governor, Gedalia son of Achikam. But a member of the royal family, Yishmael son of Netanya, assassinated him “in the seventh month” (Melakhim II 25:25; Yirmeyahu 41:1-2). Fearing Babylonian reprisals, the survivors fled to Egypt, and the last organized Jewish presence in the Land of Israel disappeared.

This fast falls on the 3rd of Tishrei, just after Rosh Hashanah. The Talmud draws a lesson from it: “The death of the righteous is equal to the burning of the house of our G-d” (Rosh Hashanah 18b). One fasts for a man as one fasts for the Temple. And one also remembers that this time the calamity did not come from an outside enemy: a Jew killed a Jew.

“Whoever mourns for Jerusalem will merit to see its joy” (Talmud, Taanit 30b): the fasts of the destruction keep the memory of the city alive.

The Fast of Esther: a fast that leads to joy

The Fast of Esther, on the 13th of Adar, the day before Purim, is of a different nature. It commemorates not a catastrophe but a deliverance. When the minister Haman obtained from the Persian king a decree of extermination against all the Jews, Queen Esther asked Mordechai: “Go, gather all the Jews of Shushan and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night and day. I too, with my maidens, will fast likewise; then I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).

The book of Esther itself mentions “the fasts and their cry” among the things established for the generations (Esther 9:31). The Rambam writes that all Israel has the custom of fasting on the 13th of Adar “in remembrance of the fasts they fasted in the days of Haman” (Hilkhot Taaniyot 5:5). According to the Kitzur Shulchan Arukh, this fast recalls that G-d hears the prayer of every person in their hour of distress, when they fast and return to Him, as He did for our ancestors (141:2).

This fast is a custom (minhag) rather than an obligation in the strict sense, and the law is somewhat more lenient for people who are weak (Rema, Orach Chaim 686:2). If the 13th of Adar falls on Shabbat, the fast is brought forward to Thursday, since it cannot be postponed to the day of Purim. In the afternoon, many have the custom of giving the “half-shekel”, a coin given to tzedaka in memory of the Temple tax. That same evening the festival begins: within a few hours one goes from hunger to feasting.

Individual fasts

Alongside the public fasts, the tradition knows fasts that concern certain people or certain circumstances.

The Fast of the Firstborn (taanit bechorot), on the day before Pesach. Firstborns fast in remembrance of the fact that the firstborn of Israel were spared during the tenth plague of Egypt (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 470:1). The most widespread custom is to attend a siyum in the morning, the celebration of completing the study of a tractate of the Talmud, whose festive meal exempts from the fast.
The fast of bride and groom. Many brides and grooms fast on their wedding day until the ceremony, because for them this day is like a small Yom Kippur: their past sins are forgiven and they begin a new life (Rema, Even Ha-Ezer 61:1).
The yahrzeit fast. Some fast on the anniversary of the death of their father or mother (Rema, Yoreh De’ah 402:12).
The fast after a bad dream. The Talmud teaches that fasting is as effective against a bad dream “as fire against straw”, provided one fasts on that very day, and that it may be done even on Shabbat (Shabbat 11a). This is one of the rare exceptions to the prohibition on fasting on Shabbat.

What Rav Raphaël Benizri teaches

Rav Raphaël Benizri devoted a series of lectures to the fast days (“The fast days: fasting, the weapon of memory”). Several of its ideas shed direct light on our question.

Fasting is an awakening of awareness

In his lecture on the 10th of Tevet, the Rav asks why one fasts for a mere siege, which destroyed nothing at the time, and why this fast should, like Yom Kippur, be observed even on Shabbat. He compares it to the other fast permitted on Shabbat, the one that follows a nightmare: the troubled person cannot taste the pleasure of Shabbat, and fasting allows him to release that disturbance. This says what fasting is in general: “an awakening of awareness, quite simply”. The Rambam, he recalls, sees in it the beginning of repentance and a fresh start in life, “and so an entirely new direction”.

Three dimmings of the light

The Rav explains that in former times people fasted three days in a row in Tevet: on the 8th, for the translation of the Torah into Greek, which the Sages compare to the day of the golden calf; on the 9th, for the death of Ezra the Scribe, which marks the end of prophecy; on the 10th, for the siege. Three successive “dimmings of the light”: as if the people, stricken with short-sightedness, no longer saw things at their source. And why is there no fast for the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria? The Rav cites the image in Yirmeyahu (50:17) and the Sages’ explanation: Assyria devoured the people’s flesh, but Babylon struck at its lifeblood, threatening its very existence.

Yom Kippur and Tisha BeAv: two fasts, two attitudes

In “Tisha BeAv: rising above oneself”, the Rav observes that tradition does not say the Mashiach was born on Yom Kippur, but on the 9th of Av. On Yom Kippur we remain “dependent on G-d’s forgiveness”. On Tisha BeAv, the people realize that all rebuilding can come from themselves: “The whole problem is in me.” The fast of mourning becomes the starting point of responsibility.

The inner cause of the destruction

In “Tisha BeAv: the origin of the destruction”, the Rav rereads the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza: the man thrown out of the banquet was the one calling for openness, and the real scandal was the silence of the Sages who were present. The cause of the destruction must be sought within the people, in the intolerance between different streams; and exile is not a punishment but a therapy. Finally, regarding the Fast of the Firstborn, he explains that firstborn sons fast because they were spared without any merit of their own, whereas the eldest daughters had theirs: the resistance in Egypt was the work of the women (“Pesach: Peh-Sach, the mouth that speaks”).

Fasting in practice

In concrete terms, here are the main rules, which remain general:

Two kinds of fasts. Yom Kippur and Tisha BeAv begin at sunset the evening before and last about twenty-five hours, with all five privations. The four other public fasts (Gedalia, 10th of Tevet, Esther, 17th of Tammuz) begin at dawn and end at nightfall; only eating and drinking are forbidden (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 550:2).
Shabbat. Apart from Yom Kippur, no public fast is held on Shabbat: when the 9th of Av or the 17th of Tammuz falls on Shabbat, it is postponed to Sunday (Orach Chaim 550:3; 552:10), and the Fast of Esther is brought forward to Thursday.
In the synagogue. On fast days, the Torah reading is the passage “Vayechal Moshe” (Shemot 32:11-14 and 34:1-10), which tells how Moshe obtained forgiveness after the golden calf and revealed the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. The prayer “Anenu”, “answer us on the day of our fast”, is added to the Amida.
Health first. Life comes before any fast. The sick, pregnant or nursing women, elderly or frail people and children have special rules, often more lenient for the minor fasts. Children are not obliged to fast before the age of bar or bat mitzvah. For any particular case, consult a rabbi, and a doctor, well before the day.
Greetings. People wish each other “tzom kal”, “an easy fast”, or, for the fasts of mourning, “tzom mo’il”, “a meaningful fast”.

Misconceptions about Jewish fasting

“Jews fast to punish themselves.” No: fasting is a process of return, not a punishment, and someone who deprives himself without need is even called a “sinner” (Taanit 11a). As for Yom Kippur, it is not a sad day: the Mishnah counts it among the two most joyful days of the year (Taanit 4:8).

“These fasts commemorate events too ancient to concern us.” The Rambam answers that these days recall “the deeds of our fathers, which were like our deeds today” (Hilkhot Taaniyot 5:1). We do not mourn stones, but a way of living together that was lost, and whose causes, such as baseless hatred, have not disappeared. And the Talmud promises: “Whoever mourns for Jerusalem will merit to see its joy” (Taanit 30b).

“These fasts are eternal.” Not so either. The Rambam writes that in the days of the Messiah all these fasts will be abolished and will become days of celebration and joy, as Zecharia announces (Hilkhot Taaniyot 5:19). The Jewish fast carries its own end within it.

Frequently asked questions about Jewish fasts

How many fast days are there in Judaism?

There are six public fasts a year: Yom Kippur, the Fast of Gedalia, the 10th of Tevet, the Fast of Esther, the 17th of Tammuz and Tisha BeAv. Two of them (Yom Kippur and Tisha BeAv) last about twenty-five hours; the other four run from dawn to nightfall. Added to these are individual fasts, such as that of the firstborn or of bride and groom.

Can Jews drink water during a fast?

No. On a Jewish fast, one neither eats nor drinks, not even water. For the minor fasts, it is permitted to eat and drink during the preceding night, before dawn, provided one intended to do so. A sick person should consult a rabbi: health comes before fasting.

What is the most important fast?

Yom Kippur, the only fast commanded by the Torah, is the most important and the holiest. Tisha BeAv is the most severe of the fasts of mourning. The others were instituted by the prophets or the rabbis, but they are observed by all communities.

Why do Jews still fast for the Temple now that Jerusalem has been rebuilt?

Because the Temple has not been rebuilt, and what is mourned is not only a building but the divine presence in the midst of the people and the unity that made it possible. The Talmud attributes the destruction of the Second Temple to baseless hatred (Yoma 9b): as long as it exists, the lesson remains relevant. The fasts will be abolished in the messianic era.

Do children fast?

Children are not obliged to fast before the age of 13 for a boy and 12 for a girl. For Yom Kippur, they are trained gradually by delaying their meals a little in the last years before that age. For the other fasts, they generally do not fast, although some customs train them gradually for Tisha BeAv.

Sources and references

Vayikra (Leviticus) 16:29-31; Vayikra 23:27-32; Bamidbar (Numbers) 29:7
Bamidbar 10:9; Bamidbar 14:1
Devarim (Deuteronomy) 8:3; Devarim 9:9; Shemot (Exodus) 34:28; Shemot 32:11-14 and 34:1-10
Shmuel II (II Samuel) 12:16; Melakhim II (II Kings) 25:1 and 25:25
Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 58:3-7; Yoel (Joel) 2:12-13; Yona (Jonah) 3:10
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 39:2; Yirmeyahu 41:1-2; Yirmeyahu 50:17; Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 24:2
Zecharia (Zechariah) 7:5; Zecharia 8:19
Esther 4:16; Esther 9:31; Ezra 8:21-23; Daniel 9:3; Tehilim (Psalms) 19:9; Eikha (Lamentations) 1:3
Mishnah Yoma 8:1; Mishnah Taanit 2:1; Mishnah Taanit 4:6; Mishnah Taanit 4:8
Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 74b; Yoma 81b; Yoma 9b
Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 8b; Berakhot 17a
Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 11a; Taanit 28b; Taanit 29a; Taanit 30b
Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 18b; Shabbat 11a; Gittin 55b-56a
Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Taaniyot 1:1-4; 5:1; 5:5; 5:19
Sefer Ha-Chinukh, mitzvah no. 313
Midrash Devarim Rabba 2:36
Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 470:1; 492:1; 550:2-3; 552:10; 554:1; 619:2
Rema, Orach Chaim 610:4; Rema, Orach Chaim 686:2; Rema, Even Ha-Ezer 61:1; Rema, Yoreh De’ah 402:12
Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 550 (quoting Rabbi David Abudarham)
Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 141:2
Rav Raphaël Benizri, The fast days
Rav Raphaël Benizri, 10 Tevet: the fast that opens the destruction
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Tisha BeAv: rising above oneself
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Tisha BeAv: the origin of the destruction
Rav Raphaël Benizri, Pesach: Peh-Sach, the mouth that speaks

Article by the Pensées Juives editorial team. Passages attributed to Rav Raphaël Benizri are taken from his lectures published on this site.

Why Do Jews Fast?