The gemara tells us that pregnant
and nursing women must complete the fast on Tisha b’Av, just like Yom Kippur
(obviously this does not apply if there is any danger to the life of the
mother, foetus or baby).[1] The
obvious question is whether or not this comparison to Yom Kippur is absolute,
and as we shall see the consensus is that it is not.
The Ramban writes that a lady who
has given birth within the last thirty days, or any person who is ill, may eat
on Tisha b’Av without any assessment of whether or not he is capable of
fasting. He explains that the institution of the Rabbis (to fast) was never
made in the case of illness.[2]
This ruling is accepted by the
Shulchan Aruch without mention of any dispute. The Rema comments that the
custom is to fast unless there is great pain with a concern of danger, but he
also concludes that one who is lenient about this does not lose out.[3]
When the fast is on the tenth
There is often considerable
confusion about this issue, stemming from a lack of knowledge or understanding
of the sources. Intuitively, there does not seem to be any logical reason to
differentiate between fasting on the ninth and fasting on the tenth. We do not
find any such difference when it comes to regular aveilus delayed because of chagim.[4]
Any leniencies here are derived
from the case in the gemara of the family of Sanav ben Binyamin, who during the
times of the second Beis Hamikdash had a yom tov on the tenth of Av (it was
their day to donate wood for the altar). When Tisha b’Av fell on a Shabbos and
the fast was pushed off till Sunday, as this was their yom tov they did not
complete the fast.[5]
This dispensation is very
understandable. As the tenth of Av was their yom tov every year, logically this
took precedence over a fast normally intended to be on the ninth. Nowadays,
without such a yom tov there is no obvious practical application of this
principle.
However, the Shulchan Aruch quotes a ruling that if
there is a bris on the Sunday of the tenth of Av, the ba’alei bris (father,
mohel and sandak) need not complete their fast.[6] This
is a big jump from the case of the yom tov of the family of Sanav ben Binyamin,
as here we are not talking about a fixed yearly celebration. Furthermore, the
idea of the day of a bris being a yom tov is far from explicit in Chazal. Presumably
for this reason the Knesess Hagdolah says that our custom is to complete the
fast.[7]
Even if we accept this ruling of
the Shulchan Aruch, when there is no bris there still does not seem to be any
justification for being more lenient with a fast on the tenth. The first
mention I could find of any such leniency is in the Magen Avraham. He writes that
even according to our minhag that sick people try to fast on Tisha b’Av, when
the fast is pushed off to the tenth this is not necessary.[8] This
is also not too hard to swallow, as we are dealing with people who anyway have
no obligation to fast.
It should be obvious from all
this that under normal circumstances, pregnant and nursing women (more than
thirty days after birth) are obligated to fast even on the tenth. The Shulchan
Aruch and other poskim quote the obligation for them to fast without making any
distinction when the fast is on the tenth. But in recent times, even amongst
those who usually keep halacha meticulously it has become relatively common not
to fast under such circumstances. What happened?
The alleged source of these lenient
rulings is a responsum of the Shvus Ya’akov (1670-1733). However, for one who
looks at what he actually wrote (and does not just rely on shortened quotations
found in later compendiums[9]) it
should not be too hard to see that he did not go against everything written
before him. His leniency is given explicitly for women who have given birth
within the last thirty days (who as we have seen are exempt from fasting anyway),
and pregnant women experiencing small pains.[10]
It is hard to know exactly which
kind of pains the Shvus Ya’akov is talking about. Clearly a woman experiencing real
contractions needs to drink even if the fast is on the ninth (and even on Yom
Kippur). On the other hand, it is also clear that he is not talking about the
standard pains that women have throughout pregnancy. From the context, the pain
mentioned is enough to give the woman the same status as one in the first
thirty days after birth (i.e. halachically ill).
Not taking risks
I am sure that by now some people
reading this will be shouting “But it’s dangerous for pregnant women to be
fasting!” It is certainly true that despite the fact that gemara does not in
general consider fasting to be life-threatening for pregnant women or for the
foetus, we have to be very careful before deciding that this is still the case
(and which cases are exceptional). As this is more of a technical issue, I am
not writing about it here.
Rightly or wrongly, the
overwhelming majority of poskim do not give blanket leniencies for pregnant
women on Yom Kippur. That means that they do not consider it dangerous. They
also obligate pregnant women to fast on Tisha b’Av when it is not pushed off, as
they do not even equate pregnant women with the sick. If this is right, even
when the fast is on the tenth the obligation to fast remains in place.
May we all mourn for Yerushalayim
appropriately, and merit seeing its rebuilding.
[1] Pesachim
54b
[2] Toras
Ha’Adam, Inyan Aveilus Yeshana. This is not the place to go in to the halachic definition
of illness, but it is the same definition used for the purposes of Hilchos
Shabbos.
[3] Orach
Chaim 554:6. The Vilna Gaon (Biur HaGra
ibid.) explains that this leniency is similar to other leniencies for the sick
explicit in the gemara, like instructing a non-Jew to do work on Shabbos (Shabbos
129a), and wearing shoes and rubbing oil into ones skin on Yom Kippur (Yoma 77b
and 78b). The assumption seems to be that there is a blanket rule that Chazal
never instituted any prohibitions in a way that would interfere with the needs
of someone who is sick. However, one could add that even if elsewhere Rabbinic
prohibitions apply to all, when it comes to fasting there is reason to be more
lenient. For the sick, the physical affliction that most of us must do by
fasting is accomplished by the illness itself.
[4] The only
exception is that work can be done on behalf of the mourners during the extra
days, as this was not allowed during Chol Hamoed.
[5] Ta’anis 12a
[6] Orach Chaim
559:9
[7] He
adds that we fast even when a lighter fast (Shiva Asar b’Tamuz or Tzom Gedalya)
is pushed off to Sunday. See also Aruch HaShulchan who confirms that this is the
minhag, but makes the surpising claim that this is against the gemara.
[8] 554:9
[9] The
authors of these later compilations also did not intend to allow all pregnant
women to eat, although one reading these books alone could more easily make this
misinterpretation.
[10] Shvus Ya’akov
3:37
