Three of the darkest days of the year are the 8th, 9th, and 10th days in the month of Tevet (parallel to the month of January).

What happened on these days? 

The actual date 10th of Tevet is mentioned in the book of Kings II 25:1. “It happened in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and his entire army, came to wage war against Jerusalem, and encamped near it, and built a siege tower around it". 

In the book of Ezekiel this date is also mentioned (Ezekiel 24, 1-2): "In the ninth year in the tenth month on the tenth day of the month….. Son of Adam, write the name of the day, of this very day, the King of Babylon started the siege on Jerusalem, on this very day".

There are two fasts that have to be kept on the exact date [even if they fall on the Shabbat]. These days are Yom Kippur [10th of Tishrei] and 10th of Tevet.

Why do these three days bring darkness to the world?

On the 8th the Torah was translated into Greek. There were various differences between our Torah and the way it was translated. This brings darkness in the world.

On the 9th of Tevet, Ezra the Prophet died. 

The death of Ezra is tragic, because Ezra was the one who built the Second Temple and he helped give strength to the Jewish nation by disengaging themselves from their non Jewish wives and children.

The death of the Righteous (Tzadikim) is worse than the destruction of the Temple. So basically the death of Ezra closes the beginning era of the Second Temple. After his death there was a period that the nation was loyal to Jewish precepts. Then the nation slowly sank into Hellenism.

Ezra is the Prophet Malachi, the last prophet of the Twelve Prophets [starting with Hosea and ending with Malachi]. Ezra was a Cohen, and it says that Ezra was on the level to give the Torah to like Moshe, had he lived in a different generation. Ezra put the law of Torah and Jewish lineage back into place. 

Many laws connected to the differences between Jews and non Jews are from Ezra. For example, Jews are not to consume products that have been cooked without Jewish supervision nor should wine be touched by a non-Jew unless it is bottled and pasteurized.   

Ezra actually broke up families to put lineage back into place.  He stopped further assimilation and put the law of the Torah back in the Land.  This was done so we could rebuild the Temple and define each person's particular role in the Temple [eg. if he is a Cohen, Levite, or Israelite]. The temple was being built during this time.

We mentioned that every month has a letter, and a tribe, and has a different part of the body. This is all mentioned in "Sefer Yetzirah", "The Book of Formation" written by Abraham.

The part of the body that is connected to this month is the liver. The quality, the characteristic, of the month is anger.  

The Hebrew letter is Ayin – ע, the month is called Capricorn, and it is connected to the tribe of Dan. All these things are interconnected. There is also another rule that the first time a letter appears in the Bible there lies its source. That means if we have the letter Ayin, and we want to know what is the inner meaning of Ayin, we look at the first time it appears in the Bible. From that first time we will get an idea what Ayin really is.

If we look in the Torah, in the book of Genesis 1:2 it says: “choshech al pnei tehom” which translates “the darkness on top of the abyss”. And the word “al”, meaning “on”, is written Ayin and then Lamed - על. This is the first time we see the Ayin in the Torah. 

What is "choshech" - darkness?   "Choshech" is Greece. And what is "tehom"-the abyss? "Tehom is Edom Greece. And what is "tehom"- the abyss? "Tehom" is Edom=Rome, or, in other words, Esau. So that means that he "al" happens to be between Greece and Rome. Ayin finds itself between the last two exiles, between the last two superpowers which are Greece and Rome.

We now invite you to visit our Audio Classes and Purchase Center for further teaching and information on this month which includes the Kabbalistic meanings of the interconnected components of this month.

This information was written, published and compiled by Atarah Gur and kabbalahtorah.com. 

Copyright © 2007Atarah C. Gur