The Tenth of Tevet

O13 As a father has compassion for his children, so, LorD, have compassion for us. Salvation is the Lorp’s; on Your people is Your blessing, Selah! Ps. 3 The Lorn of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold, Selah! Ps. 46 Lorp of hosts, happy is the one who trusts in You. Ps. 84 Lorp, save! May the King answer us on the day we call. Ps. 20 > Forgive, please, this people's iniquity, Num. 14 in the abundance of Your kindness, and as You have forgiven this people from the time of Egypt until now, and there it is written: Congregation then Leader: And the Lorp said, I have forgiven as you asked. Continue: i101 Give ear, my God and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolation, and the Dan.9 city that bears Your name, for it is not on the strength of our righteousness that we throw down our pleadings before You, but on the strength of Your great compas- sion. LorD, hear me; Lorn, forgive; Lor», listen and act and do not delay — for Your sake, my God; for Your city and Your people bear Your name. Our God and God of our fathers: IK I shall recall the anguish that came to me; He inflicted three blows upon me in this month. He cut me off, He veered me aside, He beat me — but now He has fi- Job 16 nally drained me out. On the eighth of the month He darkened my right and my left; I marked out all three days for fasting. The king of Greece forced me to write the To- rah in his tongue. The plowmen have plowed across my back; they made the furrows long. I raged, on the ninth, in shame and disgrace, my mantle of glory and my wreath were taken from me. The man who gave us the words of Heaven was torn from us on that day — that was Ezra the Scribe. On the tenth, Ezekiel the Seer, son of Buzi was commanded, “Write this happening in the scroll, for the remembrance of a people melted away and disgraced; write this very day.’ The tenth was listed last among the Ezek. 24 fasts to show the order of the months. My own mouth gapes open with weeping and wailing, and this chronicle of troubles burns within my heart — as the fugitive came to me and said, “The city is crushed.” For these things I have scattered dust upon my face. I have spoken now of all four — would that I could shoot an arrow through my heart. For these great torments, I have dug my own grave. “The Lorn is righ- Lam.1 teous; I have rebelled against His word.’ I have called out Your name as I grieve my troubles. Witness my oppression and hear my voice in its entreaty. Hear my plead- ing, please, hasten my salvation. Do not block Your ears to my sighing, to my cry. Lam. 3 » In the month of Tevet I was stricken sorely. The world changed its course, from where I stand. I was stubborn, I sinned — yet may He reveal His goodness to me; the One who told the ocean, “Only thus far, come.”